Inkscape Hotkeys · Stream Deck plugin

What it does

A held command channel to Inkscape lets a key read your real selection before it acts. Inkscape Status shows a live Selection Readout (count, size and position) or the link status, and the Smart Keys (One-Press Export, Power Select, Align and Distribute Pro, Style Key, Exact Transform) check the real selection first and refuse out loud instead of lighting green over nothing. The channel works with Inkscape unfocused or minimised.
Nine Stream Deck + dials. The Touchscreen Toolbar puts Inkscape's toolbox on the touch strip, 21 tools in six families (Select, Shapes, Draw, Paint, Tweak, View), a family per dial: tap a tool, or turn and press. The others are Canvas Zoom, Rotate Selection, Scale Selection, Z-Order, Move Selection (press to switch X and Y), Stroke Width and Opacity, which turn to an exact value applied as one undo step, and the Palette Dial.
A 16-colour palette shared by every palette key and dial. A Palette Key applies a swatch as fill or stroke (hold to save the working colour), targets fill or stroke, or clears the colour; a Palette Dial picks swatches, hue or lightness, as one undo step when you stop turning. With nothing selected it sets the colour your next drawing uses. Eight preset palettes, or load a .gpl, Inkscape's own or yours.
Six bundled profiles, one per deck, each with Easy Link top left and a Palette page. The 15-key Stream Deck opens on a two-page hub of the 19 category keys, the 32-key Stream Deck XL fits every category and the channel keys on one page, the Stream Deck + spreads its dials over Toolbar, Transform, Style and Move, and Palette pages, and the Stream Deck + XL carries the category keys, a 16-key pad and a Touchscreen Toolbar knob per family.
Covers tools, paths, objects, text, alignment, and canvas control, with a 20-key Number Pad action that types exact values into Inkscape's fields.
Keys match Inkscape's own 1.4.4 default keymap, so nothing to relearn. On a Mac, Ctrl is sent as Command and Alt as Option.

What you need

Windows 10 or 11 or macOS 13 or later, Stream Deck software 6.9 or newer, and Inkscape 1.4. Keys match the Inkscape 1.4.4 default keymap. On a Mac the Stream Deck app needs Accessibility and Automation (System Events), allowed once in Privacy & Security.

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Support

Good to know

Built for Inkscape 1.4 on Windows 10 or 11 and on macOS 13 or later; keys match the 1.4.4 default keymap. Requires the Stream Deck app 6.9 or newer. Profiles are bundled for six decks: the 15-key Stream Deck, the Stream Deck Mini, the 32-key Stream Deck XL, the Stream Deck +, the Stream Deck Neo and the Stream Deck + XL.
On a Mac, one setup step: in System Settings, Privacy & Security, allow Stream Deck under Accessibility, and under Automation for System Events (an Allow prompt appears on the first key press). An Inkscape opened before the plugin, or reopened by macOS at login before the plugin's helper is up, has no channel yet: quit Inkscape and open it again once.
Three shortcuts are macOS system chords, so on a Mac their keys alert instead of firing: Selectors and CSS (Cmd+Shift+Q, Log Out), No-Break Space (Cmd+Space, Spotlight) and Duplicate and Transform (Cmd+Option+D, the Dock). All three stay in Inkscape's menus.
Command keys go to the focused window, so keep Inkscape in front when you press them. The channel keys and the palette work with Inkscape unfocused or minimised.
Tool keys match Inkscape's default keymap; if you use a custom keymap, remap keys with the hotkey capture.

True of every plugin we make

Every key carries the app's own shortcut for that command, and every key is remappable. Type your combination into the key's property inspector (its settings panel in the Stream Deck app) or click Capture and press it once. Where an app leaves a command unbound, the key still reaches it by the route that app exposes.
Keystrokes go to the front window and nothing steals focus, so keep the target app in front when you press.
Every command has its own drawn key art, so the deck reads at a glance instead of listing shortcuts.

Read the full quick fixes, or see this plugin on the support hub.

Still stuck? Email tony@pathfinderprototyping.com with the plugin name, your Stream Deck software version, and what you pressed versus what happened. A human answers.