Back when I first started using Inkscape some of the things I found difficult to make work were the boolean operations in the path menu; things like Union, Difference, Intersect etc. To me the results were difficult to predict and some of the operations seemed pretty similar.

In this article I aim to explain these tools and show you how to get predictable controlled results.

Union
The first thing you need to do is select the two (or more) objects you want to combine. Let’s begin with the Union option. Select your objects and go to Path>Union (Ctrl++). This will combine the shapes, with the top object taking on the colour and opacity of the lower.

Before & After

You can see the paths have been combined. This can be really useful when making complex shapes. You can save yourself a lot of node editing if you can construct your shape in this way.

Difference
Difference works in much the same way except the top object is removed from the bottom shape.

Intersection
This excludes everything except the areas where the two shapes overlap.

Exclusion
Exclusion is probably my favourite of the boolean operations. Everything but the overlapped area remains and as before the top shape takes on the properties of the bottom shape.

Division
Division only works if you have outlines, otherwise the result won’t be visible. It colours the top object but each retains its own path; so the edge of the star shape can be selected separately from the square.

Cut Path
This operation breaks the path where the two objects intersect allowing you to remove the section.

So there you have it. I hope this clears things up if you have been confused by these path options. I’ll be covering the rest of the path menu in the next few weeks.