The tooltip should mention 'fill-rule: evenodd'. With the shape selected still, open the Fill & Stroke dialog (Object > Fill & Stroke), then in the 'Fill' tab select the penultimate button along the top. If your holes are still getting filled you probably need to change the 'Fill Rule'. Now press CTRL + + G or command + + G to ungroup the objects in the file. Select the document with the selection tool (upper left corner, looks like a black cursor or press F1). This step is only needed if you imported the PDF via drag-and-drop. Check the status bar to confirm that's what you've got.Ĥ) With the shape selected, click on one of the swatches at the bottom of the screen to give it a fill colour.ĥ) With luck that will have done the job. Open your PDF in Inkscape through the File Menu. Here's the approach I'd take:ģ) Select the gear and your other circles, then select Path > Combine (Ctrl-K) to turn them all into a single path. For the fill to work the way you want, you need to have a single path rather than multiple objects. If by 'gear tool' you mean the extension in Extensions > Render > Gear > Gear, then that creates a group of one or two objects (depending on whether or not the diameter of the centre hole is zero). (Beaten by Polygon, but I'll post anyway as my instructions are a bit more step-by-step)

Inkscape vector gear