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GIMP goes SVG

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the whats-your-vector-victor dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The GIMP developers released a new snapshot in the development series. Version 1.3.21 (aka the path to excellence release) features an improved path tool with superb path stroking and adds SVG support. You can now export your GIMP paths to SVG and the new SVG import plug-in not only renders Scalable Vector Graphics for you at the desired resolution, it also imports SVG paths as GIMP paths."

6 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. What does this mean for Sodipodi? by Chilltowner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder what the Sodipodi developers are going to do with this. Hopefully, there will be lots of cooperation. Sodipodi is rapidly maturing into a truly great vector graphics app for Linux and Windows (and OS X over X11, I'd guess). If the two projects cooperated, we could have an Illustrator killer on our hands!

  2. Three Questions by Jameth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1) Did they waste time writing it all themselves, or are they interworking with SodiPodi? SodiPodi is an excellent piece of software if you want to edit SVG.

    2) Does it just import them and make paths, or is it a full-featured SVG editor? Someone else commented on it now being Photoshop+Illustrator, but that's a whole different thing. Photoshop also supports importing SVG and AI format, it just doesn't edit them. (see question three)

    3) Does it make this simple? I've tried to figure a way to do both Vector and Raster editing in one program before, and had some ideas, but nothing that would truly make it easy. The reason Illustrator and Photoshop are separate is not for the chance to sell two products (although I suspect that influences the idea a bit) but because there isn't a way to do vector and raster editing in a well mixed manner. At best, you end up with something that changes back and forth between being a vector editor and a raster editor depending on what is selected.

    1. Re:Three Questions by bolsh · · Score: 5, Informative

      > 1) Did they waste time writing it all themselves, or are they interworking with SodiPodi? SodiPodi is an excellent piece of software if you want to edit SVG.

      We (or rather Sven) used rsvg to read and render the SVG as a bitmap.

      > 2) Does it just import them and make paths, or is it a full-featured SVG editor? Someone else commented on it now being Photoshop+Illustrator, but that's a whole different thing. Photoshop also supports importing SVG and AI format, it just doesn't edit them. (see question three)

      It just imports SVG to a rastermap, and exports paths to SVG. There is no support for the funky stuff like gradient fills, object groups, etc. This is not a vector graphics program.

      > 3) Does it make this simple?

      Yes. You load your SVG, specifying the size of the bounding box, and there you go.

      Cheers,
      Dave.

  3. Re:SVG a Huge plus by Jameth · · Score: 5, Informative

    What would put GIMP on the map is an easier interface (although 1.3 is a vast improvement, it still ain't photoshop)

    Also, if you want a good vector graphics editor for free, try SodiPodi. It's good. Especially for a 0.3 level program.

    P.S. This isn't meant to be rude to GIMP. It's being compared only to THE BEST. They actually have a better interface than most other programs that compete with Photoshop (that is, programs that I've tried).

  4. Re:SVG rendering engine? by msevior · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe it uses librsvg. The fastest and most complaint SVG renderer out there.

    (Maintained by my good friend and fellow AbiWord developer Dom Lachowicz)

    Martin

  5. Re:SVG is not the future by caseih · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IE doesn't support flash either, and it's wide-spread. All you need is to embedd a link to the SVG active-X control and users will pick it up on the fly. No big deal. Average Joe's don't even know flash isn't supported natively. They still use it.

    Don't look for any new features in IE for the next several years. By integrating it tightly into the OS and killing it as a standalone product, Microsoft has effectively eliminated all potential innovation in the browser area, since browser releases now equals OS releases. IE 7 won't be out until Longhorn (at least a year away), and even then it won't be widely used as most people will never migrate off XP for the life of their machines.

    This is an unprecedented opportunity for Mozilla to win the browser war. Being a standalone installable app (that can run on win98 and up), Mozilla can add new features and support new standards. Just spread the word. Tell your friends. Talk to your favorite web developers.