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Inkscape 0.42: The Ultimate Answer
bulia byak writes "After several months of frantic work by the evergrowing developer community, the aptly numbered Inkscape 0.42 is out. The amount of new features in this version is astounding. Quoting from the (gigantic!) Release Notes, "while some of the new features simply fill long-standing functionality gaps, others are truly revolutionary". Check out the screenshots and grab your package for Linux, Windows, or OSX." The screenshots are pretty mind-blowing; this isn't a 1.0 release, but I think you'll agree it's worth checking out.
Obviously I didn't do too much research, but what does this program replace?
The Gimp?
Photoshop?
Fireworks?
Does anyone use this program? How does it perform compared to these other programs that do similar thiings? This is assuming that the programs listed are the ones being replaced.
The fact that it's really for SVG will hold you back, too - many commercial printers are tied to Illustrator versions (and those that aren't still prefer EPS to SVG), that this isn't going to find its way onto any professional graphic artists standard list of tools anytime soon.
Video Phone Blogs send video messages straight to the web.
As an avid user of Inkscape, I have followed the Inkscape development process closely throughout all the betas released leading up to this version. This is probably the OSS application I use the most, aside from Linux and Firefox of course. Inkscape's original base code was from the Sodipodi vector editor, which had an interface resembling that of the GIMP. The primary goal of the Inkscape project was to take that codebase and write a GTK interface conforming to the GNOME standards, as well as adding many new features. Even though the early releases were notoriously unstable, the feel of 0.42 is significantly improved over past builds. Even if you are remotely interested in drawing or vector graphics, I recommend you take a look at Inkscape. It still doesn't have any of the fancy features in Fireworks, which I do hope will someday be added, but right now its probably the best FOSS vector editor. And it uses SVG too, a nice opensource XML standard. Downloads are available for Linux and Windows.
Exactly at the moment I thought, "hey, this is pretty slick," Inkscape (win32) crashed/exited on me without warning. That was only about ten seconds after launching it. After launching again, it froze on the "open" dialog. Still, I am looking forward to using this when it becomes more stable.
Also, what's wrong with using the standard keyset that Adobe and Macromedia apps use? For example, holding space should enable the panning tool, and holding alt (not shift) should make the zoom tool zoom out rather than in. Also, double-clicking on the zoom tool should revert to "standard" zoom--not open the preferences panel. (??) I realize that these are arbitrary choices, but there is substantial value in making the same arbitrary choices as everyone else, especially if this seeks to be a replacement for those applications.
Even with my very minimal skill, I've managed to create some decent graphics. Here are a couple of traces, a decent Domo-kun, some calligraphy, and all of the non-photo graphics on this page (hypercube projections) I did in Inkscape. I love it, and it's only on version 0.42!
Steven N. Severinghaus
Not having a working system clipboard is a functionality problem.
One of the main reasons I found Inkscape in the first place was because it was a branch of Sodipodi for what I felt were "the right reasons" -- Frankly, Sodipodi's interface is dialog hell. However, I still feel that Inkscape has too many dialogs that "hang around" on the screen. Why have a big dialog that takes 1/7th of the screen to handle color selection when it could be done more effectively with a temporary window that is half the size?
I also couldn't stand the fact that Inkscape didn't have named colours (e.g. colours that you can define, use, then change later and affect the entire drawing) although maybe that's changed now. I also know all of the previous versions I have looked at in the past literally take 10-15 seconds to open a file dialog window (no hyperbole here. Seriously); while my interest in Inkscape has been primarily to get me using a package that looks and works the same on Linux (so I can finally make the switch on the desktop -- Neither Xara X / Xara X2 run on CrossOver Office, unfortunately) I can't help but notice it will save me money from upgrading Xara X every couple of years, too. As a little aside -- I even went so far as to contact Xara Corp. and ask if they had any plans to release a Linux version of their software or even contribute assistance to getting Xara X to run on Wine/CXO. Their response was "No, we're too busy, and anyway people who use Linux seem to expect everything to be free." Well, that put me in my place...
Anyway, thanks to the original poster for pointing this new release out; it's worth taking another look to see what these guys have been up to. The new features look great; I hope stability and improved GUI design are some of the "unsung heroes" of this and future releases.
This brings up something I've been wondering. If GTK had an Aqua version, Inkscape as well as a LOT of useful programs could run natively in Aqua. Hey, it's been ported to Windows, porting to Aqua shouldn't be too much harder... But then again I have no experience with developing for Aqua so I guess I can't really talk.
Sometimes you've gotta roll the hard six.
People, keep engineering stuff away from Inkscape! We need a decent vector gfx ARTISTIC program! XFig is for tech vector drawings, add this kind of stuff there!
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Why do you need pressure sensitivity for a vector graphics package?
Something I have wondered about as well. Can Inkscape (maybe in the future) include support for say printed circuit board (PCB) design or more importantly, electronics schematics or digital logic diagrams (with the gates etc)
We do intend to improve some of the technical drawing capabilities, such as line auto-routing, over the next couple releases.
Beyond that, well... we're quite open to patches. (I personally would love to see more technical/engineering drawing enhancements added to Inkscape.)
Never mind Aqua, X11's OK for starters, .... if it starts. I just d/l'ed, unpacked, pushed the go button, saw X11 start, thought "uhuh..." then nada, zilch, rien de tout. Que? An Inkscape menu that offered choice to Hide Inkscape, Hide Others, Quit. Preference files had installed in expected places. Went back to inkscape.org in case I'd missed something. Then twenty-whole-five-minutes of browsing later a new inkscape document window springs from heaven. There's more to this than meets the eye, Gunga Din...
Definitely one of the most impressive and promising Linux application out there.
Corel Draw beware.
I used it to de-uglify a bmp logo for a client. It looked like it had been run through Microsoft Paint with lots of jagged lines and such. Find a program called autotrace on sourceforge that converted the bitmap to svg. Edited the xml file to remove the objects that I didn't want (based on colour). Then loaded it into inkscape and cleaned it up and recolored it. Client was impressed. His graphics person had been unable to do it without recreating the whole thing. It only took me 1 hour.
I have used both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator almost all day every day for roughly the last seven maybe eight years. (I work in various fields of design). I do however keep my eye on what is happening with the open-source equivalents. There are many reasons why I have not left PS and AI behind in favour of an OS solution, and I'm sure as the years pass by and the software matures many of these reasons will fade and disappear. MY (main) problem with both GIMP and Inkscape is that my productivity takes a significant dive when I try and get anything done in them.
Is this entirely the fault of the developers? Not exactly... .. . BUT, the decision to purposely use different key-bindings to those of PS and AI (because their way might just be better) is a real problem for me and anyone else who has become used to a certain way of working... old habits are hard to break and after the 10th time of reaching for the spacebar to pan around the screen (one example), and getting nothing, the programme gets dumped because although I am bright enough to learn to press a new button if I really need to, breaking a seven / eight year habit is a real pain (especially if I don't NEED to). There are people out there that are prepared to swap from PS and AI to an OS alternative, but if the price is too high for them, then it just won't happen.
Sometimes you have to acknowledge the short-comings of your potential user-base, and it is perfectly human to want certain aspects of familiarity in new and uncharted territory, especially if those familiarities have an impact on productivity. Many of us need to work with our hands ready at the shortcuts, our eyes on the screen, and our minds on the work at hand, instead of keep breaking concentration and remembering strange new key combinations. I do admit that this is a terribly negative and somewhat self-centered thing to say, and only really applies to those of us struggling to switch. It is however a both a real and valid point, depending of course who Inkscape / GIMP is actually aimed at.
I will keep returning to both GIMP and Inkscape, they are both great programmes and to those that are not already worked well into the groove of other applications these could one day be very serious PS an AI opponents.
- Turn Pro?
Inkscape looks nice on my PC.
On my Mac, opening Inkscape.app starts X11 and starts Inkscape, but no window opens, and the Inkscape menu bar has only Services, Hide Inkscape, Hide Others, and Quit Inkscape. Is this a bug or is there a secret to getting a GUI?
Thanks,
Dave