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Inkscape Version 0.91 Released
Bryce writes: Four years since the last major Inkscape release, now news is out about version 0.91 of this powerful vector drawing and painting tool. The main reason for the multi-year delay is that they've switched from their old custom rendering engine to using Cairo now, improving their support for open source standards. This release also adds symbol libraries and support for Visio stencils, cross platform WMF and EMF import and export, a native Windows 64-bit build, scads of bug fixes, and much more. Check out the full release notes for more information about what has changed, or just jump right to downloading your package for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.
Oh wait, it's free? Clever Inkscape, very clever.
Inkscape is one of the handful of apps (along with The GIMP, Firefox, OpenOffice, and some others that could round out a nice top-10 or top-20) that together make up a good base set of software that's more than good enough for most people's computerizing needs. (And, in keeping with that idea, it's included in the defaults for many distros, which is appropriate.)
What's funny is how limited / limiting the default software set is on Windows (a bit better on Mac OS X, but still falls short), if you're used to the kind of apps that come with a typical Linux distro, or are available for instant free download. The GIMP is not PhotoShop (you know how you can tell? You don't have to keep buying it each month ... ), and Inkscape is not Illustrator (ditto), but they're both *good,* and mean you / the 900 students in the school down the street / etc. can be playing with and using them now, for free, forever.
No one can make anyone care about this or much of anything, but quality open-source / Free software has a lot of person-hours behind it, and its worth celebrating, especially when the releases are separated by such a long time.
Serious answer for a question I suspect is pure troll, but Hey, it's my day off, and everyone needs a hobby ;)
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
I like Inkscape. It's generally a great program. But its most serious problem is that it uses GTK+ as its toolkit.
GTK+ is rife with serious problems. The first is that it's affiliated with the GNOME crew. Their grasp of sensible, proper UI design is very suspect, especially after the GNOME 3 disaster. For example, these are the kind of people who took gedit, GNOME's text editor, and changed it from this sensible, usable UI to this hideous, unusable UI.
The portability of GTK+ is, to put it politely, utter rubbish. X11 is the only platform where it isn't a disgrace. It "works" under Windows and OS X, but if by "working" you mean it runs but is generally unusable. I haven't been able to ever get it working properly under OS X. It didn't even get to the point where it showed a UI, the last time I tried it.
It will be a lot of work, but they need to port Inkscape from GTK+ to Qt. Qt is a much better toolkit. It looks great. It works (and actually works, in that the resulting software is perfectly usable!) pretty much everywhere.
GTK+ had its place in the late 1990s. But we're well past that time now. Qt is the best toolkit to use these days. I truly wish that the Inkscape devs would port from GTK+ to Qt, so that we users can use it on Windows and OS X, as well as getting a much better experience under Linux.
I'm just a designer, and I've never done any C++ programming, but I'm thinking that maybe I'll have to learn it so I could potentially contribute to any effort that arises to fix the UI of Inkscape.
One of the coolest things about Inkscape is that it does a good job of converting bitmapped images to vectors, which is especially nice if you want to combine source elements created in a raster-art program at wildly different scales. This capability is found in other software, I know, but Inkscape makes it relatively simple and (at least if you're going to use the results *in* Inkscape) saves some steps.
This is also a fun way to decompose images into constituent color layers, separate them, and then play with the resulting layers -- cool high-contrast results sometimes in combining just 2 or 3 of the resulting layers.
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The last relatively serious thing I used it for was to draw tree form illustrations using a Wacom. I had always like the application, but this use made it clear how much more usable it had become than Illustrator. Granted, Illustrator might have made some changes in the handful of years since I've bothered, but I've preferred Inkscape's UI because it's just so much less clicky.
Glad to see the long-awaited new version. Hopefully they fixed some of the annoying bugs I saw using the drawing tablet.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Since this is really a slashvertisement I may as well add some more fuel to the fire. If you're already brave enough to use Inkscape as your bread winner, perhaps you've thought about branching out into making signs? If this is the case then you should definitely check out Inkcut http://sourceforge.net/project... Just add a vinyl cutter to the mix and you're rolling. GIMP, Inkscape and Inkcut, all you need to start making signs on the cheap.
Well, for Inkscape we at Slashdot just take a small percentage of the purchase price for every copy shipped; maybe we could work out a similar deal for your product -- what it is? This works best if your product is high-quality open-source software ;)
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Inkscaper Alexandre Prokoudine provides a nicely visual article about the release, including a video to demonstrate some of the new things you can do with it: http://libregraphicsworld.org/...
That's just low. Next you will be telling us that you have revenue share deals for all the big software. I'll bet you got yourself some really nice toys with the money you made from Firefox and LibreOffice you recently promoted. What next? Promoting KDE or Gnome with some sweet purchase price deals?
Also, why even promote this? What is this, some kind of news site for nerds? How dare you.
Have a lttle heart would you, this stuff matters.
Signature v3.0, now with 42% less memory usage.
Look, there may be valid reasons to ditch your working code for adding a dependency on some other open source project. But this reasoning stinks.
I'd been thinking this would never see the light of day.
The Cairo backend stuff was a focus in 2010 and 2011 and everyone thought 0.49, the first version with the new renderer, was going to be released in 2012.
Whatever happened in those three years, I'm glad they've turned the corner and hopefully future development can be release early release often again.
For Windows, the UI will seem to lag or not redraw in real-time while drawing or using it.
Disable Rulers (ctrl + r, or Menu: View -> Show/Hide -> Rulers) will fix it.
I spoke with the very helpful people on Inkscape's IRC Channel for this tip.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ink...
This may also apply to some versions of The G.I.M.P.
My current business depends on Inkscape. I use Inkscape's 'gcodetools' plugin to generate gcode for a CNC mill. I can go from designing to cutting in five minutes flat. I'm not sure if it is included in this release, but you can get it in the beta.
What's funny is how limited / limiting the default software set is on Windows (a bit better on Mac OS X, but still falls short), if you're used to the kind of apps that come with a typical Linux distro, or are available for instant free download.
I'm pretty sure it's due to all the lawsuits and regulatory pressure they've already faced when trying to bundle too much of their own software.
I doubt it. The situation was the same before the lawsuits and regulatory pressure.
Sweet! Happy for you and that's great information. By the way, do you use Blender http://blender.org/ (Free and Open Source 3D and Video editing) too? Here is a sweet tutorial on how to generate 2D artwork (SVG's) from 3D models. http://goinkscape.com/use-blen... if you ever need it. That's the great thing about Blender and Inkscape, there are so many free and great tutorials on the Internet as well as a wonderful community of users you can most likely get an answer from when you get stuck. Something I really want to learn myself is how to run a CNC milling machine (or Plasma cutters) as well as how to 3D print. I mean if you learn Blender, GIMP, Inkscape and Inkcut one can be very versatile and valuable to a lot of companies in a lot of situations. Or like yourself, run your own business.
This last comment is very insightful and addresses something I've thought about from time to time.
You pay whatever it is that Windows costs (no, it isn't free just because it's bundled on a computer), and then what do you have? Actually, not much. You have an operating system and a few tools (and maybe a bunch of bundled demo crapware).
You install Ubuntu or Mint or similar, and you have a suite of tools, and the means to easily install more, for free. Like Inkscape, as the lead article discusses. Within half an hour or less you can have full-featured computing that should meet at least 90% of the needs of 90% of users (maybe even better than that). I'm not going to get into the arguments about specialized tools or high-end features or cutting-edge gaming; if you truly need such things, go buy them and put them on your Windows system.
Linux has served me for many years. In the early years, things were rougher around the edges, but today, it's night and day difference. As I'm not much of a gamer, there is little or nothing that I need Windows for. I "get by" just fine with GIMP, and the new Inkscape is amazing, as is LibreOffice ... not to mention EMACS, of course :)
Sorry but I just don't see a personal need to spend money on software.
the last time I checked, [GIMP] still lacked the support for color matching that would make it viable for creating images that were print-ready.
Have the patents on practical methods of color matching expired yet? If not, then it's impossible for free software to support proper color matching.
Is it just me, or is this whole thread making you feel nostalgic for the good ol' Slashdot days when we gabbed about stuff that was a lot more fun to gab about?
Linux and open source, baby!
Whoa.
Did we live through our very own hipster 60's freedom-power revolution without realizing it?
Knowing Ubuntu it can take months... at least not till the next release. If you want the latest on some apps you just have to forgoe the standard distibution repository and either add in the program specicic PPA or install it manually. Its not really THAT hard, once you have done it a couple times its not much extra bother.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
What's funny is how limited / limiting the default software set is on Window...if you're used to the kind of apps that come with a typical Linux distro, or are available for instant free download.
Bloatware remains bloatware whether it is FOSS or commercial and proprietary.
I have been" instantly" downloading free software for Windows since the mid nineties --- most often from sites that offer the best in breed whatever the licence.
It's a shame that these open source user applications (Inkscape, GIMP, VLC, Chromium, Firefox, Thunderbird...) usually work very well, but open source desktops are glitchy as hell. I use a lot of OSS under Windows too, as the apps are professional quality.
I love Inkscape and want to use it, but as long as there is no proper CMYK / printing support it's pretty useless for profession work.
Xara Designer Pro is still the only viable alternative to Illustrator at this point.
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
Not really. MS views Windows as an open platform and invites 3rd parties to create the apps that run on top of it. This has always been it's strength but as a result mspaint etc. have always been limited.
Inkscape 0.91 64-bit uses 0% CPU (as far as Task Manager is concerned) when idling on my computer. I did uninstall 0.48 and tell it to delete my personal preferences though.
My time has value, so if I have to spend 3 extra hours researching stuff on Linux that either Just Works or that I know how to do on Windows, Linux ends up more expensive. My last handful of attempts to switch to Linux ended taking a lot more than 3 hours, and I never got to a working config, or to a nicely working config, for a vareity of reasons (grub2 choking on AMD controllers, nice multiscreen handling and video support requiring different drivers, Upstart having no end-user doc,...).
Sorry but I don't see a need to spend hours and tear my hair out over software.
I really don't understand this. You're complaining about 3 hours? Do you have someone else doing your windows setup/installs, app installs, updates, etc? Every time I setup a windows box (it is rare, but it tends to happen at least once every 2 years, and last two happened a month ago - one win 7 enterprise and one win 8.1 pro)... every time, the updates alone take forever (days). Then there's finding and setting up all the programs that I need (which isn't much - browsers, email client, pidgin, putty, vim, some music players, video players, virtualbox, etc). We're no longer talking hours. I keep hearing people saying windows is much better now, and that they can go from bare metal to fully updated with their standard apps installed in hardly any time... I don't believe it. And whenever I ask those same people what the right thing to click is to make it go the fastest, it's exactly what I'm doing and they go, "oh yeah... just reboot and let it pick back up while you go get some food or something". Ok, so let's ignore that for a bit and just pretend that's all my little edge case and it's something I did...
If you don't want to learn, that's fine. However, you can go from bare metal to installed and fully updated linux desktop WITH 99% of the apps you need, all within a very short time (~30min) and 2 reboots total: ...whatever stuff you want... ex: firefox libreoffice gimp inkscape vim emacs
* install (from whatever media you want: usb, cd, dvd, network, etc... those are all standard and easily supported without jumping through hoops for all versions)
* reboot into OS
* sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
* sudo apt-get install
* reboot so you're into the new kernel. you're done.
Note that all that can be done faster and with fewer steps (ex. using kickstart or other tools like that), or can be done fully with GUI's, and anywhere in between. I know windows can be installed via deployment scripts, or manually, and a variety in between as well, but those things are not very accessible to most people.
When windows changes again (as it does every 2 releases) and things change significantly and what you know no longer "just works", do you also say it's more expensive? You're welcome to stay with that, but claiming that Linux is more expensive because your stuck in your ways is a bit disingenuous. You could easily learn most of the applications well ahead of the switch and make the migration much less abrupt. You probably know many of them already (Firefox, LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org, pidgin, chrome, vlc, inkscape, etc). Many others also run on windows, like much of the KDE suite. Find replacements for your apps before switching, and use them if you can (in most cases, you will be able to use them). Then setup a vm and run it full screen as your desktop. In this way you can identify any issues that affect your workflow without damaging your workflow... if you hit an issue, just drop back to windows and get the job done, then review how to do that in Linux when you have time. Eventually, you'll want to switch that setup: linux as base OS and windows in a vm... but the linux in the vm can work very well for a very very long time (especially since you can drop back to windows for native games, one of the few things with thorough support in linux).
When 3 hours, converted to money, equal a Windows license price, his calculation is correct.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
My time has value, so if I have to spend 3 extra hours...
You've got to be fucking kidding.
A Windows installation from scratch, plus updates, plus apps, plus updates for the apps, is going to run you 5-6 hours, and maybe more if you can't find that one Adobe CD or your 'Net connection is flaky. Whereas you can install an "everything including the kitchen sink" version of any major Linux distro, complete with all the latest updates, complete with all the latest versions of all applications, in less than an hour.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Openoffice and LibreOffice are a joke. It's hard to describe quality, but simply, they just are significantly worse than what the Evil Empire makes. For some reason, when I start Gimp or Inkscape, they also look amateurish and unpolished - interesting cue, since both are in the realm of visual design.
All the latest version of applications?
For me and people I know, the new versions of Inkscape and LibreOffice (or their point updates) will be in the OS's base packages in late May, 2016. For those who will bother updating the whole OS.
One of the biggest changes in GIMPShop was the single window mode that docked the toolbox into the image window, GIMP 2.8 has such a feature as standard(if it's not default it's in the window menu, i think)...
Well, duh. I honestly did not know this. Thank you, AC!
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Can't you use the MATE desktop with your RHEL 7 clone? Or use it in with the next distro you'll use. It is fine, really, I have been using it since when I upgraded from Ubuntu 11.04 (Gnome 2 out of the box) to Mint 13. It is strongly maintained and feature complete as ever (only nag is in my recent version it had decimal megabytes and I changed that to binary megabytes with dconf-editor).
My comment had to do with using a distro that tracks Ubuntu LTS and not bothering with ppas, compilations, binary distributions except for a handful of stuff that I think I need.
When installing windows, updating, sourcing all his various apps and licenses, and getting them all installed and updated, all takes many times longer than either the 3 hour example or an analogous operation in Linux land, then his money argument is horribly flawed.
> This obsession is certainly missing in Firefox's case.
Yes, just as I was reading your comment, Firefox went and upgraded to version 31415926535892718281828459.
Opinions differ... I've seen secretaries balk at LibreOffice, but that's understandable - they're topic experts, and noone wants to throw away so much experience with a product for minimal gain. I've also spoken to a technical writer, and she said she was forced to move to LibreOffice to support her workflow (stylesheet related problems... can't remember exactly what her issue was), but she was glad she made the effort. I haven't spoken to any topic experts about GIMP, but personally GIMP does much more than I ever think I'd need, and frankly I'm lost in front of Photoshop anyway and never wasted the time to get familiar.
You're right in theory, but in practice, as I said in the OP, my Linux installs never succeed: fatal grub2 boot bug, inability to handle 2 screens *and* play video, inability to configure startup processes via Upstart for lack of doc... and that's overlooking creature comforts such as preferring to have my Start menu on the right-hand side of my main screen, using RDP instead of VNC because VNC is so ugly and laggy...
I'm sure all of that can be fixed (except the right-hand menu, best I could get was with... sideways text ?). I tried. And gave up when after a lot more hours than setting up the equivalent Windows config would have taken me, and still no sure-fire solution in sight.
You"re right that Linux saves some time at the app install stage. If the OS isn't right, I never get to that stage though.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
you missed the "extra" between "3" and "hours"
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I never get to the app install stage, I'm talking about the OS install.
I spent about 10 hours researching how I could use UpStart to start deamons. And another 10 (spread over 3 weeks, the dev was trying to be helpful, but he seems to work at it only on weekends, which is fine, but still...) trying to get grub2 (the default bootloader) not to crash on boot. Then had to learn about free and non-free video drivers when I had the gall to have a dual-GPU, dual-monitor system *and* wanted to play videos...
I'm sure if I got though the OS install, Linux centralized app repo would be nice. Alas, before that I need the OS to boot, handle my screens, and let me autostart programs.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I'm complaining about, after the standard evening of "new OS install", being mired in non-working stuff, staying up way too late, and still having no solution in sight. I'm not even getting to the App stage, which I'm sure is OK, and a centralized repo must be very nice. But I get stuck before that, at the OS stage.
My most recent issues have been:
- grub2 simply not working with my motherboard
- issues with my dual-gpu, dual-screen config. I never got it to play video reliably, even setting up 2 different-rez screens didn't really work.
- not being able to make head or tails of UpStart, which I think is what I was supposed to use to autostart programs.
- on one machine, having a nice friend recompile the kernel because that was somehow required to be able to access my server's SMB shares
- being unable to get the Start menu on the right side of my main screen (or I could, if I swapped out Unity, but then the menu was written sideways ?), nor to get RDP remoting to work (and VNC is very ugly & laggy)
What compounds the problems is the lack of documentation. I don't mind a few problems. I do mind not finding end-user documentation on how to do/fix things, and having to rely on other-version or other-distro docs in the hope they will apply to my case.
I end up feeling stuck up a creek and w/o a paddle; then realize I could have had Windows up and running a good while ago... and decide to stop my escalating commitment.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
No, it's not. The hours start AFTER everything was installed and configured (allegedly so, because Linux-based OSs likely ask you to drop to terminal and enter commands a long time after you thought you're finished).
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Waiting a short bit until the latest bleeding edge of a given program has been tested and updated in the main distribution is, IMO, completely reasonable, and also desirable (it's one of the main reasons I chose the distro I use).
That said, for any app you want to keep as up to date as possible, there is usually an option such as the following one for inkscape on ubuntu (or many other debian derived distros):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:inkscape.dev/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install inkscape
After that, normal system-wide updates will continue to pull the latest inkscape from that PPA.
I left for red-hat derivative Scientific Linux (Fedora is too bleeding edge and I don't trust the NSA with non-European Linux anyway, so Centos and Mint aren't quite independent enough for my paranoia ).
But redhat / Scientific linux repos have been too conservative.
But ever since the start I've been plagued with insufficient repositories, versions that are TOO old and dependency problems when I try to add my own repos or download / compile my own.
You picked the wrong distro. If you want stuff that is up to date, don't pick a distro designed to be stable and lagging. RHEL 6 was released in 2010. It does get updates, but the 6 line maintains significant compatibility across that line which will greatly limit its ability to easily run all the latest and greatest, as you have found out.
You were using Ubuntu and left due to Gnome 3. You could have just went to any of the ubuntu spins (kubuntu, xubuntu, lubuntu, etc etc) or to mint or to debian etc etc etc. if you wanted to go to an rpm based distro, and wanted something that kept current, then both fedora and suse were options.... but you said fedora was too bleeding edge for you. Sorry, but you have to pick your poison. Perhaps debian testing or mint would suit your goals a bit better?
Or to get conservative Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is an option (alternate CD or netboot to install without a desktop envionment) ; Mint 13 is the same OS and its XFCE spin is nice.