14 ms·

Inkscape 0.91 release

511 points by p4bl0 12y ago

phaemon 12y ago
Excellent stuff! Inkscape really is a superb bit of software. I still recall the first time I tried the included tutorials and realised that the tutorials themselves were just SVG docs. So it had things like, "Let's explore the handles of an ellipse. Select this one", and the shape is right there in the tutorial. Brilliant idea!
JonnieCache 12y ago
The notable thing here is that it has a whole new cairo-based renderer. Great job inkscape team! My go-to tool for svg editing once things get complicated. EDIT: new binaries arent officially posted yet but here's an OSX nightly build from 10 hours ago: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2n7aim2wcrn6l3h/AAC62qBMxM6317AZiMnSt2KQa/Inkscape-0.91%2Bdevel-r13881-1-x11-10.7-x86_64.dmg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2n7aim2wcrn6l3h/AAC62qBMxM6317AZi...
- oneweekwonder 12y ago
  Inkscape is a tool I wish had better OS X support, the way it handles the gui just feels broken for me, compared to Windows or GNU/Linux.
  - Htsthbjig 12y ago
    Look at my message above.
  - cpach 12y ago
    IMHO, using Xquartz doesn’t allow for a good user experience. So I have installed iDraw instead. I haven’t used it that much yet but it seems nice. Not open source though.
    - doodpants 12y ago
      Agreed. I have Inkscape installed, but pretty much never use it because of the XQuartz experience. I use Intaglio[1] instead. [1] http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/ http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/
  - swah 12y ago
    Sincerely, it doesn't feel native in Windows as well.
    - fithisux 12y ago
      It is not the developer's fault. The problem is that there is no up to date builds with up to date dependencies. Maybe msys2 provides an answer. Currently is in pre version.
      - fithisux 12y ago
        I took the courage to try the x86_64 pre4 of msys2. It is fabulous. The previous version as unusable.
      - swah 12y ago
        I'm not sure - its really minor stuff like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19746944/inkscape%20select.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19746944/inkscape%20sele...
    - jnem 12y ago
      Hey, Im happy with it regardless, and super stoked to see Native Windows 64-bit build support.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966042
  - tenken 12y ago
    I dont get this gripe. It's a cross platform tool. Who complains that a hammer is red if the room in the house they're working on is orange ... it's a simple tool _designed_ to function, not designed to integrate seamlessly into a certain environment. Let me phrase that another way ... is time wasted using it on OSX, are there more windows/buttons that must be pressed to achieve the result on another OS? If not I say the tool is created just fine. Yes, I know a branch of it is in the works for OSX. But that's like making a website per platform -- HTML5 and CSS should appear similarly everywhere (although rarely 100% the same on every platform).
- keithpeter 12y ago
  Yes, 0.91pre4 r13712 from Debian Experimental repository installed on Sid. Interface rendering significantly faster than stable version (e.g. rotating a spiral with blur). Excellent.
wooptoo 12y ago
Great job. This release took quite a bit. I think 0.48 was released two years ago. They basically rewrote the whole software in OOP.
- kgabis 12y ago
  Is there a reason for doing that?
  - randomsearch 12y ago
    Also, a rationale for choosing C++ would be interesting.
    - danmaz74 12y ago
      If you want to go OOP from C, what would you choose?
      - randomsearch 12y ago
        Personally, I'd choose one from many languages. I'm not convinced C++ is a good choice for user-level applications. Maybe for the performant parts, or for compatibility. Perhaps other factors like skillsets came into play...
        danmaz74 12y ago
        We're talking about a port from C. Porting from C to C++ is much easier than porting from C to any other language...
        randomsearch 12y ago
        I didn't think it was a straight port... But, yeah, it's going to be easier. It's also an opportunity to consider another language that might improve productivity, reliability etc. in the future. Just wondering. Didn't mean to start a language war :-)
exogen 12y ago
Inkscape is amazing. One of the only pieces of "big" software that I use without first fiddling around in the settings and changing a bunch of things. It just feels right to use.
- fdej 12y ago
  Indeed. I need to make a graphic once every couple of years, and every time, I just boot up Inkscape and it does what I expect.
- pkorzeniewski 12y ago
  It has come a long way, I remember when I first tried Inkscape several years ago and it was constantly crashing or freezing on Windows, but now - no problems at all, the UI is great and it has all the features you need for vector graphics.
  - josteink 12y ago
    The official page says latest stable windows version is 0.48.5 or something. Is it the Windows build which isn't prioritized, or is it versioned somewhat differently?
    - nikbackm 12y ago
      The stable versions for Linux and Mac are also 0.48.5, this is just the latest source version.
    - p4bl0 12y ago
      A friend of mine quite involved in the Inkscape community told me to reply this to you: source package is up, packagers haven't still compiled for the various systems (the official release annoucement will be made after that, in short time).
    - gpvos 12y ago
      The development version got renumbered from 0.49 to 0.91. https://inkscape.org/en/news/2013/12/19/inkscape-049-will-now-be-inkscape-091/ https://inkscape.org/en/news/2013/12/19/inkscape-049-will-no...
dcarmo 12y ago
I love Inkscape, but not having a native OSX build sucks.
- Htsthbjig 12y ago
  Look at my message above. The native OSX beta already works much better than the broken XQuartz thing(in the past you could not even copy paste real vectors, today it requires a special version of XQuartz and changing parameters and other nasty stuff) .
- dannyking 12y ago
  Totally agree. I'm a huge fan of Inkscape. When I moved to OSX I started using Sketch as my main design software, but I do often find myself frustrated wanting a feature that Inkscape had. Really pleased to see this update. Hoping for better native OSX support, rather than running it through X11.
- winter_blue 12y ago
  I've both installed and used Inkscape on OS X with no problems, via MacPorts. My sole gripe with it was that it didn't support my HiDPI/Retina MBP screen.
fabian2k 12y ago
I like Inkscape a lot, but there are still cases where it just doesn't work well. The import of postscript or PDF produces some strange results sometimes, especially with text. That is something the commercial alternatives still do quite a bit better. The speed increase is nice, Inkscape could be painfully slow on complex drawings with lots of paths.
- p4bl0 12y ago
  For me the PDF import and export already works well enough: it's been years since I printed a PDF form just to fill it, sign it and then scan it to email it back. I just open the PDF in Inkscape, fill it with the text tool, insert à JPG of my hand signature, save it, and send the resulting PDF back. The administrative efficiency I gained with this technique is gigantic, especially because I don't have to wait to have access to a printer and a scanner to do such things anymore.
  - iXce 12y ago
    When you want to edit the text a bit (so not just to fill forms, but actually edit a PDF/EPS, extract a figure from a paper and rework some text), in 0.48 imported text looked nice initially, but as soon as you start changing a single character the whole text block gets completely wrong (misaligned, writing new characters over the beginning of the text instead of appending...)
    - p4bl0 12y ago
      Yep, that's true. I will have to try that with the new version (when it will hit Debian testing…).
  - simi_ 12y ago
    A basic, built-in, OS X app does this extremely painlessly. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mac+preview+pdf+editing+ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mac+preview+pdf...
jestinjoy1 12y ago
Inkscape is very easy to use. We have used it for creating brochures, posters,.. for our Free Software conference. What I like most about Inkscape is, it is easy to use, learn and do.
calibwam 12y ago
Inkscape has been a project for 11 years, why the hesitance to have a version number above 1.0?
- chriswarbo 12y ago
  Time is pretty irrelevant for versioning, unless you have paying customers and you want to trick some into paying the full price for a minor upgrade (eg. Windows 98, FIFA 2015, etc.) 1.x tends to fulfil the original goals of the project. As long as there are some unfulfilled goals, it's still 0.x. 2.x, 3.x, etc. are breaking changes, often a rewrite.
- pbhjpbhj 12y ago
  As a long term user I'd agree to some extent, the 1.0 version feel has definitely been and gone - probably I'd say this is about a version 4, to my mind. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InkscapeInvariants http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InkscapeInvariants are the stated aims of the project and AFAICT they've not achieved the SVG spec compliance completely yet. Though I thought I recalled them aiming at the reduced SVG "basic" set (? if that's what it's called) and reaching it. I've been a user since it forked from SodiPodi (and indeed was a SodiPodi user too).
  - rektide 12y ago
    I miss SodiPodi, with it being multiple-document single-toolbar'ed. Iirc this was the sole contention of the fork- Inkscape was born explicitly to have each document have it's own suite of controls.
    - ScislaC 12y ago
      No, it was born because of the structure of SodiPodi. Lauris was effectively the gatekeeper and others did not have commit access. He wasn't accepting patches he didn't want to, so a handful of our founders decided to fork and have a much more open approach. As it stands, if you have two patches accepted with the project (Inkscape) and want it, you can have commit access.
- 12y ago
awjr 12y ago
Just loaded up a 17MB OpenStreetMap svg file (map of Bath, UK) which was unworkable on my Mac under 0.48. 0.91 is fast. Really fast. I'm sold. Well done.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
aembleton 12y ago
I'm impressed that it isn't even at version 1.0 yet. Really good piece of software.
the_mitsuhiko 12y ago
I love Inkscape, I still use it, even though the Mac version is abysmal. It's such a shame that it does not have any proper OSX developers as I think it can more than compete with professional vector software.
- stomach 12y ago
  Native osx mac port in progress: https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
scardine 12y ago
I learned to create vector graphics on CorelDraw 3, Inkscape looks like an old friend for me.
khet 12y ago
Inkscape is a great piece of design software. I've been using it for a good 8 years now to design websites, complex application interfaces, prototype many projects and everything in between. The application has been designed with care and it shows. There is a sense of respect towards the user and you can really enjoy using it for long periods of time. It just fades away and lets you get to work. No fuss. The interface and workflows are simple, yet extremely powerful if you spend some time understanding the tool. I have used Inkscape exclusively to do all my interface design work during my career. After moving to OSX, I was put off by the lack of native support. So I tried moving to Sketch and Illustrator. I found Illustrator to be overly complicated and plain bloated. I've always had a distaste for Adobe software and Illustrator maintains that negative image for me. Sketch on the other hand was unstable when I tried it. It had some serious bugs that made it unusable. I went back to Inkscape and am now used to the GTK quirks & the lack of Retina support. The software itself remains my favorite tool. And I'm excited to see this major update to Inkscape.
- fit2rule 12y ago
  I too am a long timer user and fan of Inkscape .. I'd love to know more about your flow/process of using it to design websites .. got an inclination to share the details? I think a lot of the power of Inkscape comes from harnessing the abstractions of SVG. I've used it in the past as a container for GUI elements, and as long as you name things properly and maintain a good order of abstraction, using Inkscape to create SVG that can be parsed directly into working code is a thing of joy to behold.
  - tchvil 12y ago
    That is interesting. I'm looking to use SVG for a gui too. Do you have something visible?
    - fit2rule 12y ago
      Not at the moment - but I am preparing something for release shortly, and it'll be mostly focused around the MOAI framework. If you want to tune in to the forums at http://getmoai.com http://getmoai.com, that'll be where I launch first .. I'm targetting specifically the Hanappe framework for MOAI, if that will give you some clues ..
Htsthbjig 12y ago
You have a native mac beta version here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b7tyrnugif2ywqj/qpMx1ygywo https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b7tyrnugif2ywqj/qpMx1ygywo Much better than needing XQuartz.
- cbreuel 12y ago
  Is there an official location for this project, with source code etc.? Forgive me if I sound paranoid, but downloading a binary from a random Dropbox is a little weird.
  - robotfelix 12y ago
    Looking in the README, it appears that this OS X branch is part of the main repository. The page for it is at https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu
  - bronson 12y ago
    It is VERY weird. However, that dropbox link is indeed on the launchpad page that robotfelix posted. If you trust the page, I suppose you can trust the dropbox link. I wonder if there's any chance it could be made to work on Homebrew...?
gatesphere 12y ago
Finally, they're exporting slanted and italic font styles to PDF! Seriously, that bug has been biting me since 2011. I'm glad to see it fixed.
tarball 12y ago
I am graphic designer, Inkscape made me realize that Free software could be also for designers. Now I work exclusively with F/loss on linux. I use Inkscape every day and I am really happy to see this release.
jasonkostempski 12y ago
I'm not a designer but I do occasionally whip up my own images if the task is simple enough. One thing I've always wanted in a drawing program is the ability to create shapes by typing in dimensions. e.g. Dragging out a a rectangle to be exactly NxM units is so tedious and it comes up all the time. Does Inkscape or any other drawing program support anything like that?
- ipsin 12y ago
  Sure, Inkscape does that. It's a vector library, but if you create a rectangle, the coordinates and dimensions are available for editing. Type in "N" and "M" and hit enter, and it updates, which makes sense, given that those values are linked to the underlying SVG.
- vesinisa 12y ago
  Yes, you can have full control over SVG element dimensions in InkScape through input boxes as well as dragging by mouse. You can also use a snapping grid to define all your elements in relation to the grid, or enable many other types of snapping and automatic aligning.
- jasonkostempski 12y ago
  FSM's noodly appendage, it's right in the toolbar!
- dhimes 12y ago
  Yes. The shapes are xml and you can control them precisely. You can even control them with javascript should you want to embed them in a web page and, say, animate them or scale them.
- sago 12y ago
  Yes, and not just numbers, you can enter mathematical expressions too.
- mkr-hn 12y ago
  GIMP's tool settings box has this when you're using the selection tool. I use it for getting the right size when cropping.
spot 12y ago
Inkscape is really great but what I really need are Photoshop and After Effects. What are the best Linux equivalents? And don't say GIMP the UI is too different.
- psykovsky 12y ago
  If what you need is Photoshop and Affter Effects then buy them. Why are you asking for an equivalent if those programs are what you need?
  - spot 12y ago
    They don't run natively on Linux which is what I have on my desk. And as far as I know you can't even buy them anymore, you have to rent them :( I did buy both of them a long time ago and used them for many years on an old Mac.
    - devNoise 12y ago
      It seems to be getting harder to run the older versions of Photoshop on newer versions of OSX. Photoshop didn't like the migration from my MacBook to a MacBook Pro. I tried to reinstall from the disc for CS3, but I can't get the installer to run. I'd don't feel like renting it, so starting to look for new options.
    - michaelbuddy 12y ago
      you can still buy CS6 last I looked but you better do it pretty soon, as that might not last. I'd also sign up for a communicyt college course for a great discount again if you can. This whole renting requirement may subside. Adobe is going to be suffering some from people who don't want to rent and will stick to cs6 for so long that they will try something new to convince them. Like way cheaper prices or go back to an licensed / ownership model. CS6 still does everything CC does for 99% of people, but Adobe will start to feel the pinch as every year passes. A lot of people hate renting software. Rent to own is ok, but just to rent, that's a bunch of BS for the amount charged in my view.
- shawnz 12y ago
follower 12y ago
This version of the release notes is properly formatted and includes the images referred to in the text: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.91 http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.91
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Hopefully the mods can update the OP to point to it?
stefanix 12y ago
Does the "Support for real world document and page size units, e.g. millimeters" mean any mm dimensions are also stored in the file as mm? For all the SVG-base CNC apps this would be great news.
- jarek-foksa 12y ago
  Implementation-wise, the only place where real world units such as "mm", "cm" or "px" make sense are the "width" and "height" properties of the outermost <svg> element. This is because everything inside SVG document lives in an imaginary infinite world where dimensions and distances are expressed in abstract "user units". You use "viewBox" attribute on the outermost <svg> element to specify a rectangular fragment of that world for the purpose of rendering. You use "width" and "height" properties to specify the real-world size of that fragment. Authoring tools might show you dimensions of SVG objects such as rectangles or paths in real-world units computed from "viewBox", "width" and "height" of the outermost SVG element, but under the hood the size of those objects should be stored in user units.
  - stefanix 12y ago
    The issue is with translating "user units" to real world units. Up until now SVG is tricky as a CNC file format because of this little detail. For Inkscape you had to translate user units/px based on the assumption of 90dpi. Not a big deal if you only use Inkscape. The real mess starts when going between different authoring apps. Then pretty soon a 100mm line in Inkscape turns into something longer or shorter. This is when you revert back to DXF, the bastard of all file formats. I don't see how the viewBox's real world units can solve this. I think the geometries need to actually use real world units (which the SVG standard supports).
    - jarek-foksa 12y ago
      I don't understand how DPI is relevant here, if an authoring tool takes into account DPI when translating user units to viewport units then it's a bug in the authoring tool rather than limitation of the SVG format. Not sure if this is what you meant, but some tiny rounding errors might occur during conversion if there are many transforms involved between the user space and the viewport space, but this can be avoided if user space values are stored with high enough precision. In order to convert user units to viewport (physical) units and vice versa you only need the current transformation matrix, viewBox rect and viewport size. I have created a demo which shows how I can determine the line length in physical units: http://jsfiddle.net/9n5hf2jw/1/ http://jsfiddle.net/9n5hf2jw/1/ The way how real world units are interpreted inside the SVG document is so messed up that even the SVG spec itself discourages their use: Defining the size of a document in mm and then using mm units for shapes within it is going to give counterintuitive results, since they'll be converted to user units to resolve against the view box. (https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/coords.html#Units https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/coords.html#Units)
nmeofthestate 12y ago
I tried using Inkscape recently to draw something with text along a path, but the support was too primitive so I gave up. Maybe it's been improved.
arocks 12y ago
Inkscape is a vastly underrated app. It makes simple things possible and for complex things, it has a great Python-based plugin system. The API is quite easy to understand. You would be building scripts in no time to automate your art pipeline. Best of all, it has great single-key keyboard shortcuts for higher productivity :)
cies 12y ago
I so wish they would have picked Qt of GTK back in the beginning. That said: I love the tool, use it all over the place, one of the apps i always install.
chops 12y ago
Inkscape is great. I've only recently started using it more heavily as a tool for building a board game with my wife. It gets the job done for me, and I don't have to unlearn anything, as I'm not coming from illustrator. I'm very pleased to see it's under active development.
tripzilch 12y ago
I never really could get the hang of InkScape (while I'm usually pretty good with graphics) until I followed the first few parts of this tutorial: http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.nl/2011/10/lets-get-started-with-circles.html http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.nl/2011/10/lets-get-... Now I love using InkScape. It was a matter of finding the proper workflow. Just putting it out here, in case it might also help others.
- Schwolop 12y ago
  These are awesome! Thanks a bunch for this - I'll definitely be trying to follow them.
pdknsk 12y ago
My only feature request is GUI-less builds, to match running it GUI-less. This would significantly cut down on dependencies and also reduce compile time. I notice there was a discussion about this on inkspace-devel years ago, but it yielded no results from what I can tell. http://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/20403131/ http://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/20403131/
ris 12y ago
Great news! But my heart still yearns for CMYK and (to a lesser extent) spot colour support.
jhallenworld 12y ago
Has support for embedded drawings in Word improved? I remember it didn't work or there were bugs.. Anyway inkscape is otherwise good- it passes my figure drawing test: draw a ruler with tick marks and numbers. Corel can do it. Vizio can do it. Xfig can do it. Not too many others can (try this with the draw tool built into open office and you'll see).
michaelbuddy 12y ago
I think my biggest problem with inkscape is the tearing of the screen when I move the canvas around and it redraws. something about it makes the entire thing seem unstable to me. I dislike Illustrator but I feel like it could handle a big file better than inkscape, if inkscape can't even draw the screen fast enough. How will it handle the memory of a three-hundred thousand node vector image. Somebody tell me what the heck is that tearing happening and why after 20 versions isn't it improving? As long as I work on Windows, there is Xara thankfully. It's got quirks but has been good to me and my workflow. On Mac now thankfully is Affinity Designer. Not quite fully fleshed out but still excellent to have. Inkscape is a great utility program for me that has a lot of low level tweak settings and it's great it constantly gets better.

511 points by p4bl0 12y ago

Excellent stuff! Inkscape really is a superb bit of software. I still recall the first time I tried the included tutorials and realised that the tutorials themselves were just SVG docs. So it had things like, "Let's explore the handles of an ellipse. Select this one", and the shape is right there in the tutorial. Brilliant idea!

JonnieCache 12y ago

The notable thing here is that it has a whole new cairo-based renderer. Great job inkscape team! My go-to tool for svg editing once things get complicated. EDIT: new binaries arent officially posted yet but here's an OSX nightly build from 10 hours ago: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2n7aim2wcrn6l3h/AAC62qBMxM6317AZiMnSt2KQa/Inkscape-0.91%2Bdevel-r13881-1-x11-10.7-x86_64.dmg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2n7aim2wcrn6l3h/AAC62qBMxM6317AZi...

oneweekwonder 12y ago
Inkscape is a tool I wish had better OS X support, the way it handles the gui just feels broken for me, compared to Windows or GNU/Linux.
- Htsthbjig 12y ago
  Look at my message above.
- cpach 12y ago
  IMHO, using Xquartz doesn’t allow for a good user experience. So I have installed iDraw instead. I haven’t used it that much yet but it seems nice. Not open source though.
  - doodpants 12y ago
    Agreed. I have Inkscape installed, but pretty much never use it because of the XQuartz experience. I use Intaglio[1] instead. [1] http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/ http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/
- swah 12y ago
  Sincerely, it doesn't feel native in Windows as well.
  - fithisux 12y ago
    It is not the developer's fault. The problem is that there is no up to date builds with up to date dependencies. Maybe msys2 provides an answer. Currently is in pre version.
    - fithisux 12y ago
      I took the courage to try the x86_64 pre4 of msys2. It is fabulous. The previous version as unusable.
    - swah 12y ago
      I'm not sure - its really minor stuff like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19746944/inkscape%20select.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19746944/inkscape%20sele...
  - jnem 12y ago
    Hey, Im happy with it regardless, and super stoked to see Native Windows 64-bit build support.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966042
- tenken 12y ago
  I dont get this gripe. It's a cross platform tool. Who complains that a hammer is red if the room in the house they're working on is orange ... it's a simple tool _designed_ to function, not designed to integrate seamlessly into a certain environment. Let me phrase that another way ... is time wasted using it on OSX, are there more windows/buttons that must be pressed to achieve the result on another OS? If not I say the tool is created just fine. Yes, I know a branch of it is in the works for OSX. But that's like making a website per platform -- HTML5 and CSS should appear similarly everywhere (although rarely 100% the same on every platform).
keithpeter 12y ago
Yes, 0.91pre4 r13712 from Debian Experimental repository installed on Sid. Interface rendering significantly faster than stable version (e.g. rotating a spiral with blur). Excellent.

wooptoo 12y ago

Great job. This release took quite a bit. I think 0.48 was released two years ago. They basically rewrote the whole software in OOP.

kgabis 12y ago
Is there a reason for doing that?
- randomsearch 12y ago
  Also, a rationale for choosing C++ would be interesting.
  - danmaz74 12y ago
    If you want to go OOP from C, what would you choose?
    - randomsearch 12y ago
      Personally, I'd choose one from many languages. I'm not convinced C++ is a good choice for user-level applications. Maybe for the performant parts, or for compatibility. Perhaps other factors like skillsets came into play...
      - danmaz74 12y ago
        We're talking about a port from C. Porting from C to C++ is much easier than porting from C to any other language...
        randomsearch 12y ago
        I didn't think it was a straight port... But, yeah, it's going to be easier. It's also an opportunity to consider another language that might improve productivity, reliability etc. in the future. Just wondering. Didn't mean to start a language war :-)

exogen 12y ago

Inkscape is amazing. One of the only pieces of "big" software that I use without first fiddling around in the settings and changing a bunch of things. It just feels right to use.

fdej 12y ago
Indeed. I need to make a graphic once every couple of years, and every time, I just boot up Inkscape and it does what I expect.
pkorzeniewski 12y ago
It has come a long way, I remember when I first tried Inkscape several years ago and it was constantly crashing or freezing on Windows, but now - no problems at all, the UI is great and it has all the features you need for vector graphics.
- josteink 12y ago
  The official page says latest stable windows version is 0.48.5 or something. Is it the Windows build which isn't prioritized, or is it versioned somewhat differently?
  - nikbackm 12y ago
    The stable versions for Linux and Mac are also 0.48.5, this is just the latest source version.
  - p4bl0 12y ago
    A friend of mine quite involved in the Inkscape community told me to reply this to you: source package is up, packagers haven't still compiled for the various systems (the official release annoucement will be made after that, in short time).
  - gpvos 12y ago
    The development version got renumbered from 0.49 to 0.91. https://inkscape.org/en/news/2013/12/19/inkscape-049-will-now-be-inkscape-091/ https://inkscape.org/en/news/2013/12/19/inkscape-049-will-no...

dcarmo 12y ago

I love Inkscape, but not having a native OSX build sucks.

Htsthbjig 12y ago
Look at my message above. The native OSX beta already works much better than the broken XQuartz thing(in the past you could not even copy paste real vectors, today it requires a special version of XQuartz and changing parameters and other nasty stuff) .
dannyking 12y ago
Totally agree. I'm a huge fan of Inkscape. When I moved to OSX I started using Sketch as my main design software, but I do often find myself frustrated wanting a feature that Inkscape had. Really pleased to see this update. Hoping for better native OSX support, rather than running it through X11.
winter_blue 12y ago
I've both installed and used Inkscape on OS X with no problems, via MacPorts. My sole gripe with it was that it didn't support my HiDPI/Retina MBP screen.

fabian2k 12y ago

I like Inkscape a lot, but there are still cases where it just doesn't work well. The import of postscript or PDF produces some strange results sometimes, especially with text. That is something the commercial alternatives still do quite a bit better. The speed increase is nice, Inkscape could be painfully slow on complex drawings with lots of paths.

p4bl0 12y ago
For me the PDF import and export already works well enough: it's been years since I printed a PDF form just to fill it, sign it and then scan it to email it back. I just open the PDF in Inkscape, fill it with the text tool, insert à JPG of my hand signature, save it, and send the resulting PDF back. The administrative efficiency I gained with this technique is gigantic, especially because I don't have to wait to have access to a printer and a scanner to do such things anymore.
- iXce 12y ago
  When you want to edit the text a bit (so not just to fill forms, but actually edit a PDF/EPS, extract a figure from a paper and rework some text), in 0.48 imported text looked nice initially, but as soon as you start changing a single character the whole text block gets completely wrong (misaligned, writing new characters over the beginning of the text instead of appending...)
  - p4bl0 12y ago
    Yep, that's true. I will have to try that with the new version (when it will hit Debian testing…).
- simi_ 12y ago
  A basic, built-in, OS X app does this extremely painlessly. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mac+preview+pdf+editing+ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mac+preview+pdf...

jestinjoy1 12y ago

Inkscape is very easy to use. We have used it for creating brochures, posters,.. for our Free Software conference. What I like most about Inkscape is, it is easy to use, learn and do.

calibwam 12y ago

Inkscape has been a project for 11 years, why the hesitance to have a version number above 1.0?

chriswarbo 12y ago
Time is pretty irrelevant for versioning, unless you have paying customers and you want to trick some into paying the full price for a minor upgrade (eg. Windows 98, FIFA 2015, etc.) 1.x tends to fulfil the original goals of the project. As long as there are some unfulfilled goals, it's still 0.x. 2.x, 3.x, etc. are breaking changes, often a rewrite.
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
As a long term user I'd agree to some extent, the 1.0 version feel has definitely been and gone - probably I'd say this is about a version 4, to my mind. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InkscapeInvariants http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InkscapeInvariants are the stated aims of the project and AFAICT they've not achieved the SVG spec compliance completely yet. Though I thought I recalled them aiming at the reduced SVG "basic" set (? if that's what it's called) and reaching it. I've been a user since it forked from SodiPodi (and indeed was a SodiPodi user too).
- rektide 12y ago
  I miss SodiPodi, with it being multiple-document single-toolbar'ed. Iirc this was the sole contention of the fork- Inkscape was born explicitly to have each document have it's own suite of controls.
  - ScislaC 12y ago
    No, it was born because of the structure of SodiPodi. Lauris was effectively the gatekeeper and others did not have commit access. He wasn't accepting patches he didn't want to, so a handful of our founders decided to fork and have a much more open approach. As it stands, if you have two patches accepted with the project (Inkscape) and want it, you can have commit access.
12y ago

awjr 12y ago

Just loaded up a 17MB OpenStreetMap svg file (map of Bath, UK) which was unworkable on my Mac under 0.48. 0.91 is fast. Really fast. I'm sold. Well done.

deleted 12y ago

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aembleton 12y ago

I'm impressed that it isn't even at version 1.0 yet. Really good piece of software.

the_mitsuhiko 12y ago

I love Inkscape, I still use it, even though the Mac version is abysmal. It's such a shame that it does not have any proper OSX developers as I think it can more than compete with professional vector software.

stomach 12y ago
Native osx mac port in progress: https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu
deleted 12y ago
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scardine 12y ago

I learned to create vector graphics on CorelDraw 3, Inkscape looks like an old friend for me.

khet 12y ago

Inkscape is a great piece of design software. I've been using it for a good 8 years now to design websites, complex application interfaces, prototype many projects and everything in between. The application has been designed with care and it shows. There is a sense of respect towards the user and you can really enjoy using it for long periods of time. It just fades away and lets you get to work. No fuss. The interface and workflows are simple, yet extremely powerful if you spend some time understanding the tool. I have used Inkscape exclusively to do all my interface design work during my career. After moving to OSX, I was put off by the lack of native support. So I tried moving to Sketch and Illustrator. I found Illustrator to be overly complicated and plain bloated. I've always had a distaste for Adobe software and Illustrator maintains that negative image for me. Sketch on the other hand was unstable when I tried it. It had some serious bugs that made it unusable. I went back to Inkscape and am now used to the GTK quirks & the lack of Retina support. The software itself remains my favorite tool. And I'm excited to see this major update to Inkscape.

fit2rule 12y ago
I too am a long timer user and fan of Inkscape .. I'd love to know more about your flow/process of using it to design websites .. got an inclination to share the details? I think a lot of the power of Inkscape comes from harnessing the abstractions of SVG. I've used it in the past as a container for GUI elements, and as long as you name things properly and maintain a good order of abstraction, using Inkscape to create SVG that can be parsed directly into working code is a thing of joy to behold.
- tchvil 12y ago
  That is interesting. I'm looking to use SVG for a gui too. Do you have something visible?
  - fit2rule 12y ago
    Not at the moment - but I am preparing something for release shortly, and it'll be mostly focused around the MOAI framework. If you want to tune in to the forums at http://getmoai.com http://getmoai.com, that'll be where I launch first .. I'm targetting specifically the Hanappe framework for MOAI, if that will give you some clues ..

Htsthbjig 12y ago

You have a native mac beta version here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b7tyrnugif2ywqj/qpMx1ygywo https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b7tyrnugif2ywqj/qpMx1ygywo Much better than needing XQuartz.

cbreuel 12y ago
Is there an official location for this project, with source code etc.? Forgive me if I sound paranoid, but downloading a binary from a random Dropbox is a little weird.
- robotfelix 12y ago
  Looking in the README, it appears that this OS X branch is part of the main repository. The page for it is at https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu
- bronson 12y ago
  It is VERY weird. However, that dropbox link is indeed on the launchpad page that robotfelix posted. If you trust the page, I suppose you can trust the dropbox link. I wonder if there's any chance it could be made to work on Homebrew...?

gatesphere 12y ago

Finally, they're exporting slanted and italic font styles to PDF! Seriously, that bug has been biting me since 2011. I'm glad to see it fixed.

tarball 12y ago

I am graphic designer, Inkscape made me realize that Free software could be also for designers. Now I work exclusively with F/loss on linux. I use Inkscape every day and I am really happy to see this release.

jasonkostempski 12y ago

I'm not a designer but I do occasionally whip up my own images if the task is simple enough. One thing I've always wanted in a drawing program is the ability to create shapes by typing in dimensions. e.g. Dragging out a a rectangle to be exactly NxM units is so tedious and it comes up all the time. Does Inkscape or any other drawing program support anything like that?

ipsin 12y ago
Sure, Inkscape does that. It's a vector library, but if you create a rectangle, the coordinates and dimensions are available for editing. Type in "N" and "M" and hit enter, and it updates, which makes sense, given that those values are linked to the underlying SVG.
vesinisa 12y ago
Yes, you can have full control over SVG element dimensions in InkScape through input boxes as well as dragging by mouse. You can also use a snapping grid to define all your elements in relation to the grid, or enable many other types of snapping and automatic aligning.
jasonkostempski 12y ago
FSM's noodly appendage, it's right in the toolbar!
dhimes 12y ago
Yes. The shapes are xml and you can control them precisely. You can even control them with javascript should you want to embed them in a web page and, say, animate them or scale them.
sago 12y ago
Yes, and not just numbers, you can enter mathematical expressions too.
mkr-hn 12y ago
GIMP's tool settings box has this when you're using the selection tool. I use it for getting the right size when cropping.

spot 12y ago

Inkscape is really great but what I really need are Photoshop and After Effects. What are the best Linux equivalents? And don't say GIMP the UI is too different.

psykovsky 12y ago
If what you need is Photoshop and Affter Effects then buy them. Why are you asking for an equivalent if those programs are what you need?
- spot 12y ago
  They don't run natively on Linux which is what I have on my desk. And as far as I know you can't even buy them anymore, you have to rent them :( I did buy both of them a long time ago and used them for many years on an old Mac.
  - devNoise 12y ago
    It seems to be getting harder to run the older versions of Photoshop on newer versions of OSX. Photoshop didn't like the migration from my MacBook to a MacBook Pro. I tried to reinstall from the disc for CS3, but I can't get the installer to run. I'd don't feel like renting it, so starting to look for new options.
  - michaelbuddy 12y ago
    you can still buy CS6 last I looked but you better do it pretty soon, as that might not last. I'd also sign up for a communicyt college course for a great discount again if you can. This whole renting requirement may subside. Adobe is going to be suffering some from people who don't want to rent and will stick to cs6 for so long that they will try something new to convince them. Like way cheaper prices or go back to an licensed / ownership model. CS6 still does everything CC does for 99% of people, but Adobe will start to feel the pinch as every year passes. A lot of people hate renting software. Rent to own is ok, but just to rent, that's a bunch of BS for the amount charged in my view.
shawnz 12y ago

follower 12y ago

This version of the release notes is properly formatted and includes the images referred to in the text: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.91 http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.91

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Hopefully the mods can update the OP to point to it?

stefanix 12y ago

Does the "Support for real world document and page size units, e.g. millimeters" mean any mm dimensions are also stored in the file as mm? For all the SVG-base CNC apps this would be great news.

jarek-foksa 12y ago
Implementation-wise, the only place where real world units such as "mm", "cm" or "px" make sense are the "width" and "height" properties of the outermost <svg> element. This is because everything inside SVG document lives in an imaginary infinite world where dimensions and distances are expressed in abstract "user units". You use "viewBox" attribute on the outermost <svg> element to specify a rectangular fragment of that world for the purpose of rendering. You use "width" and "height" properties to specify the real-world size of that fragment. Authoring tools might show you dimensions of SVG objects such as rectangles or paths in real-world units computed from "viewBox", "width" and "height" of the outermost SVG element, but under the hood the size of those objects should be stored in user units.
- stefanix 12y ago
  The issue is with translating "user units" to real world units. Up until now SVG is tricky as a CNC file format because of this little detail. For Inkscape you had to translate user units/px based on the assumption of 90dpi. Not a big deal if you only use Inkscape. The real mess starts when going between different authoring apps. Then pretty soon a 100mm line in Inkscape turns into something longer or shorter. This is when you revert back to DXF, the bastard of all file formats. I don't see how the viewBox's real world units can solve this. I think the geometries need to actually use real world units (which the SVG standard supports).
  - jarek-foksa 12y ago
    I don't understand how DPI is relevant here, if an authoring tool takes into account DPI when translating user units to viewport units then it's a bug in the authoring tool rather than limitation of the SVG format. Not sure if this is what you meant, but some tiny rounding errors might occur during conversion if there are many transforms involved between the user space and the viewport space, but this can be avoided if user space values are stored with high enough precision. In order to convert user units to viewport (physical) units and vice versa you only need the current transformation matrix, viewBox rect and viewport size. I have created a demo which shows how I can determine the line length in physical units: http://jsfiddle.net/9n5hf2jw/1/ http://jsfiddle.net/9n5hf2jw/1/ The way how real world units are interpreted inside the SVG document is so messed up that even the SVG spec itself discourages their use: Defining the size of a document in mm and then using mm units for shapes within it is going to give counterintuitive results, since they'll be converted to user units to resolve against the view box. (https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/coords.html#Units https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/coords.html#Units)

nmeofthestate 12y ago

I tried using Inkscape recently to draw something with text along a path, but the support was too primitive so I gave up. Maybe it's been improved.

arocks 12y ago

Inkscape is a vastly underrated app. It makes simple things possible and for complex things, it has a great Python-based plugin system. The API is quite easy to understand. You would be building scripts in no time to automate your art pipeline. Best of all, it has great single-key keyboard shortcuts for higher productivity :)

cies 12y ago

I so wish they would have picked Qt of GTK back in the beginning. That said: I love the tool, use it all over the place, one of the apps i always install.

chops 12y ago

Inkscape is great. I've only recently started using it more heavily as a tool for building a board game with my wife. It gets the job done for me, and I don't have to unlearn anything, as I'm not coming from illustrator. I'm very pleased to see it's under active development.

tripzilch 12y ago

I never really could get the hang of InkScape (while I'm usually pretty good with graphics) until I followed the first few parts of this tutorial: http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.nl/2011/10/lets-get-started-with-circles.html http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.nl/2011/10/lets-get-... Now I love using InkScape. It was a matter of finding the proper workflow. Just putting it out here, in case it might also help others.

Schwolop 12y ago
These are awesome! Thanks a bunch for this - I'll definitely be trying to follow them.

pdknsk 12y ago

My only feature request is GUI-less builds, to match running it GUI-less. This would significantly cut down on dependencies and also reduce compile time. I notice there was a discussion about this on inkspace-devel years ago, but it yielded no results from what I can tell. http://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/20403131/ http://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/20403131/

ris 12y ago

Great news! But my heart still yearns for CMYK and (to a lesser extent) spot colour support.

jhallenworld 12y ago

Has support for embedded drawings in Word improved? I remember it didn't work or there were bugs.. Anyway inkscape is otherwise good- it passes my figure drawing test: draw a ruler with tick marks and numbers. Corel can do it. Vizio can do it. Xfig can do it. Not too many others can (try this with the draw tool built into open office and you'll see).

michaelbuddy 12y ago

I think my biggest problem with inkscape is the tearing of the screen when I move the canvas around and it redraws. something about it makes the entire thing seem unstable to me. I dislike Illustrator but I feel like it could handle a big file better than inkscape, if inkscape can't even draw the screen fast enough. How will it handle the memory of a three-hundred thousand node vector image. Somebody tell me what the heck is that tearing happening and why after 20 versions isn't it improving? As long as I work on Windows, there is Xara thankfully. It's got quirks but has been good to me and my workflow. On Mac now thankfully is Affinity Designer. Not quite fully fleshed out but still excellent to have. Inkscape is a great utility program for me that has a lot of low level tweak settings and it's great it constantly gets better.