Inkscape

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Inkscape is a free software vector graphics editor. Its goal is to become a powerful graphic tool while being fully compliant with the XML, SVG and CSS standards. It is a cross-platform application that runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Unix-like operating systems; the primary development platform is Linux.

Inkscape started in 2003 as a fork of the vector drawing editor Sodipodi. Inkscape does not yet have as many features as the best commercial vector editors, but it is currently suitable for a wide range of applications. Inkscape's implementation of SVG and CSS standards is incomplete; most notably, it has not yet implemented SVG filter effects, animation, and SVG fonts. Inkscape is under active development, with new features being added regularly.

Contents

1 Features

1.1 Object creation
1.2 Object manipulation
1.3 Fill and stroke
1.4 Operations on paths
1.5 Text support
1.6 Rendering
1.7 Miscellaneous

2 Interface and usability
3 History
4 Versions
5 See also
6 External links

6.1 Artwork
6.2 Articles

Features

Object creation

Drawing:
*pencil tool (freehand drawing with stroked paths)
*pen tool (creating paths with Bezier curves and straight lines)
*calligraphy tool (freehand drawing with calligraphic strokes, tablet pressure/angle support)
Shape tools:
*rectangles (optionally with rounded corners)
*ellipses (optionally circles, arcs, segments)
*stars/polygons (optionally rounded or randomized)
*spirals
Text tool (regular, multiline or flowed text)
Linked bitmap images, either imported or rasterized from selected objects (a separate utility for embedding linked images comes with the program)
Clones ("live" linked copies of objects). Other programs refer to similar functionality as "symbols".

Object manipulation

Affine transformations (moving, scaling, rotating, skewing), both interactively and by specifying numeric values
Z-order operations
Grouping objects, with a way to "select in group" without ungrouping, or "enter the group" making it a temporary layer
Layers, with a way to lock and/or hide individual layers, rearrange them, etc; layers can form a hierarchical tree
Copying and pasting objects
Alignment and distribution commands, including grid arrange, randomization, unclumping
A tool to create patterns of clones, using wallpaper symmetries plus arbitrary scales, shifts, rotates, and color changes, optionally randomized
Grid and guide snapping

Fill and stroke

Color selector (RGB, HSL, CMYK, color wheel)
Color picker ("dropper") tool
Copy/paste style between objects
On-canvas gradient editing with draggable and mergeable handles
A gradient editor capable of multi-stop gradients
Pattern fills
Dashed strokes, with predefined dash patterns
Path markers (e.g. arrowheads)

Operations on paths

Node editing: moving nodes and Bezier curve handles, node alignment and distribution, scaling and rotating node groups
Converting to path (for text objects or shapes), including converting stroke to path
Boolean operations (union, intersection, difference, exclusion, division)
Path simplification, with variable threshold
Path insetting and outsetting, including dynamic and linked offset objects
Bitmap tracing (both color and b/w)

Text support

Multi-line text (SVG 1.0/1.1 <text>)
Flowed text in frame(s) (, formerly proposed for SVG 1.2)
Full on-canvas editability, including styled text spans
Uses any outline fonts installed on the system
Can use any scripts and languages supported by the Pango library (e.g. Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, etc.)
Kerning, letterspacing, linespacing adjustments
Text on path (both text and path remain editable)

Rendering

256x maximum zoom
Fully anti-aliased display
Alpha transparency support for display and PNG export
Complete "as you drag" rendering of objects during interactive transformations

Miscellaneous

Connector tool for diagrams
Collaborative editing over a network (whiteboard)
Live watching and editing the document tree in the XML editor
PNG and PostScript export
Command line options for export, conversions, and analysis of SVG files
RDF metadata (authorship, date, license, etc.)
Extension support

Interface and usability

One of the priorities of the Inkscape project is interface consistency and usability. This includes GNOME HIG compliance, universal keyboard accessibility, and convenient on-canvas editing. Inkscape has achieved significant progress in usability since the project started.

The number of floating dialog boxes has been reduced, with their functions now available via keyboard shortcuts and/or in the docked toolbars in the editing window. The tool controls bar at the top of the window always displays the controls relevant to the current tool.

All transformations (not only moving but also scaling and rotating) have keyboard shortcuts with consistent modifiers (e.g. Alt transforms by 1 screen pixel at the current zoom, Shift multiplies the transformation by 10, etc.); these keys work on nodes in Node tool as well as on objects in Selector. The most common operations (such as transformations, zooming, z-order) have convenient one-key shortcuts.

Inkscape provides floating tooltips and status bar hints for all buttons, controls, commands, keys, and on-canvas handles. It comes with a complete keyboard and mouse reference (in HTML and SVG) and several interactive tutorials in SVG.

The interface of Sodipodi (Inkscape's predecessor) was partly based on those of CorelDRAW and GIMP. The current Inkscape interface has been partially influenced by that of Xara X.

History

Inkscape began in 2003 as a code fork of the Sodipodi project. Sodipodi, developed since 1999, was itself based on Gill, the work of Raph Levien.

The fork was led by a team of four former Sodipodi developers (Ted Gould, Bryce Harrington, Nathan Hurst, and MenTaLguY) who identified differences over project objectives, openness to third-party contributions, and technical disagreements as their reasons for forking. Inkscape, they claimed, would seek to focus development on implementing the complete SVG standard, whereas Sodipodi development had emphasized creating a general-purpose vector graphics editor, possibly at the expense of SVG.

Since the fork, Inkscape has, among other things, changed from using the C programming language to C++; changed to the GTK+ toolkit C++ bindings (gtkmm); redesigned the user interface and added a number of new features. Its implementation of the SVG standard has shown gradual improvement, but is still incomplete.

Rather than top-down governance, its developers claim to encourage an egalitarian culture where authority stems from an individual developer's abilities and active involvement in the project. As a result, the project places special emphasis on giving full access to its SCM repository to all active developers, and on participation in the larger open source community (often in the form of inter-project initiatives and spinoff projects like the Open Clip Art Library).

While the project founders are still well-represented in the decision-making process, many newcomers have also come to play prominent roles. Among them is Bulia Byak, architect of the radical user interface changes that have given Inkscape its present appearance.

After Xara announced plans to open source their own drawing application Xara Xtreme, they expressed interest in working closely with Inkscape to find ways the two projects can share code, coordinate efforts, and make open source graphics superior to anything available in the proprietary world.

Versions

The latest version 0.44 (June 24, 2006) added Layers dialog, support for clipping and masking, improved PDF export with transparency, and performance improvements.
Version 0.43 (November 19, 2005) added Connector tool, collaborative editing, tablet pressure/angle sensitivity, and Node tool enhancements.
Version 0.42 (July 26, 2005) added flowed text support, styling text spans, enhanced effects support, and the new gradient tool.
Version 0.41 (February 10, 2005) added the clone tiler tool and color tracing, plus many bugfixes.
Version 0.40 added support for layers, bitmap tracing, and text on path.
Version 0.39 was the first release to use the Pango library, bringing better support for more languages, as well as support for markers, clones, and pattern fills.
Version 0.38 was a bug fix release, but it also featured text kerning and letterspacing, multistage gradients, and many usability enhancements.
Version 0.37 saw the addition of boolean path operations and path inset/outset.
Version 0.36 was the first release with the reorganized UI using a menu bar and docked context-sensitive toolbars in the document window.
Version 0.35 was released on October 14, 2003 and was the first release of Inkscape, very similar to Sodipodi version 0.32.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[Special]

Artwork

[A gallery of art created in Inkscape]

Articles

[Inkscape compared to Sodipodi]
[Inkscape Evaluation] — in-depth and long review by the GNOME artist Jakub 'Jimmac' Steiner
[Inkscape 0.42.2 vs. FreeHand MXa]
[Open Source Fun With Inkscape and SVG]
[Creating vector graphics with Inkscape]
[Inkscape review: It's all in the UI]

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