Inkscape, a Scalable Vector Graphics Editor [LWN.net]

Version 0.43 of Inkscape, a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) drawing tool, has been announced. Inkscape started out as a fork of the Sodipodi project. The Inkscape project definition states: [Inkscape]

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inkscape's main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards.

A number of new features have been added to version 0.43, including:

A connector tool for drawing auto-routing lines between objects.
Support for collaborative editing, multiple users can simultaneously edit a diagram.
Pressure and tilt sensitivity have been added to the calligraphy tool.
Improvements have been made to the node editing capabilities of the Bezier curve drawing tool.
New extensions are available for envelope distortion, whirling, and the addition of nodes.
Precision has been improved and limits have been expanded.
The SVG compliance is better.
The documentation has been updated.
Numerous bug fixes have been incorporated.

The version 0.43 release notes list all of the changes in more detail. Several of the new capabilities were produced by participants in Google's Summer of Code program.

Inkscape is easy to learn, fun to use, and well documented. Some user-contributed screenshots show a variety of the images that have been created. If that's not enough, a list of online galleries is available.

A sampling of the project's documentation includes the Inkscape FAQ, online user documentation with manuals and tutorials and the book A Guide to Inkscape by Tavmjong Bah.

The future of Inkscape is outlined in the project roadmap. The future point releases leading up to the 1.0 release have been well defined.

If you have not tried Inkscape yet, it is definitely worth the effort. The tutorials are well written, they provide a nice jump start on the learning curve. Source code and packaged versions of Inkscape 0.43 are available here.

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What about CMYK ?

Posted Nov 23, 2005 7:33 UTC (Wed) by smurf (subscriber, #17840) [Link]

I like Inkscape. It feels realy good, and its curve editing controls are *obvious* (as opposed to these of certain ... illustrous ... proprietary programs).

One glaring lack, however, is native CMYK support. Inkscape does have a CMYK color dialog, but all that dialog does is to immediately convert the values to RGB and back (try it, specifically with large K values). Interestingly, the roadmap doesn't mention cmyk either.

Oh, and better text controls. Sometimes one does need a superscript-® (or whatever) in a larger span of text -- impossible with Inkscape right now. So is block layout; only left/center/right is supported.

What about CMYK ?

Posted Nov 23, 2005 8:20 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Well since it's designed specificly for web svg standards and whatnot I am not suprised that CMYK support isn't a big deal. CMYK is a prepress-only thing.

Plus I am suspecting that lower down there would be issues.. How well does the SVG format itself deal with CMYK colors? I don't know, but I suspect the answer is 'not at all'.

I never tried superscript or anything like that in inkscape. I think that it's possible, after a fasion. I don't mave a machine aviable right now to try it out. Try shifting the text up/down using 'alt-uparrow/downarrow' then manually adjusting the 'superscripted' item's font size.

But I only do text in images if the text needs to be part of the image... Signs, web banners and the like.. For better text layout I like to use a real layout program rather then vector image editor. Something like Scribus. It makes things much easier to manage.

Actually I think it makes most sense just to use Inkscape as it's intended. As just a vector based image editor and use Scribus for print layout, text, and other things like that. It has support for CMYK colors, can do ICC color profiles (via littlecms) (I don't think inkscape supports ICC yet) and the like which are important for doing actual print work. (color profiles are uber-important for getting good print output without going insane)

Of course the ideal is to have all this supported all the way through by whatever programs you want to use (Gimp, Krita, Inkscape, etc), but color spaces, profiling and all that is relatively immature in Linux and dominated by propriatory and secret color proccesses elsewere. Most stuff is getting ICC support nowadays, even gimp, but Linux still lacks the ability to use hardware-based calibration tools like that spider thingy you put on the front of monitors.

Now that would be very nice.

What about CMYK ?

Posted Nov 23, 2005 12:30 UTC (Wed) by nedrichards (guest, #23295) [Link]

Well with the connectors in this release it's also moving quite strongly into the MS Visio space. It'd be *really* nice to have an SVG open source visio-a-like.

What about CMYK ?

Posted Nov 23, 2005 18:51 UTC (Wed) by jwb (guest, #15467) [Link]

CMYK and RGB are both color systems that cater to the output device. Why not advocate for color system that works with the human eye, like HSL?

What about CMYK ?

Posted Nov 23, 2005 19:23 UTC (Wed) by smurf (subscriber, #17840) [Link]

RGB is not output-device-specific. It's equally useable for the input side (i.e., scanners or cameras). Or for your monitor, which arguably is both.

Anyway, professional printing uses CMYK. That's a fact. You may wish that it used something else, but it doesn't; until the Linux desktop gets proper color calibration tools for the whole workflow, which it currently does not have, you need to be able to specify CMYK colors. Otherwise professional printers will laugh at you, and for good reason.

What about CMYK ?

Posted Jul 21, 2007 16:00 UTC (Sat) by electrostatic (guest, #46363) [Link]

Signed: Love the app, but there is really no reason to call it "inkscape" if it can't do CMYK...

Also, it should be noted that SVG's CMYK support is dismal, but it does technically exist... http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/color.html#ColorProfileDescrip...