Inkscape 0.46 released

New York, NY, 2008/04/01 -- The Inkscape community today announced the
release of Inkscape 0.46, the newest stable version of the multi-platform,
open source vector graphics editor.

This newest Inkscape release includes a plethora of new tools and
improvements, many of which were developed with the assistance of the 2007
Google Summer of Code program.

Inkscape can now directly import vector PDF files, and PDF export is greatly
improved. Thus, Inkscape 0.46 provides an easy, open source tool for editing
and creating PDF documents.

The 2007 Google Summer of Code also produced the new 3D Box tool and Live
Path Effects. The 3D Box tool makes it possible to create and edit
three-dimensional boxes and perspectives. Live Path Effects, another GSoC
project, can be used to create "brushes" and organic effects on paths while
keeping the original paths editable.

The new Paint Bucket Tool allows bounded areas to be filled with color at
the click of a mouse button, creating a closed vector path based on what's
visible on the canvas. It is very fast and convenient for coloring scanned
line drawings.

The new Tweak Tool allows you to modify objects as if they were made of
molding clay - now you can freely sculpt any path without worrying about
path nodes.

Gradients can now be edited completely on-canvas. All gradient stops are
visualized by draggable controls, and multiple nodes can be selected and
moved simultaneously. This approach allows for more precise and complex
gradients than the traditional gradient strip.

Color management has also been improved, with initial support for color
spaces other than sRGB, including Adobe RGB and calibrated CMYK. This makes
it possible to use calibrated color values, including CMYK values, that are
preserved across applications.

The Gaussian Blur filter, introduced in Inkscape 0.45, was the first SVG
filter supported. Inkscape 0.46 expands on this adding implementations of
most filters defined in the SVG standard. There is also a new powerful
dialog for creating and altering filter stacks. SVG filters can be used for
beveling, turbulence, distortions, shading, and many other creative effects.


Finally, Inkscape 0.46 introduces many workflow and user interface
improvements. Dialogs can now be docked and minimized to the main editing
window, reducing visual clutter and making the relationship between
documents and dialogs clearer, especially when working on multiple documents
in separate Inkscape instances.

With 0.46 out, the Inkscape community is already working on the upcoming
0.47. Full compatibility with SVG Mobile/Tiny is slated for version 0.50 and
version 1.0 will include complete W3C SVG 1.1 compliance.

Hundreds of users and developers have contributed to Inkscape - adding
features, suggesting ideas, reporting bugs, and writing documentation. We
invite anyone to contribute to this exciting project. The more help we get,
the more innovative, feature-complete, and stable Inkscape becomes.
Download Inkscape 0.46 for Linux, Windows or Mac OS X

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93438
 For More Information

Complete Release Notes for 0.46,
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes046
Community Contributed Screenshots, http://inkscape.org/screenshots/
 About Inkscape

Inkscape is a multi platform, open source drawing tool that uses the World
Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) scalable vector graphics format (SVG). Some
supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones,
alpha blending, transforms, gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape
supports Creative Commons' metadata, node-editing, layers, complex path
operations, text-on-path, text-in-shape, and SVG XML editing. It can also
import EPS, PostScript, and most bitmap formats, and exports PNG, PS, PDF
and various vector formats. Inkscape's main motivation is to provide the
Open Source community with a fully W3C compliant XML, SVG, and CSS2 drawing
tool. Additional work includes conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to
C++/Gtkmm, emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added
through an extension mechanism, and maintaining a friendly, open,
community-oriented development process.