Inkscape 0.91 release

https://inkscape.org/en/gallery/item/3854/

by p4bl0 • 11 years ago

511 122 11 years ago

phaemon• 11 years 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• 11 years 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/AAC62qBMxM6317AZi...

oneweekwonder• 11 years 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.

cpach• 11 years 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.

Htsthbjig3• 11 years ago

Look at my message above.

swah2• 11 years ago

Sincerely, it doesn't feel native in Windows as well.

TazeTSchnitzel2• 11 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8966042

keithpeter• 11 years 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.

prima-facie• 11 years 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• 11 years ago

Is there a reason for doing that?

randomsearch4• 11 years ago

Also, a rationale for choosing C++ would be interesting.

jarek-foksa4• 11 years ago

They didn't rewrite the whole software, that would take ages...

The migration from C to C++ was slowly progressing since Inkscape was forked from Sodipodi over 10 years ago, but there are still some C files remaining and SP* prefixes are used all over the place.

Besides, Sodipodi was already using simple GObject-based architecture.

exogen• 11 years 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• 11 years 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• 11 years 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• 11 years 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?

dcarmo• 11 years ago

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

dannyking• 11 years 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.

Htsthbjig3• 11 years 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) .

winter_blue• 11 years 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• 11 years 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.

p4bl03• 11 years 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• 11 years 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...)

simi_• 11 years ago

A basic, built-in, OS X app does this extremely painlessly.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mac+preview+pdf...

jestinjoy1• 11 years 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• 11 years ago

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

chriswarbo• 11 years 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• 11 years 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 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• 11 years 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.

ScislaC2• 11 years ago

One reason we're not at 1.0 yet is because the original 1.0 goal was to have complete SVG 1.1 support in, which will likely never happen. We changed the version numbering scheme to better reflect where we think we are.

The reason why we're still not there right now is because there are some essential things like canvas coordinates, fixed "flow text" support (so it works in browsers), etc that we need to rectify first before we're comfortable with 1.0.

awjr• 11 years 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.

aembleton• 11 years ago

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

the_mitsuhiko• 11 years 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.

stomach3• 11 years ago

Native osx mac port in progress:

https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu

scardine• 11 years ago

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

khet• 11 years 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.

fit2rule2• 11 years 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• 11 years ago

That is interesting. I'm looking to use SVG for a gui too. Do you have something visible?

jnem2• 11 years ago

Agreed, I'm in love with Inkscape's support for SVG. Like some of the other posters here, I am fed up with Adobe and it's bloated software. In Adobe's defense, this is likely due to all of the backwards compatibility they need to do.

However, when it comes to using SVGs on the web, Inkscape is clearly the king. Illustrator has a bunch of nice and fancy filters and such, but you try exporting as an SVG for web and you will find a great deal of your design has been lost due to non-svg-compatabile "frills" Illustrator adds.

stomach3• 11 years ago

You're in luck! There is a native OSX port in progress, called the 'osxmenu' branch:

https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu

There are still some bugs, but it works well for me.

FreakyT• 11 years ago

Wow, thanks for posting this! I've been trying to find native OSX builds of Inkscape without much luck for a while.

slaxman• 11 years ago

Wow! It's works pretty well! I could never get Inkscape working on OS X before. There is still the big startup time but it's definitely better than using xquartz.

themodelplumber• 11 years ago

Cool! This is pretty nice. Are you able to edit gradients? I can't seem to get that functionality to work.

isomorphic3• 11 years ago

  <url snipped> - Sorry, the Public links of my Dropbox
  account currently are suspended due to bandwidth limits.

Does anyone have a mirror?

lpsz• 11 years ago

FWIW, I use Sketch daily and it has been a lifesaver after I abandoned Photoshop. Give it a second try! (This is v3, to be fair -- I believe earlier versions had new-adopter quirks.)

pagliara• 11 years ago

I've also recently started using Sketch as an Illustrator replacement (for basic icon/design work, I'm not a professional graphic designer). I've really enjoyed using it so far.

untog• 11 years ago

Agreed. I kept trying to use Inkscape wherever I could but it just ground me down. As soon as I tried Sketch I was sold.

innguest• 11 years ago

I'm also a long time Inkscape user and it suits my need perfectly. However, I'd rather be able to edit the nodes of an image to clip it, as in Corel Draw, instead of having to commit to a shape, combine, and set the clip onto the image. But that's a minor problem.

Another reason why Inkscape rocks where other vector editors don't fare as well is in their understanding of Bezier curves. It's right on, just like in Corel Draw. One example of a program that does not get Bezier curves right is Adobe Illustrator. It's impossible, or very very hard, to draw a rectangle, make the top two nodes cusp, and curve only the top side. I remember reading in forums where people were trying to do that and long time users were admitting that it's complicated. However, in truth there's nothing complicated about it, as Inkscape demonstrates very well.

Fine control over nodes is the reason you want Inkscape. Illustrator gets on my nerves because it's so roundabout in this regard.

codygman• 11 years ago

What about:

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingMacOsX#Comp...

boobsbr• 11 years ago

I'm much quicker with Inkscape than with Illustrator. I know Illustrator is much more powerful, but Inkscape just feels more productive to me.

Example: last week I had to open a bunch of EPS files in Illustrator and extract shapes to make new images. I had to realign shapes all the time, and had to set the "Relative to" field ALL THE DAMN TIME. While in Inksapce it remembers my previous choice.

Htsthbjig3• 11 years ago

You have a native mac beta version here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b7tyrnugif2ywqj/qpMx1ygywo

Much better than needing XQuartz.

cbreuel• 11 years 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• 11 years 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

bronson• 11 years 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• 11 years 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• 11 years 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.

jasonkostempski2• 11 years 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• 11 years 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• 11 years 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.

jasonkostempski2• 11 years ago

FSM's noodly appendage, it's right in the toolbar!

dhimes• 11 years 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• 11 years ago

Yes, and not just numbers, you can enter mathematical expressions too.

mkr-hn• 11 years 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.

Symbiote• 11 years ago

create shapes by typing in dimensions

Typing in the dimensions is the normal way of working with CAD software: http://www.cad-notes.com/autocad-precise-input-specifying-po...

As others have said, you can do something like this in Inkscape, but the interface isn't so smooth.

But for simple things in Inkscape you could enable a 0.5cm snap and stick to that.

dnautics• 11 years ago

you can also directly edit the SVG though a very nice dialog that gives convenient and organized access to the XML tree.

spot3• 11 years 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• 11 years 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?

spot3• 11 years 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.

shawnz• 11 years ago

Is the difference between GIMP and Photoshop really that much bigger than the difference between Inkscape and Illustrator?

SEJeff2• 11 years ago

I've used photoshop on a contracting (professionally) basis since I was 15 using version 4. I've used just about every version since, but kind of stopped since Adobe is moving to more of a service based model with the creative suite cloud crap.

I've also used gimp for approximately 8 years and it has made HUGE strides in the past few years. In fact, I've done a few professional, or semi-professional (ie: not paid) photo restoration jobs recently and I used gimp to do it. Not that surprisingly, people still absolutely loved the work I did restoring pictures of their loved ones or whatnot.

Photoshop still has nothing equivalent to the SIOX background removal tool as the guy who wrote his PHD thesis on it wrote a gimp plugin. If you've not seen it, it is kind of amazing: http://www.siox.org. See this video for an example using a much much older version of gimp: http://www.siox.org/videos/siox-in-gimp.mpg

spot3• 11 years ago

I'll try the gimp again but the problem isn't capability it's just how weird and different the UI is.

et1337• 11 years ago

For Photoshop, Krita is decent: https://krita.org/

grego• 11 years ago

Krita is great. https://krita.org

chongli• 11 years ago

I don't mind the GIMP's UI so much. What really bothers me are the lack of non-destructive layer effects and other niceties that make its workflow so much inferior to Photoshop's.

michaelbuddy3• 11 years ago

if you can stomach it, Blender can do some great things after effects can do. Photoshop there's no way to know the best replacement without knowing what you use photoshop for primarily. Becuae there are a lot of things can can do better than photoshop type features, but none work exactly the same. If you need the majority of what photoshop does, buy it.

follower• 11 years 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

TazeTSchnitzel2• 11 years ago

Hopefully the mods can update the OP to point to it?

stefanix3• 11 years 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-foksa4• 11 years 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.

stefanix3• 11 years 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).

nmeofthestate• 11 years 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• 11 years 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 :)

chops• 11 years 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• 11 years 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-...

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• 11 years ago

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

pdknsk• 11 years 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/

ris• 11 years ago

Great news!

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

jhallenworld• 11 years 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).

cies• 11 years 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.

michaelbuddy3• 11 years 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.

Inkscape 0.91 release

Related Stories