September 2010 - Inkscape Devel

Re: [Inkscape-devel] Inkscape and the future of printing !
by Guillermo Espertino 20 Sep '10

20 Sep '10

Adjusting the colors to the destination gamut seems more acceptable than just de-activating filters since most of the popular CMYK profiles fall pretty much inside the sRGB gamut. The out-of-sRGB-gamut colors can be adjusted using the relative colorimetric intent (probably it would be a good idea to nag the user with a warning when this happens) but in my oppinion as user that's completely acceptable. I agree that allowing untagged CMYK would be a bad idea. Thanks to poor design decisions in popular software packages, users tend to think that the important thing is to have CMYK and color profiles remain like something rather obscure that it shouldn't be touched (i know because I was one of those clueless designers ranting for CMYK knowing nothing about color management :-p) Thanks to being unable to work with early binding with Inkscape and GIMP I got used to late binding and once I saw the benefits I realized that it's better. I finally understood that when designers (like me) ask for CMYK they're actually asking for a way to use black as a spot pass. Pantone colors can be used with both early and late binding. Most of the designers I know use the formula books -which have Lab color values- in an early binding workflow, thinking that they will get the "right" CMYK values and they don't realize that the colors are being mapped to the generic CMYK profile they're using. So, truth to be said, maybe it's better to adopt a late binding worflow with the ability to "force" CMYK values (for blacks/grays or for specific CMYK combinations) rather than worrying too much about how to deal with CMYK and filters and all. >From my user p.o.v. everything seems pretty much ready for a print workflow. We just need to make it more obvious in the UI, and it looks like something that can be achieved improving the fill+stroke dialog and the auto-palette a little. Just my 2 cents.

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Input Device UI
by Martin Owens 20 Sep '10

20 Sep '10

Hey all, I've just installed inkscape 0.48 from the nightly build (there is still no stable ppa) since 0.47 started crashing every time I pressed the stroke/fill dialog. Now my presure sensitivity has gone and I was looking at the new dialog for input devices... I can't make heads nor tales of it. What is it supposed to be letting me do? What's the difference between the configuration (which has a single checkbox and that's it) and the hardware tab? What is linking for? If the use pressure sensitivity checkbox is checked, then why doesn't it work? Is there anything else? If the testing area is for trying out all the inputs, why is it so confusing? All those little boxes? Where would pressure be shown? Why is the box so small, even when there is nothing else in that side pannel? It's hard to see everything. I did recognise that the old input ui needed fixing, but I'm very unsure about this ui. I know what I'm doing and I can't figure it out. Martin,

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0.48.1
by Joshua A. Andler 19 Sep '10

19 Sep '10

Hey All, Just moving an off-list discussion to the devel list. It seems like setting a goal date for 0.48.1 is a good idea to move forward with it. So, what are people's thoughts on this and the state of things in that branch? Cheers, Josh On Thu, 2010-09-16 at 00:28 +0200, ~suv wrote: > On 15/9/10 23:07, Nicolas Dufour wrote: > > >> De : Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre.prokoudine@...400...> > >> Nicolas, su-v, is there a considerable amount of bugs fixed already or > >> at least some important ones? > > > > Two crashers, and some minor issues fixes > > (https://edge.launchpad.net/inkscape/+milestone/0.48.1). > > And maybe some backports pending. > > > a) 2 patches with pending code review: > > - Unicode/encoding related crash > I'd like to see the patch attached in > Bug #369861 “Unable to open previously imported pdf file”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/369861> > get reviewed and backported for 0.48.1 if it is ok'ed. > > Actually the patch seems to address the issue reported as > Bug #605872 “pdf to svg fails with characters from Unicode Plane 1 (SMP)”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/605872> > which fails when using certain characters from the XITS math font. > It also fixes (at least on osx) > Bug #625927 “Inkscape crash when importing PDF file”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/625927> > > The patch in bug #369861 was provided by the font developer who made the > XITS fonts (OpenType MATH enhanced STIX fonts), see > <http://www.khaledhosny.org/node/143> > <http://typophile.com/node/71171> > > I still haven't had the chance to test other encoding/Unicode related > crashes which might possibly be fixed by this patch too (in my > understanding there are several similar ones to bug #369861). > > - Import dialog enhancement > Another one with a patch pending review, nice to have in 0.48.1: > Bug #203070 “Import Dialog doesn't handle multiple files”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/203070> > > - ... > > b) Regressions/crashes (no fix yet) I'd like to nominate for 0.48.1: > > - crash loading system monitor profile > Bug #623640 “inkscape 0.48 crashes on startup in > colorprofile_get_system_profile_handle()”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/623640> > Same issue reported on windows: > Bug #608229 “Inkscape crashes on startup”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/608229> > > - ... > > c) and of course I'd prefer to wait with 0.48.1 until > > Bug #482993 “Inkscape extensions do not work on MacOS X 10.6 (Snow > Leopard)”: > <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/482993> > is either fixed or we know one or two viable, confirmed workarounds that > can be recommended to users on Snow Leopard until the issue is solved > and Inkscape is bundled with updated python modules for all architectures. > > d) ... ? > > > ~suv

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Inkscape and the future of printing !
by Ivan Louette 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

Will Inkscape be compatible with this kind of printer ? http://www.zigonet.com/imprimante/une-machine-imprime-des-lettres-qui-flott… ivan

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Tiff output?
by John Culleton 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

Version 0.48.0 won't export tiff file format. This format will accept both vector and bitmap objects. Is tiff output in the plans somewhere? -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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feComponentTransfer resource management
by Nicolas Dufour 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

Hi, I'm currently trying to implement customizable filters (try Filters>Experimental) with Ivan Louette, and found (thanks to ~suv) a small bug in the code of the feComponentTransfer primitive (see https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/638943). To summarize, when the effect preview is updated (sometimes after many changes) the following error shows in the console: gboolean sp_document_add_resource(SPDocument*, const gchar*, SPObject*): assertion `!g_slist_find(rlist, object)' failed sp_document_add_resource is called from componenttransfer.cpp, line 103, preceded by the comment: //do we need this? When this call is commented out, the error message doesn't show, but I'm not sure it's safe to remove it. It is also used in some other filters (pointlight.cpp, distantlight.cpp, spotlight.cpp and componenttransfer-funcnode.cpp) always with the same kind of comment (or // is this necessary?), but in these cases, the resources are released differently (compare sp_fedistantlight_release with sp_feComponentTransfer_release). Could someone give a clue? or a fix ;) Regards, -- Nicolas

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Two essentials for publishing users.
by John Culleton 16 Sep '10

16 Sep '10

Inkscape needs two more features for publishing. First, the CMYK color model needs to be a real option. ImageMagick will convert an svg file to CMYK but that means going from vector to bitmap. Second, there should be an option for PDF output in PDF X/1-a format to satisfy the largest POD printer, Lightning Source Inc. (LSI). Currently my only path is to import all or part of a cover image into Scribus 1.5.0 (development version) and save it from there. Two requests from the trenches. -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Updates from the Image Links branch
by Steren 13 Sep '10

13 Sep '10

Hi, The project of the students from Ecole Centrale Lyon has ended in June. Their report (written in english) is available on my page of the Inkscape Wiki <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/User:Steren>. The code is in a dedicated Inkscape branch<https://code.launchpad.net/~centralelyon2010/inkscape/imagelinks2> on Launchpad. You will find: - a use of relative links by default - a smart relinking tool for broken images - a first step in the image properties redesign. The first part of this page<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Image_properties_dialog_enhancements> details what has been done and is dedicated to bug tracking for this branch. (Can we use launchpad bug tracking for a branch? If so, we should do it). You are welcomed to test it and report errors, keep in mind that it is non-finished work. Once again, I think it was a great experience for the students to work on a project such as Inkscape. I hope they will see their effort being integrated into trunk one day, the same we were pleased to see the spray tool or the enhanced LPEs. Students involved are : - François Petit <Francois.Petit@...2281...> - Baptiste Soyer <Baptiste.Soyer@...2281...> - Mor Ngom <Mor.Ngom@...2281...> - Rafik Boughida <Rafik.Boughida@...2281...> - Vincent Pais <Vincent.Pais@...2281...> - Yoann Desgrande <Yoann.Desgrange@...2281...> And I was their mentor. Unfortunately, I won't be able to be involved into this project in the future. Some of the students and Nicolas Dufour <nicoduf@...48...> (JazzyNico) volunteered to continue the work. (thanks!) I would advise to continue the work on the branch, and to merge when things start being usable. The code surely needs a review from an experienced dev. And some questions around usage of URL or IRI shoud be discussed (see the previous wiki page): Originally, file:// was before the path, after the students' work, path is written directly and no ASCII conversion is done. The W3C allow the use of IRI, but this change may interfere with Inkscape. I guess it shouldn't be too hard to transform the IRI into a URI. What do you think ? Any feedback is welcomed. Feel free to test the branch. I hope these efforts will help Inkscape. Thanks for your support. Cheers Steren

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Expand svg standard to include CMYK color model.
by John Culleton 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

If the proposed new standard were to include the CMYK color model as an alternate to RGB , and Inkscape were modified to include it, then the potential for using Inkscape in publishing work would be expanded. ImageMagick will convert from one color model to another but it appears that ImageMagick also converts to a bitmap format as a byproduct. -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Could someone help Nina Paley the author of Sita sings the blues to convert fla files to Inkscape ?
by Ivan Louette 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

I have always thought that open source graphics software need well known and appreciated artists to use it end talk about it. Thus I sent a message to Nina Paley because I was so fascinated by "Sita" and I am interested to draw the attention of artists to Inkscape and svg filters. And one hour and an half later she replied the following message ! I think there is a very important opportunity to spread information about Inkscape there and that's why I send the message to you all. Thanks a lot in advance for any advice, ivan ----- Message transféré ---- De : Nina Paley <nina_paley@...36...> À : Ivan Louette <ivan_louette@...48...> Envoyé le : Jeu 9 septembre 2010, 22h 03min 13s Objet : Re: Free Open Source software : The Inkscape SVG Filter Effects Hi Ivan, I desperately need a migration tool to allow Flash frames - with all their alpha channels, tints, and strokes - to be usable with Inkscape. Can your community help? http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/save_sita_sings_blues_flash_for… All the .fla source files are here: http://www.archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues_Files I also name-checked (via a graphic) Inkscape in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n04IeQo4RCQ&feature=autofb Thanks, --Nina http://www.ninapaley.com/ ________________________________ From: Ivan Louette <ivan_louette@...48...> To: Nina Paley <nina_paley@...36...> Sent: Thu, September 9, 2010 1:32:10 PM Subject: Free Open Source software : The Inkscape SVG Filter Effects Hello ! I saw your amazing movie "Sita sings the blues" some weeks ago. A lot of fun amongst deep human sensitiveness. I am a member of Inkscape developers community and my goal is developing a set of useful, funny and sometimes somewhat innovative filters effects for this open source vector drawing program which manages nicely bitmap images too. I would draw your attention to them because I think you could have pleasure to use them and taking account of your imagination the results could be marvelous. That's just an idea. If you are interested you can find more infos here : http://www.inkscape.org/ And you can find the latest release of my filters here : http://www.openclipart.org/detail/84109 Have fun and If you want to know more, don't hesitate to contact me. ivan

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