Hi all,
I've been using Inkscape latest SVN extensively for a while to produce a scientific poster. My first words are: thank you so much! I've hesitated and tested inkscape, scribus, omnigraffle, adobe illustrator and even keynote (power point like program from apple) before choosing inkscape. I hoped to make the SCALE people benefit from my experience but it seems that there will be no actual poster there... too bad ;-)
I don't know if it's good enough for the showcase section of the web site but here are some screenshots and small accompanying texts: -------------------------- A scientific poster has to be precisely organized, full of information yet visually attracting and should be printable at different scales (poster + handouts). Though Inkscape was not directly intended for such use, all these goals were achieved with it! http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/ poster_publish_ghostscript.pdf [WARNING: big file. 7.5 Mb]
The layers and outline mode allowed to work on this complicated file while keeping things responsive enough. When it got to the point that the whole file was just too big (over 5000 objects) it was cut down in pieces and all files were merged in the final document by import or copy/paste. http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/poster_inkscape_outline.png
The gradients and scripts from the new "Effects" menu helped to create an attractive look (well, attractive to me at least!). The bitmap tracing feature and open clipart library provided scale independent eye candy for some icons and other stuff. http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/poster_inkscape_eye_candy.png
The text was flowed into custom shaped frames so that it had a "clever" position with respect to the graphics. It was edited though the Text Tool palette which was easier on the eye and helped to focus on content rather than on layout for a while. http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/poster_inkscape_text.png
All the vector graphics were produced in SVG and were therefore completely editable within the poster which allowed to have a unified look (for the fonts, line width, colors etc.). The "Apply style" command (SHIFT+CTRL+V), the styles minibar and the swatches panel, helped to unify the styles quickly. http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/poster_inkscape_style1.png http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/poster_inkscape_style2.png
In the end the SVG file was exported to EPS and converted to PDF in order to be printed. The text was outlined to avoid font problems when printing on some other computer for 2mx1m output. The PDF was scaled down to A4 sheets in order to produce handouts. --------------------------
The above text gives you some the "Pros" of using inkscape for this work. Thank you again for all these functionalities which made my life easier (especially the latest additions which made it worth using SVN) and developed rather than restraint my creativity (well I'm a scientist but let say I can be creative anyway ;-) ). Unfortunately there are still some "Cons" :-). I listed them in decreasing order of importance:
1. An important problem was speed. As I mentioned, hiding layers and using the great outline mode helped but responsiveness was still not always optimal. I worked (remotely though, by X -query) on a big dual Xeon with lot of RAM. Try to move something with the mouse on the final file: http://jo.irisson.free.fr/dropbox/inkscape/poster_publish.svg [WARNING 12.1 Mb] On this file I experience a delay of 1 to 3 seconds when moving complex objects, especially when many snapping options are enabled.
2. I encountered regular crashes (20 to 30 in the total editing time which is around 30 hours I think). Their impact was diminished by the auto saving feature though (thanks, I think I would have gone crazy without it). Many occurred at the end of a long editing process, with many documents open, but were not reproducible when I reopened the autosaved document and retry the same modification. I guess they are related to some memory failure somewhere. They often happen when adding layers of ungrouping complex sets of objects but I cannot be more precise sorry... Some others I managed to reproduce are in the bug tracker: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429043&group_id=93438&atid=604306 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429049&group_id=93438&atid=604306 And a RFE: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429035&group_id=93438&atid=604309
3. PDF export would have been great for transparency. Well this is known but I mention it here to be exhaustive.
3. I missed some text editing features, especially for large flowed texts. I realize Inkscape is not intended for such use but justified text (through the GUI), hyphenation, columns and bulleted lists would have been useful. Furthermore, changing fonts would have been easier if the font list was searchable. In addition, the edition of text in the Text Palette was great but clicking the "Apply" button applies the modifications to the text AND applies the style selected in the other tab of the Palette to the whole text... which erases all modifications of the style of some words (like title in bold, some words in italics...). It would be great if this kind of "story editor" respected the styles already applied on the text and used them (like: writes in bold when editing after a word in bold etc.). Related RFEs: justify: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1395787&group_id=93438&atid=604309 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1223576&group_id=93438&atid=604309 hyphenation: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429051&group_id=93438&atid=604309 bulleted list/collumns: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429056&group_id=93438&atid=604309 Text and Font Palette: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429151&group_id=93438&atid=604309 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1214021&group_id=93438&atid=604309
4. The swatches and styles minibar were great...but could be even better. I would have liked to see drag and drop from the swatches panel/palette to the styles rectangles in the minibar which would make the minibar a good quick replacement for the Fill and Stroke Palettte. I would have liked the swatches panel/palette to remember which set I used on a per document basis. I also could have used a "custom styles" section in the swatches panel where I could have imported styles (fill+stroke) from my document. Eventually I would vote for the square color previews in the minibar because I guess I am less agile than bulia with my pen and don't always aim right! I think it would be easier with squares. Related RFEs: drag and drop http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429027&group_id=93438&atid=604309 swatches pannel state http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1429025&group_id=93438&atid=604309 custom styles http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=856716&group_id=93438&atid=604309 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php? func=detail&aid=1066385&group_id=93438&atid=604309
5. The lack of transparency prevented me to use the "Blur Edges" extension do produce dropshadow effects. Though this extension is great some real gradients/dropshadow effects would have been even better. I guess this is also known but I cannot find it under this name as an RFE.
Thanks for reading all this. I realize that some of these request are probably not directly in the scope of Inkscape and I tried to set their priority according to this. Thanks again for this great software.
JiHO --- Windows, c'est un peu comme le beaujolais nouveau : a chaque nouvelle cuvee on sait que ce sera degueulasse, mais on en prend quand meme par masochisme. --- http://jo.irisson.free.fr/