September 2007 - Inkscape Users

Google Summer of Code
by Victor Domingos 20 Sep '07

20 Sep '07

Hi! I have just read the news about the results of the latest Google Summer of Code, in terms of the news features that will be integrated into Inkscape, and I would like to know if there is any idea about when will a new version be available to use? I have checked out the latest development snapshots, but turns out that Mac PPC version is not quite up to date. There are only recent builds for Intel... :( I am very excited about this news... What about you? Victor Domingos (inkscaping from Portugal)

3 3

Problems with text tool
by Claus Cyrny 20 Sep '07

20 Sep '07

Hi, since I installed the autopackage of Inkscape 0.45.1, I'm having problems with the text tool (I'm using Ubuntu "Breezy"). As soon as I invoke the text dialogue, Inskacpe closes with an error message saying that it experienced an internal error. I am able to change the font using the XML editor, but I would be glad to have access to the text dialogue box as well. My question: Does anybody know a solution for this, or do I have to wait until the next autopackage comes out? TIA, Claus -- Home Page - http://home.arcor.de/ccyrny/ [in English] graf-o-matic 2.0 - http://grafomatic01.twoday.net/ [in German] ********** Powered by Ubuntu Linux - http://www.ubuntu.com/ ***********

1 0

Opening .AI files in Inkscape development version
by D. Jones 20 Sep '07

20 Sep '07

I see this error message when I try to open .AI files Extension "AI 8.0 Output" failed to load because a dependency was not met. Dependency: type: executable location: path string: gs what does this mean? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545469

3 2

Re: [Inkscape-user] Calligraphy Tool
by Tony Vigil 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

D'oh! It just dawned on me that I didn't have the dev version currently installed. I re-installed and it's all good. - Tony ----- Original Message ---- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:06:06 -0300 From: "bulia byak" <buliabyak@...155...> On 9/18/07, Tony Vigil <tjvigil66@...12...> wrote: > > Hi! > > When was path sculpting removed from the calligraphy tool? When it was moved to a separate tool of its own, Tweak tool. -- bulia byak

1 0

Re: [Inkscape-user] Technical Drawing / Snapping
by A.J. Carter 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

Aaron, Diederik, Terry and David, Thanks so much for your replies to my question about the technical drawing / snapping, and also for considering it seriously; I really appreciate it. I'd like to say that I really like the inkscape UI and I'm certainly not suggesting any substantial change in the way this works. What would be useful is if whenever inkscape asks the user to input a point (whether the translation origin of an existing object, start point of a new polyline, or centre of rotation etc.) some module could provide "constraints" which guide the placing of these points. Two current possibilities are the page grid / guidelines and the nodes which define the object itself. A third are "geometric" constraints which are defined by the objects themselves, things like "nearest", "endpoint", "centre", "perpendicular", "intersection". These make it very easy to ensure objects are actually touching, and also that technical sketches look right / symmetrical when they should. I think Terry's feature request sums it up (thanks for submitting this), but there are a couple of points which I might add if possible (I don't think I can add comments to it, so perhaps I have to submit a new one?) : - it can be useful to have multiple snaps turned on at once, e.g. endpoint and gridpoint, so if a line ends very close to a gridpoint it can be hard to tell which snap is in effect; this is where the change in cursor shape helps to distinguish one from the other (and a key like 'ALT' cycles between different possibilities valid at that 'pixel' on the screen). This would also be useful if a current inkscape "node" snap lies close to a "gridpoint" snap. - when selecting you don't always touch near the point you want to select; you touch the object which defines the constraint. That sounds a little confusing at first, but let me explain with an example ... ! Translations / rotations - lets say you have a series of concentric circles which form a wheel and you want to move this so the centre touches the end of an axle you have drawn elsewhere on the screen. Firstly you would select all objects to move and then the inkscape transform / translate tool. Then enable "centre" snap (press 'c') and hover above the outline of one circle (since the centre is an intrinsic property of that circle - inkscape would check which snaps are enabled and which shapes are within x pixels of the cursor and then display an appropriate snap for that position). In this case a snap symbol appears in the centre of the circle _even though the cursor is not close to here_ you click and pick the object up from it's centre. Inkscape presumably knows internally about the centre of circles, regular polygons, rectangles etc.. You then drag the object close to the axle and enable "endpoint" (press 'e') snap at which point the cursor jumps to the end of the axle and you click to place it there. This guarantees everything is perfectly aligned and touching regardless of zoom ! Obviously if you tried clicking _in_ the centre of the circle for a "centre" snap instead inkscape couldn't possibly know which object this centre related to. New objects - as previously said it's very useful to be able to guantee a new line touches tangentially to a circle, so you start drawing the line and when prompted for the second point hover over _anywhere over the circle outline_ and the snap jumps to the nearest point which is tangential. "Nearest" (point on object to cursor) snaps are probably harder because the points aren't discrete in quite the same way, but still allow you to gaurantee there are no gaps, even if drawing by eye, and then moving the final control point. As Terry said I think a key thing is that these are properties of the type of shape, and not always of the nodes of the shape itself. I've attached a screenshot of autosketch, just to show what I am used to (the square indicates the snap is locked to an endpoint even though it also matches a gridpoint snap). I certainly don't need CAD and miss many of the great inkscape features but drifted toward this kind of program because it was so easy to get everything lined up and touching. I've spoken to a few fellow postgrads, and we all think these are very useful features for technical illustration where we are used to CAD like snapping tools but miss the gradient fills / paint bucket etc. to make work look nice. One thing which may be of interest from the screenshot (although probably a little too cad like !) is the ability to define shapes in different ways. As in inkscape shapes are defined by a series of points (nodes on a curve, opposite corners in a rectangle), but if you hover over the appropriate tool (top left) it allows you to set different sets of these defining points. In the screenshot I'm over the circle tool and you can see that it may be defined by a centre and point on the circle, three points on the circle, two tangent lines etc. This again is very flexible. I hope this has made sense, and I hope I haven't muddied the water - I don't want to overcomplicate at all but it turns out this is a little more subtle once you think about it. I would love to hear any thoughts please ! This is certainly something which could be considered piecemeal - endpoint / midpoints / centres are doubtless easier than any others. Should I file a feature request saying all of this, or is it too indigestible? Alex I'm very new to mailing lists, so I'm not sure whether it's normal to reply to individual messages; my apologies for doing so if not !

1 0

closing and quitting
by Adam Pearson 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

'Scuse if this is a stoopid question, but if I want to close a file and work on another, I can use Ctrl+W to close but that actually closes the program, not just the file, it is the same effect as Ctrl+Q. So with a lot of files to process there is a lot of opening and closing the program, which is a pain. Is this just me? Am I missing something? Thanks in anticipation. Adam

1 0

Re: [Inkscape-user] Help with Color Effects - Grayscale etc
by mad matt 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

Thanks for the response Ted. The version I'm using was downloaded from the sourceforge site - its version 0.45. I really know absolutely nothing about programming or code, :) I'm an artist, on the user side of the program. I think its a great tool - I use adobe illustrator on a daily basis, so there is probably a lot of stuff I'm looking for that just isn't in there yet. I haven't tried downloading any of the other versions yet, as I didn't know how I should be installing them - like I said clueless on that part of it. But thanks again - I think all who are working on this have done an awesome job. Having a bitmap trace function is the cats meow. On Sun, 2007-09-16 at 18:14 -0500, mad matt wrote: > OK, so now I see that the color filters work for the vector images > -Ted, I did not see a raster menu, and I don't see anythingin the > manual about it. Are there any color conversion effects for raster > images within inkscape? Or do I need to turn my tiff image into a > grayscale image before I bring it into inkscape? This may depend on how your preview version of Inkscape was compile, and when it was built. It is a relatively recent addition, and requires ImageMagick to be installed on the machine building the package. Though, I don't see a filter for turning something to greyscale... it should be relatively easy to add. I'll ask Chris. --Ted

1 0

Calligraphy Tool
by Tony Vigil 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

Hi! When was path sculpting removed from the calligraphy tool? - Tony

2 1

Compile problems in Linux
by Docsonic 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

I tried to install the latest autopackage of Inkscape but it seems my glibc is too old (Requires GLIBC_2.4 - I have GLIBC_2.3.6 ... is it possible to release a GLIBC_2.3.6 autopackage?) and the package suggested I install from sources. When I try to compile the source, i get an error - ui/dialog/ocaldialogs.h:247: error: expected class-name before '{' token ui/dialog/ocaldialogs.h: In constructor 'Inkscape::UI::Dialog::FileListViewText::FileListViewText(guint, Inkscape::UI::Dialog::SVGPreview&, Gtk::Label&, Gtk::Button&)': ui/dialog/ocaldialogs.h:250: error: class 'Inkscape::UI::Dialog::FileListViewText' does not have any field named 'ListViewText' I use Debian Etch (stable) so it seems compiling myself is my best option but I have tried with about 5 different source packages and the result is always the same (the package which created this error was 16060 but it is still there in 16089). I have seen this same error in another forum but I can't find it and I didn't see a resolution so I apologise if it is already resolved. Thanks, Tony -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Compile-problems-in-Linux-tf4474669.html#a12758056 Sent from the Inkscape - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

2 2

eps2svg?
by Alberto Simões 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Hi Is there any good tool to translate EPS images to SVG? Cheers -- Alberto Simões

4 9