September 2009 - Inkscape Users

Inkscape 0.47 on the horizon (Call for help)
by Joshua A. Andler 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Hey All, I forgot to post to the user and translator lists because I was too excited. :) I think we closed out the last of the blocker bugs today! So, will people please help ensure that the release notes are up to date? I'm headed there in just a minute to document my latest changes. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.47 Regarding PR, I am going to continue with what was started here: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/AnnouncePlanning047 If you are an inkscape user who wants to contribute, even if you can't program, this is the perfect way to give back to the community. Please help us flesh this out and refine it. Packagers, please package up Pre3 if you have not already done so as a practice run... and honestly, I think it would be safe to plan a release for next week (between Monday the 5th and Friday the 9th), provided packages are available and no new issues arise. Any objections to this proposed plan? Any thoughts on if releasing on a specific day of the week will get more notice? Oh, and translators... please get any updates submitted asap. Thanks! Cheers, Josh

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Inkscape 0.47pre3
by Ted Gould 06 Oct '09

06 Oct '09

Hello Inkscapers, I'm happy to be announcing the next pre-release of Inkscape 0.47. It's a pretty cool job to do. We're hoping that this is the FINAL pre-release of Inkscape, so make sure it doesn't crash for you as the final version is likely to be VERY SIMILAR to this one. There's a great set of patches from a variety of contributors, make sure to check them out! I couldn't figure out how to get Sourceforge to make a new releases anymore, and they took away the ability to make directories from SFTP; so I put things up at Launchpad. If someone can figure out Sourceforge, we can put them there as well. http://launchpad.net/inkscape/main/0.47pre3 == MD5 Sums == eaf529011bb4bc8879ff669a4c7f000d inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.bz2 c42ded78f6b58d0f141dca97c5026a6f inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.bz2.asc 283deaf2ace016736eb5e64e38075c17 inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.gz f3f1f5c9e41a7e8e90b9c4542e1a9bf6 inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.gz.asc e5be30c7b2f2f541839d5caee5207346 inkscape-0.47pre3.zip c68cb7c856ba31f1eed098b8c6bcd8ad inkscape-0.47pre3.zip.asc == SHA1 Sums == 0512e235bcb3391adf44aa4bacbd75c25ac507ec inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.bz2 d7d98787742c6d166f07a518bced4400cb9ca28f inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.bz2.asc 6111f18301b50062c51292c8c9c2ec2896feb071 inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.gz db315c4c353e3315b4830014d3454b9950c8385d inkscape-0.47pre3.tar.gz.asc b2ec4000f2c758fbe47d9e90b4f3f89463081d47 inkscape-0.47pre3.zip 1fd56b7a29901a822c84f473ed5b8444e2160b58 inkscape-0.47pre3.zip.asc * A few more bits if you REALLY don't trust your ISP --Ted

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Re: [Inkscape-user] [Inkscape-devel] Inkscape 0.47 on the horizon (Call for help)
by Jon A. Cruz 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

On Sep 27, 2009, at 3:42 PM, Joshua A. Andler wrote: > So, will people please help ensure that the release notes are up to > date? I'm headed there in just a minute to document my latest changes. > http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.47 I also have started the page for the next release: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.48 I'm doing a pass through the 0.47 page and moving things that were not quite finished on over to the new 0.48 page. Also if people have new things that come up, the 0.48 page is the place for them. Once we hit the main announcement, I'll update the wiki main page to link also to the 0.48 release notes.

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Inkscape 0.47 Python help needed
by Gary Hawkins 27 Sep '09

27 Sep '09

Hi All, I am running inkscape 0.47 on my macbook pro running snow leopard (10.6.1) as 0.47 will not work on snow leopard. I was trying to convert a line to a dashed line as I have to have them dashed to use with my electronic die cutter as fold lines, with extensions>modify path>convert to dashes when I get this error: {Inkscape has received additional data from the script executed. The script did not return an error, but this may indicate the results will not be as expected. The fantastic lxml wrapper for libxml2 is required by inkex.py and therefore this extension. Please download and install the latest version from http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/lxml/, or install it through your package manager by a command like: sudo apt-get install python-lxml} I also tried to do a pattern along path with extensions>generate from path>pattern along path and I get this same error: I can download the file from the website given but I don't understand terminal or python enough to mess about with sudo commands (or any commands for that matter) without having a step-by-step guide to follow/tell me what it is doing ( I followed a tut online for the Tivo recorders one time and killed the machine - had to buy a new drive etc - not something I want to do to my mac!!) Thanks Gaz(UK)

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[OT] Looking for speakers to talk about inkscape in Long Island
by Justin Dearing 26 Sep '09

26 Sep '09

Hi, I'm trying to setup a talk about open source drawing tools for the long island linux user group (http://lilug.org). Lilug is a linux user group that meets in SUNY Farmingdale, in Longisland New York. I was wondering if anyone on this list would like to talk about inkscape, or any other OSS graphic tool that runs on linux. The audience would be linux enthusists, mostly programmers and sysadmins, Most of us don't have a lot of graphics skills. Any inkscape developers would be welcome to speak as well. If you are interested, contact me off list, Regards, Justin Dearing

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Re: [Inkscape-user] Blurry image
by Jmx 24 Sep '09

24 Sep '09

Could it be that you only save it at 72 DPI from Gimp? That would explain why it looks blurry. For print i think you'll need at least 200-300 DPI Cheers :drunk: -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Blurry-image-tp25546443p25560677.html Sent from the Inkscape - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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Fill calligraphy outlined shapes automatically
by G33K 24 Sep '09

24 Sep '09

Hi everyone, I'd like to use the calligraphy tool to draw outlines for a shape, and want to fill the initially transparent interior of that shape with a different color. The only solution I've found so far is to apply the "break apart" command, then select the inner shape and change its color manually. That's a lot of steps, which stops the flow of drawing. I've already found this extension which tries to solve the problem: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CalligraphedOutlineFill To lessen the number of manual steps, I'd like to automatically apply some similar logic after each calligraphy stroke, so that a calligraphy outline's inner shape can be filled immediately if it's drawn in one stroke. I think the following steps might suffice: * After a calligraphy brush stroke, apply "break apart" to the resulting object. * If the result is only one shape, then the calligraphy path isn't closed. * If there are several shapes, the one with the largest bounding box is the outline, all others are enclosed inner shapes and are filled in a different color. You could even maintain a history of successive calligraphy strokes, or search the object stack, until the "break apart" command produces more than one shape. My question is: is it somehow possible to execute an extension after each calligraphy stroke? Or is there a way to code this into Inkscape itself? If yes, is there a similar extension of drawing tool feature that I could use as a model? Or have I overlooked some functions that are already built into Inkscape? Best regards, Gerrit -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love email again

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text and snapping to guide lines
by tj 23 Sep '09

23 Sep '09

I have a question concerning the way text objects work with guide lines. It seems that when I position text objects to a guide line they "snap" to either the top of the text or the bottom of the text. The problem I have is when trying to line up headings in a form I am creating the snapping action doesn't take into account letters with descenders like Q, q. g, j, y, etc. but set the descenders againest the guide line and not the body of the letter. How do you turn off the snapping action? tj

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Info for promoting Inkscape
by Jon A. Cruz 23 Sep '09

23 Sep '09

Hi, In preparing for SVG Open, I'm trying to come up with a new single- page flyer that can be printed out and given away at conferences and such to help people get an idea what Inkscape is and what it can do to help them. One key part of this is to point out some general usages to which Inkscape can be put. If we can present in one spot how different uses are all served, we might be able to gain interest of people who otherwise would have overlooked the product. For example, some software engineer looking to do some quick UML sketches might only see some Inkscape artwork and think "Oh, I don't need to draw pictures, better go find something else." We then miss out on another potential user. And when we loose a potential user we also lose another potential *contributor*. To help hash this out I have started a wiki page for jotting things down: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Marketing_Scratchpad Please take a look and see if you might be able to add a bit. Edit some info, add a missing usage/segment, etc. The more information we can gather, the better we can refine and then use it. Oh, and for the flyer itself, we are initially targeting a simple design that can fit on a single page. It may be printed one-sided or perhaps double-sided. So the design will include a primary page and a supplemental page. The primary page will be done so that it is a stand- alone product. The supplemental page will be the optional second side for when the flyer is printed double-sided. We also want to design it so that it is effective when printed out in black and white and also when it is printed out in color.

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Lengthing line causes it to get thicker.
by tj 21 Sep '09

21 Sep '09

I am new to inkscape and I noticed something I do not understand. I draw a line with a certain length and thickness. But, if I change the length (y) of that line thru the toolbar, the thickness and the y position will change. Plus, if you then change the thickness, i.e. height, sometimes it will not take that entry, but substitute another and have to change it several times before the value you want is retained. Example, create line 2.5" long with thikness of .006". Modify it thru the toolbar to a length of 7" and the thickness increases to .014" and the y position changes by several thousands. Why is the thickness changing? Does this make sense? tj

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PDF Output format X/1a:2001
by John Culleton 20 Sep '09

20 Sep '09

Using Inkscape 47 the only pdf output format is PDF 1.4. If I want to create a cover pdf for the POD printer LSI I need to have PDF X/1a:2001 per LSI specs. Is there any prospect for adding this PDF format to Inkscape? -- John Culleton "Create Book Covers with Scribus" http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Re: [Inkscape-user] Problem with pdfx package.
by John Culleton 19 Sep '09

19 Sep '09

On Saturday 19 September 2009 02:49:41 you wrote: > On 19-Sep-09, at 2:26 AM, John Culleton wrote: > > I think you have identified the disease but the cure doesn't work, > > at least for me. So when you update the package perhaps you > > should test in one of the "minus" timezones like the USA. I'll be > > happy to be the guinea pig. > > Attached is a modified version of pdfx.sty. I shall be thankful for > your feedback. > > Best I could not find the icc profile FOGRAL39.icc so I edited pdfx.sty to use FOGRA39.icc which I found. With that change the compile ran to completion. However the output file was very large, 491328 bytes for a one word test file. In all likelihood the use of the icc profile caused this. There was one non-significant warning message: Package hyperref Warning: draft mode on. Here is my final test file ----------------------- \documentclass[]{article} \usepackage[x-1a]{pdfx} \begin{document} Foo \end{document} ------------------------------- If you need anything else please let me know. Thanks again for your work. -- John Culleton "Create Book Covers with Scribus" http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Script to slice inkscape (for web heads)
by m h 17 Sep '09

17 Sep '09

Hey all- I've written a script to slice from inkscape. Details/script can be found at my blog [0]. Comments/suggestions welcome. -matt 0 - http://panela.blog-city.com/slicing_web_pages_with_inkscape_and_python.htm

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Dimensions in inches rather then pixels.
by John Culleton 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

In Gimp and Scribus I can change the rulers on left side and top to show dimensions in inches. Is this possible in Inkscape? -- John Culleton "Create Book Covers with Scribus" http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Dimensions in inches - scaling
by unknown＠example.com 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

The recent comments on dimensions, reminds me of something I have been meaning to ask When working in inches the scale bars are divided into eight a fraction, could we have a decimal bar CorelDraw uses a system whereby the user can set the number of divisions and this satisfies both the fraction and decimal issue - I would suggest setting of 4, 8, 10 & 20 With thanks, Terry

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Where is the perfect bound template on 47?
by John Culleton 16 Sep '09

16 Sep '09

I have the Floss book "Inkscape for Making Vector Graphics." On page 171, Chapter 41 it says: "The only available extension to create a template right now is Perfect-Bound cover..." This extension is found on Inkscape 46 under "Effects" but I can't find that extension on Inkscape-devel (47.) Is there a way to copy it from one to the other? Or am I looking in the wrong place? -- John Culleton "Create Book Covers with Scribus" http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Can't get libpng, essential to Inkscape compile.
by John Culleton 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

I installed ubuntu (actually xubuntu but that has no bearing) just to get the latest development version of Inkscape. I downloaded the source tarball, unpacked it and then went through the usual apt-get this apt-get that to get the package to configure. The show stopper after all this was libpng, a pretty common lib. Therefore I did apt-get install libpng but ubuntu didn't recognize it. Then I copied over all the libpng files I could find on another partition to identical locations, and ran ldconfig. Now here is the current showstopper on ./configure: png_read_info is missing. At this point I'll do anything required, including wiping out Xubuntu and installing something else. Anybody here know how to play this game? I sure don't. -- John Culleton

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filter parameters?
by Mike McNally 15 Sep '09

15 Sep '09

(using 0.47 nightly from a couple days ago, Ubuntu Linux) How does one affect parameters for one of the pre-defined filters in the "Filter" pull-down menu? The Inkscape "Help" chapter about Filters bears little resemblance to the actual application; at least, it's certainly hard for me to tell what it's talking about when I look at what the application actually shows me. When I try to use any of the filters, I get a brief, blank pop-up dialog that shortly disappears, and then the filter takes effect with some canned parameters. I have to assume that the filters are actually configurable, but for the life of me I can't see how one does the configuration. -- Turtle, turtle, on the ground, Pink and shiny, turn around.

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Inkscape nightlies PPA
by Ted Gould 14 Sep '09

14 Sep '09

Hello, I set up this repository a while ago, but it broke, and now I think I have it all running again. I'm still running the builds manually so they're not quite "nightlies" but it's been running reliably, so I'm almost ready to move it to an automated script. This is a PPA that contains frequent builds of Inkscape directly from the trunk branch. It creates a separate package called "inkscape-devel" that you can install while you have stable version of Inkscape installed as well. Hardy is still a bit broken, so this is for people on Ubuntu releases 8.10 or newer. https://launchpad.net/~inkscape-nightly/+archive/ppa/ Currently, this will have pre2 plus other patches and translations that have been put in trunk since it's release. --Ted

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Re: [Inkscape-user] Eraser tool
by Jozef Legény 13 Sep '09

13 Sep '09

On Friday 11 September 2009 22:58:58 Antonio Roberts wrote: > I just loaded up Inkscape 0.47pre2 on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 and the first > time that I used the eraser tool on a rectangle there was small red > path. The second time it wasn't there. > After some tests I have found some interesting behaviour patterns with the eraser tool. As for the trailing red line, it seems that just clicking (not dragging) anywhere on the canvas (with the eraser tool selected) sets it off, until either another tool is selected or Esc is pressed or a dragging with eraser begins. One more thing is that the eraser is actually able to erase along a non-continuous path. To do this drag an eraser stroke, then (while still holding the left mouse button) press the right mouse button (which will open the menu) then click somewhere on the canvas. The thick eraser stroke will stay on screen and a thin red line will appear behind the cursor. Now if you start dragging again you can add another eraser stroke. The process is repeatable. I wonder if this is the intended behaviour of the eraser tool or not. In any case it might get handy. (also note that this is pretty much the same way the caligraphic tool behaves) Jozef

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Eraser tool
by Stuart Edwards 11 Sep '09

11 Sep '09

Hi -- Just checking out some of the new features in 0.47 and tried the new eraser tool with mixed success. Release notes say that there are two modes of operation: vector and 'bitmap', but no instructions on how to trigger one or the other. Tool seems to create a path which if placed on an object will sometimes erase it completely. No luck on getting it to partially erase an object (line, rectangle etc). 'Select' 'Delete' seems to deal with whole vector objects more efficiently, although the partial erase could be handy. Stu MacPro OSX 10.6 XQuartz 2.3.4 0.47pre2

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for MacOS
by Stuart Edwards 09 Sep '09

09 Sep '09

Hi While checking out 0.47pre2 I jotted down keyboard shortcuts I found that might be helpful for Mac users who don't get the full keyboard functionality of the Inkscape GUI. Stu

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Selected objects sometimes don't respond to arrow keys
by Mike McNally 09 Sep '09

09 Sep '09

I'm using an 0.47 nightly from 06 Sep on Ubuntu Jaunty Linux. I've been using Inkscape (0.46) for about 8 months now for a variety of random web graphics. I'm not an art professional by any means. Anyway: in the nightly, while it's fixed some chronic crashes from 0.46, has itself a couple of quirks. One that is particularly annoying is this: I select some objects/paths, and then do something - maybe set clipping, or group, or change color; it's not completely consistent or at least it seems that way. After an operation like that, my stuff apparently remains selected (according to the UI), but subsequent attempts to use the arrow keys to move the elements around have no effect. I have to de-select and reselect the elements and then of course the arrow keys move them around just fine. I'm wondering if this may have something to do with layers, or something else about the application with which I'm not very familiar. One reliable way to make the effect happen is this: draw a rectangle, type "s" to switch to the "select" tool, and then go to the "fill & stroke* box and set "blur" to something bigger than zero. After that, the rectangle will be blurry and apparently selected, but the arrow keys won't do anything (for me anyway). -- Turtle, turtle, on the ground, Pink and shiny, turn around.

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Re: [Inkscape-user] [Inkscape-devel] Inkscape 0.47pre2
by Michael Wybrow 08 Sep '09

08 Sep '09

On 31/08/2009, at 6:11 PM, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote: > > Is anyone doing a Mac/native GTK+ build for pre2? > > Sorry for pushing, but it's a week since pre2 was released and all we > have is sources :( I'm working on a universal package that will run on Leopard and Snow Leopard. I don't think it is worth creating another gtk-native-mac build, unless anyone wants to start actively working on the things I mentioned about the one I made for pre0 -- the gtk-native-mac version is going to require a fair amount of attention before it can become the main supported one over the x11-based version. Work on the universal x11-based package for Mac is a little slow... partly because I am quite busy with work, and partly because of the added complication of testing an additional version of the operating system (Snow Leopard 10.6). Anyway, Mac builds are coming and haven't been forgotten. If anyone else with mac packaging experience wants to contribute to the effort, it would be useful to look at some of the outstanding issues I haven't got to yet, like the dictionary bundling or the DBUS bundling/startup (might be similar to what GIMP has). If so, let me know. Cheers, Michael

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Easiest Linux Distro for inkscape 46
by John Culleton 07 Sep '09

07 Sep '09

Since my Slackware system appears inhospitable for Inkscape despite my best efforts I want to put up another distro on its own partition just for Inkscape. My immediate target is Inkscape 46 since anything newer will probably not be easily installed. All other factors considered equal I prefer an rpm based distro. What does the list recommend? -- John Culleton "Create Book Covers with Scribus" http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Compiling 46
by John Culleton 03 Sep '09

03 Sep '09

When I try to compile Inkscape 46 I run into the usual lib problems. I downloaded the latest versions per the urls on the Inkscape install page but that doesn't work. I downloaded earlier versions and ran ldconfig but that didn't help. For the following products which exact versions do I need? I was successful in loading libsigc++-2.2.3. The rest don't work: gdkmm-2.4 glibmm-2.4 gtkmm-2.4 I use Slackware 13 which was just released. I installed the Boehm thingamabob (Bone Collector?). -- John Culleton

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Inkscape 0.47pre2
by Ted Gould 02 Sep '09

02 Sep '09

Hello! After too much delay, some for good and some for stupid reasons I've finally uploaded a pre2 source package for Inkscape. This is VERY close to the final 0.47 release so it's important that people pay attention and we don't let things fall through the cracks. https://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape/files/inkscape/0.47pre2 There should be packages available shortly, packagers please reply to this message with information regarding those. Please discuss any release critical bugs or other information regarding the release on the inkscape-devel mailing list. === MD5 Sums === de351d81cca9f99b3a1fb4faa36c723d inkscape-0.47pre2.tar.bz2 77c6ea1245618af69381067c90e57afc inkscape-0.47pre2.tar.bz2.asc ccced173f66611591006d16ea6a200b4 inkscape-0.47pre2.tar.gz 3df60bde0ca2ef28db283c285d5511b1 inkscape-0.47pre2.tar.gz.asc cb94fa821bff40970260f9530cc0bd84 inkscape-0.47pre2.zip 710c523dfdcf10ad39753788baefba90 inkscape-0.47pre2.zip.asc --Ted

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