March 2010 - Inkscape Users - Inkscape Mailman

Announcement: Scribus 1.3.6 released
by Christoph Schäfer 02 Apr '10

02 Apr '10

The Scribus Team is pleased to announce the release of Scribus 1.3.6. This version is another major step on the way to the next stable release 1.4. Compared to the work on Scribus 1.3.5, the development of Scribus 1.3.6 was focussed on stabilising the code base, and especially on weeding out issues that were mostly due to the porting of the code from Qt3 to Qt4. Almost 150 bugs have been fixed since the release of 1.3.5. In addition, Scribus 1.3.6 provides some minor enhancements: - New Scripter functions - Usability improvements - Translation updates - More colour palettes - Updates to the documentation - Build instructions for OpenSolaris The Scribus Team considers this version to be quite stable and ready for many real-world use cases. However, since there are still some annoyances that prevent us from releasing version 1.4, more cautious users may want to prefer to stick with the officially stable version 1.3.3.14. The Scribus Team will continue to implement new features and improvements in a new experimental branch. Once tested and confirmed as working flawlessly, they will be backported and become part of the 1.4 milestone. ==Important Information== Please note that we have branched our code repository: - 1.3.7svn code (the next iteration of the development version and probably the last before the release of 1.4) is available from the "Version135" branch: (svn://scribus.info/Scribus/branches/Version135/) - trunk (=experimental) is now versioned 1.5.0svn (svn://scribus.info/Scribus/trunk) and continues to undergo heavy changes. Please use this branch for testing only! The Scribus Team recommends that all distributions package Scribus 1.3.3.14 as "Scribus" or "scribus". We recommend the additional packaging of 1.3.6 only if it is marked as a development version and can be installed alongside an existing Scribus 1.3.3.14 (for example as "scribus-ng"). An important reminder: If you are working with 1.3.3.x and decide to implement some design features available in 1.3.6, you should only work with a copy of your file, since once it is saved in 1.3.6 format, you will not be able to open it again with 1.3.3.x. Similarly, if you are working with a team, try to make sure that all team members use the same Scribus version -- this will avoid many headaches and extra work. ==Primary Download Location== Windows and Mac OSX installers, as well as the source code are available here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/files/scribus-devel OS/2 installers will be added soon. ==Further Download Options== - Upstream Debian/Ubuntu repo: http://debian.scribus.net - Fedora 11 and 12 RPMS: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/mrdocs - openSUSE 11+ and SLED RPMs: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/mrdocs - Mandriva 2010 RPM: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/mrdocs/Mandriva_2010/ ==Source Verification== 7z: MD5: 2b2e52c5a06e190b0f5651b1f75d5065 SHA1 5f2fa179c4393a0393e1ec4f6e92dfd410f83d72 tar.bz2: MD5: 2d653c8371d198b5d8321e9ba5e0142d SHA1: 35ceba09bea73b3cb10f38dddc5bc24185df794e DMGs: MD5: 5c4122b7656cead6b07aefe4362edc3a SHA1: 9a3770585d24fb5dae697ce05f0f86d17196be24 Win32: MD5: e714b1de4ed61130cf889170a605eb21 SHA1: d060ad76591ceab0505e7af913b07e136a112250 ==Credits== The Scribus Team would like to thank Anduin.net/Øverby Consulting (Norway) for their continued hosting of all of the Scribus websites. We are also grateful to Linux New Media (Germany) for sponsoring. Moreover, the Scribus Team is pleased to name Resene Colours (New Zealand), dtp studio (Germany), Serenity Systems (USA), Vectorportal (Russia) and Marabu-Druckfarben (Germany) as Special Supporters. Finally, the Scribus Team would like to thank the many end users, translators, testers and contributors who helped us with this important release. ==About Scribus== Scribus is an award-winning, cross-platform Open-Source page layout application with a focus on high-quality and commercial-grade PDF and PostScript output. Originally developed on Linux, Scribus runs natively on Mac OS X, OS/2, many forms of UNIX and Windows 2000/XP/Vista by now. Underneath a user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK colour, spot colours, separations, ICC colour management, printing marks and versatile PDF creation, including PDF/X. Encouraged by professionals and beginners alike, the Scribus Team, supported by a large and constantly growing number of enthusiastic contributors from all over the world, is dedicated to improve "one of the most powerful and useful open-source projects out there" (TechRepublic). ==Links== - Scribus Website: http://www.scribus.net - Scribus Wiki: http://wiki.scribus.net - Scribus Developer Blog: http://rants.scribus.net/ - Bugtracker: http://bugs.scribus.net - Scribus General Mailing List: http://lists.scribus.info/mailman/listinfo/scribus - Scribus Development Mailing List: http://lists.scribus.info/mailman/listinfo/scribus-dev

2 1

tracing
by unknown＠example.com 02 Apr '10

02 Apr '10

Hello I have a problem with tracing. I want to trace with centerline so I get a single line which I can edit. That is not possible with podtrace (or is it?) Autotrace seems te do the job. To get that working with Inkscape I must install Autotrace and its GUI Frontline. But although autotrace has a win binary, I can't find a win binary of Frontline. Any ideas? Greeting Jos

4 7

Fonts question
by Drew Leske 29 Mar '10

29 Mar '10

Hi all, apologies if this is the wrong place or has been asked before. I looked through the archives, and my searches on Google were fruitless. First of all, I am loving Inkscape. It's amazing. Second, I'm having trouble with fonts. I have a downloaded font Lacuna (http://www.glashaus-design.com/), a really nice free font. The problem is that it comes in two styles: Lacuna Regular and Lacuna Italic, and I can't figure out how to make those two fonts appear as one typeface with two styles. In practical terms: I'd like to select not "Lacuna Regular" or "Lacuna Italic", but "Lacuna", and then have regular by default and the italic style if I hit ctrl-I. Right now to get the true italic font I have to select it from the drop-down list of fonts; if I use ctrl-I I get the faked-out italic instead of the true style. I have tried messing with the fonts.scale file so that Lacuna Regular and Lacuna Italic both appear to be styles of the family Lacuna, instead of two different families, but Inkscape did not pick this up. Any suggestions? Thanks, Drew.

2 2

ungrouping a bunch of 3d boxes delete all of them
by Grant Edwards 23 Mar '10

23 Mar '10

I've got a drawing in which a handful of 3d-boxes are grouped (and I'm not sure how that happened). I want to ungroup them, but when I select the group and do object->ungroup, all of them just vanish. AFAICT, they've been deleted. If I do edit->undo, the group returns. How do you ungroup a group of 3d-boxes? -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I guess it was all a at DREAM ... or an episode of gmail.com HAWAII FIVE-O ...

2 2

Re: [Inkscape-user] Screen capture and deckle edge.
by Peter Flynn 22 Mar '10

22 Mar '10

Terry Brown wrote: > > On Mon, 7 Aug 2006, Michael Moore wrote: > > >>> >>> Is there an easy way to create a deckle edge border around a >>> >>> graphic? > > > > Draw a rectangle. Use Object to Path to make it a path. > > If you have effects working (see the Wiki if not) use Add Nodes to > > add a bunch of nodes, say at least 20 to a side. So if your side is > > 200 units long have it add nodes every 10 units. I can get that far, although when I click on Add Nodes (even with Preview checked), I don't see anything happen. > > Then just apply the Radius Randomize effect. I can't find this. Do you know what menu it's in? There is no sign of it in the Extensions menu (v0.47) ///Peter

1 0

Help required changing style attributes from a Python extension.
by Jon 22 Mar '10

22 Mar '10

I am attempting to implement the full International Orienteering Federation mapping standards (ISOM:2000 and ISSOM:2007) within Inkscape. So far, I've created a GIMP palette containing the standard colours required, using this across the bottom of my Inkscape window. I've also written an extension to generate the required point symbols and produced many of the required fill patterns, incorporating them into patterns.svg. I'm not happy with modifying patterns.svg as this is one of the standard files provided with Inkscape. I've seen the way that the X-moto extensions use dialog boxes for changing .jpg and .png block textures and would like to do something similar for my svg patterns, but this is a medium-term objective. The remaining symbol type that I'm looking to implement is the lines. Different line styles from simple continuous lines of a given width and colour to complex dashed lines with superimposed symbols at regular intervals are required. Given the examples available in the current Pattern along Path and Scatter extensions, the creation of the superimposed symbols isn't seen as a problem. The problem that I'm having is in what should be a simple task - that of changing the style attributes of an existing line. I can create new dash styles by editing the preferences.xml file in my personal user area but, for many reasons, do not see this as as a realistic option and not one that could be distributed to other users. I've been trying to write a simple Python extension that will take a selected line or number of lines and replace the style of the original with a different set of style attributes without changing its path. I've looked through the currently distributed Python extensions for clues as to how to do this, but have not been successful. I've even started looking at the 1000+ page Python 2.6.4 online manual (is this the version of Python implemented in Inkscape?) but this hasn't really helped, although I've picked up some pointers for better Python coding. I'm assuming that there is a subroutine in one of the 'helper' files - inkex.py, pathmodifier.py, ... etc. that would help with this but haven't determined which one it could be. I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. Jon

2 2

Node tool selection with tablet
by Alexander Roalter 21 Mar '10

21 Mar '10

Yesterday I pulled a new bzr checkout from Inkscape and compiled it, but found the following problem: When in node tool mode (F2) and selecting some nodes by dragging a rectangle over them Inkscape doesn't get the mouse up event and continues to draw the rectangle as I move the (now free floating) pointer around. If I press again on the tablet, the rectangle becomes fixed, and nothing is selected; the rectangle stays as grahical debris, and everything else is as if I didn't select anything. Using the normal mouse works as before. I use the tablet (XInput) in Screen Mode. In the previous version (pulled roughly one week ago) it worked as expected. I'm not too bazaar-savvy to go back and check out when it did change (in svn I could simply revert, but how to do it in bzr?) -- cheers, Alex

2 4

Inkscape 0.48 Chill (the winter is heavy everywhere!)
by Joshua A. Andler 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

Hey all, This is where 0.48 as a "release" begins! This email will be a little redundant for developers, but will let users know what the current plan is. The next stage (Frost) kicks into gear at the beginning of March in case you were wondering. For right now: *New feature development will focus on wrapping up. *We will identify "make check" issues (we need to make sure things are "friendly" for packaging). *We will run an About Screen contest on DeviantART (which I will announce within the next 24 hours and post all info to both lists). *Ensure that the Release Notes are at First Draft stage. This is primarily a developer task, however, if you are a user and follow development closely and have something to contribute in this area which we may have overlooked, such as fixed bugs, changes in functionality, etc. please contribute. *Update tutorials and other docs (we could use volunteers). Not joking, if you are an Inkscape user and have the misconception that the only way you can contribute is by code, you are missing out on one of the most important things for our users... documentation. If you have time to spare and some tips for others that you're willing to share, please let us know. --- boring developer junk --- I do want to request from developers... most "big" new stuff be committed by March 1st if possible (or shortly thereafter). JonCruz: The swatch previews for "auto" swatches are starting to worry me given that they have not been working for quite a while now (since 0.47 dev cycle). The same goes for the method of editing color (gradient editor rather than F&S dialog). If you will not have time to address these before Freeze, please expect that I will request the feature is disabled again for this release at that time... I will also request that in 0.49 that you not re-enable it until you are looking to actively work on it. Krzysztof: The new Node Tool is fantastic. I know you're actively working on it, but I do just want to make sure that you will be able to set aside a few hours here and there for bugfixing as there are still a number of bugs and features missing from previous releases. Arcadie/Michael: The Connector Tool really is not consistent with the behavior of other tools. If it is not likely to be sorted out by Freeze, I will request that at least the tool controls button for "add connection point" be disabled, as it is not user friendly at this point. Please know that I am not targeting people or criticizing their work. This is a schedule issue and our date of release was horribly far behind schedule for the past couple releases. We will just be sticking to release schedules much more strictly than we have previously, and if features aren't "bug-free"/complete enough to release on time... there's always next release! :) Besides, we're going to be in the trenches w/ 0.49 for a bit by what has been discussed so far. Cheers, Josh

9 18

Looks like SVG *is* set for IE9
by Jon Cruz 17 Mar '10

17 Mar '10

News articles out today note something that might help boost Inkscape... if we can leverage it. :-) Microsoft IE9 Platform Pops with Speed, Standards http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361407,00.asp = = = ... New support for SVG-scalable vector graphics Sure, you can offer a PDF download for complex content like floor plans and org charts, but why not make these decipherable right inside the Web page? SVG allows just that. SVG is a W3C standard for animated, interactive graphics based on paths rather than bitmaps. No matter how much you zoom in on an SVG image, edges remain razor sharp—unlike bitmapped image formats like JPEG, which show degradation as you enlarge them. This holds true for text, too; that's key for the org-chart example mentioned above. In fact, John Hrvatin, senior program manager lead for Internet Explorer, told journalists that IE9 is the first browser that natively supports SVG inline with HTML—previously XHTML was required. SVG is the descendant of VML, which came out of the Visio drawing tool. Other browsers use SVG for the popular map sites, while until version 9, IE has uses VML. "SVG is a huge standard," said Visio veteran and now Internet Explorer partner program manager Ted Johnson. "We're not doing all of it in the first release, but we're doing a tremendous amount of it. When we ship, we're going to be covering all the way through what we consider 'static SVG.' Filter effects, animation, and fonts won't be included. A lot of these are still in flux. What's exciting about SVG is that you can easily see the markup in view source alongside its graphical result in the browser." = = = And some "straight from the horse's mouth" at HTML5, Hardware Accelerated: First IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/03/16/html5-hardware-accelerated-firs…

5 5

Thanks for OS X build links
by John LeMasney 17 Mar '10

17 Mar '10

Just wanted to say thanks to suv for the awareness of the killer Mac OS builds and compiling info. The new features are long awaited, and I'm already working on my 0.48 about splash. Cheers! John. -- John LeMasney LeMasney Consulting and Design | lemasney@...155... | 6095539498 wishlist: http://is.gd/4KiSd cv: http://johnwlemasney.wordpress.com networks: http://profiles.google.com/lemasney

1 0