February 2019 - Inkscape Users

First Inkscope Video Podcast is live!
by C R 30 May '19

30 May '19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J1r8a0emYc Future podcasts will be shorter, but hey, at least all the technical difficulties were edited out. :) Enjoy! -C

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new post - wish list
by Andrew Kurn 06 Mar '19

06 Mar '19

I would like to post a wish list item. I'll tell you the topic. You tell me whether I can post it to the new forum (possible?) and whether I should (advisable?). The current user interface for drawing and editing splines (Bezier) is bad. I like the Gimp one much better, but partly because I'm used to it. We can go into detail, but this introduces the topic. Let's improve the spline interface. How to do it? Andrew

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New Parametric SVG Extension
by Frank Martínez 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Hi Guys, There is an old project for parametric svg here: https://github.com/parametric-svg/ That project is not maintained anymore and it is almost dead. But the general idea is very attractive and useful, so I have developed an Inkscape extension to support this kind of parametric stuff here: https://github.com/mnesarco/inkscape-parametric The main differences with the mentioned previous project is that this is actually an Inkscape extension, it works directly inside inkscape and the scripting language is plain old python. I hope you can find it useful, any comments and suggestions are welcome. Cheers, Frank (mnesarco) PS: This project does not depend on the parametric-svg previous project and they have no relation other than the same concept. -- Frank D. Martínez M.

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Gradient banding workaround
by Thorsten Wilms 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

Hi! I recently worked on a piece that made the gradient branding problem that plagues not only Inkscape painfully ... visible. A Launchpad bug about this dates back to 2008; here's a new one by yours truly, with example: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/issues/154 On this list, I'd like to describe a workaround and ask if anyone can think of an improvement (on Linux, no proprietary software). I tried Inkscape, Imagemagick's convert (internal or using rsvg-convert), rsvg-convert directly, resvg's rendersvg. Also Firefox and a random Webkit-browser. Banding in all cases. convert allows 16 bit per channel (or more), but it made no difference to the result (I suspect the delegates never actually delivered 16 bits). In contrast, Chromium renders gradients in a way that appears perfectly smooth here (to my eyes, on this display). On close inspection, there's dithering at work. A way to get the rendering out of Chromium, without even worse acrobatics like taking a screenshot or printing to a file: Use a "wrapper.html" containing something like this: "<img src="in.svg">" Chromium then offers "Copy image" on right-click. The result can be pasted from the clipboard. With xclip, directly to a file: xclip -selection clipboard -target image/png -out > out.png Or in GIMP: using "Paste as" -> "New Image" (Ctrl-Shift-V). Is anyone here aware of other (libre) software that delivers results as good or better than Chromium? Maybe someone knows enough about using Chromium headless to tell me how I could automate the process? -- Thorsten Wilms thorwil's design for free software: http://thorwil.wordpress.com/

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forum rules and guidelines
by brynn 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

Hi Friends, As the new forum is rapidly being finished, it's probably a good time to formalize the rules and guidelines for it. If anyone is interested in helping to draft this document or documents, please reply here. Once we have a group, we'll decide exactly how we want to handle this. When we started on this a couple of years ago, we used FramaPad, which allows users to edit documents live. I found it had the basic features that we needed. Or I think there are other similar types of sites. Although I'd be just as happy to be more old school, and exchange ODT or DOC files. But we can decide as a group. There aren't really any requirements to participate. Just care about the forum and how it functions :-) All best, brynn

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Re: [Inkscape-user] [Inkscape-devel] Fw: forum guidelines/CoC/complaints
by brynn 11 Feb '19

11 Feb '19

Thanks Bryce. > IIRC he had felt we needed to have a specific name included in the CoC to make the role concrete, and was willing to serve as that name. Well that's a good sign that he's probably willing to continue in that role. But I will definitely contact him privately to confirm. If anyone else in the community has some kind of experience with this, and might be interested to help.... I guess at this point, please just keep it in mind. Once I hear from Krzysztof, we'll know whether we need to recruit someone else. Thanks again, brynn -----Original Message----- From: Bryce Harrington Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2019 5:57 PM To: brynn Cc: Inkscape-Devel Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Fw: [Inkscape-user] forum guidelines/CoC/complaints On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 01:28:32PM -0700, brynn wrote: > Just forwarding to the Devel list, for wider audience. > Thanks, > brynn > > -----Original Message----- From: brynn > Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2019 10:31 PM > To: Inkscape User Community > Subject: [Inkscape-user] forum guidelines/CoC/complaints > > Hi Friends, > I've previously volunteered to lead an effort to write the rules and > guidelines for the new forum. Except for the rules about selecting staff and > staff responsibilities, I think the community CoC should suffice. So I was > just > reviewing it. > > One thing specifically that I would like in the forum rules is a clear > and concrete method where members can file a complaint and have it fairly > heard > and settled. > > In the CoC, apparently all that's available is contact Krzysztof > Kosiński: tweenk.pl@...3368... Unless the complaint is about a moderator, in > which case members are supposed to contact the Board. > > First question - Why is it a different process for complaints about > moderators? The board has a higher level of authority and power to deal with structural or staff problems than the CoC contact point does. > 2nd - Can I at least say that Krzysztof Kosiński has some training and > experience in conflict resolution? Or do we have other community members with > such qualifications, who could do this for the forum? Could you email him offlist and ask first? I don't know if he has training in this area myself. IIRC he had felt we needed to have a specific name included in the CoC to make the role concrete, and was willing to serve as that name. It would certainly be useful to know if there are other community members with training/experience in this area, and if they'd be interested in serving in a formal role with the project. With the new forum coming online, this could be a convenient point in time to transition if it makes sense. Bryce

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[RFC] for all users of perl extensions on Windows - perl vs. wperl
by Patrick Storz 04 Feb '19

04 Feb '19

Hi all, we're currently considering to change the default interpreter executable for perl extensions on Windows from "perl.exe" to "wperl.exe", see [1]. In case any developers/users of perl extensions on Windows are reading this, please let us know if this is a change you'd welcome or if this has the potential to break your extension / current setup. For everybody unaware of the difference between perl and wperl: On Windows there's a fundamental distinction between console applications and "GUI" applications. The former are always attached to a console window and will start one if necessary (i.e. you'd see a console window pop up while running the extension), which is also the case for "perl.exe". "wperl.exe" on the other hand is compiled as a "GUI" application and doesn't require a console. The downside is that "wperl" only exists on Windows (there's no such distinction on other OSs) and might not even be available in some perl distributions. In any case the interpreter executable can always be customized as described in the Wiki article [2], so you'll always be able to set the interpreter of your choice. This also allows you to test this change ahead of time and give feedback. Cheers, Patrick [1] https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/issues/46 [2] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Extension_Interpreters

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forum guidelines/CoC/complaints
by brynn 04 Feb '19

04 Feb '19

Hi Friends, I've previously volunteered to lead an effort to write the rules and guidelines for the new forum. Except for the rules about selecting staff and staff responsibilities, I think the community CoC should suffice. So I was just reviewing it. One thing specifically that I would like in the forum rules is a clear and concrete method where members can file a complaint and have it fairly heard and settled. In the CoC, apparently all that's available is contact Krzysztof Kosiński: tweenk.pl@...3368... Unless the complaint is about a moderator, in which case members are supposed to contact the Board. First question - Why is it a different process for complaints about moderators? 2nd - Can I at least say that Krzysztof Kosiński has some training and experience in conflict resolution? Or do we have other community members with such qualifications, who could do this for the forum? All best, brynn

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new forum, what happened? make a plan?
by brynn 01 Feb '19

01 Feb '19

Hi Friends, As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I've lost my patience over this whole "new forum" issue. I've been given the impression that we're (as a community) going back into limbo with the forum situation, and holding our breath that there are no more black eyes resulting from the lack of (effective) management of InkscapeForum.com. I don't understand why. Why risk yet another black eye? Do most people just not realize everything that's happened due to the lack of effective management, over the years? Or everything that could still happen? Shall I elaborate? Or maybe most people just don't care, since they don't use forums anyway? What yet needs to be done to make the new forum live and close the old one? To me, it has all the features it needs. As far as I know, the only thing that's still needed is load testing (lots of users at the same time). If we can start it within 6 months, I'd like to propose that we make a concrete plan (as much as possible, given that this community doesn't function well with deadlines). Of course I'd be glad to help create such a plan. If it requires more than 6 months more work, I would propose installing a php forum (SMF or phpBB) and start it right away. Then some day, if the Django-integrated forum is ever ready, we can switch over to it. Thanks for any clarity on this issue. All best, brynn

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