- Inkscape Users - Inkscape Mailman

Report on a review article of vector programs (including Inkscape 0.43)
by Colin Marquardt 20 Jun '06

20 Jun '06

Hi, I finally wrote the report I wanted to write since weeks... :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Report_on_c%27t_article_12/2006 This is a report on a review article of vector programs (including Inkscape 0.43) in the German c't magazine, issue 12/2006, subtitled "Inexpensive vector drawing programs for amateurs" The article can be bought at http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/06/12/168/ The price limit for programs in the test was 100 EUR. Besides Inkscape 0.43, the following programs were reviewed: Tribar Inform 1.0 (http://www.tribarsw.net), Zoner Zoner Draw 5 (http://zoner.com), Serif DrawPlus 8 (http://www.serif.com), Purgatory Intaglio 2.7 (http://www.purgatorydesign.com), Xara Xtreme 2.0f (http://www.xara.com), Microsoft Expression Grafic Designer CTP (formerly Acrylic) (http://www.microsoft.com) They say Expression is likely to cost more than 100 EUR once it's out of its preview phase, so it would not belong in that test anymore. In short, Inkscape got the following rating (from --, -, ., +, ++): Import and Export: - Exact Drawing/Freehand: ++/- Text design/Prepress: ./-- Efficient work/Documentation: +/-- Winners were DrawPlus and Xara, with Expression and Intaglio still better than Inkscape, the rest got lower ratings than Inkscape. The article text itself is IMO more friendly toward Inkscape than the rating says. The text lists some highlights (both positive and negative) of each program, and for Inkscape, they were: * is a bit sluggish * has dynamic connectors * one cannot find help for a specific tool * uses SVG internally and thus is restricted to SVG features; so gradients are limited to linear or radial ones * potrace is far ahead in the quality of its tracing * no justified text * no artistic strokes apart from calligraphy, but it uses the angle information from a tablet, and also supports thickness by mouse speed * writes EPS but doesn't read it in again - this hinders easy exchange of drawings with other programs * bitmap export is limited to PNG * SVG files are included only as a link, if one wants to send a drawing to someone else, one has to take care to manually include all necessary files * documentation is SVG where one can directly use the tools, but one doesn't have links nor an index * documentation cannot really be searched - search is limited to the current document and doesn't jump from hit to hit, but just highlights them all, and the user has to comb though these * an extensive guide is being built at http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.html * normally is stable, but slower than the other programs * is under heavy development, but documentation makes it hard for newbies * usable for productive work I'm now picking some of the good points of the other programs that they deemed worthy of mentioning: * features for web designers (slicing, connect with links, rollover buttons) * animation features and export to animated GIFs * CAD capabilities for technical drawings (dynamic dimension lines) * no program supports connected text boxes * movies for documentation * natural brushes * bitmaps can be distorted * user-defined styles * centrally defined colors that can be changed later (derived colors also change) * device profiles, Pantone, process colors, overprinting when doing color separation, color control bars, crop marks * cliparts, symbols, schematic symbols, fonts * vector and bitmap layer, when changing layer type, tools also change * distortion grid * node sculpting * pressure profile of a tablet stroke can be adjusted retroactively * randomization of strokes in width, hue, transparency * hyphenation, spell checking, indentation, tabulators, multi-page documents * when drawing a path, nodes (or even the node control points) can be moved without finishing the line first * dynamic guides * measurement tool with selectable unit * shadows get more fuzzy with increasing distance from an object * user-defined line ends * copies of an object can be aligned along a path (Please keep in mind that I'm translating this from German, if something is unclear, just ask: colin (at) marquardt-home (dot) de)

2 1

White background of a formula into a transparent one
by Paul Smith 20 Jun '06

20 Jun '06

Dear All I have got a formula in SVG format, which I want to place over a colorful SVG figure. However, the formula has a white background and when I put it over the colorful figure, the white background is shown. Then, I thought that if I could transform the white background into a transparent one, the problem would be solved. Is that possible? How can I get a transparent background? Thanks in advance, Paul

2 3

inkview: linked image not found
by Karol Krenski 20 Jun '06

20 Jun '06

Hi list, There is foo_dir directory with slide1.svg and mapa.jpg files. I insert mapa.jpg into slide1.svg. Now I copy foo_dir to another machine with win32. I drop slide1.svg on inkscape icon, fine - mapa.jpg is displayed in the slide I drop slide1.svg on inkview icon, I get a red cross: Linked image not found. This is the XML editor info for mapa.jpg inside slide1.svg: sodipodi:absref /home/users/mimooh/foo_dir/mapa.jpg xlink:href mapa.jpg I guess inkview doesn't respect xlink:href entry. Karol

1 0

Dependencies
by Ezequias Rodrigues da Rocha 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

Hi list, I tryed to install inkscape 44-pre but I got some dependencies to FC 4. Can anyone tell me where to find all de rpm dependencies ? The files reported where: libglitz liblcms libpangocairo Regards ... -- Ezequias Rodrigues da Rocha http://ezequiasrocha.blogspot.com msn:ezequias@...9... "the worst of democracies is still better than the best of dictatorship"

2 5

building inkscape from subversion on ubuntu
by j michaelson 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

hello all, i've just done a fresh install of ubuntu 6.06 amd 64 and built inkscape from the subversion repository. first installed all the packages i needed with... apt-get install subversion autoconf automake1.7 automake1.8 automake1.9 intltool libglib2.0-dev libtool g++ libpng-dev libgc-dev freetype-tools libfreetype6 liblcms-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libpopt-dev make ...then i downloaded a working copy from the subversion repository with.... svn checkout https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/inkscape/inkscape/trunk inkscape ...then cd'd into the inkscape directory that subversion had created and built it with the following commands.... ./autogen.sh ./configure make sudo make install ...and i now have a bleeding edge version of inkscape. well worth it. --------------------------------------------- when i fancy updating all i have to do is cd into the inkscape directory again and do use the following commands..... svn update ./autogen.sh ./configure make sudo make install hope this is useful to someone. john

2 2

export as
by Kasper Peeters 18 Jun '06

18 Jun '06

Hi, Is there any way to save a drawing as eps, yet make inkscape keep saving to the svg file with 'save'? Right now, the 'save as' option switches the default 'save' to whatever format is selected in 'save as', which is not necessarily even a format that inkscape can read again. It's very easy to lose work this way. In other words, is there a way to have the equivalent of 'export as'? Thanks, Kasper

4 3

0.44: 'Build-dependencies for inkscape could not be satisfied'?
by Terry Hancock 17 Jun '06

17 Jun '06

Hi all, I was trying to build the new Inkscape 0.44pre4 using the advice at: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingDebian "Oh cool" , I thought -- I didn't think of using Debian's system to install the dependencies. But then... samwise:/project/Packages# apt-get build-dep inkscape Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done E: Build-dependencies for inkscape could not be satisfied. I get the same results for '-t testing', '-t stable', and '-t unstable', too. So it kind of looks like the Inkscape dependencies have package breakage at the moment? Any advice on how to proceed? Does this mean I'm going to have to install a lot of deps from source? I'm just kind of rusty at this stuff, I'm afraid. Terry -- Terry Hancock (hancock@...1625...) Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com

1 1

[Fwd: Fwd: Call for screenshots]
by Aaron Spike 17 Jun '06

17 Jun '06

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fwd: Call for screenshots Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:43:36 -0300 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...155...> To: Aaron Spike <aaron@...476...> References: <3c78ff030606151411x6334770dp2e1a0a26c4d8a216@...156...> Aaron, I sent this to devel and user lists, but gmail is spamblocked again so it bounced. Can you please forward it to both lists on my behalf? Thanks! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...155...> Date: Jun 15, 2006 6:11 PM Subject: Call for screenshots To: Inkscape ML <inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net>, Inkscape User Community <inkscape-user(a)lists.sourceforge.net>, Bob Jamison <rjamison@...192...> We need more screenshots of 0.44 release for our gallery: http://inkscape.org/screenshots/index.php. So far we only have 6. One feature I would especially like to get more screen space is the docked palette with the new default color set. For a user, screenshots are perhaps the most important resource at inkscape.org. It's what most people look at first. New users don't like to read descriptions; they want pretty pictures. Existing users considering upgrade don't like to read release notes; they want pretty pictures. Besides, our screenshots are borrowed by a lot of other sites and thus end up all over the web. All this means that screenshots must be as good as Inkscape itself, if not better. The lack or poor quality of screenshots means the entire project's bad health. What makes a good screenshot? * The best "feature screenshots" are made by the author of the corresponding feature. Nobody knows the feature better than him/her. In fact, if you contribute a major feature, you are pretty much supposed to submit a screenshot of it in action, much as you are supposed to describe it in release notes. [Note to Bob: Can you please make a good screenshot with several different examples of SIOX at work?] * However, we also need high quality "work screenshots" showing professional Inkscape work. If you are doing something complex and/or artistic and it turns out well, please take a moment to shoot the Inkscape window with your work. * Use PNG format (not JPG or GIF). * The screenshot should be dense and informative. 1280x1024 (the preferred screenshot size) is a lot of space, so don't waste it on just one or two bits. When doing a feature screenshot, combine the various aspects of the feature, add captions and descriptions, demonstrate all relevant tricks and nontrivial things that you can think of. When doing a work screenshot, find the best zoom/view of the document, and consider doing a double view of the same or different documents (as here: http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.41-CVS-linux-davinci.png). In both cases, open the relevant dialogs, switch to relevant tools, and do a selection so that the statusbar message adds more useful info to the picture. * When submitting a screenshot, please also submit a blurb (one-paragraph description) that will accompany it in the gallery. Briefly describe the feature you are demonstrating and the most nontrivial aspects of the screenshot. Try to be witty but comprehensive. * Also indicate what the usage terms are for the screenshot (in case magazine writers wish to use the screenshot in their articles). We recommend that you place your screenshots in public domain, as it saves a lot of hassle in asking for and obtaining permissions. To submit, please mail a link to your file to the devel list, or directly to buliabyak at gmail dot com. All this is quoted from a wiki page I wrote some time ago: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MakingScreenshots -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

1 0

default directories
by Gary 17 Jun '06

17 Jun '06

WinXP. I can't figure out how to change the default directories for "save as" and "import" (etc). I've tried to change the "Start in" property of the shortcut, and I've tried writing a small script that starts with "cd ...". I've looked in preferences.xml, and didn't find anything that looks likely. I also don't see any likely command line options. So ... how can I change the defaults for these directories? Is it any different in Linux? Thanks, gary

4 3

Styles
by Bill Bedford 16 Jun '06

16 Jun '06

I see from the feature requests that there have been a couple of people asking for a styles panel. Is there any possibility that this will be implemented in the forseeable future? I like the idea of Inkscape, but because I use a restricted pallet I really need the ability to reuse standardised lines and fills. -- Bill Bedford "Nothing is as important as model railways and even that isn't very important" -some wiseguy somewhere

1 0