Hi,

I have been using Inkscape the last 2 years for my professional work.
I use it mainly for scientific illustrations.
So first of all I'd like to congratulate the Inkscape team for their great
and important role in the open source community.  Inkscape is for my type
of work the best -and only- alternative for expensive software like
CordelDraw.

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 and GNOME.  I'm using inkscape mostly for
schematical purposes: flow charts, electrical or scientific diagrams,
etc...

Since I'm new to this group, I don't really know the etiquette, but I'll
start with my whishlist.  Sorry about the length of the list...

(Please feel free to comment)

* Multiple pages.

* Printing: I have issues with it.  I cannot set the type of paper for my
printer, and the result is often a bad layout.

* GRID snapping is a little nightmare for my kind of work.  Right now,
Inkscape has "snap nodes" and "snap bounding boxes".   Both of them are
not suitable for me.   Suppose you draw an object with irregular shapes
(e.g. a group of polygons and text).
There should be a modus: "move by reference point".  The reference is
snapped on the grid, and when moving, the destination of the object is by
snapping the reference point ONLY.
If you move the object on a grid of say 10px, the object should ONLY move
in steps of 10px without exception!
As it is now, objects snap on any of the irregular shapes inside it (e.g.
text, irregular polygons, etc..) and when you draw schematics, you don't
want that.

Furthermore, there should be a way to do "Snap to bounding boxes" with
snapping to the CENTER of a thick line, NOT to the OUTSIDE of the thick
line!
Example: enable "snap nodes" and "snap bounding boxes".  Draw a circle.
The vertices will nicely align on the grid, that's how I want it.
Now scale the circle by dragging the handles.  Now, the circle will be
completely off-grid.

* Symbols:  being able to make template symbols and insert them in your
drawing.  The symbols should have a reference point (see snapping), and
parameterizable text would be great.  The instances should be LINKS to the
symbols, so if you edit a symbol, it should change all references.
Associated features if you right-click on an instance: "edit template",
"edit as new template", "make group object copy"

* Being able to use objects from another .svg with a link.  This way, we
can make libraries of symbols.

* Arrows: arrow heads should change color by changing the color of the arrow.

* Swap arrows: a button to swap the beginning/end arrows.  Would be very
useful!

* Styles: a custom list of styles Fill+Outline+Text font you can click on
to set an object style.  Also, double click on a style to set it as
'default'.  Today, I have to click around in that dialog too often.

* Fill and Outline paint swatches: list of default colors.  Standard color
lists, like web colors, pantone, etc...

* Bug in the software today: exchanging objects across files via the
clipboard does not work.

* Dialog boxes: you should be able to save their layout!  Now I have to
open and position them every time I open a file

* Dialog boxes: share dialog boxes for different files.  I use the program
in the same way as we use "GIMP": different open files, and floating
dialogs.  However, if I click on a dialog box, Inkscape immediately
selects another open file, because the dialogs seems to be 'linked' with
the document windows.

* Text dialog: it seems to be different (not dockable) than the other
dialog boxes.  I wonder why...


That's all for now...
Please let me know if this kind of input is useful, and if anybody of the
developers is reading this (otherwise, I would not bother typing it next
time)

Happy new year,

Roeland Huys





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