On Fri, Apr 21, 2006 at 10:30:02PM +1000, Malcolm Fitzgerald wrote:

Hi everyone,

This is a big thank you to everyone working on inkscape (and scribus too). I've just started to work with inkscape and scribus and the results are fantastic. I've just gotten better results from them than Illustrator, Photoshop and Imageready produced. I've been using Adobe for a decade and using Inkscape for a few weeks.

Good to hear you're getting such good results! Also good to hear that you've been able to pick it up so easily; I imagine after using one set of tools for so long, that it'd be a challenge to transition, so it's great that you've found it straightforward.

To experiment I used an .eps that was produced using Adobe Illustrator. It had been sent to me by a designer, I had to generate images for the web.

Last week, on my Mac, Illustrator wouldn't open the eps file! I used Cenon to open the eps and saved as SVG. When I opened it in Illustrator the paths were out of whack and the fill colours were gone. (This could be the fault of Cenon but Illustrator should open it's own files.) I coloured the solids and saved as png using "save for web" options. The overall result was better than the versions sent by the designer but the colours are flatter than the original eps and there is an obvious halo on the edges beside the transparent field. The results were OK. I made various copies of the image using Illustrator, Photoshop and Imageready trying to improve them. This took about three hours.

Today, on FreeBSD/KDE, Inkscape wouldn't open the eps file. (the web site says it does eps! It wouldn't open .ai either) I used Scribus to

To be more precise, Inkscape *can* do eps but requires that you have the right third-party tools configured to do it. Unfortunately, even when it does do EPS, it's not without issues. Going through Scribus, as you've done, is considered the method that gives the best results, although admittedly the workflow gets a bit awkward. We're talking to the Scribus folks to gain a more usable and robust solution for users.

open the eps and saved as SVG. When I opened it in Inkscape the fill colours were missing in some places but because the paths were correct re-colouring the solids took very little time. I exported as png. The result is gorgeous. All the colours are exactly the same as the original and the edges beside the transparent field are smooth without haloing. Side by side, in comparison with the others, they look great and the others look awful! This took about half an hour. How much better can it get?

Excellent!

thanks to everyone who has put their time and effort into this project, you've made wonderful software.

malcolm

Bryce