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
Hi Roeland,
Welcome to the user list. I think you created a useful list, but this is not the best place to get this list to the attention of developers. It is not that developers aren't reading these list, but they use different methods to keep track of bugs and feature requests. In general mailinglists are used to ask and answer questions whereas the bugtracker is used to keep track of bugs and feature requests (hence the name).
I recommend to have a look at https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape and check if the different items are already listed there and if so add extra comments if needed. If they are not yet listed you can report a new bug and fill in as much information as you can. It is quite a bit of work comparing with sending this email, but it guarantees that your report is tracked and the discussion surrounding your request is much more focussed.
Also you could link to the individual bugs in a follow up mail so people can read the comments on the tracker while discussing this list, for instance your first item is already in the tracker as: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170369
regards, Steven
On Jan 15, 2009, at 11:27 AM, Roeland Huys wrote:
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
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword _______________________________________________ Inkscape-user mailing list Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user
Hello Roeland,
Welcome! Some quick and shorts comments to your mail, mainly related to the snapping (which I've been working on the past two years):
- Multiple pages.
That's a known issue, and would indeed be very usefull. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170369
- Printing: I have issues with it. I cannot set the type of paper for my
printer, and the result is often a bad layout.
Printing has been a bit neglected IMO. You might want to try exporting it to for example PDF or a bitmap and print from another program
- 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.
What version are you using? V0.46 probably? Snapping has improved a lot since then, so please try an unstable nightly build and see if that works better for you. You can download nightly builds for Ubuntu here: http://launchpad.net/~inkscape-nightly/+archive
That's only been available for about a week now, so you're lucky :-)
Please have a look at the preferences; there are some options that allow you to snap only the node or boundingbox corner that is closest to the mouse pointer. This should give you more control.
If you move the object on a grid of say 10px, the object should ONLY move in steps of 10px without exception!
I don't agree with you on this point. I think not everyone uses a grid as strict as you do; I often find myself using both aligned objects and unaligned objects simultaneously. Related to that, it would be great though if the nudge distance could optionally be made equal to the grid pitch.
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!
See the preferences: use a geometric bounding box instead of a visual bounding box!
- Arrows: arrow heads should change color by changing the color of the
arrow.
Known issue. Please use effects -> modify markers -> color markers to match stroke
- Bug in the software today: exchanging objects across files via the
clipboard does not work.
Please try a nightly build.
- 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.
Yes they are. I hate GIMP for that, but am using it nevertheless ;-)
- Text dialog: it seems to be different (not dockable) than the other
dialog boxes. I wonder why...
Probably because no one has gotten to that yet...
Please let me know if this kind of input is useful
YES!
and if anybody of the developers is reading this
YES! But Steven was right (see the previous mail), so please browse through our launchpad bug tracker and comment where appropriate, or file a new bug report if it doesn't exist yet.
Regards,
Diederik
On Thu, 2009-01-15 at 11:27 +0100, Roeland Huys wrote:
- Multiple pages.
SVG does not support multiple pages.
On Thu, 2009-01-15 at 11:27 +0100, Roeland Huys wrote:
- Bug in the software today: exchanging objects across files via the
clipboard does not work.
After opening the first file, open the rest with File->Open. You can now exchange objects. Using other methods to open files does not allow exchanges. Yes, it's a bug and this is the work-around.
On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Roeland Huys <roeland@...2584...> wrote:
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.
Hi, If you open to SVG file in the same instance (menu File - Open the files in the same window) Copy/Paste works but if you open the 2 files by, let's say, clicking on them (2 instances of the program) Copy/Paste doesn't work.
Hope this helps!
- 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
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword _______________________________________________ Inkscape-user mailing list Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user
participants (5)
-
Diederik van Lierop -
Mr. Shawn H. Corey -
Plácido Sousa -
Roeland Huys -
Steven M. Ottens