Report on a review article of vector programs (including Inkscape 0.43)
Hi,
I finally wrote the report I wanted to write since weeks... :)
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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)
Colin Marquardt wrote:
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)
Inkscape-user mailing list Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user
These aren't equivalent programs as Xara and Serif Draw are only on Windows and Intaglio and Inform are Mac only, and it looks like Zoner Draw is only available for Windows but it doesn't tell anyware, . If you are planning on buying a new computer and don't care what OS you use, than I guess this makes sense. I use programs in this range and I believe that it is much better than Expression (I used it extensively before Microsoft bought it out) because most of the strokes (the fancy "effects" on the paths) are only exportable to bitmap formats. Inkscape has vector formats that can be exported for use in most other programs (especially Open Source) ones. Intaglio is very limited in what it can do and requires the latest version of OS X to get most of the "effects" features. The best contender to Inkscape on OS X is Toon Boom Studio Express which is marketed as an animation program but the drawing features are top notch although they feel different as it is a cell paint program. It is a 100 dollar program http://www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudioExpress/. I personally think Inkscape is worth $100 just for its features alone and will be donating that much over the next couple months. Xara could possibly be better, but I would not buy any of those other programs even if they ran on Linux and OS X.
participants (2)
-
Benjamin Huot -
Colin Marquardt