Inkscape 0.43 Windows and OS X Packages

Many OS X users have reported being unable to open SVG files using the open dialog in Inkscape 0.43. It has been fixed in an updated package, Inkscape-0.43-2.dmg, which is now available for download.

Many Windows users reported too small font sizes in the interface. This was caused by a faulty lib. Please download the updated package that fixes this (an .exe version is also available).

Inkscape 0.43 Release

Inkscape 0.43 is now available thanks to the work of many developers and the sponsorship of Google's Summer of Code program which sponsored four students to work on features for Inkscape. The main new features in this release are:

• Connectors: Objects can be connected using auto-routing lines.
• Inkboard Collaborative Editing: You can connect to other Inkscape users over a network and edit a shared document.
• Pressure and Tilt Sensitivity: The calligraphy tool may now use a tablet pen with pressure and tilt support.
• Better Node Editing: You can now drag, bend, and stretch a Bezier curve by any point and not only by a node.
• New Extensions: There are now extensions for envelope distortion, whirling, and adding nodes.
• SVG Compliance: There is now additional support for the viewBox element improving SVG compatibility.
• There is an online book, "A Guide to Inkscape", which has been updated to cover the 0.43 features.

Currently the Inkscape community is working on the next release which will focus on stability and closing bugs. The next release will add an outline viewing mode, a plan towards SVG Tiny compliance, a fill and stroke interface to the bottom toolbar, and more application refinements.

Inkscape is open to all types of contributions by people with all different skill levels from around the world. We need translators, web designers, people to help answer questions, and developers to help us reach our goal of SVG compliance. Visit Inkscape.org and come help us Draw Freely.

Download Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X packages:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93438

For many more details, see the complete Release Notes for 0.43:

http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes043

Community submitted screenshots:

http://www.inkscape.org/screenshots/

Inkscape Presentation at LULA

Ted gave a presentation on Dynamic Graphics with SVG at LULA.

Inkscape Project Status

The new status report for November 15 is posted.

Inkscape in Action

Here is a photo of a poster done using Gimp, Inkscape, and Scribus.

Cmarqu posted a link showing Tigert's use of Inkscape for mocking up the Tango UI.

Tigert has posted about his use of Inkscape for painting his Cessna. Whoa!

Inkscape Book updated for 0.43

In great anticipation of the upcoming 0.43 release of Inkscape, Tav has just released an updated version of the Inkscape Manual.

The updated book adds coverage of:

• Effects/Extensions
• Connectors
• Pressure and tilt using a tablet

Coverage has been updated for all Interface and Usability improvements.

File exports are covered in greater detail with examples given for each type of export. And a new tutorial has been added showing how to draw a can of Split Pea Soup. Quite a few corrections, both factual and grammatical, have been made.

The new book replaces the old book... be careful to refresh the pages or you may end up seeing the old pages from your cache.

Inkscape Project Status

A new status report is online.

CREATE: Sharing ideas and resources

An article at Newsforge reports on the CREATE project: Part of what makes open source software thrive is code sharing and reuse. The Create initiative at freedesktop.org targets this issue by bringing together developers from Inkscape, Scribus, Krita, the Open Clip Art Library, and the GIMP, among others, along with interested individuals. Together they are collaborating on a set of specifications they believe will simplify work for developers and distributions, and usability for end users.

Summoning Halloween Clip Art

Bryce has put out a call for Halloween clip art for this month's Open Clip Art Library release. Upload your black cats, witches, and skeletons.

Xara Goes Open Source

Xara has announced that they are porting Xara Xtreme to Linux and will be releasing it as Open Source under the GPL! There is a prototype version available and an intriguing video for download.

It is not yet known when the source code will be made available; presumably a matter of weeks. Xara also expresses interest in working closely with Inkscape to find ways we can share code, coordinate efforts, and make Open Source graphics superior to anything available in the proprietary world.

Inkscape Stats

The stats for October 15th are posted.

Dropping Support for Windows 98

A variety of problems have led to a concensus that we will unfortunately be unable to support Inkscape on Windows 98. These issues have been traced to at least three different libraries we are dependent on, that do not actively support Windows 98.

Inkscape 0.41.1 and 0.42.3 Security fix releases

Mentalguy has released new point releases of the past two versions of Inkscape to correct two issues with arbitrary code execution when opening malicious files. There are no known exploits for this issue, but if you use Inkscape on a production machine in a manner that invokes files from arbitrary sources, you may wish to upgrade.

Digital Minicomic Production with Inkscape

John Bintz has written an article on Using Free Software to Do Inexpensive Digital Paste-Up. It really only uses Inkscape for the final layout.

Xara Sponsors XAR/SVG Converter Development

Xara announced last week that it is sponsoring Eric Wilhelm for $10,000 to develop a conversion utility based on Uber-Converter, a library for creating 2D vector format conversion tools. This tool will enable Xara users to interoperate with Inkscape and other SVG-based tools.

Inkscape Project Status

A new status report is posted. We're continuing to narrow in on the 0.43 release. There are some remaining must-fix bugs, but fortunately they're all either in progress or already fixed.

RSS Feed Back Online

The RSS feed tool went down a while back. Looks like it occurred about the time that all the old news posts got folded in. html_rss.pl appears to have choked big time on this; either it was too much for it or there was something it didn't like in one of the old posts. In any case, I've modified it to only RSSify the last 25 entries. Go `head`!

Also, a small note to news-writers and translators: The RSS feed tool looks for the </div> end tag to mark the end of the news item, so be aware that if you use div's inside news items, it may cause strange results in the RSS feeds.

Inkscape in the Press: MyLINUX

Inkscape is featured with a review full of praises in the newest edition of the Romanian computer magazine MyLINUX

Inkscape Website updates

Besides the new translations that pop up every day, there are some new things on the website:

• The news archive is back online, with news back to the very beginning of the Inkscape project in 2003.
• The status page has a slightly new look, but huge changes under the surface. If there is a translated version available of a status report, it will show a link to it.
• There's also a new form "Submit news & messages to webmaster" at the bottom of the page. Submitted news might be put online by a webmaster after review. You can also send suggestions, errors or anything else related to the website.

Inkscape website in italian

The Inkscape website is now available in italian, too! Just click on the flag in the upper left corner.

Il sito di Inkscape è ora disponibile anche in italiano! Basta cliccare sulla bandiera in alto a sinistra. Se vuoi aiutare nella traduzione o segnalare degli errori, scrivi una e-mail a luca at unofree dot it.

El sitio de Inkscape está disponible en italian. Sólo haga clic en la bandera que se encuentra en la esquina superior izquierda de la página.

Die Inkscape-Website ist jetzt auch auf italienisch verfügbar! Klicken Sie einfach auf die Flagge oben links.

Le site est maintenant disponible en italien également ! Cliquez sur le drapeau correspondant, en haut à gauche de cette page.

Inkscape website in spanish

The Inkscape website is now available in spanish, too! Just click on the flag in the upper left corner.

El sitio de Inkscape está disponible en español. Sólo haga clic en la bandera que se encuentra en la esquina superior izquierda de la página.

Die Inkscape-Website ist jetzt auch auf spanisch verfügbar! Klicken Sie einfach auf die Flagge oben links.

Le site est maintenant disponible en espagnol également ! Cliquez sur le drapeau correspondant, en haut à gauche de cette page.

Inkscape-Website in french

The Inkscape website is now available in french, too! Just click on the flag in the upper left corner.

Le site est maintenant disponible en français également ! Cliquez sur le drapeau correspondant, en haut à gauche de cette page. Les pages sont en cours de traduction progressive, si vous souhaitez participer ecrivez à inkscape at eriau dot org. Un Wiki sera bientôt mis en place pour coordonner les traductions.

Die Inkscape Website ist jetzt auch auf französisch verfügbar! Klicken Sie einfach auf die Flagge oben links.

Inkscape Project Status

With the latest stats, we can see where we stand for the 0.43 release. We've made some impressive achievements with our feature release count, bringing our ratio from 62% to under 50%.

Review: Inkscape 0.42.2 vs. FreeHand MXa

Michael Salsbury has written a comparison of Inkscape vs. Freehand MXA. He noted that many of the features that Freehand has that Inkscape doesn't really don't seem that useful anyway, and also comments about how straightforward the Bezier manipulation commands are in Inkscape compared with FreeHand, adding, "In fact, I don't really have any interface gripes about Inkscape now that I think about it. I'd say that's the mark of a good user interface."

Inkscape 0.43 Feature Freeze

As of Monday, the Inkscape project has entered a hard freeze period for the 0.43 release. Despite the short period since the 0.42 release, the Inkscape team has accumulated a substantial collection of new features.

We will go through an initial general bug fixing phase, after which the remaining bugs will be reviewed and some 'must fix' bugs selected. In past releases, this process has taken on the order of 2-5 weeks to go through, so we can probably expect that 0.43 would be officially released some time in October.

Translation progress [Update]

The website translation to german progresses well. Wide parts of the page and some of the Wiki have been translated. After a technical update, now there is no longer a /de/ subfolder. All the languages come in the same URLs, plus the users default language is chosen automagically on startup. (You still can change the language by clicking the flags) The Screenshots page has a new system. Read more at WebsiteEditing.

Stefan Graubner offers a german Inkscape Manual which he translated from Kevin Wixson's.

There's also a german discussion board: inkscape-forum.de

Inkscape website in german (and other languages)

The Inkscape website is now available in german, too! Just click on the flag in the upper left corner. If you want to help to translate, do so! Contact me on ICQ (143406052), Jabber (caliga@gristle.org) or inkscape at stiefelweb dot de.

If you want to see this page in spanish or some other language, beg bryce on #inkscape (IRC) for the licence and/or contact me to get started. :) (well, yes i'd prefer spanish, as i already created a nifty icon for this :P )

Die Inkscape Website ist jetzt auch auf deutsch verfügbar! Klicken Sie einfach auf die Flagge oben links. Wenn du bei der Übersetzung mithelfen willst, melde dich bei mir! ICQ (143406052), Jabber (caliga@gristle.org) oder inkscape at stiefelweb dot de.

New Spanish user's list

A new Inkscape user mailing list for Spanish and Castillian language speakers, inkscape-user-es@lists.sf.net is now available. This new community will strive to assist fellow Spanish/Castillian users in getting good use out of the tool and spread usage of Inkscape among a wider audience.

Ya está disponible una nueva lista de correo electrónico para usuarios de Inkscape en español, inkscape-user-es@lists.sf.net. Esta nueva comunidad se esforzará en asistir a los usuarios de habla hispana para un buen uso de la herramienta y en difundir el uso de Inkscape a una mayor audiencia.

Inkscape Project Status

The stats for the past month show significant progress over previous months, thanks to the widespread adoption of 0.42. We are assembling a number of cool new features for 0.43 and hope to have it released within a month or so.

New features

In addition to the Google SOC efforts, Inkscapers have added a bunch of new features since 0.42. Here's some of the things to look forward to in 0.43:

For tablet users, Inkscape now supports pressure sensitivity and tilt support.

The Node tool has received several cool new features including path segment selection, double-clicking to add a new point to a path, and editing paths by dragging on any point. Early testers of these new node features are raving about them.

A new Whirl extension twists selected paths around the specified center point.

Summer's Night is an extension that linearly distorts a path into the destination quadrilateral.

Update on Google Summer of Code Projects

With the coming completion date for the SOC projects, we're seeing a lot of activity with new code added to the codebase.

David's Inkboard code is now integrated into Inkscape and can be activated by configuring Inkscape with the --enable-inkboard option. You'll also need to delete any existing ~/.inkscape/menu.xml file and let inkscape regenerate it. This will cause a 'Whiteboard' menu option to appear in the application.

Greg Steffensen has released several versions of the Clip Art Browser. It is a stand alone tool, available at http://developer.berlios.de/projects/ocalhelper/.

Michael Wybrow has committed his new connector tool context code to CVS. Currently it is able to create basic straight-line connectors and interact with and modify existing connectors, including reroute, detach, or attach to new shapes. Currently connectors only attach to the centre of shapes. You can mark shapes as ignored or avoided for the purpose of routing, and connectors will reroute to avoid the objects marked to avoid. Soon, lines will also re-route when shapes are dropped onto their path.

Matt Squires is working on DXF import capabilities in the form of a dxf2svg tool, and will be adding it to CVS soon. It's been lightly tested against AutoCAD and CadStd Lite. Additional testing against DXF output from other CAD programs is needed.

Join us in thanking the SOC students for their hard work; try out their new features and let them know what you think!

New RSS Feed

Inkscape news is now available via the url http://www.inkscape.org/inkscape.rss. With this new feed, we expect to be able to see more frequent news updates. This is an RSS 2.0 feed updated once hourly. If anyone needs Atom or RSS 1.0 feeds, please send bryce at bryceharrington dot org a script to convert RSS 2.0 files into those formats and it will be added.

Inkscape Book

In celebration of the 0.42.2 release, Tavmjog Bah has made a new release of his book on Inkscape. It now covers more that 90% of the Inkscape user interface. It is still a work in progress. The chapters at the beginning and end need work and it is a bit short on examples. The book documents v0.42. It will be updated for v0.43 when that release gets closer in time. You can have a look at:

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php

Inkscape 0.42.2 Released

As mentioned earlier, several people experienced issues with installing the 0.42 package on certain platforms. In the weeks since then, we've investigated and solved the vast majority of these issues, and created a patch release, 0.42.2. This release includes only bug fixes, not new features.

Website Updates

Please check out our new "Showcase" section, where we've posted a few examples of Inkscape in use. If you would like to add a new showcase, please prepare it in HTML format and send it to the development mailing list, including licensing terms (we encourage Public Domain).

Project Status 2005-08-15

New status numbers for Aug 15 show the best numbers we've ever had, including reaching as high as the #2 most active project on SourceForge.