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 auspicia el desarrollo de un conversor XAR/SVG

Xara anunció la semana pasada que está auspiciando a Eric Wilhelm con $10,000 para que desarrolle una utilidad de conversión basada en Uber-Converter, una librería para crear herramientas de conversión para formatos de vectores en 2D. Esta herramienta permitirá a los usuarios de Xara para comunicarse con Inkscape y otros programas basados en SVG.

Estado del proyecto Inkscape

Un nuevo informe de estado está disponible. Continuamos acercándonos a la versión 0.43. Todavía quedan algunos errores que deben ser resueltos, pero afortunadamente están todos en progreso de ser solucionados.

El RSS está nuevamente disponible

La herramienta de RSS se cayó hace un tiempo. Parece que ocurrió cerca del momento en que todas las viejas noticias fueron archivadas. El programa html_rss.pl parece que se atragantó con esto; o era demasiado para él o hubo algo que no le gustó de las noticias viejas. En cualquier caso, lo modifiqué para que sólo muestre las últimas 25 entradas.

Un pequeño aviso para los escritores de noticias y los traductores: la herramienta de RSS busca las etiquetas finales de </div> para marcar el final de la noticia, así que cuidense de agregar etiquetas div en medio de las noticias, porque puede causar efectos raros en el RSS.

Inkscape en la prensa: MyLINUX

Inkscape aparece en una reseña llena de elogios en la nueva edición de la revista de computación rumana MyLINUX

Actualizaciones en el sitio de Inkscape

Junto a las nuevas traducciones que aparecen cada día, hay cosas nuevas en el sitio:

• El archivo de noticias está nuevamente en línea (por ahora sólo en inglés), con las noticias desde el comienzo del proyecto, en el 2003.
• La página de estado tiene pocos cambios en la estética, pero grandes cambios debajo de la superficie. Si hay una versión traducida disponible, habrá un enlace hacia ella (todavía no disponible en español).
• También hay un nuevo formulario "Envíe noticias & mensajes al webmaster" al final de la página. Las noticias enviadas serán puestas en el sitio después de que las revise un editor. También puede mandar sugerencias, informar errores o cualquier otra cosa referida al sitio.

El sitio de Inkscape en italiano

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 italiano. 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.

El sitio de Inkscape en español

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.

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

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

El sitio de Inkscape en francés

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

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.

Estado del proyecto Inkscape

Con las últimas stats, podemos ver dónde estamos parados en relación al lanzamiento de la versión 0.43. Hicimos muchos progresos en la cantidad de funciones, llevando nuestro porcentaje de 62% debajo del 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 Congelado de características

El lunes, el proyecto Inkscape entró en un período de congelamiento para llegar a la versión 0.43. Aunque haya pasado poco tiempo desde el lanzamiento dela versión 0.42, el equipo de Inkscape acumuló una gran cantidad de nuevas funciones.

Vamos a una fase en la que se arreglarán los fallos iniciales que se encuentren, después de la cual se revisarán los fallos que queden, y se eligirán los 'que deben ser arreglados'. En las pasadas versiones, el proceso completo llevó de 2 a 5 semanas, así que probablemente podemos esperar que la versión 0.43 será oficialmente lanzada en algún momento de octubre.

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.