According to them, Inkscape doesn't trace images (it does), doesn't have Templates (it does), doesn't have layers (it does), or mention the fact that it's extensible (via extensions: it is).
Not to mention the numerous other features which ARE mentioned on the Inkscape main site's features page.
They may still try to misrepresent the full capablity of Inkscape.
At least make it harder to do so.
The fact that this site lists "Krita" as a vector graphics competitor as though it's even in the same league as Affinity Designer, Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator says something about the site's credibility.
There are even sites that believe Inkscape has a "free trial" or that it doesn't run on Linux (it does - last I checked and on every Linux box I've ever created ground up) or Arm Architecture - every Raspberry Pi I've ever owned or configured from start to / through Raspberry Pi 4B and the Pi 400.
Aside from that, there is so much that Inkscape does that's just given short shrift.
Let's change that.
It may not do everything, but, it does quite a bit. And, if you can't afford Illustrator or even Affinity Designer, you could do a lot worse - for FREE.
I'm probably wrong about this - but maybe some of those sites are founded by big-teck-software-industries-companies and may not have any interest in people starting using Open source softwares ? 👹
So - this web site is all about "finding software for business purposes" as I understand. If there is more to this business model I don't know.
But, yea - when looking at the bottom at the page you linked to, seems to me this we site are less serious.
It's not the only site I looked on. Just a simple google search of Inkscape features, as well as the list on the main site leaves out quite a few features. Path Effects, Extensions, Templates, multiplatform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Arm, "Tiled" clones
I just read this thread after just having listened to the radio about latest happenings in Afghanistan. Now I'm getting motivated to do something about Inkscape's marketing, something which I know nothing about.
fewerjunk, you mention that Inkscape doesn't point out that it can do path effects, extensions, and so on. It would make Inkscape look better than it does have it had a list of features that you talk about, perhaps with a blurb and/or graphic to exhibit what Inkscape can do. Also, a statement would be very good in expressing that Inkscape does not come as a free trial or is put together by a bunch of chimpanzees at a console (that's me getting expressive), and is showing no signs of going away (because it is here to stay).
Blender has a very attractive presentation style for what it can do feature-wise. Inkscape, I think doesn't have to be so grandiose but it should be earnest in what and how it shows itself.
I might just try out ideas once Tutorial 19 is done. Don't expect anything soon, but I am concerned and becoming even more so as I type, and will put something together that hopefully can work. I invite you and everybody else to join in to make Inkscape (which is us) look really good on the Internet. We owe it to ourselves.
Towards that end, and in the spirit of being part of the solution, I'm putting together a Pinterest board on "All things Inkscape". I've yet to figure out how to plug in Logos by Nick (and others), Gallery / Resources here would be a natural. As well as in general highlighting what Inkscape can do, tutorials, examples from hobby, enthusiast, to commercial graphic designers. There's a lot that Inkscape does and does (exceptionally) well compared to the competition. Not necessarily better than, but, in many respects every bit as good as and even if it's not every bit as good as, it's still a lot that's done and offered for FREE.
Inkscape's been around long enough and is well fleshed out enough that even by the time you get to what it doesn't do as well as the competition if not at all, you've still gone quite a ways and done quite a bit.
Time to shine a light on that fact.
(The Pinterest board is marked 'Secret" for now. I'll share it as I add to it and thoughts for organization and sections will be considered and welcomed.)
Thank you for diving in! Inkscape has a plethora of visual goodies we can take advantage of to show off Inkscape to advantage. I consider it a natural thing to include a link to Logos by Nick and other Youtube resources (Nick is great for this sort of highlighting -- all the more so because it works both ways). All the good Inkscape-generated images make up an embarrassment of riches to select from. A challenge in doing this sort of marketing is: how do we make good or optimal choices and present them in a way that doesn't make us look pretentious? It will make us look very good if we look like we intend to do business with the world in good faith, in that look at all Inkscape has to offer you, the world, for free; Inkscape has an active community whose collective creativity is in a constant state of fermentation (more neat flavors are on the way), and we invite you to join in. It will definitely help mitigate the Covid crunch. Where am I going with this?
If I were to visit the Inkscape Web site for the first time, what should I expect to see? What would draw me in? I guess that these are just a bunch of philosophical marketing questions, and again, I know next to nothing about marketing. And yet, brainstorming like this is great fun. It keeps the neurons well-polished.
I'll be around. Again, I appreciate your thoughts. Before I forget, I'll happily throw the images I use in my tutorials into the mix. They don't need to be used just for the tutorials. Oh, just Google "Inkscape Roy" or the other way around and the tutorial should be right at the top of the listing.
I spent about an hour cruising through all-things-inkscape. Pinterest is putting the billboard out of business. It is, indeed, a treasure trove of visual goodies that can keep you involved into the next millennium. fewerjunk, thank you for pointing me in that direction. I'll play around with ideas when I'm not working on the tutorial. As I had said earlier, it will be some time before I put anything worthwhile together. The tutorial fills up a lot time. Working with new ideas,concepts, and software still under development (enve) can be a full-time job.
Thank you for exploring this corner of the world. It sure opens up a new and rich frontier for me!
I've learned (am learning, sometimes the hard way). Better to create a pin with a dedicated link to the tutorial (video) in question: Youtube than to save a tutorial off their youtube page (in my case a general search for Inkscape Tutorials) - what I got was a link back to the youtube search page rather than the specific tutorial. Now I've got to go back through my saved tutorials and ensure they link to the specific tutorial rather than a generic search link. Ugh! But, that's why it's better to save a Pinterest Board or Section as "Secret" rather than public. Better for working out all the kinks.
You're definitely not along when it comes to taking two steps forward and one step back. I also employ the bulldozer approach. When there's no road ahead, you learn how to pave. The thing about Pinterest is that it contains a lot of material to get your imagination churning on what-if and how-about threads of thought. One thought that stands out involves keeping what we come up with lean 'n mean. Inkscape is good and only getting better. However, I don't want to throw its greatness in everybody's face. I find it off-putting. You can go to a lot of sites where the hype is well-put-together, but they lack in substance.
I'm thinking that when you go to a site for the first time, you commonly aren't out for adventure. You want something. You are a man on a mission. That's usually how I operate. You want to dive in, obtain what you want or need, and then head back home to get what you want done. The Inkscape Welcome Mat (as I call it) absolutely should be welcoming and also, it should communicate to you what it does so you know immediately what you're getting. When I used to do Web design, I catered to what I call "Internet Impatience." If the important stuff isn't downloaded into your brain in the first four seconds, then you've lost a visitor, perhaps forever. I want to see people stick around, partake, and enjoy the riches that we put out, starting with Inkscape itself.
If I sound like a pompous blow-hard, well, maybe I am. On the other hand, writing your thoughts down helps to solidify and clarify them, which is what I'm doing. I hereby head off -- I got the initial animation draft working for the next tutorial, so I'm in a good mood.
"what I call "Internet Impatience." is up against the mythical digital crystal ball (algorithm) by which users needs and wants are anticipated (most unpopularly used by Netflix, as well as others - Facebook, Amazon, et.al).
Also known as, we don't have a doggone thing you're looking for, but, while you're here maybe you might like this (mostly "not") approach.
I'm a great collector and a really bad organizer.
"Adrian Monk" would be appalled at my organizational skills.
Then again, I'm not sure, I'd like to be that obsessive-compulsive about it.
Mostly I'm interested in providing a bit of an (albeit, perhaps overwhelming) smorgasbord of information.
In all fairness,I have been accused and consider myself guilty as charged of "gish galloping".
The most I can do, is likely forewarn those who enter.
Not sure it'll change any time soon.
According to Ancient Greece: "nosce te ipsum" (Know thyself) - one of three maxims (I just found out).
The good news is, I try to. The bad news is, as "Andy Capp's" wife once admonished, "Andy's the kind of guy who believes that if he admits his faults, he doesn't have to do anything about them.
I try not to be that bad.
But, like most of the rest of us, I'm not much better.
Heh heh. Monk. My wife and I used to watch it. And we remember Andy Capp. Yes, sometimes a detective thriller and comic strip actually can provide insight into one's character. Anyhow, I don't mind the smorgasbord approach at all to anything. I consider it better to know and know about too much than the other way around. It helps with the brainstorming. I figure that post-tutorial and brain-burn, I'll put together one or two page mock-ups that all of us can play with. Take care!
I think, I think, therefore I think I am, I think,
I just noticed that I misspelled a word in an earlier missive. I wrote "You're definitely not along" when I meant "You're definitely not alone...!" My mistake. Sorry! Roy
I just want to quick touch bases with you. I just finished Tutorial 19 and uploaded it. Now I intend to get psychological R&R before I start playing around with ideas on how to make Inkscape look better, so I haven't forgotten you. I hope you're doing well. Again, thank you for putting out earlier. I'll be in touch.
Community Café Comprehensive Features List
Inkscape.org
Just touching on the most recent features or as listed at Inkscape's main site doesn't do the program justice.
This site as at least one example, misses a few:
https://www.capterra.com/vector-graphics-software/s/mac/
According to them, Inkscape doesn't trace images (it does), doesn't have Templates (it does), doesn't have layers (it does), or mention the fact that it's extensible (via extensions: it is).
Not to mention the numerous other features which ARE mentioned on the Inkscape main site's features page.
They may still try to misrepresent the full capablity of Inkscape.
At least make it harder to do so.
The fact that this site lists "Krita" as a vector graphics competitor as though it's even in the same league as Affinity Designer, Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator says something about the site's credibility.
There are even sites that believe Inkscape has a "free trial" or that it doesn't run on Linux (it does - last I checked and on every Linux box I've ever created ground up) or Arm Architecture - every Raspberry Pi I've ever owned or configured from start to / through Raspberry Pi 4B and the Pi 400.
Aside from that, there is so much that Inkscape does that's just given short shrift.
Let's change that.
It may not do everything, but, it does quite a bit. And, if you can't afford Illustrator or even Affinity Designer, you could do a lot worse - for FREE.
How 'bout it?
I'm probably wrong about this - but maybe some of those sites are founded by big-teck-software-industries-companies and may not have any interest in people starting using Open source softwares ? 👹
So - this web site is all about "finding software for business purposes" as I understand. If there is more to this business model I don't know.
But, yea - when looking at the bottom at the page you linked to, seems to me this we site are less serious.
It's not the only site I looked on. Just a simple google search of Inkscape features, as well as the list on the main site leaves out quite a few features. Path Effects, Extensions, Templates, multiplatform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Arm, "Tiled" clones
Hi fewerjunk and Grobe,
I just read this thread after just having listened to the radio about latest happenings in Afghanistan. Now I'm getting motivated to do something about Inkscape's marketing, something which I know nothing about.
fewerjunk, you mention that Inkscape doesn't point out that it can do path effects, extensions, and so on. It would make Inkscape look better than it does have it had a list of features that you talk about, perhaps with a blurb and/or graphic to exhibit what Inkscape can do. Also, a statement would be very good in expressing that Inkscape does not come as a free trial or is put together by a bunch of chimpanzees at a console (that's me getting expressive), and is showing no signs of going away (because it is here to stay).
Blender has a very attractive presentation style for what it can do feature-wise. Inkscape, I think doesn't have to be so grandiose but it should be earnest in what and how it shows itself.
I might just try out ideas once Tutorial 19 is done. Don't expect anything soon, but I am concerned and becoming even more so as I type, and will put something together that hopefully can work. I invite you and everybody else to join in to make Inkscape (which is us) look really good on the Internet. We owe it to ourselves.
Take care everybody and stay well,
Roy
Towards that end, and in the spirit of being part of the solution, I'm putting together a Pinterest board on "All things Inkscape". I've yet to figure out how to plug in Logos by Nick (and others), Gallery / Resources here would be a natural. As well as in general highlighting what Inkscape can do, tutorials, examples from hobby, enthusiast, to commercial graphic designers. There's a lot that Inkscape does and does (exceptionally) well compared to the competition. Not necessarily better than, but, in many respects every bit as good as and even if it's not every bit as good as, it's still a lot that's done and offered for FREE.
Inkscape's been around long enough and is well fleshed out enough that even by the time you get to what it doesn't do as well as the competition if not at all, you've still gone quite a ways and done quite a bit.
Time to shine a light on that fact.
(The Pinterest board is marked 'Secret" for now. I'll share it as I add to it and thoughts for organization and sections will be considered and welcomed.)
Hi fewerjunk,
Thank you for diving in! Inkscape has a plethora of visual goodies we can take advantage of to show off Inkscape to advantage. I consider it a natural thing to include a link to Logos by Nick and other Youtube resources (Nick is great for this sort of highlighting -- all the more so because it works both ways). All the good Inkscape-generated images make up an embarrassment of riches to select from. A challenge in doing this sort of marketing is: how do we make good or optimal choices and present them in a way that doesn't make us look pretentious? It will make us look very good if we look like we intend to do business with the world in good faith, in that look at all Inkscape has to offer you, the world, for free; Inkscape has an active community whose collective creativity is in a constant state of fermentation (more neat flavors are on the way), and we invite you to join in. It will definitely help mitigate the Covid crunch. Where am I going with this?
If I were to visit the Inkscape Web site for the first time, what should I expect to see? What would draw me in? I guess that these are just a bunch of philosophical marketing questions, and again, I know next to nothing about marketing. And yet, brainstorming like this is great fun. It keeps the neurons well-polished.
I'll be around. Again, I appreciate your thoughts. Before I forget, I'll happily throw the images I use in my tutorials into the mix. They don't need to be used just for the tutorials. Oh, just Google "Inkscape Roy" or the other way around and the tutorial should be right at the top of the listing.
I've said enough for now.
Best,
Roy
Hi,
I spent about an hour cruising through all-things-inkscape. Pinterest is putting the billboard out of business. It is, indeed, a treasure trove of visual goodies that can keep you involved into the next millennium. fewerjunk, thank you for pointing me in that direction. I'll play around with ideas when I'm not working on the tutorial. As I had said earlier, it will be some time before I put anything worthwhile together. The tutorial fills up a lot time. Working with new ideas,concepts, and software still under development (enve) can be a full-time job.
Thank you for exploring this corner of the world. It sure opens up a new and rich frontier for me!
Best wishes,
Roy
I've learned (am learning, sometimes the hard way). Better to create a pin with a dedicated link to the tutorial (video) in question: Youtube than to save a tutorial off their youtube page (in my case a general search for Inkscape Tutorials) - what I got was a link back to the youtube search page rather than the specific tutorial. Now I've got to go back through my saved tutorials and ensure they link to the specific tutorial rather than a generic search link. Ugh! But, that's why it's better to save a Pinterest Board or Section as "Secret" rather than public. Better for working out all the kinks.
Hi,
You're definitely not along when it comes to taking two steps forward and one step back. I also employ the bulldozer approach. When there's no road ahead, you learn how to pave. The thing about Pinterest is that it contains a lot of material to get your imagination churning on what-if and how-about threads of thought. One thought that stands out involves keeping what we come up with lean 'n mean. Inkscape is good and only getting better. However, I don't want to throw its greatness in everybody's face. I find it off-putting. You can go to a lot of sites where the hype is well-put-together, but they lack in substance.
I'm thinking that when you go to a site for the first time, you commonly aren't out for adventure. You want something. You are a man on a mission. That's usually how I operate. You want to dive in, obtain what you want or need, and then head back home to get what you want done. The Inkscape Welcome Mat (as I call it) absolutely should be welcoming and also, it should communicate to you what it does so you know immediately what you're getting. When I used to do Web design, I catered to what I call "Internet Impatience." If the important stuff isn't downloaded into your brain in the first four seconds, then you've lost a visitor, perhaps forever. I want to see people stick around, partake, and enjoy the riches that we put out, starting with Inkscape itself.
If I sound like a pompous blow-hard, well, maybe I am. On the other hand, writing your thoughts down helps to solidify and clarify them, which is what I'm doing. I hereby head off -- I got the initial animation draft working for the next tutorial, so I'm in a good mood.
Do take care. I enjoy these chats,
Roy
"what I call "Internet Impatience." is up against the mythical digital crystal ball (algorithm) by which users needs and wants are anticipated (most unpopularly used by Netflix, as well as others - Facebook, Amazon, et.al).
Also known as, we don't have a doggone thing you're looking for, but, while you're here maybe you might like this (mostly "not") approach.
I'm a great collector and a really bad organizer.
"Adrian Monk" would be appalled at my organizational skills.
Then again, I'm not sure, I'd like to be that obsessive-compulsive about it.
Mostly I'm interested in providing a bit of an (albeit, perhaps overwhelming) smorgasbord of information.
In all fairness,I have been accused and consider myself guilty as charged of "gish galloping".
The most I can do, is likely forewarn those who enter.
Not sure it'll change any time soon.
According to Ancient Greece: "nosce te ipsum" (Know thyself) - one of three maxims (I just found out).
The good news is, I try to. The bad news is, as "Andy Capp's" wife once admonished, "Andy's the kind of guy who believes that if he admits his faults, he doesn't have to do anything about them.
I try not to be that bad.
But, like most of the rest of us, I'm not much better.
Have fun with your next tutorial.
Heh heh. Monk. My wife and I used to watch it. And we remember Andy Capp. Yes, sometimes a detective thriller and comic strip actually can provide insight into one's character. Anyhow, I don't mind the smorgasbord approach at all to anything. I consider it better to know and know about too much than the other way around. It helps with the brainstorming. I figure that post-tutorial and brain-burn, I'll put together one or two page mock-ups that all of us can play with. Take care!
I think, I think, therefore I think I am, I think,
Roy
Hi fewerjunk,
I just noticed that I misspelled a word in an earlier missive. I wrote "You're definitely not along" when I meant "You're definitely not alone...!" My mistake. Sorry! Roy
Hi fewerjunk,
I just want to quick touch bases with you. I just finished Tutorial 19 and uploaded it. Now I intend to get psychological R&R before I start playing around with ideas on how to make Inkscape look better, so I haven't forgotten you. I hope you're doing well. Again, thank you for putting out earlier. I'll be in touch.
Best wishes,
Roy