Release Notes

Note: The download files for this Inkscape version are provided for historical reasons only. As most of them do not have a checksum or valid/secure GPG signature, be very careful if you download or install them on your computer.

Inkscape 0.45.1 changes with respect to 0.45

Inkscape 0.45: overview

This release brings the exciting new features developed by the Google Summer of Code 2006 participants, as well as tons of other improvements across the board. Here are the highlights:

SVG filters: Gaussian blur

Thanks to Google's Summer of Code program, Inkscape now has basic support for SVG filters . The only filter enabled so far is Gaussian blur .

With it, you can softly and naturally blur any Inkscape objects: paths, shapes, groups, text, images. Clones inherit blurring from their original, but they can also be blurred independently from the original (you can create blurred clones with Tile Clones, too). Both the fill and stroke of an object are blurred together, creating semitransparent margins that smoothly blend into the background.

Gaussian blur enables a wide range of photorealistic effects: arbitrarily shaped shades and lights, depth of field, drop shadows, glows, etc. Also, blurred objects can be used as masks for other objects to achieve the "feathered mask" effect.

Here are a few tips on using blur:

Undo history

Rendering improvements

Tools

Node tool

Dropper

Calligraphy

Outline mode

<group id="startmode" outline="1"/> placing it after the <group id="options"> opening tag.

Keyboard profiles

The previous release allowed sets of keybindings (keymaps) to be created for Inkscape in the style of other applications. Two more keymaps have been added:

Of course not every feature in these other programs has a direct match to features in Inkscape; so, if you can, please help us out by reporting any problems you may have or improvements you would like to request.

Additionally, a keymap that focuses on tablet-based illustration and drawing work has been added:

This keymap places all commonly-used commands under the left hand, so that the user's hands rarely leave the keyboard or the tablet/stylus.

(To enable a profile, copy it into default.xml in the same directory, overwriting the old file. To restore the default Inkscape set, copy inkscape.xml into default.xml .)

More of Inkscape's keys are implemented as actions and are therefore available for remapping via keyboard profiles. New actions include EditSelectNext and EditSelectPrev for selecting next/previous object or node (by default, they are bound to Tab/Shift+Tab; as a result of becoming global actions, these keys now work in all tools and not only in Selector and Node tool as before).

Extension effects

Inkscape's extension effects, written in Python using the inkex utility class, are currently a major growth point of the project. They allow new developers to create functionality very quickly, without having to learn Inkscape's huge C/C++ codebase. However, eventually we plan to move many of these effects into the core of Inkscape, which will make them much faster and more interactive. From this viewpoint, effects can be considered a quick way to prototype and test the algorithms and UI controls of the future Inkscape features. However, this does not prevent effects from being genuinely useful in everyday work, and in this version we have several excellent additions.

New effects

Effect's parameters include:

Some examples of using this effect are shown on a screenshot at [1][Link no longer available] .

Improved effects

Infrastructure

Export formats

AI import/export

PDF export

Inkscape's PDF exporter has been improved:

PS/EPS export

There's a new option to embed the fonts used in the document in the PS or EPS exported file. As of now, this works for Type 1 fonts only , not TrueType. The option is available when performing the export from the GUI as well as from the command line via the --export-embed-fonts option.

EMF export

Inkscape has a limited support for exporting EMF (Enhanced Meta File) format. This works only on Windows , and only exports strokes and fills with constant colors. No text, no images, no gradients, no transparency.

SVG output

For specialized uses, several aspects of Inkscape's SVG output can now be customized via editing the preferences.xml file (there's no UI for these options). A <group id=" svgoutput "> inside <group id="options"> can have the following attributes:

Bitmap tracing

Even more improvements

Examples

Translations, tutorials, templates

Dependency changes

Notable bugfixes

Known problems

Problem with "Dialogs on Top" on Windows
Although the "Dialogs on Top" option is now available on Windows (File > Inkscape Preferences > Windows), it does not work exactly as it should (yet!). When the document window is minimized, the dialogs remain visible, i.e. are not minimized together with the document window. Because of this, it is not possible to get the document window back by clicking its taskbar button. A workaround to this problem is to right-click the Inkscape taskbar button and select "Restore". We expect that future releases of GTK will solve this problem.
Spinbuttons may crash if you have GTK+ older than 2.10.7
You may experience crashes after typing in a value into a spinbutton if you have a version of GTK+ 2.10.6 or older. Upgrade your GTK+ to fix this. (This does not affect the Windows package as it comes with GTK+ 2.10.9.)
Numerical Python required for Perspective effect
This effect will not work until you install a python module called numpy (Numerical Python). It can be downloaded at numpy.scipy.org . The Windows package already contains this module.
Do not use a clone of an object as its clipping path/mask
In this version, you cannot use an object's clone as its clipping path or mask. Either unlink the clone first, or clip one clone of a source object (not the source itself) by another clone of the same. Properly fixing this bug requires some deep changes in the code and therefore was postponed until after 0.45 so as not to delay the release.
Non-Unicode symbol fonts on Windows don't work
On Windows, symbol fonts without a Unicode map do not work. This is a limitation of the Pango library that we use.
Problems with some Debian libgc-6.7 packages
Inkscape will hang or crash when linked with the first Debian packaged version of the Boehm garbage collection library. This problem was fixed in version 1:6.7-2 of the package. If you have libgc 6.7 on your Debian-based system, make sure that you are using that version of the package or later.
Beware of defective themes on Linux
Inkscape and other Gtk programs can crash on any Linux, when the gtk2-engines-smooth / libsmooth package is installed. We have filed a bug against libsmooth which is now in gtk-engine and part of gnome. Removing the package resolves the problem. Update: this bug appears to be fixed in newer versions of gtk-engines. If you are affected by this problem please update to a newer version of gtk-engines. If problems persist then please inform the gtk-engines maintainers of the problem.
A similar crash happens if the KDE Baghira theme or the package gtk_qt_engine are installed. If you experience Inkscape crashes on KDE, please try to install a different theme from Baghira, or uninstall the gtk_qt_engine package from your system. Both problems also affect older versions of Inkscape.