I'm new user of Inkscape. I need SW that will output AI format content to use silk screeners to put high quality graphics on shirts. will Inkscape do this?
No, Inkscape can not do this because Adobe Illustrator's file format is a prioritary format. You must ask your disk screeners to stop using this terrible format and use other open formats such as PDF, SVG which can be read and written by many programs.
Use of propritary formats comes with risks of being locked into using a single product without being able to change, and it's one of the broken things that Free Software developers such as ourselves work to fix.
Yes, only Adobe Illustrator can save a file in AI format!
I'm not sure if possibly I misread your message. But AI format, or Illustrator, is not required to make high quality graphics. As far as I know for silk screening, the only requirement is vector graphics. Any file that contains vector graphics will be high enough quality for silk screening. There are several vector graphic formats. And a few of them, such as PDF and SVG can contain both vector and raster contents.
Inkscape's native format is SVG.
Ask your printers what other formats they can use. If they really only use AI, they either don't have many customers, or they only have corporate customers (because of course Illustrator is so expensive, most ordinary people can't afford it). It's likely they will accept other formats. But if they don't, I would suggest to shop around for another silk screen printer.
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I'm new user of Inkscape. I need SW that will output AI format content to use silk screeners to put high quality graphics on shirts. will Inkscape do this?
David, welcome to the forums.
No, Inkscape can not do this because Adobe Illustrator's file format is a prioritary format. You must ask your disk screeners to stop using this terrible format and use other open formats such as PDF, SVG which can be read and written by many programs.
Use of propritary formats comes with risks of being locked into using a single product without being able to change, and it's one of the broken things that Free Software developers such as ourselves work to fix.
Good luck with your printers!
Welcome to the forum!
Yes, only Adobe Illustrator can save a file in AI format!
I'm not sure if possibly I misread your message. But AI format, or Illustrator, is not required to make high quality graphics. As far as I know for silk screening, the only requirement is vector graphics. Any file that contains vector graphics will be high enough quality for silk screening. There are several vector graphic formats. And a few of them, such as PDF and SVG can contain both vector and raster contents.
Inkscape's native format is SVG.
Ask your printers what other formats they can use. If they really only use AI, they either don't have many customers, or they only have corporate customers (because of course Illustrator is so expensive, most ordinary people can't afford it). It's likely they will accept other formats. But if they don't, I would suggest to shop around for another silk screen printer.