Inkscape Summit 2024

Giovedì 16 Maggio 2024 17:35

We had a great Inkscape Summit in Rennes, France. Our three-day meeting was hosted by long-time Inkscaper's Elisa and Cédric in their school of design Activ.design

Five Inkscaper's travelled to the event (Marc, Mikekov, Adam Belis, S-Rafael, and Tav). Two more were present via video (Martin and René). Jonathon dropped in occasionally. And our hosts hung out with us when they weren't too busy preparing for LGM (Libre Graphics Meeting). In previous years we called these events "Hackfests", but have decided in order to be more inclusive to non-programmers and encourage greater partipation these events will be known as "Inkscape Summits".

These important events give the contributors of Inkscape a place where they can get some work done. Rafael [pictured left] is seen here working on some graphic user interface code at the event space. Mike, Adam, and Rafael spent a lot of time discussing and implementing UX designs. Marc did lots of merges, especially forward porting. We had great discussions on the future of Inkscape, including a plan for an improved Live Path Effects system (more of a Live Object system), better testing, etc..

During breaks and after the day, the contributors will go out for a meal and socialise. Rafael, Adam, Mikekov, Tav and Marc [pictured right] sit at a restaurant near the event space for lunch and get to know each other better.

All of these activities are funded by the Inkscape project, who provides travel and event expenses and run by one of the team. This is all funded by our kind donors who help the project cover the costs to run these important events. So a big thank you to all of you, you know who you are!

After the Inkscape Summit event, everyone was able to participate in the Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) which happened directly afterwards. We will often try and organise our own physical meetings along side another conference or event. Tav [pictured left] is seen talking to other LGM attendees who will be contributors to other Free Software projects such as Blender, Krita, Penpot, etc. While smaller than in the past, there were still lots of great talks including talks on color, type, animation, and chocolate.

Meeting with the wider community of Free Software contributors helps us stay up to date with what's happening in the wider industry as well as meeting with some pretty cool people who help run a lot of the software which our users also depend upon. Big thanks for the organisers of LGM for running the event this year, which is the first in person event since Covid.

See you all next time!