On Ubuntu and various other Linux platforms, you can also use the snap package (installation instructions for snap).
On the terminal, type:
$ sudo snap install inkscape
Note that the Inkscape snap package comes with a couple of restrictions. Some of these can be solved, and some are unavoidable due to the safety level of the packaging format:
- custom markers and custom filters cannot be saved to the file where Inkscape is looking for them (which is
/usr/share/inkscape/markers/markers.svg
and/usr/share/inkscape/filters/filters.svg
) in all Inkscape versions older than 1.0. This behavior cannot be changed. - third-party extensions that are installed into ~/.config/inkscape/extensions do not work. To work around this restriction you can do:
sudo snap remove inkscape
sudo snap install --classic inkscape
echo 'export PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH}:/snap/inkscape/current/share/inkscape/extensions' >> ~/.bashrc
The --classic parameter will, though, also disable the security advantages that snap has over a normal, package based install or over the other binary install options for Linux. In addition to the above commands, you must use a different directory for saving your third-party extensions. You can look it up in Inkscape, underEdit > Preferences > System : User extensions
- by default, only files that are saved in the user's home directory are accessible to Inkscape
- printing isn't possible by default (see here for solution or reinstall with
--classic
parameter, see above) - external devices, like plotters or cutters, will not be found by Inkscape (see here for solution or install with
--classic
parameter, see above) - Inkscape will not integrate well with your desktop theme, but will use its own default gtk theme. Work to fix this has been done in preparation for Inkscape 1.0.
- fonts that you have installed globally on your system are not available (workaround: copy the font files into
~/.fonts/
)