Inkscape launches version 1.4, with powerful new accessible and customizable features

Oct. 13, 2024, 6:44 p.m.

After months of waiting, we are finally ready to unbox the latest version of Inkscape... meet 1.4, the Geek edition, where accessibility and customization reign.

Inkscape project developers, most of them volunteer contributors from countries around the world, have been plugging away behind the scenes on new features, improving current ones, bug fixes and setting the stage for the arrival of GTK 4.

Let’s dig into some of the new and improved features that enable more customization and better accessibility in Inkscape in a cool, geeky sort of way. Inkscape Power Users, this one’s for you!

Filter Gallery Dialog

The Inkscape 1.4 Filter Gallery dialog is your new entry point into the world of filters. Head to the Filters menu to find it and your favorites more easily, with previews by category or by typing key words in the search bar. This includes those custom filters you’ve added – look for them in the Personal category. Accessibility features here include the ability to change the size of the preview of thumbnails.

Modular Grids

For those of you seeking the ultimate in symmetry and accuracy, you’ll find the new grid selector buttons a quicker, more visual way of identifying your grid of choice. For the new modular grids, you can adjust plenty of grid parameters separately, from height and width to horizontal and vertical gaps – including adjustments at the grid module (rectangle) level. Enable this option by heading to document properties.

Swatches Dialog

Inkscape’s Swatches dialog has a fresh new face. It now includes a drop-down menu with previews of color palettes. You can display them with their colors’ names as a list or a grid. For Power Users, you can now increase the tile size, too. Search for your custom swatches, or those of your customers, too. Import palettes from the dialog, including those from Adobe Color Book that use CIELAB colours, while support for those with CMYK is still limited for now. Transitioning from CMYK to RGB has been improved.

SVG Font Editor

For those of you who have a thing for fonts, Inkscape 1.4 is your new go-to for customization. You’ll find an easier route to buttons for sorting glyphs and removing pairs. Powerful customization at it’s finest in Inkscape!

Unified Font Browser

Inkscape is testing out a unified font browser preview. Activate this feature in Preferences and restart. After that, you will access visual previews for fonts with settings such as adding your own sample text. Check for particular font characteristics by searching fonts by collection type. Click on the one you want and watch it be applied to your text.

Customizable Handles

With Inkscape 1.4, you’ll now see that the on-canvas handles are customizable by size, colour, stroke width, outline and opacity. This will be updated live in Inkscape when the CSS file has been saved.

Shape Builder

You can now tackle quick edits on raster (pixel) images within Inkscape using the Shape Builder tool. Load an image and select sections that you want to isolate. Choose them with Shape Builder to clip them. Note that to edit them, you’ll need to release the clip and then unlink the clone. This tool is useful for a quick fix, isolating part or parts of an image quickly.

Object Properties Dialog

As of Inkscape 1.4, the Objective Attributes and Object Properties dialogs have been rolled up into one. This one-stop-shop is where you can change the different properties of objects, including rotations and corners.

Import & Export Updates

If you use Inkscape to develop and publish documents, you’ll be happy to know that you can now add links from one page to another within a PDF document–think table of contents.

Additionally, Inkscape 1.4 can now open Affinity Designer files, adding more versatility to the program.

Icon Sets

Welcome, Dash, the latest icon set to be accessible within Inkscape. For those of you who like customizing, you’ll appreciate this additional set of 500 plus icons to explore. These include cursors, both scalable and symbolic versions, that work on light and dark themes.

That concludes our brief wander through some of the top features included in Inkscape 1.4. For more information, the Inkscape 1.4 Release Notes are up to date to with information on all the changes included in this edition.

Get Inkscape 1.4 for Linux, Windows or macOS!

If you have questions for us, head to our web site and find our online community, where you can also find ways to get involved in the project.

In the meantime,
  Draw Freely.