Inkscape

Inkscape is a Free software of vectorial Dessin under license GNU/LPG. The purpose of it is to become a powerful tool of graphic edition while being entirely in conformity with the standards XML, SVG and CS of W3C.

It is about a software Multi-platform, available in particular under Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD.

History

The development of Inkscape started in 2003, on the basis of a fork of the project Sodipodi, caused by divergences about the future projection of the development. It should be noted that Sodipodi is itself a fork of Gill, a software created by Raph Levien for the office GNOME.

Inkscape, inter alia, passed from the computer programming language C to the C++, and the Binding S C++ of the graphic library GTK (Gtkmm). Changes were also carried out on the level of the user interface and of new functions were added (the development is very active).

The stress was particularly laid on the Ergonomie and the Utilisabilité of the interface of the software, in particular by a conformity increased with the Guide of the human interface of the office GNOME, the use of universal short cuts keyboard, etc

After the advertisement by Xara of the release of the sources of their vectorial design software Xara Xtreme, a will of work in collaboration with the development team of Inkscape was born. The two software intends to share their code and to coordinate their efforts with an aim of reaching the vectorial level of the design software owners.

Functionalities

Creation of objects

Drawing:

drawing of lines by a show of hands,
traced curved of Bézier (point-to-point or raised hand) and segments of right-hand side,
traced calligraphic lines with the feather (support of the angle/pressure of the graphics tablets);

Forms:

Right-angled S, Square S (skeletal corners rounded),
ellipse S, Circle S and arcs,
star S and Polygon S,
Spiral S;

Text tool (alignment, direction, police force, justification, multiple-line);
Bond, importation and vectorialisation of matric images;
Clones (objects copied with dynamic modification).
Creation by filling between other ways (tool pot of painting, available in the version SVN, will be in the 0.46)

Handling of objects

Transformations closely connected (translation, symmetry, redimensioning, rotation, deformation), in an interactive way or by specification of numerical values;
by stacking of the copies, the groups, and the objects (z-order);
hierarchical Grouping of objects and groups;
System of Copy S;
To copy/stick objects;
Alignment and distribution of objects, to lay out on a grid, éparpillage of objects;
Grid and guides.

Filling and contours

Selector of Color (RVB, TLS, CMYK, wheel);
Pipette with color;
To copy/stick the style of the objects;
Filling by flat tints of color, ranges, textures and reasons, with support of channel alpha;
Edition of Degraded S on the groundwork with handles of control;
Editor of ranges (linear and radial);
dotted Edges and “markers” (objects SVG being fixed at the nodes and ends of the curves).

Operations on the ways

Edition of nodes: displacement, handles of control of the curved of Bézier, alignment and distribution of nodes, redimensioning and rotation of groups of nodes;
Conversion into way of the texts objects, forms and edges;
Boolean Operations (union, intersection, difference, exclusion, division);
Simplification, disturbance, and fractalisation of the ways;
Creation of outside lines with shifts ( offset ), changing dynamically according to the forms from which they are derived.

Support of the text

multiple-line Text (SVG 1.0/1.1 < text>) ;
Adjustment of the line space and the letter;
Modification of the style, the colors, the size of the characters;
Text attached to a curve to go on its way;
Use of the library Pango;
Use of all the vectorial police forces installed on the system.

Returned

maximum Zoom of 256x;
Posting and returned anticrénelés;
Transparency alpha for posting and export with the format png;
Returned objects during their transformations.

White table

Inkscape can be used as an application of white table (“ whiteboard ”) via the protocol Jabber/XMPP. This functionality makes it possible to divide a drawing and to publish it in a collaborative way in quasi time-reality, whether it is in lan or through Internet.

Others

Tool of connection of objects for the diagrams;
integrated Editor XML: visualization and modification on line of the tree of the document SVG in progress;
Importation of files Bitmap and vectorial of various formats;
“Vectorialisation” of the images bitmap with POTrace ;
Export with the formats png, PostScript and pdf;

Options in line of order for export, the conversion and the analysis of files SVG;
Metadatum S RDF (author, date, license, etc);
Support of Graft S in language Python (functions of Fractale, disturbance, interpolation of the curves);
Support partial of the style sheets CS.

For the time being, Inkscape integrates an implementation partial of format SVG. It does not allow yet the animation of the vectorial objects. The management of the style sheets CS is also limited.

The development of Inkscape is currently very active. New functionalities are added regularly.

See too

vectorial Drawing
SVG
Skencil (in the past Sketch)
Sodipodi
Illustrator
Gill

Publication

Inkscape : Learn, practice, create (May 2007), by Elisa of Castro Guerra, in the collection Starter Kit of the editions Pearson Education, ISBN 978-2-7440-2158-9

External bonds

Official site

Simple: Inkscape

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