ZINK Filetype

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This page is outdated. It is kept for historical reasons, e.g. to document specific decisions in Inkscape development.


ZINK Filetype

Documentation and specs

About

The ZINK filetype is currently implemented as input and output extensions for Inkscape. When these extensions are installed the user is able save and open .zink files. A Zink file contains a normal Inkskape svg-file including all linked images. This makes it possible to easily share/publish Inkcape documents with NO BROKEN IMAGES.

The zink filetype is packed using the zlib modules from python, so it is actually just a zip archive with the extension .zink. If you rename is you can open it with any zip extracter.

At this moment a zink file contains the following:

  • content.svg
  • images in gif, png or jpg

The first addition will be a version file so we can garantee backwards compatibility in the future. In the future there maybe some other additions like a manifest file or some directory lay-out.

TODO

  1. Make the current extension work on Inkscape CVS in mac os x and windows
  2. Add file containing zink version number for future backwards compatibility.
  3. Write documentation and specs at this page and keep up to date.
  4. Implement a proper temp directory solution with the help of other inkscape programmers
  5. Investigate howto reinplement all functionallity in c++ using the existing inkjar code.

Download

As these extensions are not (yet) in CVS i've put them on our webserver. Download them here: http://facility.lingewoud.nl/hacks/inkscape_save_and_open_as_zink/

Install

If you have inkscape 0.43 or lower you must also install a newer version of inkex.py in your extension folder. Get this from the same download location or from inkscape CVS.

If you want to install the extensions in your home directory (~/.inkscape/extensions/) also place a copy of inkex.py here

Problems on windows

On windows its not possible yet to open zink files. Saving to a zink file works. I'm trying to fix this but help is welcome

Problems on Mac OS X

The extensions do not work yet on the Mac OS X version. I don't exactly know why. Help is welcome.

Problems on other platforms

Please inform me about it.

Suggestions

If you have suggestions please mail them to the inkscape dev-mailing list.