Difference between revisions of "Release notes/0.47"
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Additionally hardware setup itself has been separated from general settings to allow for easier dynamic switching of settings appropriate to the task at hand. | Additionally hardware setup itself has been separated from general settings to allow for easier dynamic switching of settings appropriate to the task at hand. | ||
==Clipboard enhancements== | |||
The clipboard used by Inkscape is now system-wide instead of being confined to a single instance of the application. Copied elements are exported to the clipboard using all the available output formats. SVG data can be pasted into other applications supporting one of Inkscape's output formats, and SVG data provided by other applications can be pasted into Inkscape. | |||
==Dropper tool== | ==Dropper tool== |
Revision as of 22:38, 26 March 2008
Inkscape 0.47
(not released yet)
Tools
Node tool
- [helper path display, flashing - johan]
- The Node tool can now edit clipping paths and masks of objects on canvas, without releasing them. If the selected object has a clipping path and mask, the corresponding buttons on the controls bar of the tool will be enabled; pressing these buttons will display the editable paths or handles of the clippath or mask. A clipping path is stroked green, a mask is stroked blue (the same colors as those used for them in Outline mode).
- snapping has been improved (more details in Snapping below)
Calligraphy tool
Added 4 preset buttons for dip, pen, brush and reed in the toolbox. Clicking one button sets the calligraphic tool with the matching presets.
Live path effects
- [new: sketch, von koch, knot]
- The Paste Path Effect command is enabled to assign the path effect of the clipboard to any number of paths, going recursively into groups if necessary.
- A new command, Remove path effect removes any path effects from all selected objects, going recursively into groups if necessary.
- Along with the commands to open the path effects dialog and to paste path effects, the three commands were collected in a submenu under Path menu.
- Live path effects can now be assigned to the sides of a 3D box (use Ctrl+click to select individual sides).
- The Pen and Pencil tools now correctly work with paths with LPEs: you can continue such a path or add a new subpath to it by drawing with Shift, all preserving the effect applied to it.
Import/Export
Corel DRAW files import
Now Inkscape can import more Corel DRAW files of following types:
- Corel DRAW Compressed Exchange files (CCX)
- Corel DRAW 7-X4 Template files (CDT)
- Corel DRAW Presentation Exchange files (CMX)
Text objects are not supported as of UniConvertor 1.1.1.
sK1 files import
Inkscape uses UniConvertor to import sK1 files. Text objects are not supported as of UniConvertor 1.1.1.
CGM import
Inkscape uses UniConvertor to import Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) files. Text objects are not supported as of UniConvertor 1.1.1.
PDF export
With PDF export, it is now possible to make the PDF page the size of the entire drawing, instead of the same as SVG page as before by the "Export drawing, not page" checkbox in PDF export options. Also, you can export a single object from a complex document to PDF if you specify the ID of that object in the "Limit export to the object with ID" field; the page of such PDF will be the same size as the bounding box of that object and will show only that object (all others will be hidden).
The same capabilities are available from the command line by using --export-area-drawing
and --export-id=ID
parameters with --export-pdf
(previously, they only worked for PNG export).
Extension effects
New and improved effects
- The new Text > Convert to Braille extension recodes English (or just Latin letters) text to Braille code created for visually impaired people.
- The new Render > Alphabet Soup extension is a vector rework of Matt Chrisholm's GPLed script [1]. Alphabet Soup randomly mashes glyph-elements together to make exotic looking text.
SVG output
Optimized CSS properties
As a file size optimization, Inkscape does not write into SVG some of the stroke properties if the object has stroke:none and some of the fill properties when it has fill:none. The only situation where this might affect you is if you remove stroke from an object and then turn it back on - the object will get the default stroke instead of the same it had before.
Also, in manually-edited SVG where a parent group has no stroke but sets some stroke properties to be inherited by its descendants, you will need to set stroke property to other than none on the group, and suppress inheritance with stroke:none on those children that don't need it.
Specifically, if stroke:none, the following properties do not get written to SVG:
stroke-width stroke-linecap stroke-linejoin stroke-miterlimit stroke-opacity stroke-dasharray stroke-dashoffset
Note that this does not include marker properties, which means you can still have markers on a path without visible stroke.
If fill:none, the following properties do not get written to SVG:
fill-opacity fill-rule
Optimized path data
In this version, the size of the path data written in the d=
attribute of path
elements is reduced by about 10%. Inkscape generates the shortest possible path strings by avoiding repeated operators and using relative coordinates (when it helps).
This is controlled by the following attributes in group id="svgoutput"
in your preferences.xml file:
- allowrelativecoordinates (default 1) to switch relative coordinates on (1) or off (0)
- forcerepeatcommands (default 0) to force repeating operators (1) or allow use of the more compact representation without repeated operators (0)
User interface
Native File Dialogs for Windows
The windows builds of inkscape now have Windows-native file dialogs to keep consistency with other windows applications.
Masks and clipping paths
[johan]
Enhanced Tablet Support
Input device tool switching
Tablets and other input devices that report separate hardware are now recognized and current tool and/or settings can be set to switch in response to the physical tool being used.
Extended input device configuration
The stock Input Devices dialog has been replaced with a completely redone version that provides a more useful representation of settings. It also contains a simple area for testing different inputs of different devices.
Additionally hardware setup itself has been separated from general settings to allow for easier dynamic switching of settings appropriate to the task at hand.
Clipboard enhancements
The clipboard used by Inkscape is now system-wide instead of being confined to a single instance of the application. Copied elements are exported to the clipboard using all the available output formats. SVG data can be pasted into other applications supporting one of Inkscape's output formats, and SVG data provided by other applications can be pasted into Inkscape.
Dropper tool
The confusing icons on buttons in the controls bar of the Dropper tool (pick/assign opacity) are replaced by text labels.
Grids, guides, snapping
Guides
There is now an option to treat groups as single objects during conversion to guides (as opposed to converting each object inside the group separately).
Snapping
Snapping has been implemented or improved in these areas:
- The node tool now snaps to any unselected node (cusp or smooth) within the path that's being edited, and to cusp nodes of other paths. It also snaps to the path itself, but only to the stationary segments in between two unselected nodes.
- The object snapper now also allows to snap to the page border
Notable bug fixes
- The visual bounding box (which is the default bounding box type used by Inkscape) of an object with a filter applied now includes the expanded area of the filter. For single blur filter (such as the blur you apply with a slider in the Fill and Stroke dialog), this expands the bounding box by 2.4*radius; although theoretically, blur is infinite, this is the distance at which the opacity of the object drops below the perceptibility threshold of our renderer. For all other filters, the area is expanded by the relative amounts you specify on the "Filter general settings" tab of the Filter Effects dialog.
- Only visual bounding box is affected; if you use geometric bounding box, you will notice no change in most cases. However, the Export bitmap dialog always uses the visual bbox for selection export area; this means that you can now export a blurred object to bitmap without any clipping of the blur.