Inkscape Wiki - User contributions [en]

Inkscape

2015-01-11T18:34:59Z

Simarilius:

This is a freeform area for Inkscape development and discussion.
Curious about [[WikiSyntax]]?

Other languages: [[Inkscape en español|Wiki en español]], [[L'Inkscape en Català|Wiki en Català]], [[Inkscape em Português|Wiki em Português]], [[Startseite|Wiki auf deutsch]]...

{| cellspacing="11" style="width:100%;"
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:33%;background-color: #E6E6E6; padding:.5em;"|
=== Project Info ===
* [http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape Homepage]
* [[About Inkscape]]
* [[Features of Inkscape|Features]]
* [[FAQ]] - Frequently Asked Questions
* [[Supported operating systems]]
* [[Tools]] - Supporting Tools and Applications
* [[Galleries]]
* [[Inkscape coverage|Coverage]] - Awards, articles, presentations, books about Inkscape
* [[Inkscape popularity|Popularity]]
* [[Contact information]] - the developers' e-mails and SVN nicknames
* [[InkscapeInvariants|Inkscape's Mission]]
* [[CommunicationChannels|Communication Channels]]: how to reach us
* [[AnnouncementToSodipodi|Announcement To Sodipodi]]: this started it all
* [[Branding]]
* [[ContactInfo|Contact Information]]: who's behind Inkscape
* [[Travel Reimbursement Policy]]

|style="width:33%;;background-color: white; padding:.5em;"|

=== User Documentation ===
* [[Installing Inkscape|Installation]]
* [[International and Local Communities]]
* [[Inkscape glossary]]
* [[User manual information]] - where to find the free Inkscape manual and how to contribute to it
* [http://inkscape.org/en/learn/tutorials/ Tutorials]
* [[Inkscape SVG vs. plain SVG]]
* [[Output format requirements]] - what's needed to save in some formats
* [[Effect requirements]] - what's needed to use some effects
* [[Effect reference]] - what each effect does
* [[Connector tool tutorial]]
* [[Installing fonts]]
* [[Emergency save]] - recovery in case Inkscape crashed
* [[Release notes]]
** for version [[Release notes/0.91|0.91]] (active development)
** '''for version [[Release notes/0.48.5|0.48.5]] (current release)'''
** older versions: [[Release notes/0.48.4|0.48.4]] [[Release notes/0.48.3|0.48.3]], [[Release notes/0.48.2|0.48.2]], [[Release notes/0.48.1|0.48.1]], [[Release notes/0.48|0.48]], [[Release notes/0.47|0.47]]
* [[Announcing Releases]]
* [[Tricks and tips]] - miscellaneous advice, may be slightly outdated

|style="width:33%;background-color: #E6E6E6; padding:.5em;"|

=== Help Inkscape Without Coding ===
* [[Bug management]]
* [[Testing]]
* [[Translation information]]
* [[Editing Inkscape's website|Website]]
* [[Inkscape Classes]]
* [[Conferences]]
* [[Marketing Scratchpad]]

* [[HelpWanted]]
* [[BugTriageProjects]]
* [[CreatingDists]]: how to build packages
* [[StableBranchUpdates]]
* [[UpdatingTrackerItems]]
* [[TutorialsAndHelp]]
* [[How_To_Start_A_Page]] how to use the wiki
* [[CreatingScreencasts]]
* [[AboutScreenContest]]
|}

{| cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; background-color: white; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-color:#62C012; align:left; padding:11px 0em 0em 11px;"
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| colspan="2"|

=== Developer Documentation ===
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:50%;|
==== First Steps ====
* [[Working with Bazaar]] - How to obtain the source code. A quick start on how to use our version control system
* [[Compiling Inkscape|Compilation]]
* [[Using Eclipse]]
* [[Developer manual]] - various important information, be sure to read this before coding
* [[Debugging Inkscape|Debugging]] - random tips to help debug problems
* [[Project organization]] - procedures, hierarchy, developer roles and the likes
* [[Janitorial tasks]] - small tasks that need doing
* [[Doxygen documentation]]
* [[Working with SVN]] - besides the code in Bazaar, we still have some things in SVN.

==== Developer tutorials ====
* [[Architectural overview]] - a high-level look at Inkscape
* [[Preferences subsystem]] - creating and using preference values
* XML subsystem (WIP) - how to manipulate the XML representation of a document
* Display subsystem (WIP) - how to make things appear on the canvas
* Tools subsystem (WIP) - how to create a new tool
* [[Creating a new SPObject]]
* Extensions
** [[Extension subsystem]] - an overview of the functionality provided by extensions and the possible implementations
** [[Script extensions]]
** [[Python modules for extensions]] - some helpful routines for use in Python script extensions
* [[Creating Live Path Effects]]
* [[Boost shared pointers]]
* [[Using libsigc++ signals]]
* [[Windows development on Linux]]

==== Miscellaneous ====
* [[INX extension descriptor format]]
* [[Inkscape-specific XML attributes]] - documentation of attributes from Inkscape's XML namespace

* [[Extension repository]]: an Internet central for Inkscape Extensions
* [[Related programs]]

| style="width:50%;|
==== Continuous Integration (Automated testing) ====
* [http://jenkins.inkscape.org:8080 Our main testing website (Jenkins)]
* [[How to contribute to automated tests]]
* [[Jenkins server setup]]

==== Development Discussion ====
* [[Roadmap]]: the main todo list
* [[Dependencies]] - what libs are needed to build Inkscape
* [[C++11]] - What C++11 features can be used
* [[NewFeatureProposals]]
* [[ExtensionArchitectureProposals]]
* [[Coding Style|Coding Style Discussion]]
* [[FileTypes]]
* [[ApplicationIcons]] (Application + Interface)
* [[Icons]]
* [[InkscapeColor]]
* [[PrintingSubsystem]]
* [[SVG Tiny Compliance]]
* [[SVG Test Suite Compliance]] - [[W3C]] full test suite
* [[CSS Support]]
* [[Google Summer Of Code]]
* [[Improved Media Management]]
* [[UI MockupScreenshots]]
* [[Swatch Book]]
* [[Tablet Dialog]]
* [[ViewBoxToDo]] View box support info
* [[Caching]]
* [[UI and Document coordinates‎]]
* [[Mipmapping]]
* [[GtkMMification]]: replace C boilerplate with gtkmm objects

===Lib2Geom===
*[[lib2geom]]
*[[lib2geom Goals]]
*[[lib2geom FAQ]]
*[[lib2geom SVN Repository Guide]]
*[[WorkingWith2GeomFAQ]]: real-life questions answered about using 2Geom in real code
*[[lib2geom py2geom]]: python bindings to 2geom. With this you can use the power of 2geom in python scripts.

|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:50%;|
==== User Interface Discussion ====
* [[Translation_information]]
* [[AddingInterfaceVerbs]]
* [[AccessibleGraphics]]
* [[ObjectManager]]
* [[DialogsReorganization]]
* [[ModalInterfaces]]
* [[TextUsability]]: text tool /dialog dialog
* [[KeyboardShortcutsToDo]]
** [[KeyboardProfiles]]: how you can help
* [[StatusbarAPI]]
* [[Animation-(Timeline)]]
* [[Free Desktop Graphic Suite]]

| style="width:50%; |
|}

* [[WikiAttic]]: pages that are no longer relevant but kept for historical value

__NOTOC__

[[Category:About Inkscape]]
[[Category:User Documentation]]

Inkscape

2015-01-11T15:13:28Z

Simarilius: Updated the docs link

This is a freeform area for Inkscape development and discussion.
Curious about [[WikiSyntax]]?

Other languages: [[Inkscape en español|Wiki en español]], [[L'Inkscape en Català|Wiki en Català]], [[Inkscape em Português|Wiki em Português]], [[Startseite|Wiki auf deutsch]]...

{| cellspacing="11" style="width:100%;"
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:33%;background-color: #E6E6E6; padding:.5em;"|
=== Project Info ===
* [http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape Homepage]
* [[About Inkscape]]
* [[Features of Inkscape|Features]]
* [[FAQ]] - Frequently Asked Questions
* [[Supported operating systems]]
* [[Tools]] - Supporting Tools and Applications
* [[Galleries]]
* [[Inkscape coverage|Coverage]] - Awards, articles, presentations, books about Inkscape
* [[Inkscape popularity|Popularity]]
* [[Contact information]] - the developers' e-mails and SVN nicknames
* [[InkscapeInvariants|Inkscape's Mission]]
* [[CommunicationChannels|Communication Channels]]: how to reach us
* [[AnnouncementToSodipodi|Announcement To Sodipodi]]: this started it all
* [[Branding]]
* [[ContactInfo|Contact Information]]: who's behind Inkscape
* [[Travel Reimbursement Policy]]

|style="width:33%;;background-color: white; padding:.5em;"|

=== User Documentation ===
* [[Installing Inkscape|Installation]]
* [[International and Local Communities]]
* [[Inkscape glossary]]
* [[User manual information]] - where to find the free Inkscape manual and how to contribute to it
* [https://inkscape.org/en/learn/tutorials/ Tutorials]
* [[Inkscape SVG vs. plain SVG]]
* [[Output format requirements]] - what's needed to save in some formats
* [[Effect requirements]] - what's needed to use some effects
* [[Effect reference]] - what each effect does
* [[Connector tool tutorial]]
* [[Installing fonts]]
* [[Emergency save]] - recovery in case Inkscape crashed
* [[Release notes]]
** for version [[Release notes/0.91|0.91]] (active development)
** '''for version [[Release notes/0.48.5|0.48.5]] (current release)'''
** older versions: [[Release notes/0.48.4|0.48.4]] [[Release notes/0.48.3|0.48.3]], [[Release notes/0.48.2|0.48.2]], [[Release notes/0.48.1|0.48.1]], [[Release notes/0.48|0.48]], [[Release notes/0.47|0.47]]
* [[Announcing Releases]]
* [[Tricks and tips]] - miscellaneous advice, may be slightly outdated

|style="width:33%;background-color: #E6E6E6; padding:.5em;"|

=== Help Inkscape Without Coding ===
* [[Bug management]]
* [[Testing]]
* [[Translation information]]
* [[Editing Inkscape's website|Website]]
* [[Inkscape Classes]]
* [[Conferences]]
* [[Marketing Scratchpad]]

* [[HelpWanted]]
* [[BugTriageProjects]]
* [[CreatingDists]]: how to build packages
* [[StableBranchUpdates]]
* [[UpdatingTrackerItems]]
* [[TutorialsAndHelp]]
* [[How_To_Start_A_Page]] how to use the wiki
* [[CreatingScreencasts]]
* [[AboutScreenContest]]
|}

{| cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; background-color: white; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-color:#62C012; align:left; padding:11px 0em 0em 11px;"
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| colspan="2"|

=== Developer Documentation ===
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:50%;|
==== First Steps ====
* [[Working with Bazaar]] - How to obtain the source code. A quick start on how to use our version control system
* [[Compiling Inkscape|Compilation]]
* [[Using Eclipse]]
* [[Developer manual]] - various important information, be sure to read this before coding
* [[Debugging Inkscape|Debugging]] - random tips to help debug problems
* [[Project organization]] - procedures, hierarchy, developer roles and the likes
* [[Janitorial tasks]] - small tasks that need doing
* [[Doxygen documentation]]
* [[Working with SVN]] - besides the code in Bazaar, we still have some things in SVN.

==== Developer tutorials ====
* [[Architectural overview]] - a high-level look at Inkscape
* [[Preferences subsystem]] - creating and using preference values
* XML subsystem (WIP) - how to manipulate the XML representation of a document
* Display subsystem (WIP) - how to make things appear on the canvas
* Tools subsystem (WIP) - how to create a new tool
* [[Creating a new SPObject]]
* Extensions
** [[Extension subsystem]] - an overview of the functionality provided by extensions and the possible implementations
** [[Script extensions]]
** [[Python modules for extensions]] - some helpful routines for use in Python script extensions
* [[Creating Live Path Effects]]
* [[Boost shared pointers]]
* [[Using libsigc++ signals]]
* [[Windows development on Linux]]

==== Miscellaneous ====
* [[INX extension descriptor format]]
* [[Inkscape-specific XML attributes]] - documentation of attributes from Inkscape's XML namespace

* [[Extension repository]]: an Internet central for Inkscape Extensions
* [[Related programs]]

| style="width:50%;|
==== Continuous Integration (Automated testing) ====
* [http://jenkins.inkscape.org:8080 Our main testing website (Jenkins)]
* [[How to contribute to automated tests]]
* [[Jenkins server setup]]

==== Development Discussion ====
* [[Roadmap]]: the main todo list
* [[Dependencies]] - what libs are needed to build Inkscape
* [[C++11]] - What C++11 features can be used
* [[NewFeatureProposals]]
* [[ExtensionArchitectureProposals]]
* [[Coding Style|Coding Style Discussion]]
* [[FileTypes]]
* [[ApplicationIcons]] (Application + Interface)
* [[Icons]]
* [[InkscapeColor]]
* [[PrintingSubsystem]]
* [[SVG Tiny Compliance]]
* [[SVG Test Suite Compliance]] - [[W3C]] full test suite
* [[CSS Support]]
* [[Google Summer Of Code]]
* [[Improved Media Management]]
* [[UI MockupScreenshots]]
* [[Swatch Book]]
* [[Tablet Dialog]]
* [[ViewBoxToDo]] View box support info
* [[Caching]]
* [[UI and Document coordinates‎]]
* [[Mipmapping]]
* [[GtkMMification]]: replace C boilerplate with gtkmm objects

===Lib2Geom===
*[[lib2geom]]
*[[lib2geom Goals]]
*[[lib2geom FAQ]]
*[[lib2geom SVN Repository Guide]]
*[[WorkingWith2GeomFAQ]]: real-life questions answered about using 2Geom in real code
*[[lib2geom py2geom]]: python bindings to 2geom. With this you can use the power of 2geom in python scripts.

|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:50%;|
==== User Interface Discussion ====
* [[Translation_information]]
* [[AddingInterfaceVerbs]]
* [[AccessibleGraphics]]
* [[ObjectManager]]
* [[DialogsReorganization]]
* [[ModalInterfaces]]
* [[TextUsability]]: text tool /dialog dialog
* [[KeyboardShortcutsToDo]]
** [[KeyboardProfiles]]: how you can help
* [[StatusbarAPI]]
* [[Animation-(Timeline)]]
* [[Free Desktop Graphic Suite]]

| style="width:50%; |
|}

* [[WikiAttic]]: pages that are no longer relevant but kept for historical value

__NOTOC__

[[Category:About Inkscape]]
[[Category:User Documentation]]

MediaWiki:Loginprompt

2012-08-21T20:15:28Z

Simarilius:

You must have cookies enabled to log in to the Inkscape Wiki.

Automatic account creation has been disabled due to high levels of spam.
To request an account please email the developer list

MediaWiki:Loginprompt

2012-08-21T20:14:26Z

Simarilius: Created page with "You must have cookies enabled to log in to the Inkscape Wiki. Automatic account creation has been disabled due to high levels of spam. To register an account please email th..."

You must have cookies enabled to log in to the Inkscape Wiki.

Automatic account creation has been disabled due to high levels of spam.
To register an account please email the developer list

MediaWiki:Login

2012-08-21T20:07:59Z

Simarilius: Replaced content with "Log in"

MediaWiki:Login

2012-08-21T20:06:42Z

Simarilius:

== Log in ==

Automatic account creation has been disabled due to high levels of spam.
To register an account please email the developer list

MediaWiki:Login

2012-08-21T20:05:59Z

Simarilius: Created page with " == Headline text == Log in Automatic account creation has been disabled due to high levels of spam. To register an account please email the developer list"

== Headline text ==
Log in

Automatic account creation has been disabled due to high levels of spam.
To register an account please email the developer list

User:Qubodup

2012-06-16T22:13:04Z

Simarilius:

Considering the amount of spam accounts on this wiki, I thought I'd create a user page just in case. - Thanks for doing so, makes it easier to see your real! - Sim

* [http://qubodup.net personal homepage]

Talk:Inkscape

2012-06-15T21:33:39Z

Simarilius: Reverted edits by Simarilius (talk) to last revision by D.gay

* The [[Working with SVN]] link must be removed from the front page and consider to remove the refereed svn page from this wiki.
* Can we move the [[INX extension descriptor format]] link to Developer tutorials > Extensions, please?

== Links to languages ==

Please replace the following line in the wikitext of the page:
<nowiki>Other languages: [[Inkscape en español|Wiki en español]], [[L'Inkscape en Català|Wiki en Català]], [[Inkscape em Português|Wiki em Português]], [[Startseite|Wiki auf deutsch]]...</nowiki>
with the following line:
<nowiki>{{Main page/Localized versions}}</nowiki>
The page would still render like now, but users would be able to link more localized versions as they write them. One cannot do that currently, because the main page is protected from editing. I guess that spambots are not clever enough to read the wiki markup and determine they could edit the template to work around protection (it's just a guess though). 
--[[User:Marko|Marko]] 13:27, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

Also Main Page include template <nowiki>{{Main Page/Code}}</nowiki> --[[User:아라|아라]]는 다 알아 13:44, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

In practice: please replace the current Main Page with [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php?title=User:Marko/sandboxes/1&oldid=83300 this enhanced version], i.e. copy-and-paste the wikitext that you can read [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php?title=User:Marko/sandboxes/1&oldid=83300&action=edit here]. This new version contains the enhancements by 아라|아라 and me, that ease the task of writing and reporting new localized versions of the main page. --[[User:Marko|Marko]] 15:59, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

== Profession-specific sections? ==

I'm interested in creating a section of this wiki for topology/geometry-oriented mathematicians using inkscape (a pretty big group of people), where we can share profession-specific solutions, tips, etc. Does this seem appropriate? If so, I would like to suggest that whoever can edit the main page add a section under "User documentation" titled "Profession-specific documentation" or something like that, and then I will add "Geometry and Topology" as an item on that page. I could put it under "Tricks and Tips", but this seems like I want to do more than just "miscellaneous advice, may be slightly outdated"! Thanks. [[User:D.gay|D.gay]]

Talk:Inkscape

2012-06-15T21:23:08Z

Simarilius: Reverted edits by D.gay (talk) to last revision by Marko

CompilingMacOsX

2012-06-15T21:07:47Z

Simarilius: /* Configuring */

= For the impatient =

1. Install [http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/ Xcode tools] from your OS X installation DVD

2. Download and install [http://www.macports.org/ MacPorts]

3. In Terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal) type
<pre>sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install cairo boehmgc gtkmm gtk-engines2 intltool libxslt lcms popt poppler boost \
gsl gnome-vfs libgnomeprintui automake autoconf bzr</pre>


Grab a cup of coffee

4. In Terminal, get and build Inkscape
<pre>
bzr branch lp:inkscape
cd inkscape/packaging/macosx/
./osx-build.sh a c b i -s p</pre>

''Et voilà''. If you want to understand what you just did, read on.

= Requirements =
To compile Inkscape from source you need:
*Mac OS X > 10.3
*Xcode Tools. They are on your installation DVD, in the optional installs, or can be download from [http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/ Apple Developer Connection]. You can customize the install to make it smaller (avoid documentation and example software for example). You need at least: gcc, Xcode, X11SDK.
*Inkscape's source code. You can download an [http://www.inkscape.org/download.php official release source code]  or create a local branch of the current state of the [http://inkscape.org/bzr.php?lang=en BZR repository] using [http://bazaar.canonical.com/ bazaar].  Bazaar is not pre-installed on Leopard - it is recommended to install a current version with MacPorts (<tt>sudo port install bzr</tt>).
*A means of getting Inkscape's numerous dependencies: glibmm, gtkmm, lmcs, boehmgc... We recommend the use of [http://www.macports.org/ MacPorts] right now. ([http://www.finkproject.org/ Fink] was used in the past but it no longer meets Inkscape's needs currently.)
* Working version of the <tt><tr1/unordered_set></tt> and <tt><tr1/unordered_map></tt> headers.

Configure or build can fail on OS X Tiger and Leopard due to broken <tr1/unordered_set> header files because Apple's default compiler ([http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.0/ GNU Compiler Collection 4.0.1]) and libstdc++ library ([http://gcc.gnu.org/libstdc++/ GNU Standard C++ Library v3]) installed by Xcode have never been fully updated to the last released version of the [http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.0/changes.html#4.0.1 GCC 4_0 release series].

If Inkscape 0.47+devel fails to configure with "error: You have a broken version of the <tr1/unordered_set> header. …" or fails to build with an [[build failure in tr1/hashtable|error]] in <tt>/usr/include/c++/4.0.0/tr1/hashtable</tt> it is necessary to either

a) install a [http://trac.macports.org/wiki/UsingTheRightCompiler newer version of GCC] via MacPorts and make it the default compiler with MacPorts 'gcc_select' or

b) patch the installed <tt>tr1/hashtable</tt> header file of libstdc++-v3 as described in [[HashtableFixOSX]]

; gcc/g++ versions by Apple known to fail to compile Inkscape 0.47+devel bzr revno >= 8976 are
: powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1 (GCC) 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5370)
: i686-apple-darwin9-g++-4.0.1 (GCC) 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5493)
: i686-apple-darwin9-g++-4.2.1 (GCC) 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5577)

= Compiling Inkscape with X11, using MacPorts [Recommended method]=

== Installing dependencies ==
You can use MacPorts to list Inkscape dependencies:
<pre>port deps inkscape</pre>

Some are mandatory and you can install them with the command:
<pre>sudo port install boehmgc gtkmm gtk-engines2 intltool libxslt lcms popt boost gsl</pre>

Others provide additional functionality to Inkscape:
* <code>gnome-vfs</code> : access to remote servers, in particular import from Open Clipart Library
* <code>aspell</code> : check spelling of text elements [Note: I have never seen it working on OS X, though at least it should install fine]
* <code>libgnomeprintui</code>
* <code>cairo</code> : ps and pdf export
* <code>poppler</code> : better pdf import
<pre>sudo port install gnome-vfs aspell libgnomeprintui cairo poppler</pre>
NB: Cairo was already installed at previous step as a GTK dependency. You need to either deactivate the old version and install this one, or directly write it on the command line above.
If you're unsure about MacPorts commands, you can find a guide that is easy to skim here: [http://guide.macports.org/ MacPorts Guide]

In addition, Inkscape requires versions of the autotools more recent thant those that ship with OS X. Install them:
<pre>sudo port install autoconf automake</pre>

More recent (Sep 2008) pre-packaged nightly builds for Mac OS X also feature additional dependencies:
<pre>sudo port install librsvg libwpd libwpg libcroco</pre>

NB: At the time of editing (2008-12-01) there was a problem fetching "lzmautils" as the URL MacPorts tried to use as download source dies in a timeout.
As this package is needed as a dependency for one or more packages noted above you need to download the source tarball of lzmautils from somewhere else (for example, from [ftp://sunfreeware.mirrors.tds.net/pub/sunfreeware/SOURCES/lzma-4.32.7.tar.gz here]) and put that into the local MacPorts repository at "/opt/local/var/macports/distfiles/lzmautils". You should now be able to run the commands above.

Also make sure that you have "libxml2" and "libxslt" installed with MacPorts. This should have been installed previously, either directly or as a dependency.
You will need those later to compile the "lxml" Python module if you want to use Python effects. First check what's installed and if they are missing from your MacPorts repository install them by doing:

<pre>port installed
sudo port install libxml2 libxslt</pre>

== Pre-compiling the Python modules ==

If you cannot use the pre-built Python modules from [http://inkscape.modevia.com/macosx-snap/?C=M;O=D Modevia], say, because you're using an unsupported Python version or you just want to install from source you need to pre-compile both modules.

In case you are using a Python version installed through MacPorts do a search for both modules and install the ones suitable for the Python version activated within MacPorts.
<pre>port search lxml numpy</pre>

If you are using Leopard's default Python 2.5.1 installation or a more recent one (e.g. MacPython 2.6) you will need to compile both modules outside of MacPorts. Download both modules from [http://pypi.python.org PyPI] if they are available there for your Python version. At the time of editing (2008-12-01) both modules were only available through SVN for Python 2.6.

There are lots of tutorials for building and installing the "numpy" module. One good place to start looking is the [[GettingEffectsWorking#on_Mac_OS_X|Getting Effects Working]] entry referenced at the end of this guide.

Building the "lxml" module deviates a little from the standard way, so if you cannot install it try the following command:
<pre>cd /path/to/lxml/source
sudo python setup.py install \
--with-xslt-config=/opt/local/bin/xslt-config \
--with-xml2-config=/opt/local/bin/xml2-config</pre>

This tells it to use the libxml2 and libxslt packages we installed earlier with MacPorts instead of Mac OS X' default versions, which have been known to cause problems when trying to build "lxml".

If you are compiling the Python modules outside of MacPorts you will need to make a mental note for after running the .app-bundle building script (detailed [[CompilingMacOsX#Creating_an_.app_bundle|later]] in this guide) to copy the "lxml" and "numpy" dirs from the standard installation destination (by default "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages" for MacPython 2.6 and "/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/" for Leopard's default Python 2.5.1 installation) to either
* the "extensions" folder inside the Inkscape.app bundle ("Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/extensions") if all you care about is getting the Inkscape build to work with your Python version. This method is more foolproof but supports only one Python version.
* the "site-packages" folder inside the Inkspace.app bundle. The "site-packages" folder is the right place for putting your pre-compiled Python modules if you want to redistribute your build. Make a subfolder within "site-packages" with the name of your arch ("i386" for Intel, "PPC" for PowerPC or type <code>arch</code> into a Terminal window) and another subfolder within the arch folder with the name of your Python version (e.g. "2.5" or "2.6" etc.). This allows you to include support for multiple Python versions with your Inkscape build. Note, however, that if someone has multiple Python versions installed they may run into problems with the PATH order exported by the internal script ("Inkspace.app/Contents/Resources/bin/inkscape") responsible for preparing the Inkscape launch environment.

Armed with this knowledge you should be able to take care of the "...needs the fantastic libxml2 wrapper..." message when executing Python effects. Normally the <code>osx-app.sh</code> script (detailed [[CompilingMacOsX#Creating_an_.app_bundle|later]]) should take care of this for you, but if for whatever reason it didn't you know how to copy the modules manually.

For further info refer to the [[GettingEffectsWorking#on_Mac_OS_X|Getting Effects Working]] section of this wiki.

== Setting the build environment ==
MacPorts's hierarchy (/opt/local/) is not searched for libraries by default. Therefore, before the configuration starts, some environment variables need to be set. The environment variables are presented in bash syntax here.
<pre>export LIBPREFIX="/opt/local"
# automake seach path
export CPATH="$LIBPREFIX/include"
# configure search path
export CPPFLAGS="-I$LIBPREFIX/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L$LIBPREFIX/lib"
# compiler arguments
export CFLAGS="-O3 -Wall"
export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
</pre>

You can also use <code>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ccache ccache]</code> (<code>sudo port install ccache</code>) to speed up the compilation a bit. To do so, add compiler variables:
<pre>export CC="ccache gcc"
export CXX="ccache g++"</pre>

== Configuring ==
If you compile Inkscape for the first time from a [http://inkscape.org/bzr.php?lang=en bzr branch] or checkout you need to generate the configure script. (not needed for tar builds)
Navigate to Inkscape's source directory and run:
<pre>./autogen.sh</pre>

Then run configure with the options <code>--disable-static --enable-shared</code> and <code>--prefix</code> which sets the directory where the build products are placed. It must be somewhere you have write access to.
<pre>./configure --disable-static --enable-shared --prefix=/path/to/build/products/</pre>

If you want to package Inkscape into a double-clickable <code>.app</code> bundle in order to access it like a regular OS X application (you probably want to), you need to add the option <code>--enable-osxapp</code>:
<pre>./configure {...} --enable-osxapp</pre>

Other configuration options can be set, check the list of options by issuing:
<pre>./configure --help</pre>

Here's an example which covers most options that can be set:
<pre>./configure --disable-static --enable-shared --prefix=/path/to/build/products/ --with-xft \
--with-gnome-vfs --with-python=/path/to/python/modules --enable-osxapp --enable-lcms \
--enable-poppler-cairo</pre>

== Building and Installing ==
Just run:
<pre>make
make install</pre>

== Creating an .app bundle ==
Assuming that you have used the <code>--enable-osxapp</code> option during <code>configure</code>, navigate to Mac OS X packaging directory in Inkscape source code and use the automated script:
<pre>cd packaging/macosx
./osx-app.sh -s -b /path/to/install/prefix/bin/inkscape -p ../../Info.plist</pre>
The script copies Inkscape binary and all its dependencies into the app bundle. The <code>-s</code> options strips libraries from debugging information (the bundle is therefore smaller). Omit this option if you want to keep debugging info.

== Creating a disk image to distribute Inkscape ==
Inkscape.app created at the previous step is completely independent from the original location of MacPorts libraries and can therefore be distributed. It will only work on your platform though (PPC or Intel) and incompatibilities are known between X11 versions on different major versions of OS X (Panther, Tiger and Leopard). The general rule is that versions are not backward compatible.

The most widespread way of distributing applications on Mac OS X is via .dmg images. You can created a dmg image of Inkscape, with a nice background and all, using the script:
<pre>./osx-dmg.sh -p Inkscape.app</pre>
in the packaging directory for Mac OS X (where your app bundle should be, otherwise modify the path to Inkscape.app).

== Automated build script ==
All essential steps are automated by a build script: <code>osx-build.sh</code>. It has built-in help so to know how to use it just type:
<pre>./osx-build.sh help</pre>

NB: Excluded steps involve Pre-compiliation of the Python modules and installing the additional nightly build features.

= Compiling a Universal Binary of Inkscape with X11, using MacPorts=

These instructions should work on both 10.4 and 10.5 machines with the latest Xcode version installed.

== Build Universal dependencies ==

The easiest way to do this is to create a new MacPorts installation. It is recommended that you install macports from source into a long prefix (of 50 character) such as "/opt/local-macports-with-a-really-long-directory-name/" -- this will allow enough space to later perform path rewriting on all the bundled libraries.

Once you have installed MacPorts, edit the $PREFIX/etc/macports/variants.conf file to have the following line:
<pre>+universal</pre>
This will cause MacPorts to install the Universal variant of each package you later ask it to install.

If you already have non-universal versions of some ports installed, for each of these you may need to deactivate the port and rebuild it, e.g.
<pre>sudo port -f uninstall cairo
sudo port clean cairo
sudo port -v install cairo +universal</pre>

== Build Universal Inkscape ==

First, Set your SDK, 10.5 for Leopard, 10.4u for TIger:

<CODE>export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk</code>     (For Leopard) 
<CODE>export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk</code>     (For Tiger) 

Then, set up your environment to point to the MacPorts libraries:
<pre>export MACPORTS="/opt/local"
export PATH=$MACPORTS/bin:$MACPORTS/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin
# automake seach path
export CPATH="$MACPORTS/include"
# configure search path
export CPPFLAGS="-I$MACPORTS/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L$MACPORTS/lib"
# compiler arguments
export CFLAGS="-O3 -Wall -isysroot $SDK -arch ppc -arch i386"
export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"</pre>

The final step is to configure and compile Inkscape. Inkscape must be configured with the following options:

<code>--enable-osxapp</code>     Sets the correct path for Inkscape to be used from an .app bundle 
<code>--disable-dependency-tracking</code>     Dependency tracking can't be used when compiling universal binaries.

Inkscape can then be built (with make), installed, and packaged into a Universal .app bundle using the standard .app bundle building instruction above.

= Compiling Inkscape with native GTK using MacPorts [experimental] =
This process is very similar to compiling an X11 version of Inkscape except for the building of dependencies: need to build native versions of Inkscape dependencies. At the moment (2007-12-17) this process does not produce a usable version of Inkscape but the more people try to use it, the quicker the bugs will be ironed out!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

addition in Nov-2009 by Wolf:
Meanwhile building a native inkscape aqua version is quite easy - dont be afraid! I do ask every Mac OS X user to try it and to file or to support bug reports. The more bug report come in, the quicker we'll have a really working inkscape aqua. I'll try to provide binaries, but making them seem to be a bit more tricky. Here is a set of instructions - should be quite comprehensive: [[#Building Aqua November 2009]]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

== Native version of Inkscape dependencies ==
Thanks to the power of port "variants" and port "deactivation" you can install native versions of gtk, cairo, pango and such, alongside the regular X11 ones. To know which ports have a <code>quartz</code> or <code>no_x11</code> variant, use the command:
<pre>port list variant:quartz variant:no_x11</pre>
This will give you an idea of what need to be replaced.

Assuming your MacPorts tree has been already used to build regular versions of Inkscape, you first need to deactivate (suppress from the tree without really uninstalling) the X11 versions of gtk, cairo, cairomm and pango:
<pre>sudo port deactivate gtk2 cairo cairomm pango</pre>

Then install native variants:
<pre>sudo port install cairo +quartz+no_x11 cairomm pango +no_x11 poppler +quartz gtk2 +quartz</pre>

== Installing a second MacPorts tree (recommended approach) ==
Rather than deactivating and reactivating ports, you can also keep two MacPorts trees side by side, provided you install the second one from source. Let's say I want to install a new tree for native versions in /opt/local-native. I would do
<pre>export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin
cd ~/MacPorts-1.x.x/
./configure --prefix=/opt/local-native --with-tclpackage=/Library/Tcl/macports-native
make
sudo make install</pre>

You can set this second tree up to always build packages with specific variants. For example, you can edit the /opt/local-native/etc/macports/variants.conf file to have the following line:
<pre>+universal +no_x11 +quartz</pre>
You can omit the +universal if you only want to build inkscape for your host architecture.
You should also set alternate applications_dir and frameworks_dir variables in the /opt/local-native/etc/macports/macports.conf file so that applications and frameworks installed by this MacPorts (for example by python) don't clash with your standard MacPorts tree.

Then you need to have only one version of the port command in the PATH at any time so you need to setup your .bashrc (or .bash_profile or .profile) accordingly. I use shell aliases to quickly and temporarily switch to the native version:
<pre>alias portpathregular="export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Developer/Tools:/usr/local/bin: \
/usr/X11R6/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin"
alias portpathnative="export PATH=/opt/local-native/bin:/opt/local-native/sbin:/Developer/Tools:/usr/local/bin: \
/usr/X11R6/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin"</pre>
NB: the \ are just to mark line continuation here. Omit them when editing your shell configuration file and put everything on one line.

== Install the rest ==
Eventually, follow the regular install procedure for the rest:
<pre>sudo port install libxslt boost boehmgc gtkmm lcms intltool popt</pre>
If your MacPorts tree was already ready to compile Inkscape, you should not need to reinstall anything, with the possible exception of gtkmm, which may need to be rebuilt against the native version of gtk rather than against the X11 one (please someone confirm this).

Get inkscape source code and go in the mac OS X specific packaging directory
<pre>cd packaging/macosx</pre>
There edit <code>osx-build.sh</code> to remove the configure option <code>--enable-osxapp</code> because it puts inkscape in a .app bundle where it is started together with X11, which would defeat the purpose of this native compilation. You can also specify an alternative install prefix if you want. Then
<pre>./osx-build.sh u a c b i</pre>
and a native version of Inkscape is installed in the prefix you specified or in the <code>Build/bin</code> directory of Inkscape's source code. You can test it by
<pre> cd ../../Build/bin/
./inkscape</pre>

NB: if you compiled a GTK theme engine against your old GTK install (i.e. the one with X11) and try to use it with the new install, it will complain, so edit <code>~/.gtkrc-2.0</code> to remove the offending theme or recompile it with the new native GTK.

== Building Aqua from scratch, 2010 ==
As I had a nicely working X11 version, I didnt care about compiling for X11, so this is an aqua-only procedure, which fairly started from scratch.

Here is what was to do on a G4 (PPC) with Mac OS X 10.4.11:

Install [http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/ Xcode tools] from your OS X installation DVD.
Make sure you checked the optional install of MacOSX10.4u.sdk - this especially applies for Snow Leopard 10.6.

Install [http://www.macports.org macports], retrieve the inkscape sources.

In order to install gtk2 on a PowerPC, you may have to apply this workaround: [http://trac.macports.org/ticket/20372]. (Maybe this is obsolete by Feb, 2010).

If you want to use bazaar in order to keep your sources up to date, install it:

<pre>
sudo port install bzr
</pre>

How to use bazaar, have a look here: [[Working with Bazaar]].

Then copy into the terminal:

<pre>sudo port install autoconf automake

sudo port install librsvg libwpd libwpg libcroco

# older versionsof gtk2 than 2.18.8 need to be patched according to these instructions:
# http://trac.macports.org/ticket/22451

# so rather make sure you installed the latest gtk2 >=2.18.8:

sudo port install gtk2 +quartz+no_x11

sudo port install libxslt boost boehmgc gtkmm lcms intltool popt

sudo port install cairo +quartz+no_x11 cairomm pango +quartz+no_x11 poppler +quartz gtk-engines2

sudo port install gsl

sudo port install hicolor-icon-theme

sudo port install libxml2 libxslt

# optional to speed up the compiling process:
sudo port install ccache
export CC="ccache gcc"
export CXX="ccache g++"
# ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

cd path-to-inkscape-sources/packaging/macosx

# Edit the file osx-build.sh to uncomment (enable) the configure option --enable-osxapp
# (line 24), if neccessary. I used TextWrangler for this, pico or another command line editor will do the same.

# Back to the terminal:

# autogen
sudo ./osx-build.sh a

# configure it:
sudo ./osx-build.sh c

# build it:
sudo ./osx-build.sh b

# install it:
sudo ./osx-build.sh i

# test it:
cd ../../Build/bin/./inkscape

# or double click the inkscape image in path-to-inkscape-sources/Build/bin

# (This may not work - not reason to fall into despair so far, just go ahead an pack it…)

# Build a Mac OS X package:

# download python packages at http://inkscape.modevia.com/macosx-snap/Python-packages.dmg
# put the contents in a folder named "python" and put it somewhere - the following command
# expects it in the folder in which the inkscape sources folder lives

# edit <path-to-inkscape-sources>/packaging/macosx/Resources/bin/inkscape and
# uncomment line 33:

# export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$TOP/lib"

cd <path-to-inkscape-sources>/packaging/macosx

# and pack:

./osx-build.sh p -py ../../../python/

# If your building runs through smoothly, you can automate the build process for the next version by doing all at once:

sudo ./osx-build.sh a c b i -py ../../../python/ p d

# To avoid X11 from launching simultaneously), edit
inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/script and add at line 45

killall X11

# Hopefully more skilled people than me will find a nicer solution than this very brutal hack.

</pre>
In the end this procedure works pretty straightforward, delivering a native inkscape which works fairly well.

As the author of this lines knows very little about compiling etc., I do recommend to send requests for support to the devel mailing list (mailto: inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net). I'm reading there and may occasionally have the chance to answer some questions.

= Enabling python effects =
moved to [[GettingEffectsWorking]]. They should work out of the box in the new versions anyway.

= Links =

== User Examples ==
* Adam Strzeleki has outlined some improvements to this process on the Inkscape [http://www.nabble.com/Inkscape-native-Mac-OS-X-build---look-improvements-td14733036.html email list]. See his screenshot from January 10, 2008 [http://www.nabble.com/attachment/14733036/1/Inkscape%20OSX%20PL.gif here].
* JiHO has a video of his builds [http://jo.irisson.free.fr/?p=34 here] and [http://jo.irisson.free.fr/?p=62 here].
* Mac OS X native (aqua), PPC-only, Tiger-only build of 0.47, can be retrieved here: [http://verkehrsplanung.com/Inkscape_aqua_PPC_047.zip]. NOT FOR PRODUCTIVE USE - JUST TESTING! - (Nevertheless I'm doing quite a bit productive work on it… (-;)

== Apple Documentation ==
* [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPRuntimeConfig/BPRuntimeConfig.html Introduction to Runtime Configuration] Covers the Info.plist files, Preferences, Environment variables and has a list of the most important Properties that the Property List should contain.

== Packaging ==

* [http://www.sveinbjorn.org/platypus Sveinbjorn Thordarson's Website] The author of Platypus, the Script Exec wrapper that launches the Inkscape binary.
* [http://freespace.ausgamers.com/2005/02/creating-os-x-application-bundles-step.html Creating OS X application bundles step by step] Covers the bundle concepts, copying libraries into the bundle, editing libraries with the install_name_tool, the Info.plist file and adding an icon.
* [http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/JavaLP/JavaToMac3/ Bringing your Java Application to Mac OS X] I would regard this a little dated, and the detail is (unsurprisingly) Java-related, but it is a gentle introduction to the role of the .app bundle and give a most clear account of how to create one.
* The [http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/gimp.app.howto.txt Gimp .app Howto] This is a very bare document, and would be of little help to you if you were new to making packages. Note that it seems to refer to a more mature Clipboard technique and Online help than we currently have; and we ought to move to parity in these areas.

=See also=
*[[Compiling Inkscape]]

[[Category:Developer Documentation]]

Google Summer of Code

2012-04-01T14:50:45Z

Simarilius:

= Welcome to Inkscape! =

For a few years Inkscape was successful in participating in [http://code.google.com/soc/ Google Summer of Code].

GSoC is a program where Google funds the development of specific features in open source software by university students. You don't need to be a Computer Science student to apply. Features to be developed are picked by Inkscape administrators from the pool of proposals submitted by students.

We've mentored about half a dozen students a year since GSoC started. Many students enjoyed their work and continue to be involved; perhaps your mentor will be a past GSoC student! We have a high rate of acceptance of student code into the core codebase. Indeed, GSoC projects have been a key source of some of Inkscape's best features in the past several releases.

The Inkscape team plans to focus this summer on codebase cleanup and refactoring. This will affect the type of projects we can accept this year; we're looking for ones that either won't affect core code too significantly (such as Extension scripts, or File Input/Output formats) or that would actually result in improving the state of the codebase (adding tests, modularization, etc.). Students who have already been active developers in Inkscape previously will be allowed more latitude to work on core code (particularly if it will result in cleanup/refactoring of their past work).

= Student Applications =

* Google program information
** Summer of Code Application form
* Inkscape-specific information
** [[SOC Application Template]]
** [[Roadmap | Inkscape Roadmap]] - to see our overall objectives
** [[SOC Writing Project Proposals]] - some guidelines for proposals
** [[SOC Selection Criteria]] - how we rate applications

'''Student Applications for GSoC 2012 must be submitted to the GSoC site by 19:00 UTC on April 6th 2012'''

= The "two patches" rule =

We require two patches from each potential GSoC student, before accepting the student for GSoC participation (it is the same requirement as for obtaining rights to commit changes to the Bazaar code repository).
The reason for this requirement is that you can show us that you have succeeded in building Inkscape on your PC, and that you have understood a little piece of Inkscape's code and are able to improve it.
Inkscape is a large project, and you really should not try to understand all the code. Many (all?) developers know only parts of the program code!
You can join our jabber/IRC channel and ask developers for help.
To get you started on Inkscape development, here is a list of (probably) easy-to-fix bugs or small improvements that require very little knowledge of the whole program.

== Suggested "easy" bug fixes or improvements ==

Search our bug-tracker for bugs tagged with 'easy-fix'!

= Suggested Ideas =

Please note that your project proposal must be realistic: if you promise too much, we will most likely think you have not understood at all what it is about and will reject your proposal.

== Generic ideas ==

* Font editing and creation features, e.g. [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/designing-svg-fonts-using-styles designing SVG fonts using styles]
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/new-from-template-dialog 'New From Template' dialog]
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/kidscape-project kidscape] - Condensed version of Inkscape aimed at young kids and small form factor devices
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/cutter-control Cutter control] - Enable Inkscape's use with vinyl cutters.
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/guides-improvement Guides Improvements] - Especially a dialog that lists all guides and allows operations on them would be very very nice.

== Import/export projects ==

* Importing of 3D scene files in 16 file formats using [http://assimp.sourceforge.net/ Open Asset Import Library]
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/xar-to-svg-converter xar-to-svg converter] - Converter for Xara Xtreme to Inkscape
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/kml-svg-translation KML SVG translation] - For use of Inkscape with Google Earth or Maps

== Internal work & performance improvements ==

* Continue C++ification.
* Improving 2Geom where necessary (e.g. '''boolops''' and '''python bindings''').
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/icc-for-cairo ICC Color Management for cairo outputs] - Would allow Inkscape to produce CMYK PDFs and PSs with Cairo.
* [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/TextRework Text layout rewrite]: Move flow-text into Inkscape name space. Add support for hyphenation, paragraph indentation, underlining, etc.
* Units (inch, cm, px): the codebase has 4 different pieces of code for handling units! Refactoring into *one*.

== Better SVG standard coverage ==

* Full SVG viewbox support
* [[multipage | Multiple Page support]]
* Improve SVG compliance. [http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/W3C_SVG_1.1F2/harness/htmlInkscapeApproved/index.html Current status of W3C test suite compliance].
* Implement SVG 2.0 (and related) items such as:
** Vector Effects (non-destructive boolean-ops would be a good start)
** Marker color matching stroke
** [http://www.w3.org/TR/SVGMobile12/single-page.html#painting-SolidColorElement Solid-color support] (Named colors, would deprecate the single-stop gradient approach we currently use)
** [http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color/ CSS3 color support]
** CSS3 2d transforms (duplicates current attributes)
** [http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/Stroke_position Stroke position]
** [http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/Stroke_dash_adjustment Stroke dash adjustment]
Note: Some of the above items are somwhat low hanging fruit and would need a few of them to make a good proposal, others alone are worthy of a full GSoC project.

== Improve Inkscape SVG for use on Web ==

A proposal should fix most if not all of these problems:

* Fix "plain" SVG to not remove <script> section, etc.
* Fix saving SVG to not modify CDATA (e.g. don't change & to &amp; inside CDATA).
* Add option to set viewbox attribute to Document Properties.
* Font fallbacks.
* Easily add/edit hyperlinks.
* Better CSS support.
* Option to add title to SVG (searchability and accessibility).
* Remove XML prolog/DOCTYPE.
* Move sodipodi namespace items to Inkscape namespace.

== Live Path Effects related ==

* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/lpe-blueprint More Live Path Effects] - There is a lengthy list of ideas to choose from here.

== Tools and shapes related ==

* Multi shape editing - ability to edit more than 1 shape (like ellipse or star) at once, with extra features like resizing rectangles by dragging their edges.
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/transformation-anchors Transformation Anchors]
* Further development of [http://generalpicture.com/svg/shapeopera.html Shape Opera], a simple Javascript framework for morphing Inkscape PATH shapes.
* Add a palette of objects to Inkscape. Such a palette would contain often used objects and would allow categorizing such objects. Examples of categories: UML, electric, network.
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/inkscape-connectors Connector tool improvements] - Expose new libavoid functionality: orthogonal routing, connector ports, curved connectors. (Mentor: Michael Wybrow)
* Arrowhead/marker improvements
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/fillet-tool Fillet/Chamfer tool]
* Add Mesh gradients in Inkscape name space with appropriate editing interface. (Note that Cairo now supports meshes and [http://tavmjong.free.fr/SVG/MESH/Mesh.html here] is a WORK IN PROGRESS of a proposed mesh syntax for svg.) It would be advised to base work on the existing cairo rendering branch for Inkscape.

Please do not feel limited to the above ideas - some of our best contributions have been unique ideas that students had in mind from other sources!

For more ideas, please see https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/

= Successful SOC Projects from Previous Years =
* 2005
** Connectors
** Inkboard
** [http://www.openclipart.org/ Open Clip Art Library (OCAL)] Interface
** DXF Import / Export
* [[Google Summer of Code 2006|2006]]
** Support for SVG Filters
** Filter Effects
** PDF export
** Inkboard Protocol Spec / Lib Conversion
* [[Google Summer of Code 2007|2007]]
** Text Style Improvements
** PDF import
** Live Path Effects
** 3D Box Tool
** UI for SVG Filter Effects
** Raster Functionality
** Importing from, and Exporting to, a remote ccHost instance
* [[Google Summer of Code 2008|2008]]
** SVG Fonts support
** 2Geom refactoring project - port most geometry code to 2Geom
** lib2geom: interactive applications showing off the power of lib2geom
** Tech drawing abilities
** A test suite
* 2009
** [[GSoC 2009 Node Tool Rewrite|Node tool rewrite]]
** D-Bus scripting API
** Connector tool improvements
** ICC/CMYK workflow
* 2010
** Cairo-based rendering
** C++ification of SP Layer
* 2011
** Rendering caching
** Javascript support improvements
** CSS support improvements

[[Category:Developer Documentation]]

Google Summer of Code

2012-04-01T14:50:25Z

Simarilius:

= Welcome to Inkscape! =

For a few years Inkscape was successful in participating in [http://code.google.com/soc/ Google Summer of Code].

GSoC is a program where Google funds the development of specific features in open source software by university students. You don't need to be a Computer Science student to apply. Features to be developed are picked by Inkscape administrators from the pool of proposals submitted by students.

We've mentored about half a dozen students a year since GSoC started. Many students enjoyed their work and continue to be involved; perhaps your mentor will be a past GSoC student! We have a high rate of acceptance of student code into the core codebase. Indeed, GSoC projects have been a key source of some of Inkscape's best features in the past several releases.

The Inkscape team plans to focus this summer on codebase cleanup and refactoring. This will affect the type of projects we can accept this year; we're looking for ones that either won't affect core code too significantly (such as Extension scripts, or File Input/Output formats) or that would actually result in improving the state of the codebase (adding tests, modularization, etc.). Students who have already been active developers in Inkscape previously will be allowed more latitude to work on core code (particularly if it will result in cleanup/refactoring of their past work).

= Student Applications =

* Google program information
** Summer of Code Application form
* Inkscape-specific information
** [[SOC Application Template]]
** [[Roadmap | Inkscape Roadmap]] - to see our overall objectives
** [[SOC Writing Project Proposals]] - some guidelines for proposals
** [[SOC Selection Criteria]] - how we rate applications

Student Applications for GSoC 2012 must be submitted to the GSoC site by 19:00 UTC on April 6th 2012

= The "two patches" rule =

We require two patches from each potential GSoC student, before accepting the student for GSoC participation (it is the same requirement as for obtaining rights to commit changes to the Bazaar code repository).
The reason for this requirement is that you can show us that you have succeeded in building Inkscape on your PC, and that you have understood a little piece of Inkscape's code and are able to improve it.
Inkscape is a large project, and you really should not try to understand all the code. Many (all?) developers know only parts of the program code!
You can join our jabber/IRC channel and ask developers for help.
To get you started on Inkscape development, here is a list of (probably) easy-to-fix bugs or small improvements that require very little knowledge of the whole program.

== Suggested "easy" bug fixes or improvements ==

Search our bug-tracker for bugs tagged with 'easy-fix'!

= Suggested Ideas =

Please note that your project proposal must be realistic: if you promise too much, we will most likely think you have not understood at all what it is about and will reject your proposal.

== Generic ideas ==

* Font editing and creation features, e.g. [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/designing-svg-fonts-using-styles designing SVG fonts using styles]
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/new-from-template-dialog 'New From Template' dialog]
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/kidscape-project kidscape] - Condensed version of Inkscape aimed at young kids and small form factor devices
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/cutter-control Cutter control] - Enable Inkscape's use with vinyl cutters.
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/guides-improvement Guides Improvements] - Especially a dialog that lists all guides and allows operations on them would be very very nice.

== Import/export projects ==

* Importing of 3D scene files in 16 file formats using [http://assimp.sourceforge.net/ Open Asset Import Library]
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/xar-to-svg-converter xar-to-svg converter] - Converter for Xara Xtreme to Inkscape
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/kml-svg-translation KML SVG translation] - For use of Inkscape with Google Earth or Maps

== Internal work & performance improvements ==

* Continue C++ification.
* Improving 2Geom where necessary (e.g. '''boolops''' and '''python bindings''').
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/icc-for-cairo ICC Color Management for cairo outputs] - Would allow Inkscape to produce CMYK PDFs and PSs with Cairo.
* [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/TextRework Text layout rewrite]: Move flow-text into Inkscape name space. Add support for hyphenation, paragraph indentation, underlining, etc.
* Units (inch, cm, px): the codebase has 4 different pieces of code for handling units! Refactoring into *one*.

== Better SVG standard coverage ==

* Full SVG viewbox support
* [[multipage | Multiple Page support]]
* Improve SVG compliance. [http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/W3C_SVG_1.1F2/harness/htmlInkscapeApproved/index.html Current status of W3C test suite compliance].
* Implement SVG 2.0 (and related) items such as:
** Vector Effects (non-destructive boolean-ops would be a good start)
** Marker color matching stroke
** [http://www.w3.org/TR/SVGMobile12/single-page.html#painting-SolidColorElement Solid-color support] (Named colors, would deprecate the single-stop gradient approach we currently use)
** [http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color/ CSS3 color support]
** CSS3 2d transforms (duplicates current attributes)
** [http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/Stroke_position Stroke position]
** [http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/Stroke_dash_adjustment Stroke dash adjustment]
Note: Some of the above items are somwhat low hanging fruit and would need a few of them to make a good proposal, others alone are worthy of a full GSoC project.

== Improve Inkscape SVG for use on Web ==

A proposal should fix most if not all of these problems:

* Fix "plain" SVG to not remove <script> section, etc.
* Fix saving SVG to not modify CDATA (e.g. don't change & to &amp; inside CDATA).
* Add option to set viewbox attribute to Document Properties.
* Font fallbacks.
* Easily add/edit hyperlinks.
* Better CSS support.
* Option to add title to SVG (searchability and accessibility).
* Remove XML prolog/DOCTYPE.
* Move sodipodi namespace items to Inkscape namespace.

== Live Path Effects related ==

* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/lpe-blueprint More Live Path Effects] - There is a lengthy list of ideas to choose from here.

== Tools and shapes related ==

* Multi shape editing - ability to edit more than 1 shape (like ellipse or star) at once, with extra features like resizing rectangles by dragging their edges.
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/transformation-anchors Transformation Anchors]
* Further development of [http://generalpicture.com/svg/shapeopera.html Shape Opera], a simple Javascript framework for morphing Inkscape PATH shapes.
* Add a palette of objects to Inkscape. Such a palette would contain often used objects and would allow categorizing such objects. Examples of categories: UML, electric, network.
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/inkscape-connectors Connector tool improvements] - Expose new libavoid functionality: orthogonal routing, connector ports, curved connectors. (Mentor: Michael Wybrow)
* Arrowhead/marker improvements
* [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/fillet-tool Fillet/Chamfer tool]
* Add Mesh gradients in Inkscape name space with appropriate editing interface. (Note that Cairo now supports meshes and [http://tavmjong.free.fr/SVG/MESH/Mesh.html here] is a WORK IN PROGRESS of a proposed mesh syntax for svg.) It would be advised to base work on the existing cairo rendering branch for Inkscape.

Please do not feel limited to the above ideas - some of our best contributions have been unique ideas that students had in mind from other sources!

For more ideas, please see https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/

= Successful SOC Projects from Previous Years =
* 2005
** Connectors
** Inkboard
** [http://www.openclipart.org/ Open Clip Art Library (OCAL)] Interface
** DXF Import / Export
* [[Google Summer of Code 2006|2006]]
** Support for SVG Filters
** Filter Effects
** PDF export
** Inkboard Protocol Spec / Lib Conversion
* [[Google Summer of Code 2007|2007]]
** Text Style Improvements
** PDF import
** Live Path Effects
** 3D Box Tool
** UI for SVG Filter Effects
** Raster Functionality
** Importing from, and Exporting to, a remote ccHost instance
* [[Google Summer of Code 2008|2008]]
** SVG Fonts support
** 2Geom refactoring project - port most geometry code to 2Geom
** lib2geom: interactive applications showing off the power of lib2geom
** Tech drawing abilities
** A test suite
* 2009
** [[GSoC 2009 Node Tool Rewrite|Node tool rewrite]]
** D-Bus scripting API
** Connector tool improvements
** ICC/CMYK workflow
* 2010
** Cairo-based rendering
** C++ification of SP Layer
* 2011
** Rendering caching
** Javascript support improvements
** CSS support improvements

[[Category:Developer Documentation]]

Doxygen documentation

2011-11-09T21:49:02Z

Simarilius:

Inkscape Doxygen Documentation is not currently available online, however a local copy can be extracted.
for instructions on using Doxygen: http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

User testimonials

2011-10-31T23:04:07Z

Simarilius:

=== From: Grant ===
Date: August 16, 2006 
Subject: Inkscape has promise but I can't use it

I had very high hopes for Inkscape 0.44 installed on my new MacBook  ([https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mac_OS_X MacOSX] 10.4.7)
as I had hoped to avoid having to buy a copy of  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator Illustrator] for it. Unfortunately, though I can import and edit my existing [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] files from [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator Illustrator](on another machine) without serious problems, I have been unable to export them as correct  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Encapsulated_PostScript EPS] or [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Portable_Document_Format PDF], which I require for a book I'm working on. The [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Encapsulated_PostScript EPS] files display dashed lines as solid, and the [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Portable_Document_Format PDF] files, though they are non-empty (about the same size as the [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Encapsulated_PostScript EPS] files) don't display at all in [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mac_OS_X MacOS] Previewer -- I get a blank page. In short, I simply can't use it for the purpose I had in mind. I'm sure it's fine if you can live with [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG]-only format files and/or print directly from Inkscape. It's possible that there's something wrong with my installation, but I've reinstalled it a couple of times from different sites and I've verified that I have the latest versions of [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ghostscript gs], [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pstoedit pstoedit], and similar utilities.

Also, although the docs allude to the capability of importing [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI] or [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Encapsulated_PostScript EPS] under certain circumstances, I have been absolutely unable to figure out from the information on line how to make this actually work. [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] seems to be my only current option for importing existing files.

I'm posting this not to discourage people from trying out Inkscape but rather to caution those who might view its current implementation as a reasonable working substitute for a commercial package like [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI]. Maybe I'm just unlucky, or maybe it's just a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mac_OS_X MacOSX] problem. If there's something wrong with my installation, then it's clearly something that the average user (like me) won't easily be able to debug without a lot of effort and outside guidance. Questions or comments may be sent to gpetty @ aos.wisc.edu

=== From: Proxi ===
Date: August 2006
Subject: Inkscape rocks !

Hello,
Inkscape is a very good vector software with amazing possibilities.
Congratulations to the Inkscape Team.

=== From: User Bats ===
Date: March 2006
Subject: Notes from a recent job using Inkscape.

Hey,
Please go to [[User:Bats|my user page]] where I have a write-up about Inkscape 0.43 and my recent thoughts and comments written just after I had finished the job.

Inkscapes makes Linux really cool (from my perspective), keep it up!

=== From: Gab Studio ===
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004
Subject: Great software !!!

Hi;

I'm just trying *INSKCAPE* and would like to *congratulate you all*.

I join my first work... if you want to add it in the galery :)

BRAVO again from France for this great software
have fun

regards

Gab

=== From: Jared Thompson ===
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004
Subject: awesome program

I know this may not be according to the purposes of this list,

but I just wanted to say that I recently discovered inkscape and I think
it is quite an impressive program so far.
I have been playing with it non stop for the past few days and love it,
the website is also nice and clean.
there are plenty of tips and in the program a help file that gives a
good overview to get beginners started

I will be looking forward to contribute what I can as time goes forward.

again,
just wanted to say thanks for an awesome program

-jared

=== From: Artemio ===
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004
Subject: thank you

Dear Inkscape developers,

at first, please take my sincere congratulations - Inkscape is on the 3rd
place in my top 5 list of most used applications! :-)

You have made possible what I have dreamt for over two years since I started
using Linux (I use ONLY Linux since that time). You have done a really great
work. Inkscape has absolutely everything I need from a vector editor and even
more. It's very light, fast and the interface is very straightforward and
intuitive. Thank you, thank you very much!

Frankly, you have blown all my expectations away - I didn't think someone
would do font->path thing possible, this is amazing! Now I can bring my  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVGs]
_anywhere_ and they will be read just as I made them (already tested this).

Please excuse me for talking too much, it's just that I really respect your
work and wish you all the best! I do have some little suggestions to you, but
I will write them in my next message :-)

Good luck to you all and thanks so much again!

Artemio.

=== From: Charles Goodwin ===
Date: Sun, 09 May 2004
Subject: Re: wow, this is amazing!

Everything about Inkscape has been impressive thus far, not least of
which the speed with which action is taken to address any issue.

- Charlie

=== From: Trent Buck ===
Date: Tue, Jun 8, 2004
Subject: Re: new illustrator screenshots

Quoth Alan Horkan on or about 2004-06-08:
<blockquote>

On Sat, 5 Jun 2004, Trent Buck wrote: 
FWIW, I think inkscape's UI is already better than [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI's.]

You said Inkscape is better so I make it a challenge to you to list more
ways, and maybe we can start a comparision chart in the Wiki which would
be useful for promoting Inkscape.
</blockquote>

OK, I'll confess, I haven't used [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI] for than about half-an-hour, because
I couldn't get the hang of the interface. Let me itemize my reasons for
using Inkscape.

Bear in mind that these are my *opinions*, not necessarily *right* in a
technical sense. I'll put a '+' in front of things that are actually UI.

Inkscape beats  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI]

+ As a newbie, I found the Inkscape (well, [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sodipodi sodipodi]) interface to be
pretty self-explanatory. Using [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI] I get the feeling I should take a
3-day course just to learn how to use it.
(Maybe this is just because of all the extra features, I don't know.)

It's free. When something happens I can check the source. It is
also far easier to add or request features.

It works on [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux linux.] Enough said.

The [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/GTK+ GIMP toolkit (GTK+)] is relatively clean, customizable and robust.

Inkscape beats [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sodipodi Sodipodi]

The larger community results in faster growth in all areas.

Boolean operations. Miscellaneous tweaks make Inkscape more
comfortable.

Inkscape beats both of them

+ Buttons are around the edge. It has been shown by [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Human%E2%80%93computer_interaction HCI] folks that
this is a far better design than the toolkit approach. [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fitts's_law Fitts' Law]
states that you can click screen corners and edges far faster than,
say, 10[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pixel px]
in from the edge.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Fitts'%20law

+ Likewise, this means everthing is in one window, which works much
better with my windowmanager (http://ratpoison.sf.net).

+ Keybindings for everything. I don't normally even have a rodent
plugged into my system, so being able to stay keyboard-centered is a
major advantage.

I should also point out that I'm not really an artistic person, my
strengths are more oriented in mathematics, english and science. I am a
 [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Computer_science CS] student by profession. I mostly use Inkscape when I need an image
and there isn't a specialized tool to draw it.

It could well be that I don't see Inkscape's deficiencies because my
drawings aren't complicated enough to need them.

-trent

=== From: Richard MacIntyre ===

Unless they've already mentioned it hereon, Julian MacDonald has kindly written a script, and Francois Guillet has just begun work on an  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] plugin, respectively, for  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] import into  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Art_of_Illusion Art of Illusion]- a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/3D_computer_graphics 3D] program- from Inkscape. see: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1117167&forum_id=47782

I have so far successfully done some stuff to test Julian's script, which I might post- er, that is if I can recusitate my hard disk :/ .

Nice work on Inkscape, btw: A very informative/transparent/diligent process; crisp tool icons with high-contrast; a well-done tutorial/manual, and an aesthetically-pleasing ink-droplet for the About screen. (I got a couple of kids at a cafe playing with Ink''s weird & wonderful calligraphy tool on my laptop :)

I look forward to R.1 or sooner, when I can leave [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator Illustrator] behind!

As a footnote:
<blockquote>A few years ago, when I had a contract that required the use of my legitimately-purchased copy of Illustrator, I called Adobe to get a replacement registration/re-installation number for the one I had lost. Even though I jumped through every one of their hoops- both at the time of purchase, as well as at the time of the request- they ultimately refused to issue a new one, and I lost the contract.</blockquote>

Richard

=== From: Henry House ===
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004
Subject: New user happy with inkscape!

I used to use [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator A. Illustrator] years ago before I used [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux Linux.] Ever since then
I have been dissatisfied with the various Free vector drawing applications
available for [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux Linux.] I just started using Inkscape yeterday and I am very
impressed! There are keyboard shortcuts for most operations! The boolean
operations (union, divide, etc) work! (The lack of such has been a major
impediment to my use of other vector drawing applications.) My only major
problem so far has been that the selected object is difficult to see because
the selection indicators do not contrast strongly with their object or
follow their object's path outline.

Henry House

=== From: Jose Hevia ===
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004
Subject: About DATA and METADATA

Oh, I'm very excited about the little big improvements of inkscape
0.39: In ex.You could go to Object-> Object Properties and ...Change
an object identifier!!! This was in previous versions but didn't seem
to work for me.

So now we could have info not only of the sorting of objects but for
the objects itselfs(multiple in a file) ,so I could make a map of
Africa an name Angola,Rwanda...,summit to open clipart,search in
google :

Rwanda+africa+svg and, there it is!.The bad news is that if I'm not an
english speaker I don't know that "Marruecos" name from my Atlas is
Morocco in english word.(Yes there are a lot of people that have not
thought about that ever).

=== From: Phil Shapiro ===
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004
Subject: heartfelt thanks for creating inkscape

thanks a megabyte for your visionary work in creating inkscape. i
discovered this amazing software last week and have been talking it up
on various national email lists i'm on. (see below a message i sent
this evening to the list of [http://www.ctcnet.org/ Community Technology Centers' Network CTCNet]), one of the largest nonprofit organizations working to bridge
the digital divide.)

CTCNet's annual conference is going to be in cleveland in june, 2005, in
case you (or any of the othe inkscape developers) might be in the area
at that time. it's likely more than 1000 technology access activists
will be attending this conference. stephen quinn is the wonderful
person organizing this conference. squinn@ctcnet.org

thanks again. you've inspired many by creating inkscape and your
creation will unleash a river of artistic creativity by many who cannot
afford a commercial vector drawing program.

- phil shapiro
arlington, virginia
=== From: shic ===
Just want to add my appreciation of the work done on Inkscape. Very impressive!

shic (309152) on Monday December 20, 2004

Thank you! I'm by no means a graphic artist, but every few months I find I need to draw a diagram for a document, or a simple logo, or a form of some sort or other. Back in the late 80s/early 90s I used [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/RISCOS RISCOS] and "!Draw" which I found to be awesome. I move to [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SunOS SUNOS], then [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Solaris_(operating_system) SOLARIS]
, then [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux Linux] before finally requiring [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Microsoft_Windows Windows] (don't ask) as my primary platform - and until today I have been extremely unimpressed with the options for vector graphics. Until you mentioned Inkscape I'd done everything from battling with [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Xfig Xfig] and [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/LaTeX LaTeX] to being confused by [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator Adobe Illustrator] - which was serious overkill for a simple letterhead design. Inkscape already seems to meet my needs - the first program, commercial or otherwise, I've found in the last 15 years since !Draw which deserves this acolade. I think [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SourceForge SourceForge] should promote this project more actively - it deserves to be project of the month or something in order to raise awareness.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=133308&cid=11135973

=== From: Daniel ===
I am not a visual person.

I am not a designer, not a drawer, not a painter, not a photographer.

I'm a man of words, really, if I need to be creative, it's words.

Having said that, can I sue you for the time I've lost playing with
Inkscape? No? Goddamnit.

It's wonderful. Intuitive. The 'everything should be keyboard
accessible' philosophy rocks. It has everything.

Yesterday I tried, to amuse myself, making a mockup panelling for a
comic that I'm working on with a visual artist (you guessed it - I
mostly do the words :P).. it's incredible how painful proper layout with
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets CSS] can be. As these things go, 'to amuse myself' turned into a holy
crusade and I would not rest until I could churn out professional layout
mockups by the dozen. So I got Inkscape.

The next 2 hours were spent rotating and resizing stars and occasionally
saying 'wow'. I shake my angry fist at you all.

Daniel

=== From: Christoph ===
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 16:14:27 +0100 
Subject: [Inkscape-user] Presentations with Inkscape

Hello,

I'm currently preparing a talk and thus looking for a presentation
software. The following criterias have to be met:

* open source software
* should either run on my Apple [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/IBook iBook], a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NetBSD NetBSD] system, or both

I've been toying with Inkscape lately, and I enjoyed drawing some
figure for the talk. It's real fun to use all the nice features like
rounded boxes, transparency, etc. Inkscape provides.

So while I was at it, I just went ahead and created the correspondent
presentation slide. It took some time until I actually discovered
"inkview" -- you should definitely place a note somewhere, so people
will find it! But this is just the thing I was looking for. No fancy
transitions and other useless stuff, but clean font rendering and nice
figures. Fonts actually render much cleaner than in [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/AppleWorks Apple Works']
presentations. It's a lot faster than  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Batik_(software) batik-slideshow,] plus it scales
the slide down, so you don't have to worry about that when you draw it.

So, I just wanted to thank you for this great piece of software, and
keep it up!

Just as a side note: I installed Inkscape 0.40 and all its dependencies
from The [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NetBSD#The_pkgsrc_packages_collection NetBSD Packages Collection] [1] both on [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NetBSD NetBSD] and  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mac_OS_X Mac OS X]
10.3, and it works like a charm. (Except that I cant get fullscreen
output from inkview, but that may be related to Apple's [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/X_Window_System X11]
implementation.)

[1] <http://www.pkgsrc.org/>

Regards,
Christoph

=== From: Learning Technologies Center (LTC) of the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) ===
Inscape is a free, cross-platform [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)] format program that lets you create logos, illustrations and other drawings like commercial packages such as Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator.

http://ltc.smm.org/visualize/toolkit - Science Museum of Minnesota (3D Visulation toolkit)

[[Category:Wiki Attic]]

User testimonials

2011-10-31T23:02:29Z

Simarilius: Reverted edits by Simarilius (talk) to last revision by NeoPhyte Rep

Inkscape

2011-10-31T23:02:16Z

Simarilius:

This is a freeform area for Inkscape development and discussion.
Curious about [[WikiSyntax]]?

Other languages: [[Inkscape en español|Wiki en español]], [[L'Inkscape en Català|Wiki en Català]], [[Inkscape em Português|Wiki em Português]], [[Startseite|Wiki auf deutsch]]...

<table cellspacing="11" width="100%"><tr valign="top">
<td style="width:33%;background-color: #E6E6E6; padding:.5em;">
=== About Inkscape ===
* [http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape Homepage]
* [[About Inkscape]]
* [[Features of Inkscape|Features]]
* [[FAQ]] - Frequently Asked Questions
* [[Project information]]
* [[Supported operating systems]]
* [[Tools]] - Supporting Tools and Applications
* [[Galleries]]
* [[Inkscape coverage|Coverage]] - Awards, articles, presentations, books about Inkscape
* [[Inkscape popularity|Popularity]]
* [[Contact information]] - the developers' e-mails and SVN nicknames

</td>

<td style="width:33%;;background-color: white; padding:.5em;">

=== User Documentation ===
* [[Installing Inkscape|Installation]]
* [[International and Local Communities]]
* [[Inkscape glossary]]
* [[User manual information]] - where to find the free Inkscape manual and how to contribute to it
* [http://inkscape.org/doc/ Tutorials]
* [[Inkscape SVG vs. plain SVG]]
* [[Output format requirements]] - what's needed to save in some formats
* [[Effect requirements]] - what's needed to use some effects
* [[Effect reference]] - what each effect does
* [[Connector tool tutorial]]
* [[Installing fonts]]
* [[Emergency save]] - recovery in case Inkscape crashed
* [[Release notes]]
** for version [[Release notes/0.49|0.49]] (active development)
** for version [[Release notes/0.48.3|0.48.3]] (upcoming stable bug-fix)
** '''for version [[Release notes/0.48.2|0.48.2]] (current release)'''
** older versions: [[Release notes/0.48.1|0.48.1]], [[Release notes/0.48|0.48]], [[Release notes/0.47|0.47]]
* [[Announcing Releases]]
* [[Tricks and tips]] - miscellaneous advice, may be slightly outdated
</td>

<td style="width:33%;background-color: #E6E6E6; padding:.5em;">

=== Help Inkscape Without Coding ===

* [[Bug management]]
* [[Testing]]
* [[Translation information]]
* [[Editing Inkscape's website|Website]]
* [[Inkscape Classes]]
* [[Conferences]]
* [[Marketing Scratchpad]]

* [[HelpWanted]]
* [[BugTriageProjects]]
* [[CreatingDists]]: how to build packages
* [[StableBranchUpdates]]
* [[UpdatingTrackerItems]]
* [[TutorialsAndHelp]]
* [[How_To_Start_A_Page]] how to use the wiki
* [[AboutScreenContest]]

</td></tr></table>

<table cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="background-color: white; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-color:#62C012">

<tr valign="top" style="padding:11px 0em 0em 11px">
<th colspan="2" align="left" style="padding:.5em 0em 0em .5em">

=== Developer Documentation ===
</th></tr><tr valign="top" align="left"><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">
==== First Steps ====
* [[Working with Bazaar]] - How to obtain the source code. A quick start on how to use our version control system
* [[Compiling Inkscape|Compilation]]
* [[Using Eclipse]]
* [[Developer manual]] - various important information, be sure to read this before coding
* [[Debugging Inkscape|Debugging]] - random tips to help debug problems
* [[Project organization]] - procedures, hierarchy, developer roles and the likes
* [[Janitorial tasks]] - small tasks that need doing
* [[Doxygen documentation]]
* [[Working with SVN]] - besides the code in Bazaar, we still have some things in SVN.

==== Developer tutorials ====
* [[Architectural overview]] - a high-level look at Inkscape
* [[Preferences subsystem]] - creating and using preference values
* XML subsystem (WIP) - how to manipulate the XML representation of a document
* Display subsystem (WIP) - how to make things appear on the canvas
* Tools subsystem (WIP) - how to create a new tool
* [[Creating a new SPObject]]
* Extensions
** [[Extension subsystem]] - an overview of the functionality provided by extensions and the possible implementations
** [[Script extensions]]
** [[Python modules for extensions]] - some helpful routines for use in Python script extensions
* [[Creating Live Path Effects]]
* [[Boost shared pointers]]
* [[Using libsigc++ signals]]
* [[Windows development on Linux]]

==== Miscellaneous ====
* [[INX extension descriptor format]]
* [[Inkscape-specific XML attributes]] - documentation of attributes from Inkscape's XML namespace

* [[Extension repository]]: an Internet central for Inkscape Extensions
* [[Related programs]]

</td><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">

==== Development Discussion ====
* [[Roadmap]]: the main todo list
* [[Dependencies]] - what libs are needed to build Inkscape
* [[NewFeatureProposals]]
* [[ExtensionArchitectureProposals]]
* [[Coding Style|Coding Style Discussion]]
* [[FileTypes]]
* [[ApplicationIcons]] (Application + Interface)
* [[Icons]]
* [[InkscapeColor]]
* [[PrintingSubsystem]]
* [[SVG Tiny Compliance]]
* [[SVG Test Suite Compliance]] - [[W3C]] full test suite
* [[CSS Support]]
* [[Google Summer Of Code]]
* [[Improved Media Management]]
* [[UI MockupScreenshots]]
* [[Swatch Book]]
* [[Tablet Dialog]]
* [[ViewBoxToDo]] View box support info
* [[Caching]]

===Lib2Geom===
*[[lib2geom]]
*[[lib2geom Goals]]
*[[lib2geom FAQ]]
*[[lib2geom SVN Repository Guide]]
*[[WorkingWith2GeomFAQ]]: real-life questions answered about using 2Geom in real code
*[[lib2geom py2geom]]: python bindings to 2geom. With this you can use the power of 2geom in python scripts.

</td></tr><tr valign="top" align="left"><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">

==== User Interface Discussion ====
* [[Translation_information]]
* [[AddingInterfaceVerbs]]
* [[AccessibleGraphics]]
* [[ObjectManager]]
* [[DialogsReorganization]]
* [[ModalInterfaces]]
* [[TextUsability]]: text tool /dialog dialog
* [[KeyboardShortcutsToDo]]
** [[KeyboardProfiles]]: how you can help
* [[StatusbarAPI]]
* [[Animation-(Timeline)]]
* [[Free Desktop Graphic Suite]]

</td><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">

==== Rearchitecture Discussion ====
* [[0.47 Refactoring Plan]]
** [[SubsystemRearchitecture]]
** [[GtkMMification]]: replace C boilerplate with gtkmm objects
* [[PathRepresentation]]
* [[Cairoification]]
* [[ScribusInteroperability]]

</td></tr></table>

* [[WikiAttic]]: pages that are no longer relevant but kept for historical value

__NOTOC__

[[Category:About Inkscape]]
[[Category:User Documentation]]

User testimonials

2011-10-31T21:35:09Z

Simarilius:

=== From: Proxi ===
Date: August 2006
Subject: Inkscape rocks !

Hello,
Inkscape is a very good vector software with amazing possibilities.
Congratulations to the Inkscape Team.

=== From: User Bats ===
Date: March 2006
Subject: Notes from a recent job using Inkscape.

Hey,
Please go to [[User:Bats|my user page]] where I have a write-up about Inkscape 0.43 and my recent thoughts and comments written just after I had finished the job.

Inkscapes makes Linux really cool (from my perspective), keep it up!

=== From: Gab Studio ===
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004
Subject: Great software !!!

Hi;

I'm just trying *INSKCAPE* and would like to *congratulate you all*.

I join my first work... if you want to add it in the galery :)

BRAVO again from France for this great software
have fun

regards

Gab

=== From: Jared Thompson ===
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004
Subject: awesome program

I know this may not be according to the purposes of this list,

but I just wanted to say that I recently discovered inkscape and I think
it is quite an impressive program so far.
I have been playing with it non stop for the past few days and love it,
the website is also nice and clean.
there are plenty of tips and in the program a help file that gives a
good overview to get beginners started

I will be looking forward to contribute what I can as time goes forward.

again,
just wanted to say thanks for an awesome program

-jared

=== From: Artemio ===
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004
Subject: thank you

Dear Inkscape developers,

at first, please take my sincere congratulations - Inkscape is on the 3rd
place in my top 5 list of most used applications! :-)

You have made possible what I have dreamt for over two years since I started
using Linux (I use ONLY Linux since that time). You have done a really great
work. Inkscape has absolutely everything I need from a vector editor and even
more. It's very light, fast and the interface is very straightforward and
intuitive. Thank you, thank you very much!

Frankly, you have blown all my expectations away - I didn't think someone
would do font->path thing possible, this is amazing! Now I can bring my  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVGs]
_anywhere_ and they will be read just as I made them (already tested this).

Please excuse me for talking too much, it's just that I really respect your
work and wish you all the best! I do have some little suggestions to you, but
I will write them in my next message :-)

Good luck to you all and thanks so much again!

Artemio.

=== From: Charles Goodwin ===
Date: Sun, 09 May 2004
Subject: Re: wow, this is amazing!

Everything about Inkscape has been impressive thus far, not least of
which the speed with which action is taken to address any issue.

- Charlie

=== From: Trent Buck ===
Date: Tue, Jun 8, 2004
Subject: Re: new illustrator screenshots

Quoth Alan Horkan on or about 2004-06-08:
<blockquote>

On Sat, 5 Jun 2004, Trent Buck wrote: 
FWIW, I think inkscape's UI is already better than [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI's.]

You said Inkscape is better so I make it a challenge to you to list more
ways, and maybe we can start a comparision chart in the Wiki which would
be useful for promoting Inkscape.
</blockquote>

OK, I'll confess, I haven't used [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI] for than about half-an-hour, because
I couldn't get the hang of the interface. Let me itemize my reasons for
using Inkscape.

Bear in mind that these are my *opinions*, not necessarily *right* in a
technical sense. I'll put a '+' in front of things that are actually UI.

Inkscape beats  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI]

+ As a newbie, I found the Inkscape (well, [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sodipodi sodipodi]) interface to be
pretty self-explanatory. Using [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator AI] I get the feeling I should take a
3-day course just to learn how to use it.
(Maybe this is just because of all the extra features, I don't know.)

It's free. When something happens I can check the source. It is
also far easier to add or request features.

It works on [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux linux.] Enough said.

The [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/GTK+ GIMP toolkit (GTK+)] is relatively clean, customizable and robust.

Inkscape beats [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sodipodi Sodipodi]

The larger community results in faster growth in all areas.

Boolean operations. Miscellaneous tweaks make Inkscape more
comfortable.

Inkscape beats both of them

+ Buttons are around the edge. It has been shown by [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Human%E2%80%93computer_interaction HCI] folks that
this is a far better design than the toolkit approach. [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fitts's_law Fitts' Law]
states that you can click screen corners and edges far faster than,
say, 10[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pixel px]
in from the edge.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Fitts'%20law

+ Likewise, this means everthing is in one window, which works much
better with my windowmanager (http://ratpoison.sf.net).

+ Keybindings for everything. I don't normally even have a rodent
plugged into my system, so being able to stay keyboard-centered is a
major advantage.

I should also point out that I'm not really an artistic person, my
strengths are more oriented in mathematics, english and science. I am a
 [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Computer_science CS] student by profession. I mostly use Inkscape when I need an image
and there isn't a specialized tool to draw it.

It could well be that I don't see Inkscape's deficiencies because my
drawings aren't complicated enough to need them.

-trent

=== From: Richard MacIntyre ===

Unless they've already mentioned it hereon, Julian MacDonald has kindly written a script, and Francois Guillet has just begun work on an  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] plugin, respectively, for  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] import into  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Art_of_Illusion Art of Illusion]- a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/3D_computer_graphics 3D] program- from Inkscape. see: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1117167&forum_id=47782

I have so far successfully done some stuff to test Julian's script, which I might post- er, that is if I can recusitate my hard disk :/ .

Nice work on Inkscape, btw: A very informative/transparent/diligent process; crisp tool icons with high-contrast; a well-done tutorial/manual, and an aesthetically-pleasing ink-droplet for the About screen. (I got a couple of kids at a cafe playing with Ink''s weird & wonderful calligraphy tool on my laptop :)

I look forward to R.1 or sooner, when I can leave [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator Illustrator] behind!

As a footnote:
<blockquote>A few years ago, when I had a contract that required the use of my legitimately-purchased copy of Illustrator, I called Adobe to get a replacement registration/re-installation number for the one I had lost. Even though I jumped through every one of their hoops- both at the time of purchase, as well as at the time of the request- they ultimately refused to issue a new one, and I lost the contract.</blockquote>

Richard

=== From: Henry House ===
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004
Subject: New user happy with inkscape!

I used to use [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator A. Illustrator] years ago before I used [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux Linux.] Ever since then
I have been dissatisfied with the various Free vector drawing applications
available for [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux Linux.] I just started using Inkscape yeterday and I am very
impressed! There are keyboard shortcuts for most operations! The boolean
operations (union, divide, etc) work! (The lack of such has been a major
impediment to my use of other vector drawing applications.) My only major
problem so far has been that the selected object is difficult to see because
the selection indicators do not contrast strongly with their object or
follow their object's path outline.

Henry House

=== From: Jose Hevia ===
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004
Subject: About DATA and METADATA

Oh, I'm very excited about the little big improvements of inkscape
0.39: In ex.You could go to Object-> Object Properties and ...Change
an object identifier!!! This was in previous versions but didn't seem
to work for me.

So now we could have info not only of the sorting of objects but for
the objects itselfs(multiple in a file) ,so I could make a map of
Africa an name Angola,Rwanda...,summit to open clipart,search in
google :

Rwanda+africa+svg and, there it is!.The bad news is that if I'm not an
english speaker I don't know that "Marruecos" name from my Atlas is
Morocco in english word.(Yes there are a lot of people that have not
thought about that ever).

=== From: Phil Shapiro ===
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004
Subject: heartfelt thanks for creating inkscape

thanks a megabyte for your visionary work in creating inkscape. i
discovered this amazing software last week and have been talking it up
on various national email lists i'm on. (see below a message i sent
this evening to the list of [http://www.ctcnet.org/ Community Technology Centers' Network CTCNet]), one of the largest nonprofit organizations working to bridge
the digital divide.)

CTCNet's annual conference is going to be in cleveland in june, 2005, in
case you (or any of the othe inkscape developers) might be in the area
at that time. it's likely more than 1000 technology access activists
will be attending this conference. stephen quinn is the wonderful
person organizing this conference. squinn@ctcnet.org

thanks again. you've inspired many by creating inkscape and your
creation will unleash a river of artistic creativity by many who cannot
afford a commercial vector drawing program.

- phil shapiro
arlington, virginia
=== From: shic ===
Just want to add my appreciation of the work done on Inkscape. Very impressive!

shic (309152) on Monday December 20, 2004

Thank you! I'm by no means a graphic artist, but every few months I find I need to draw a diagram for a document, or a simple logo, or a form of some sort or other. Back in the late 80s/early 90s I used [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/RISCOS RISCOS] and "!Draw" which I found to be awesome. I move to [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SunOS SUNOS], then [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Solaris_(operating_system) SOLARIS]
, then [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Linux Linux] before finally requiring [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Microsoft_Windows Windows] (don't ask) as my primary platform - and until today I have been extremely unimpressed with the options for vector graphics. Until you mentioned Inkscape I'd done everything from battling with [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Xfig Xfig] and [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/LaTeX LaTeX] to being confused by [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator Adobe Illustrator] - which was serious overkill for a simple letterhead design. Inkscape already seems to meet my needs - the first program, commercial or otherwise, I've found in the last 15 years since !Draw which deserves this acolade. I think [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SourceForge SourceForge] should promote this project more actively - it deserves to be project of the month or something in order to raise awareness.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=133308&cid=11135973

=== From: Daniel ===
I am not a visual person.

I am not a designer, not a drawer, not a painter, not a photographer.

I'm a man of words, really, if I need to be creative, it's words.

Having said that, can I sue you for the time I've lost playing with
Inkscape? No? Goddamnit.

It's wonderful. Intuitive. The 'everything should be keyboard
accessible' philosophy rocks. It has everything.

Yesterday I tried, to amuse myself, making a mockup panelling for a
comic that I'm working on with a visual artist (you guessed it - I
mostly do the words :P).. it's incredible how painful proper layout with
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets CSS] can be. As these things go, 'to amuse myself' turned into a holy
crusade and I would not rest until I could churn out professional layout
mockups by the dozen. So I got Inkscape.

The next 2 hours were spent rotating and resizing stars and occasionally
saying 'wow'. I shake my angry fist at you all.

Daniel

=== From: Christoph ===
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 16:14:27 +0100 
Subject: [Inkscape-user] Presentations with Inkscape

Hello,

I'm currently preparing a talk and thus looking for a presentation
software. The following criterias have to be met:

* open source software
* should either run on my Apple [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/IBook iBook], a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NetBSD NetBSD] system, or both

I've been toying with Inkscape lately, and I enjoyed drawing some
figure for the talk. It's real fun to use all the nice features like
rounded boxes, transparency, etc. Inkscape provides.

So while I was at it, I just went ahead and created the correspondent
presentation slide. It took some time until I actually discovered
"inkview" -- you should definitely place a note somewhere, so people
will find it! But this is just the thing I was looking for. No fancy
transitions and other useless stuff, but clean font rendering and nice
figures. Fonts actually render much cleaner than in [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/AppleWorks Apple Works']
presentations. It's a lot faster than  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Batik_(software) batik-slideshow,] plus it scales
the slide down, so you don't have to worry about that when you draw it.

So, I just wanted to thank you for this great piece of software, and
keep it up!

Just as a side note: I installed Inkscape 0.40 and all its dependencies
from The [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NetBSD#The_pkgsrc_packages_collection NetBSD Packages Collection] [1] both on [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/NetBSD NetBSD] and  [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mac_OS_X Mac OS X]
10.3, and it works like a charm. (Except that I cant get fullscreen
output from inkview, but that may be related to Apple's [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/X_Window_System X11]
implementation.)

[1] <http://www.pkgsrc.org/>

Regards,
Christoph

=== From: Learning Technologies Center (LTC) of the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) ===
Inscape is a free, cross-platform [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)] format program that lets you create logos, illustrations and other drawings like commercial packages such as Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator.

http://ltc.smm.org/visualize/toolkit - Science Museum of Minnesota (3D Visulation toolkit)

[[Category:About Inkscape]]

Galleries

2011-10-30T23:03:36Z

Simarilius: Removing dead links (why did we have half a page of crossed out links?)

== Localized Versions ==
Localized versions of this gallery list:
* [[BenutzerGalerien|Benutzergalerien auf deutsch]]

== Galleries ==

=== Multiple-author galleries ===

* [http://openclipart.org Open Clip Art Library] Mostly Public Domain
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/547272@N22/ Flickr@Inkscape]
* [http://InkscapeBrasil.org/Galeria Inkscape Brasil Galeria]
* [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Created_with_Inkscape Category:Created with Inkscape] at Wikimedia Commons contains more than 50,000 of Inkscape SVG images of all kinds
* [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVGs_by_subject SVGs by subject] at Wikimedia Commons contains thousonds of SVGs organised by image subject.
* [http://inkscape.deviantart.com/favourites/ inkscape.deviantart.com] The Inkscape group on deviantART
* [http://gould.cx/ted/ink-about/ Museum of Sodipodi and Inkscape About Screens]
* [http://www.inkscapegallery.net Inkscape Gallery ]- a community gallery website with svg support and js slideshows
* [http://www.kde-files.org/index.php?xcontentmode=644 KDE-Files Inkscape directory] artwork by various contrubters, you can also upload your own work.

=== Single-author galleries ===
* [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nevit_Dilmen_Tangrams 245 Tangrams] All drawn in Inkscape. License CC 3.0 & GFDL
* [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nevit_Dilmen_SVG SVG files by Nevit Dilmen] Most using Inkscape. License CC 3.0 & GFDL
* [http://jelly.haifashion.eu Jellyfish Dessert] comic strip (en, de, fr)
*'''FOCA Free Open Clipart Archive:''' [http://www.foca.tk Foca Clipart] - 600+ Vectorial Cliparts made using Inkscape from Chile to the the world (distributed under CC license)
* [http://inkscapefans.blogspot.com inkscapefans.blogspot.com ]free step by step Inkscape tutorials
* [http://veryrobert.com/gallery veryrobert.com] Complex and humorous book Illustrations made with Inkscape
* '''VitalBodies.net:''' [http://www.vitalbodies.net/site/art-design/inkscape-gallery.html VitalBodies Inkscape Gallery] - Come see what's new....
*'''VitalBodies Blog:''' [http://vitalbodies.com/blog/ Open Source Inkscape Scalable Vector Graphics SVG Software] - Inkscape License Plate, Article and how to install Inkscape in Ubuntu and more, just search Inkscape on the blog.
* [http://www.nojhan.net/art/index.php?tag/inkscape nojhan/art] - illustrations made with inkscape, under the (free) CC-BY-SA license.
* [http://www.colvinart.net/index.php?list=4 Colvinart.net ] - I also managed to use the wmf output feature to convert to swish-usable flash files. Yay!me. All vector is inkscape only.
* [http://deathtokalia.com/content/death-kalia-webcomic-made-using-inkscape DeathToKalia] A new web comic using Inkscape. '''Some of these are NSFW'''
* [http://www.17deg.com/ www.17deg.com] Illustrations, button badges, t-shirts - made with Inkscape.
* [http://watersoul.ca/comics/ WaterSoul's] Web comics! (xkcd style)
* [http://www.pixelpalaces.com/dk/ PixelPalaces pressents: ''Dragon Knights''] Super Hero/Science fiction comic mostly drawn in Inkscape and mostly in SVGZ with interactiy and animation
* [http://manowarrior.deviantart.com/ ManoWarrior] Inkscape vectors by Luchezar Petkov
* [http://ostan-collections.net/imeeji/index.php?cat=10570 C-chan @ OS-tan Collections] Anime-style artwork produced almost entirely in Inkscape (see the "Finished Works" Gallery for best examples). Other User Galleries also contain works produced fully or partially in Inkscape.
* [http://conichiwua.wordpress.com/ Conichiwua] - Inkscape art
* A tiny selection of [http://marksinkscape.blogspot.com/ Mark H's] inkscape pics.
* [http://www.dushkin.org/ Dushkin] is an artist of the digital age. A graduate of iidabashi hoikuen. Please be sure to leave a comment in his blog. Check out his gallery for the latest Inkscape creations.
* Dan Wells' beautiful gallery of Inkscape art is viewable [http://monkeydan1.deviantart.com here.]
* [http://lunar8.rydia.net/ Mental's Lunar 8 Comics]
* [[simarilius]]
* [[Jofo]]
* [http://www.kde-look.org/usermanager/search.php?username=salahuddin66 Great Wallpapers!]
* [http://david.bellot.free.fr/svg-cards/ SVG-cards]
* [http://art-zone.ro pictura,reproduceri,poezii,portrete,tablouri] paintings with inkscape aport
* [http://zubauza.deviantart.com/gallery zubauza's gallery @ deviantART]
* [[Gwyn]]
* [http://edeca.net/wp/graphics Free SVG nautical flags]
* [http://gatonegro.ceibes.org Gatonegro deseño - gatonegro.ceibes.org]. Inkscape-based graphic design, with the occasional aid of the GIMP and Scribus. Stickers, posters, tee-shirts, pamphlets, logotypes, wallpapers... Most of them released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike. (Language: galizan.)
* [http://imaginaciongnu.iespana.es/ Imaginacion GNU] Artwork created with Inkscape by Daniel Cremades (Graphic designer, spanish)
* [http://www.bakedbabies.com Baked Babies] (a few comics created with inkscape WARNING: not for kids)
* [http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=16627 AmaroK Icon], [http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=18204 Mupen64 Icon] KDE artwork by Zekant
* [http://erture.webpark.pl/vinci.html Radek Turek]
* [http://mooouette.tuxfamily.org/ LaMouette] French OpenOffice.org Mascot by Ben Bois made with Inkscape
* [http://panzi.deviantart.com/gallery/#SVG panzi.deviantArt.com/gallery/#SVG] (IMHO the best is [http://www.deviantart.com/view/4617948/ my orc])
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterhellberg/353706629/ Tribal tattoo drawn in Inkscape]
* [http://popolon.org/inkscape/ popolon.org/inkscape/] Tutorial for Inkscape and pictures made with Inkscape, mostly in french some in english or chinese.
* [http://yeknan.free.fr/blog/index.php?2006/03/22/74-galerie-svg yeKcim] Free SVG (Wormux, Crocobox, Mille bornes,...)
* [[Paramate]]
* [http://www.awns.com/galeri/ Galeri] A growing collection of colourful and stylish artwork.
* [http://proximus1.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=digitalart/vector/&offset=0 Proximus1] Vector Artwork by Proximus1
* [http://singularityblues.com Singularity Blues] A webcomic done in Inkscape. SVG files available upon request.
* [http://hrum.deviantart.com/gallery ~hrum] Konstantin R. page on deviantart with pictures made in Inkscape (most of them) and GIMP

* [http://sunedonath.de/bilder.htm Sune Donath] anime wallpapers made with Inkscape incl. SVG download.
* [http://www.rammbauer.nl/?cat=3 Rayart Rammbauer] some poster and cartoons made with Inkscape
* [http://vorg.pl/design/tag/vector Vorg.pl] artwork by graphic designer Marcin Ignac
* [http://playful-geometer.deviantart.com | A Playful Geometer's deviantart gallery] Images made mostly using [http://sourceforge.net/projects/play-svg pLAySVG] the GPL'd python libraries for the easy generation of SVG vector graphics
* [http://www.alpha-release.com Alpha Release] an online comic under a Creative Commons license, drawn entirely in Inkscape
* [http://geronimo89.deviantart.com geronimo89@deviantART.com] He often uses Inkscape for his vector works and tries to give an impression how powerful Inkscape is.
* [http://mathburton.deviantart.com/ Mathburton] Inkscape vectors by James Avila
* [http://hamletothehamster.blogspot.com Hamleto The Hamster] An online comic strips about an hamster called Hamleto entirely drawn in Inkscape (now in english)
* [http://rockraikar.deviantart.com/gallery/#Inkscape rockraikar@deviantART] Few illustrations & tutorials with Inkscape.
* [http://chezmodelshop.blogspot.com Modelshop] A girly french blog with illustrations made with Inkscape.
* [http://plurib.us/svg_gallery/ Plurib.us SVG Art Gallery] Gallery of Inkscape created SVG art (most CC licensed).
* '''By night-train:''' [http://members.home.nl/rouweler/bnt/ 30 pages of visual desktop poetry] - made with Inkscape by Marcel Rouweler
* [http://quiche-shamelessself-promotion.blogspot.com/ ShamelessSelfPromotion] blog featuring Inkscape art
* [http://quicheloraine.deviantart.com/ QuicheLoraine@deviantART] Gallery of Inkscape Art
* [http://www.math.umd.edu/~nstrawn/oralprelim.pdf Math Presentation]- A full mathematical presentation produced using Inkscape and the LaTeX extension TeXtext.
*[http://www.matthieutuffet.com/ matthieu's illustrations gallerie] illustrations made on inkscape and some other artworks
* [http://wlps-ge-stuff.ucoz.com/ WLP's Google Earth maps and stuff] — A collection of maps made with Inkscape (mostly of racing facilities) and corresponding Google Earth XPIs which typically include the map as an overlay. Some vectorized images might also be added. Forums supported by the author (Will Pittenger) are available for many topics. One discusses Will's mapping techniques with Inkscape.
* [http://flsixtyfour.blogspot.com/search/label/Inkscape/ fl64]
* [http://www.lamahütte.de lamahütte.de - ], [http://www.haifashion.de haifashion.de - ] and [http://www.skvmeridian.eu SKV MeriDian.eu - ] websites and information material created with inkscape, *.png rendering for IExplorer missing svg-issues, photos edited with gimp
* [http://arwassa.com Arwassa.com] Girly illustrations made with Inkscape by digital artist Arwassa
* [http://scrapcoloring.com ScrapColoring] Coloring pages with gradients and patterns made with Inkscape. Also in French: [http://scrapcoloring.fr coloriage]
* [http://www.davekdesign.com davek1979's artworks] all artworks by David Kopnicky
* [http://www.cubehobo.com cube hobo web comic] drawn with Inkscape on the "cube hobo" lifestyle.
* [http://www.thechangeling.net The Changeling] ~~ A webcomic website created with dynamic xhtml and SVG drawn in Inkscape. Please note: contains mature graphic content not suitable for minors or people easily offended by nudity and/or violence.
* [http://sindcomics.com SindcomiCs: HPC World] - A webcomic drawn in InkScape, licensed under a Creative Common license (currently pngs are released only).
* [http://www.dare2dream.com/illustration dare2dream.com] - Vector illustrations by artist Russ Sharek.
* [http://www.falconberger.co.uk Falcon Berger books] - a micropublisher using Inkscape for its book covers (link includes a photo of a finished paperback)
* [http://sebby.cc/?page_id=14 Sebby.cc Graphics] Vector image gallery with SVG source.
* [http://www.drunkduck.com/floaters/ Floaters] A web comic made entirely in Inkscape.

<!-- these sites not responding/working
* [http://gallery.crypt.cc Crypt.cc Gallery] artwork by J, others can also upload your own work to showcase here
* [http://programmer-art.org/artwork Daniel G. Taylor's Art Page]
* [http://gallery.urosevic.net/svg Urke MMI]
* [http://widdma.dyndns.org/wc/widdmoprev.html Widdmotions] (Not found) Smiley Set
* http://www.hinterlandcasa.it An Italian svg panels & buttons based site made with Inkscape.
* [http://www.grafixport.org/ grafixport] A new Forum for SVG and Inkscape Friends!
* [http://mathburton.deviantart.com/ Mathburton] Inkscape vectors by James Avila
* [http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee54/warpigelp/LOscaleEP4png.png]Low Observable Chart #1 Created in Inkscape and exported to .png by E. Palmer
* [http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee54/warpigelp/LOscaleEP3png.png]Low Observable Chart #2 Created in Inkscape and exported to .png by E. Palmer
* [http://animedieval.com/?page_id=16]A character made for inkscape by windknight
* [http://www.plastik-models.com Plastik Models] A digital magazine made with Inkscape and Scribus
* [http://www.mondada.net/gabriele/school/?view=geo&chap=PAV gab@school] A collection of geometry exercices for children from 12 to 14 years old (in French, SVG files available, GFDL)
* [http://ludami.deviantart.com/gallery/ Ludamillion] Ludami's DeviantArt page, yup another one. Everything there (one pic so far) is Inkscaped.
* [http://peileppe.wordpress.com Peileppe Production] FanArt for Wesnoth, this blog is committed to build a comic (using mainly Inkscape) based on the Battle for Wesnoth's campaign "Heir to the Throne".
* [http://dodolboks.wordpress.com/galeri/ art by alikusnadi] Wallpaper and other art's made with inkscape and fixed with GIMP
* [http://www.73lab.com/ art by Ayo] mixed art's made with inkscape and other open source graphic apps like GIMP or Blender
* [http://www15.atwiki.jp/kirimi/ Tessellations How To] specialised to making patterns & tiling like M.C. Escher.(written in Japanese)
* [http://eyedraw.eu EyeDraw] Illustrations by Piotr Godek
* [http://haruwen.deviantart.com] by Mariana Sing
* [http://www.davekdesign.com davek1979's artworks] all artworks by David Kopnicky
* [http://viscious-speed.deviantart.com/gallery/#InkScape-Vectors] Gallery of artworks done using Inkscape
* [http://sebby.cc/?page_id=14] Vector image gallery with SVG source.

== SVG-oriented gallery softwares ==

* [http://stripit.sourceforge.net/ Strip-it] a (web) software that permits to dynamically generate a (web) gallery for (web) comic-strips drawn in SVG (web, thus).

[[Category:About Inkscape]]

Tricks and tips

2011-10-28T07:38:02Z

Simarilius: fill calligraphy tut replaced

== Generic tricks and tips ==

The tips and tricks are collected to share/tutorials/tipsandtricks.svg and made apart of the release. If you want to contribute further, please add your tips and tricks to the SVN copy of the aforementioned. Also, you can add them below and they will be collected from time to time as a part of that tutorial.

----

== New Tips and Tricks Scratchpad ==

Please enter your new tips and tricks here...

=== PDF/EPS bounding boxes ===

As of version 0.45: when you export an object to PDF or EPS, the figure's bounding box is the canvas (probably the page) rather than a tight box around the object. If you want a tight box, select your object (with the rubber band selector) and use "Fit Page to Selection" in the "Document Properties" dialog to crop the canvas tightly around the object. Then, you can export to PDF or EPS and get the bounding box you want. There isn't really a way to automate this process by using Inkscape's command-line options.

==Changing languages==

Remember when you first installed Inkscape, and there were a bunch of language options?
To switch to Espanol, select Espanol when installing.

== Adjusting the Canvas Size to Fit Your Image ==

So, you've done a bunch of drawing, and now the canvas is too big/small.

* <tt>File > Document Preferences</tt>

:* Check "Show canvas border" if not already checked, just to get some feedback.

:* Set Canvas size to "Custom".

* Back in the Document window drop-down select box to the right of the height/width boxes, set the units to the same units as shown in the Document Preferences window.

:* <tt>Edit > Select All in All Layers</tt>

* Copy the Width and Height now shown in the Document window into the Width and Height of the Document Preferences window. Press the enter key after changing each number.

* Back in the Document window change the X and Y coordinates, both, to 0. Again, press the enter key after changing each number.

* Clean up after yourself:

:* <tt>Edit > Deselect</tt>

:* Close Document Preferences window

Note: Starting with version 0.44, you can use instead the button "Fit Page to Selection" under <tt>File > Document Properties</tt>. If nothing is selected then the page is adjusted to the whole drawing.

==Scaling images to fit in webpages/HTML==
When using the object tag to embed SVG images inside of webpages, it is useful to set the size in the object tag.

To do this you need to add a <tt>viewBox</tt> attribute.

*Using the XML editor, select the SVG root element (the first item in the list on the left)
*Next, add the <tt>viewBox</tt> attribute. In the one line text-box on the right hand side, type "viewBox". Underneath this type "0 0 100 100", then click set.
*Change the width and height attributes to 100%.
*Re-use process above to set the canvas size to the drawing's size.

You may also want to add <tt>preserveAspectRatio="none"</tt> to the SVG root element if you want to change the width/height disproportionately.

Alternatively, use the extensions attached to [https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/169966 'Saving Plain SVG with viewBox extension' bug].

In the next release (0.48) it will be possible to do this using the "optimised SVG" output filetype. Go to <tt>File > Save as... > Optimised SVG</tt> , then check "Enable ViewBoxing" to do the same thing.

== Position guides ==
Position a guide roughly, then double click it to bring up a dialog box in which you can enter the desired position. --[[User:Pbhj|Pbhj]] 13:00, 1 July 2006 (PDT)
* ''AFAIK you can't do this any other way ... I've been using Inkscape since not long after the split from sodipodi and I just today (1st July 06) found this out! Super! This was in the AI users tips.''

==Adding fill to Shapes drawn with the Calligraphic Pen tool ==

Quick tut on how to add fill to shapes you've drawn with the calligraphic pen.
A far easier solution to creating fills for closed shapes drawn with the calligraphic tool than I described previously. Simple enough I should be able to do without pics, so here gos

* Draw the shape with the calligraphic tool
* Duplicate it. (ctrl + D)
* Draw another line in the region that will be filled.
* Select this line and the duplicate of the original.
* Do union (ctrl & + )
* break apart (ctrl + shift + K)
* Union again (ctrl & + )
* Send it backwards (Page down)
* Fill it with a whatever color you want.

The second and penultimate steps are only needed if your keeping the calligraphy line as a stroke. Alternatively, use the fill bounds tool :)

== How to rotate and duplicate ==

Need more appropriate name, like: how to make a swatch.

Not finished yet.

[[Khiraly]] - Feel free to comment on tips, if its not clear. Any comment are useful.

[[Category:User Documentation]]

== Text on circle ==

If you want to put text on a circle, you can do the following:

* create a circle
* create a text object with the text you want to put on the circle
* select both
* go to Text | Put on Path

So far so good, nothing special. Anyway, you'll notice that the text is always put on the outside of the circle - what if you want to put the text '''inside''' the circle? I've found this trick:

* create a circle
* select it and go to Path | Object to Path
* go to Path | Reverse
* create a text object with the text you want to put on the circle's internal
* select both the text and the circle
* go to Text | Put on Path

If you want to have the text to start at a specific position on the circle:
* follow either of the steps above
* then select the circle
* go to Object | Transform | Rotate
* change the angle until the text starts at the desired position

That's it!

==Created punched-out text==

This will create a punched-out text with shadow effect that looks like this:

[[File:Punchtext8.png]]

First, create the object you want to cut the text out from. Here I use a red rectangle:

[[File:Punchtext1.png]]

Then, create the text.

[[File:Punchtext2.png]]

Duplicate the text (<tt>Ctrl+D</tt>) so you have two copies of it in exactly the same place, then select one of the copies of the text and the object at the same time by holding <tt>Shift</tt> and clicking on both of them. Now either open the <tt>Path</tt> menu and click <tt>Difference</tt>, or press <tt>Ctrl+Shift+-</tt>.

[[File:Punchtext3.png]]

You will now (although it will be hidden behind the remaining piece of text, so you won't be able to see it) have an object with the text as a hole in the middle and the second (duplicate) piece of text. To create the shadow, create another rectangle—which must cover the area of the text—in the color of the shadow you want, like this:

[[File:Punchtext4.png]]

Now repeat the previous process. First, send the new rectangle/object behind the remaining text (you can use <tt>PgDn</tt>) and select both of them, then do a difference between them.

[[File:Punchtext5.png]]

To make this object look like a shadow, you can add some blur to it. Open the Fill & Stroke sidebar and change 'blur' to whatever you want. I've chosen 2.0 here.

[[File:Punchtext6.png]]

Finally, send this object behind the other object. You will see this kind of effect:

[[File:Punchtext7.png]]

To make it look more like a shadow/better, feel free to change the colour, amount of blur and position. I, for example, ended up with this:

[[File:PunchtextFinal.png]]

See the [[Media:PunchtextFinal.svg|source of the final result]].

==Old tips==
The tips here are out of date / incomplete or the issue they addreess has been worked around

=== Export to PDF Workaround===
As of version 0.45 saving as pdf results in unclipped images.

The following is a good workaround (On Windows):

Install [http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ PDF Creator].
Print to the PDFCreator device.

=== Printing or Producing PDFs in ISO A4 rather than US Specific Letter Paper ===

I've been messing with this for ages, and as it turns out it's got a very simple solution (much easier than emailing your SVG to a friend with Illustrator ;-).

With Inkscape 0.42, if you create an A4 canvas and print it, it will quite happily print properly on an A4 printer. It'll even produce suitable PostScript too. However, if you produce a PDF (either by Save As... or by using the command line ps2pdf or by using Adobe Acrobat) you'll always get a US Letter PDF. I think this is because the PostScript doesn't mandate A4 or suggests Letter, after all, most .ps files will convert perfectly like this. However, you can force ps2pdf to use A4, although sadly not in Inkscape. Do it on the command line after printing PostScript to a file:

ps2pdf -sPAPERSIZE=a4 myfile.ps

(it'll produce myfile.pdf, which should be an A4 PDF rather than the default Letter).

Hopefully one day, Inkscape will have a dialogue asking you what paper size you'd like when it produced PDFs (much like saving .eps asks you a couple of things). After all, Inkscape just uses ps2pdf to produce PDFs anyway, so it ought to be able to pass in the paper size specification when it does so.

[http://www.coofercat.com/wiki/InkScape ...Coofer Cat]

==Broken links ;-(==
=== Mirror modelling ===

Inkscape is a drawing application, not CAD, so maybe the word "modelling" is not appropriate.

http://khiraly.4242.hu/tmp/mirrorModellingDone.png

If you want to play with the image, the inkscape source available [http://khiraly.4242.hu/tmp/mirrorModelling.tar.gz here].

=== How to make an edge ===

http://khiraly.4242.hu/tmp/joinTwoNodes.png

Source is [http://khiraly.4242.hu/tmp/joinTwoNodes.tar.gz here].

Comment :
# This doesn't explain anything to me. HOW do you break apart a node? HOW do you join two nodes? I see steps I through III, but those little graphics don't explain how to do it.
# I think this is trying to explain how to [apparently] join something to a closed loop; I'd like to see n-way nodes for this (is that in the spec?). What they are doing is taking a node on that loop and making it in to two nodes in the same place using -0-0- (that's my ASCII art for the node duplicate icon! it's on the menu bar when you are using the node edit tool on a path). Then we split using -0 0-. Then join one of the coincidental nodes to the other shape. It now looks like you have a spur off from your closed loop. But you don't. Is that it, do I get a cookie?? --[[User:Pbhj|Pbhj]] 15:08, 7 July 2006 (PDT)

User:Simarilius

2011-10-26T21:06:46Z

Simarilius:

My name is John Cliff, I've been involved in Inkscape on and off since early feb 2004 (where the chat logs show just how patient mental, ishmal, bulia and co were with my complete lack of any idea what i was doing!)

Born in England I'm an aerospace engineer by trade, who grew up messing about on Acorn computers, starting with an electron, then moving on to an A3000. (Both of which are still in my loft) I found Inkscape when I was looking for something akin to Acorns !Draw program for windows. I initally found Sodipodi but the newly forked Inkscape had a much more active and welcoming community and I quickly got hooked. I started off just messing about using the program (a flood of signpost cliparts that I barraged the guys with were part of the reason they started OCAL) and then moved on to hacking at the code.

Bits I worked on included making the star tool do polygons, a bunch of work on the tool dependant toolbars, the intial work at a UI for multistop gradients (the dialog sucked but at least you could create them) Some work on getting markers working properly, and the addition of the stock marker file. the grid/rows dialog, work on getting patterns working and the on canvas UI. Most of these had serious input from Bulia, some just in him telling me what needed changing, some in him fixing it!

Have been fairly dormant in the actual coding for the last couple of years, but have still been involved in admin at the inkscapeforums site, and in some gsoc stuff.

User:Simarilius

2011-10-26T20:48:59Z

Simarilius: Created page with " My name is John Cliff, I've been involved in Inkscape on and off since early 2004 (where the chat logs show just how patient mental, ishmal, bulia and co were with my complete l..."

My name is John Cliff, I've been involved in Inkscape on and off since early 2004 (where the chat logs show just how patient mental, ishmal, bulia and co were with my complete lack of any idea what i was doing!)

Born in England I'm an aerospace engineer by trade, who grew up messing about on Acorn computers, starting with an electron, then moving on to an A3000. (Both of which are still in my loft) I found Inkscape when I was looking for something akin to Acorns !Draw program for windows. I initally found Sodipodi but the newly forked Inkscape had a much more active and welcoming community and I quickly got hooked. I started off just messing about using the program (a flood of signpost cliparts that I barraged the guys with were part of the reason they started OCAL) and then moved on to hacking at the code.

Bits I worked on included making the star tool do polygons, a bunch of work on the tool dependant toolbars, the intial work at a UI for multistop gradients (the dialog sucked but at least you could create them) Some work on getting markers working properly, and the addition of the stock marker file. the grid/rows dialog, work on getting patterns working and the on canvas UI. Most of these had serious input from Bulia, some just in him telling me what needed changing, some in him fixing it!

Have been fairly dormant in the actual coding for the last couple of years, but have still been involved in admin at the inkscapeforums site, and in some gsoc stuff.

Contact information archive

2011-10-26T20:04:39Z

Simarilius: /* Usernames on the various servers as previously volunteered */

== Usernames on the various servers as previously volunteered ==
This information was previously displayed on the [[Contact information|Contact Information]] page.
 
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Person
!Jabber
!Launchpad
!Wiki
!Sourceforge
!Email
!IRC
!AIM
!ICQ
!Nickname(s)

|-
!Bryce Harrington
|bryce at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~bryceharrington ~bryceharrington]
|[[User:BryceHarrington]]
|bryce: [http://bryce.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/bryce Activity]
|style="color:white"|bryce at osdl dot org
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Mental Guy
|mental at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~mental ~mental]
|[[User:MenTaLguY]]
|mental: [http://mental.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/mental Activity]
|mental at rydia dot net
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Ted Gould
|ted at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~ted ~ted]
|[[User:TedGould]]
|gouldtj: [http://gouldtj.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/gouldtj Activity]
|ted at gould dot cx
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Bulia Byak
|style="color:white"|Jabber at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~buliabyak ~buliabyak] [https://launchpad.net/~buliabyak-users ~buliabyak-users]
|[[User:BuliaByak]]
|buliabyak: [http://buliabyak.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/buliabyak Activity]
|buliabyak at users dot sourceforge dot net
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Jon Phillips
|rejon at jabber dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~rejon ~rejon]
|[[User:Jon Phillips]]
|kidproto: [http://kidproto.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/kidproto Activity]
|jon at rejon dot org
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|kidproto rejon

|-
!Aaron C Spike
|style="color:white"|Jabber at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~acspike ~acspike]
|[[User:acspike]]
|acspike: [http://acspike.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/acspike Activity]
|style="color:white"|email at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Bob Jamison
|style="color:white"|Jabber at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~ishmalius ~ishmalius]
|[[User:ishmalius]]
|ishmal: [http://ishmal.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/ishmal Activity]
|style="color:white"|email at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Arpad Biro
|style="color:white"|Jabber at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~biro-arpad ~biro-arpad]
|[[User:biro-arpad]]
|a_b: [http://a_b.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/a_b Activity]
|style="color:white"|email at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Josh Andler
|style="color:white"|Jabber at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~scislac ~scislac]
|[[User:scislac]]
|scislac: [http://scislac.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/scislac Activity]
|style="color:white"|email at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Cedric Gemy
|style="color:white"|Jabber at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~pygmee ~pygmee]
|[[User:pygmee]]
|pygmee: [http://pygmee.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/pygmee Activity]
|style="color:white"|email at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Jon Cruz
|joncruz at gristle dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~jon-joncruz ~jon-joncruz]
|[[User:JonCruz]]
|joncruz: [http://joncruz.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/joncruz Activity]
|jon at jon cruz dot org
|style="color:white"|IRC at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|AIM at domain dot tld
|style="color:white"|1234567
|style="color:white"|nicknames

|-
!Nathan Hurst
|njh at jabber dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~njh-njhurst ~njh-njhurst]
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!Tom von Schwerdtner
|tvon at jabber dot org
|[https://launchpad.net/~tvon ~tvon]
|[[User:TomvonSchwerdtner]]
|tvon: [http://tvon.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/tvon Activity]
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!Tom Ingham
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!Robert Crosbie
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|[https://launchpad.net/~swingincelt ~swingincelt]
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|swingincelt: [http://swingincelt.users.sourceforge.net/ Developer] [https://sourceforge.net/users/swingincelt Activity]
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!Johan Ceuppens
|jceuppen at gristle dot org
|style="color:white"|[https://launchpad.net/~Launchpad ~Launchpad]
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|myrkraverk at gristle pkt org
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!John Cliff (Simarilius)
|simarilius at gristle dot org
|style="color:white"|[https://launchpad.net/~johncliff ~johncliff]
|[[User:Simarilius]] [[SimTODO|Simarilius' To Do list]]
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|cth103 at myjabber dot net
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|style="color:white"|[https://launchpad.net/~Launchpad ~Launchpad]
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|}
[[Category:Wiki Attic]]

SimTODO

2011-10-26T06:30:47Z

Simarilius:

Thought a place to keep track of what I was planning to do was a good Idea. - Simarilius

== Toolbars ==
* Add True poly mode to star tool - DONE
* Add aux toolbars to expose functionality currently in tool options - DONE
* Allow aux toolbars in shape contexts to modify shapes in selection - DONE
* Tidy up aux toolbars - font size etc. - DONE
* Add Cx and Cy spin buttons to all shape context aux toolbars (UPDATE: not as easy as it sounds, for these will have to have a unit selector, and will have to take into account the object's transform)
* Add start and end angle spinbuttons, chord/segment checkbox for ellipse - DONE
* Agg arg1 and arg2 spinbuttons for star (arg2 grayed out for polygon)
* Add event handlers for focus etc to toolbar spin buttons. DONE
* Add handles to contexts like bulia added to rect. - DONE
* Add listeners to spin buttons so they update when handles used - DONE
* Fix c/p of gradients between docs - DONE
* Remove (or increase substantially) the limits on sides, revs etc from tools.(DONE -- bb)
* Make sharpness spin button smarter (DONE -- bb)
* Replace distance calcs with NR::LInfty(d)
* fix tool tips - DONE
* make defaults for star and spiral settable, take them from e.g. tools.shapes.star.defaultcorners, to be user-editable in the [[PreferencesDialog]]

fix that [[annoying Crash]] - DONE (by fred :D )

== Multi Stop Gradient editor: ==
* check offset of stop before and after, and limit adjust to between those values. DONE
* Make the spin update when you select a different stop DONE
* add buttons to add stops - and add the callback to do it! DONE
* add buttons to delete stops - and add the callback to do it! DONE
* Make the stop list update when stop added / deleted. DONE
* work out tidying the layout, ie making offset slider the right size. DONE
* Add color sample for each stop to drop down menu, and make it update. DONE
* Add listener so if something else modifies the stops
(ie if their deleted in XML editor) it doesnt break the dialog. DONE
* detect if a shape with a different grad is selected and update dialog accordingly.
* Make new stops appear midway between existing rather than right next to current DONE
* Add Notches to gradient preview
* Make em dragable
* Make preview right clickable to add/delete stops at mouse position.

== Marker Stuff: ==
* Fix icons in existing code - add to iconfactory. - DONE by Carl H
* add marker to def if not present, and apply to current selection. - DONE by both me and Carl, in different ways :)
* Code drop downs which shows a list of markers available. - DONE
* Import Markers from markers.svg to list - DONE
* Import Markers into doc from marker.svg when selected - DONE
* Create previews of markers for drop down. - DONE, bulia fixed my bodged attempt
* Notice if a new marker is added
* Enable easy creation of new markers. - Patch in tracker
* Fix auto align on mid and end markers. - DONE Carl fixed the end, I got the middle :)
* Fix the fact when you turn on mid it puts one on the start - DONE
* Create some markers - DONE
* Create a better method for handling [[stock items]] - DONE for markers, see \src\helper\stock-items.cpp

== Pattern Fills: ==
* Add pane to paint selector widget - DONE
* Add support for pattern mode to fill-style and stroke-style - DONE
* Add UI to import Bitmaps to patterns in def - DONE
* Add Dropdown listing patterns in doc - DONE
* Add Previews to dropdown
* Add pattern delete - Mentals garbage collection kinda handles this?
* Add pattern offset (x+y) - per object - DONE
* Add pattern rotation - per object - DONE
* Add pattern scale - per object - DONE
* Fix the fact some objects translate and some edit node positions. - Done by Bulia
* Work out why SVG patterns render so weird, then fix it. - Done by Bulia
* Add UI to create SVG pattern from selection - Done by Bulia
* Enable any image in the doc to be used as a pattern - Done by Bulia (Alt-I)

== More Marker stuff ==
* Make [[markers inherit style]] from parent line. (maybe dependant on an inkscape:inherit_col tag?)

== Grid Arrange Dialog ==
* Implement a Dialog to arrange the selection in a grid pattern - DONE
* Make it respond to changes in selection - DONE
* Move to a tab in align dialog
* allow sizing of rows and columns - DONE
* deal with units stuff (spacing and row/column size)
* fix the scatter affect if selections not aligned to begin. - DONE
* Make OK not do anything if pressed twice. - DONE
* fit into Selection BBox option - DONE & fixed :)
* Make it sort the objects by pos rather than z order - DONE
* allow some randomness in spacing
* allow horizontal cell align (left, centre, right) - DONE
* allow vertical cell align (top, centre, bottom) - DONE
* allow some randomness in rotation?
* reconfigure layout ala bulias mockup - 85% Done
* redo gtkmm stuff to use bryces code - DONE
* Fix sorting to preserve existing order - DONE
* Fix weird numbers of rows on first opening dialog - DONE
* sort out it wandering if you do fit to selection and align

Had some fun with gradients: upload:marbles_tut.svg

original non tut: upload:marbles.svg
rounded edge rect : upload:rounded_rect_button.svg

example for kwikson : upload:4kwikson.svg

gradient weirdness: upload:weirdness.svg

example of interpolate : upload:interpolate.jpg

editable calligraphy thoughts - upload:callig_control.svg

perspective: upload:summer.jpg
write up some suggestions for [[googles Summer of code]]

[[Win32 Poppler]]

[[Attributes List]]

[[Category:Developer]]

Release notes/0.46

2007-10-09T19:40:04Z

Simarilius: /* Other changes and improvements */

=Inkscape 0.46=
'''(not released yet)'''

Highlights in this release:

* Paintbucket tool

* Tweak tool

* 3D Box tool

* Live path effects

* Color management

* New SVG filters and UI

* Native PDF and AI import

* XAML import/export

* Open Clip Art Library integration (import/export)

* Bitmap editing extension effects

* Full on-canvas gradient editing

* Engraver's Toolbox in the Calligraphic tool

* Touch selection

* Dockable dialogs

* Command-line access to verbs

* Snapping made usable

* Significant speed and interactivity improvements

* Hundreds of smaller features and bugfixes

=Speed and interactivity=

* In this version, Inkscape starts using the [http://www.cairographics.org cairo] library for rendering. It is now used for '''outline mode''' display which, thanks to using cairo and other optimizations, redraws '''faster by about 25%'''. More impressive are memory savings: thanks to cairo, in outline mode Inkscape now takes only about '''50% of the memory''' used by 0.45 for the same file.

* '''Smart redraw directionality:''' With complex images and/or on slow computers, you may have noticed that Inkscape redraws the screen image in horizontal strips, and these strips are painted in order from top to bottom. Now the redraw always starts '''at your mouse cursor location''' and proceed upwards and downwards from it, so that the area near the cursor is always redrawn first. This significantly improves program's responsiveness in some situations. For example, when you are node-editing part of a complex path, the entire path needs to be redrawn on each change, but now this redraw starts from the point you're working on. Moreover, the redraw is interruptible, so each mouse movement starts new redraw from the mouse cursor area. As a result, during such operations those parts that you're working on redraw often and feel snappy and responsive, while areas further away may lag behind more.

* '''Faster blur''' for exporting and high quality on-screen rendering: Inkscape now uses an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filter for blurring with large radius. This greatly improves the speed of blur redraw at high zooms or in high-resolution export (or simply with very large blur radius). On the other hand, the results are an approximation to a true Gaussian blur, so a drawing may look slightly different from the mathematically precise blur (usually the differences are far from visible, though). This code is mainly based on: ''Recursive Gaussian Derivative Filters'' by L.J. van Vliet, I.T. Young and P.W. Verbeek (see the source code for more detailed references).

:'''Exporting drawings with blur''' was particularly slow in 0.45; some files could take hours to export. Now this is fixed, in part by the faster algorithm mentioned above and in part by a bugfix in the export code. Now even the quite complex files with large blurs export at high resolution in at most a few minutes.

* [faster gradients - mental]

* '''Dragging handles and nodes''' as well as '''dragging and transforming objects''' by mouse became more responsive, so that working in complex drawings and especially editing complex paths is noticeably easier. In particular, this fixes the annoying latency issue where a node or a handle could follow mouse cursor even after you release mouse button after a drag.

* '''Moving the cursor around''' in a file with large and complex paths has become much snappier and more responsive. Previously, in extreme cases Inkscape could freeze for seconds while catching up with the mouse cursor; such delays are now eliminated.

* Several improvements make '''canvas panning and scrolling''' smoother and more interactive in complex slow-rendering documents:

:* When panning by the middle mouse button, Inkscape no longer attempts to redraw the canvas while your mouse button is pressed. Any redrawing only happens after you release the mouse. As a result, the newly revealed parts of the canvas are somewhat more "dirty" but the '''panning is smoother than before''', with few if any "hiccups".

:* '''Redrawing the newly exposed parts of the canvas''' after scrolling, especially diagonal scrolling, is now faster because only the exposed areas are redrawn; before, this often resulted in the entire screen being redrawn which was much slower.

:* Previously, if you started panning with middle button while Inkscape is still redrawing screen in a complex drawing, panning sometimes completely failed or moved canvas just a little step. Now it is '''guaranteed to pan the canvas all the way''' from mouse-press point to mouse-release point in any case, even if sometimes it fails to show the intermediate positions.

:* When pressing and holding Ctrl+arrows to scroll canvas, Inkscape normally accelerates scrolling so that each next scrolling step is bigger than the previous. Previously, in complex drawings this acceleration sometimes got interrupted, which made scrolling annoyingly bumpy and slow. Now this is fixed so that '''scrolling is smoothly accelerated''' even in a slow-rendering document.

:* The default '''starting speed and acceleration''' of Ctrl+arrows scrolling are slightly increased. (They are both settable in Preferences.)

* Better responsiveness and more visual feedback in user interface:

:*When you zoom, the '''zoom control''' on the right end of the statusbar now updates immediately, not after screen redraw as before.

:*Many potentially slow commands (Save, Simplify, Combine, Break Apart and others) now display a '''busy cursor''' and flash a message in the statusbar (e.g. "Saving document...") while they work.

:*The '''statusbar messages''' displayed while you're drawing a shape or a path in Pen tool do not lag behind the mouse movements.

* '''Combine''' and '''Convert to paths''' commands are now orders of magnitude faster when applied to a selection with hundreds or thousands of objects.

* The time it takes to '''snap to objects''' using the selector tool has been reduced dramatically, which is most noticeable for snapping to complex paths.

=Tools=

==Paint Bucket tool==

The new Paint Bucket tool works exactly as you would expect: click in any area bounded on all sides and it will '''fill it with color'''. Being a vector tool, however, Inkscape's Paint Bucket just creates a new ''path'' that "fills in" the area in which you clicked.

===How it works===

It is important to note that the tool is '''perceptual''', not geometric. That is, when looking for the boundaries around the point you clicked, it takes for such boundaries any ''visible'' color changes. This means that filling will stop at gradients, blurs, and even the color boundaries in imported bitmaps, but will ignore any paths or other objects that are fully (or almost) transparent or for any other reason do not stand out from the background. In short, it will work exactly as if you were filling a rasterized version of your image in a bitmap editor like Photoshop or GIMP - but will give you a vector object to work with.

For example, now you can scan a pencil sketch, import the bitmap into Inkscape, and quickly fill all its cells with colors even without tracing the bitmap first. This is a very convenient and interactive way of digitizing your paper drawings, making the '''traditional bitmap tracing unnecessary''' in many cases.

Internally, the tool works by performing a bitmap-based flood fill on a rendered version of the visible canvas, then tracing the resulting fill using [[potrace]] and placing the traced path into the document.

It places the rendered path onto the current layer, so you can have a layer on top (for example, "Inks") and select the layer below ("Colors") and do the fills so that they always appear below the Inks.

The '''resolution''' of the bitmap image used to perform the trace is dependent upon your '''current zoom level''' -- the more zoomed in to an area that you are, the higher the resolution of the bitmap-based flood fill. So, if you are got a fill that is too imprecise, has rough corners, or don't go into small nooks and appendices where it is supposed to go, just undo, zoom in closer and repeat filling from the same point. Conversely, if the fill leaks out through a small gap, zoom out to make the gap less visible and fill again (or use the auto gap closing parameter, see below).

===Style===

Like all object-creating tools, the Paint Bucket may use the '''last-set style''' for the objects it creates (this is the default), or it can use its own '''fixed style'''. You can switch between these modes on this tool's page in Inkscape Preferences (Ctrl+Shift+P). As in all other tools, the '''style swatch''' on the far right of the Controls bar shows the style that will be used for the next fill object you create.

===Controls===

In the tool's '''Controls bar''':

* Paint Bucket's perceptual fill can use either all visible colors or specific color channels. Using the '''Fill by''' drop-down list, you can restrict the fill algorithm to one the following channels:
** Red
** Green
** Blue
** Hue
** Saturation
** Lightness
** Alpha

* The '''Threshold''' (in per cent units) controls how large must be color difference at a point (compared to the initial click point) to stop the fill. Zero tolerance means only the area of strictly the same color will be filled; the larger the tolerance, the easier it will be for the fill to leak into adjacent different-color areas. The default value is 10%.

* Using the '''Grow/shrink by''' parameter, you can control the amount of inset/outset to be applied to the created fill path. Setting a positive outset causes fill paths to be larger than the filled bitmap area (good for eliminating anti-aliasing errors), while setting a negative outset causes the path to be smaller. This works much the same as the Outset and Inset path commands, except it's done automatically after every fill.

* With the '''Close gaps''' parameter, you can make the Paint Bucket tool ignore any gaps in the area boundaries that would normally cause the fill to spill out of the desired area. There are four settings to auto gap:
** None
** Small (close gaps up to 2 pixels in size)
** Medium (4 pixels)
** Large (6 pixels)
:Note that setting this parameter to other than None may slow down noticeably the filling of large areas.

===Shortcuts===

The tool's '''shortcuts''' are:

* '''Single click''' performs filling from the click point.

* '''Shift+click''' performs filling from the click point and then unions the resulting path with the selected path. This way, if your first attempt did not fill in all of the desired area, you can Shift+click the remaining corner to fill it in separately and combine the result with the result of the previous fill.

* '''Ctrl+click''' on an object simply changes that object's fill to the current fill color of the tool, and '''Shift+Ctrl+click''' changes the stroke to the current stroke color.

* '''Click and drag''' performs filling from '''all of the points''' that you pass while dragging (you will see your path visualized by a red line). From each point, the fill spreads to the neighbors with the colors similar to that point - in other words, it's like clicking with this tool at each point of the drag path and unioning the results. This lets you easily fill an area occupied by a gradient or blur - just drag from the darkest to the lightest points in the area you want to fill.

* '''Alt+click and drag''' works similarly to simple drag, except from each point of the drag path, the fill spreads to the neighbors (if any) with the colors similar to the ''initial point'' (the point where you started the drag). This lets you fill a series of similarly-colored yet separated areas (for example, multiple cells in a cartoon) by starting the drag in one of those areas, and alt+dragging the tool through all the other areas.

==Tweak tool==

The Tweak tool is an exciting new way to edit drawings which largely blurs the
distinction between vector and raster editing. Instead of meticulously selecting some
objects and then performing an action on the selection, you can now select ''all''
objects (or all objects you are interested in) and apply the Tweak tool's brush to
smoothly and naturally change the shape or style of only those objects (or parts
thereof) ''that the brush touches''.

The area of the tool's action - its ''brush'' - is marked by an orange-colored circular
outline that moves with your mouse cursor. However, that area actually has no sharp
boundaries; the power of the tool's action falls off gradually, following a smooth
bell-shaped profile. This makes the tool act softly and smoothly.

The tool will work on any number of selected objects; for example, you can select all
(Ctrl+A) and "smear" your entire drawing by Push mode or paint it by Color Paint
mode. You can also apply it to groups of objects; it will go into groups and act on
individual objects inside groups. If you're trying to use it without anything selected,
it will remind you by a statusbar message to select some objects.

===Width===

The width of the tool's brush, in the range from 1 to 100, can be changed by the
'''Width''' control in the tool's controls bar above the canvas. You can also change
width by '''Left''' and '''Right''' arrow keys (same as in the Calligraphy tool) at any
time (including during action) as well as '''Home''' and '''End'''. Also, as in Calligraphy
tool, the visible width of the brush is independent of zoom; simply zooming in or out is
often easier than adjusting the width if you want to cover a smaller or larger area of
the drawing.

===Force===

The next control is '''Force''' which adjusts the power of the action, also in the
range from 1 to 100. You can also change width by '''Up''' and '''Down''' arrow keys at
any time (including during action).

If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet and your "Use pressure" button on the right-hand
end of the controls bar is on, then the force will also depend on how hard you actually
press your pen into your tablet, changing in the range from zero to whatever you set in
the Force control. If all you have is a mouse, then the force will be constant but still
settable by the Force control.

===Path editing modes===

The Tweak tool has a number of '''modes''', selectable by toggle buttons in the tool's
Controls bar and by keyboard shortcuts. Some of these modes change the shapes of
paths while others affect the colors of objects. All these modes share the Width and
Force controls but otherwise are quite different. Let's look at the path editing modes
first.

Unlike the Node tool, to edit paths with the Tweak tool you don't need to worry about
where the nodes of a path are and how to manipulate them. You just apply the tool's
brush to any point, and the selected paths at that point will reshape smoothly and
naturally - as if made of soft jelly - regardless of where its nodes lie. If applied to
a shape or text object, the tool converts them to paths automatically.

While not very useful for technical drawings, tweaking paths will be indispensable for
artistic uses of Inkscape - cartoons, drawings, sketches, anime, etc. This new
functionality is somewhat similar to the tools such as "Pucker" and "Bloat" in the
latest versions of Adobe Illustrator.

There are currently six path editing modes in the Tweak tool: '''Push''', '''Shrink''',
'''Grow''', '''Attract''', '''Repel''', and '''Roughen'''.

* This default mode of the tool, '''Push''', simply displaces the part of the path under the cursor in the direction of the drag. The path behaves like soft jelly, bending and bulging smoothly and naturally. It's an easy way to produce various irregular, lifelike, handmade-looking shapes starting from something as simple as an ellipse or a calligraphic stroke. For parallel-stroke hatching (engraving) done in the Calligraphy tool, pushing is an easy way to bend, pinch, or curve the entire hatching uniformly.

* The '''Shrink''' and '''Grow''' are two opposite modes that move each point of a path in a direction perpendicular to the path's surface at the point, either inwards (Shrink) or outwards (Grow). This is similar to the Inset and Outset commands, except that the Tweak tool can act on a part of a path instead of the whole path.

:For example, the visible lightness/darkness of an engraving hatching may not exactly correspond to your artistic intention. Also, the ends of Calligraphy pen strokes are often far from ideal - they may be too blunt or have unsightly bends or blobs. This is where the Tweak tool may help. Select all the strokes in a hatching pattern and apply a light Shrink action where you want the lines to become thinner (and the hatching to become lighter), up until total disappearance. If you press hard, shrinking works as an eraser, so you can easily clean the strokes' ends to make them thin, sharp, and uniform. Conversely, applying Grow makes strokes wider (i.e. the hatching becomes darker).

:Of course, shrinking and growing are useful not only for calligraphic strokes. Same as with Push, with Shrink and Grow you can '''sculpt''' any path, spawning smooth treacle-like appendages with Inflating and carving holes with Melting. Unlike the "node sculpting" mode in the Node tool, however, this does not require adding new nodes to the shape.

* The '''Attract''' and '''Repel''' modes work by moving each affected point on a path towards (Attract) or from (Repel) the cursor point. In some cases this may look similar to Shrink and Grow, but the difference is that shrinking/growing moves paths perpendicularly to the path in each point, whereas attracting/repelling moves them to or from the cursor regardless of the path shape. These modes are similar to the Pinch effect in ; you can use them for various central-symmetric distortions in parts of your paths.

* The '''Roughen''' mode does exactly this: roughens the edge of the path without changing its overall shape. Slight roughening simply makes the edge crooked and uneven; strong roughening tears and explodes the edge into random blobs and splotches. Note that this operation, especially with high Fidelity, adds a lot of nodes which increases the size of your SVG document and may slow down Inkscape considerably. In particular, pushing/melting/inflating of a roughened path becomes much slower and more difficult, so it's recommended to finalize the overall shape of a path first and roughen it, if necessary, only as the final step.

====Fidelity====

Any tweaking of a path slightly distorts the entire path, including even those parts
that you didn't touch. These distortions are similar to those that a Simplify command
produces. The '''Fidelity''' value (also in the range from 1 to 100, default is 50)
allows you to control the amount of these distortions. With a higher fidelity, the
distortions are less noticeable, but the path may end up having a lot of nodes which
inflates up the SVG size and slows down Inkscape.

The best value of Fidelity depends on the nature of your artwork. If you're sculpting an
amorphous blob, you can do with low fidelity of about 20. If, however, you are pushing
or inflating a text string (as a single path) and want the letters outside the distorted
area to remain crisp and clean, you will need to raise fidelity to 80 or more.

====Known problems====

Known problems with the path editing modes in Tweak tool:

# they don't work on open paths (an open path becomes closed if you tweak it);
# they are rather slow;
# they quickly eat memory; and
# they are sometimes buggy - thin calligraphic strokes may suddenly disappear or change their shape drastically as you're melting or inflating them.

For (4), it helps to increase Fidelity. Also, you can undo the bad change and try again with less pressure on the pen - if you do your thinning in several light touches instead of one heavy press, usually you will be able to get the desired result without the buggy behavior.

Also, sometimes after roughening, further tweaking of a path becomes impossible with this diagnostic:

WARNING **: Shape error in ConvertToShape: directedEulerian(a) == false

All these problems stem from the livarot library that we use for geometric manipulation of paths. Fortunately, livarot is scheduled for replacement by lib2geom, a new library now in development, so hopefully these issues will be addressed then.

===Color-changing modes===

The '''Color Paint''' and '''Color Jitter''' modes, unlike the path editing modes,
change the colors of objects instead of their shapes. Yet they share enough common
features with the path-changing modes to be part of the same tool: These modes also use
a circular soft-edged brush controlled by the Width and Force parameters on the Controls
bar and affected by the pen pressure (if you have a pressure-sensitive tablet).

* '''Color Paint''' applies the style of the tool to the selected objects under the brush. The style of the tool is visible in the style swatch at the rightmost end of the tool's control bar; it can be changed by clicking on the color palette or by any other style assignment command, such as Fill and Stroke dialog. ('''Note''': unlike all other tools, in Tweak tool in Color Paint mode you cannot assign style directly to selected objects; any style-setting command changes the tool's style instead.)

:The fill from the tool's style applies to the fills of the painted objects, and the stroke applies to the strokes. If the tool's style has no fill or no stroke, it won't affect fills or strokes, correspondingly. For example, if you want to color the fills of objects blue but leave their strokes untouched, assign blue fill to the tool's style (just click blue on the palette) but set its stroke to None (middle-click the Stroke swatch in the statusbar). Similarly, master opacity in the tool's style affects master opacities of the touched objects (if the O channel is on, see below).

:This mode allows you to literally paint over objects, shifting their colors towards the target style of the tool. For example, if you paint with yellow fill over a blue-filled object, the object will become greenish blue, then green, then yellowish green, and end up being exactly the yellow color you're painting with. This speed of this gradual transition depends on both Force parameter and pen pressure; also, objects touched by the periphery of the brush are less affected than those hit by the brush center. Overall, using this tool is very similar to a soft brush in a raster editor such as Gimp or Photoshop.

* '''Color Jitter''' mode does not apply any color, but instead jitters (randomizes) the colors of the objects it touches. The force of the action determines how strong is the randomization, i.e. how far the colors deviate from the original values. This mode does not use the tool's style.

Both modes work on flat fills and gradients; for gradients, the tool takes into account not only the position of the entire object with gradient, but also the position of each gradient stop relative to the brush. This means that, for example, you can change the blue color only in an object filled with blue-red gradient simply by painting over its blue end with a brush small enough to not touch the red. (Note that color tweaking does not create gradients on objects that used flat color before, but only adjusts existing gradients in the drawing.)

====Channels====

Color Paint and Color Jitter honor the '''Channels''' control. This control comprises
the four buttons: '''H''', '''S''', '''L''', and '''O''', which allow you to turn on and off
the tool's action on the object's hue, saturation, lightness, and opacity,
correspondingly. For example, if you want to raise the saturation of some part of your
drawing without changing the hue, select some maximum-saturation color (e.g. pure red)
and turn off all Channels buttons except S. Similarly, you can replace the hues without
affecting saturation or lightness (only H pressed), or lighten/darken all colors without
changing their hues and saturation (only L pressed). Pressing O allows you to apply the
master opacity from the tool's style to the master opacity of objects (but not fill or
stroke opacity).

====Usage notes====

Color painting with Tweak tool is similar, but not exactly analogous to bitmap
painting. Even though the tool itself works as a soft brush, it still applies its color
to vector objects, which behave as vector objects usually do. For example, if you want
to change the tint of the face in your drawing, and if a hand in the drawing is part of
the same object as the face, that hand will change its tint too even if it's located far
from the point you are painting. (We foresee a "fracture" command in one of the next
versions of Inkscape which will help you turn a monolithic object into a mosaic of small
fragments that will be then easy to paint with Tweak tool.) Still, even with this
limitation, color painting is a novel way of dealing with vector drawings which allows
you to quickly and intuitively make adjustments which would be awkward and slow with
traditional approach.

Drawings containing patterns or scatterings of small independent objects are best suited
for color painting with Tweak tool. Examples include:

* freehand drawings with Calligraphy pen, consisting of many separate strokes;

* gradient meshes imported from Adobe Illustrator files (Inkscape renders these meshes as lattices of small polygons; while there's no direct support for gradient meshes in Inkscape yet, color painting on such lattices is almost as good);

* text converted to paths and with Break Apart command applied so that each letter is a separate path;

* patterns made with the Tile Clones command; note that you need to unset the fill and/or stroke on the original object and use the Color tab to assign some initial color to the clones - this will make them paintable with the Tweak tool without unlinking.

Moreover, color tweaking can be useful for compositions with a few objects or even for
single objects. Unlike all other color selection methods, painting with the Tweak tool
implements the ''color mixing'' metaphor which is much more familiar to traditional
artists than RGB sliders or even the color wheel. For example, start with a rectagle of
pure blue color; then, pick different colors by Color Paint and apply light touches with
minimum Force and minimum pen pressure: add a little green, a little brown, a little
yellow, etc. until you have the exact hue you need. Similarly, you can whiten or blacken
any hue by admixing white or black.

You can also use color tweaking to add a tint, darken/lighten, saturate/desaturate, or
color jitter your entire drawing. Just select all in all layers, zoom out, choose a
large brush width so it covers all of the drawing, and apply a little color tweaking
(with minimum Force) that will therefore affect all visible objects.

===Keyboard shortcuts===

* '''W''', '''Shift+F2''': switch to the Tweak tool

* '''Shift+P''': switch to the Push mode

* '''Shift+S''': switch to the Shrink mode

* '''Shift+G''': switch to the Grow mode

* '''Shift+A''': switch to the Attract mode

* '''Shift+E''': switch to the Repel mode

* '''Shift+R''': switch to the Roughen mode

* '''Shift+C''': switch to the Color Paint mode

* '''Shift+J''': switch to the Color Jitter mode

* '''Left, Right, Home, End''': change width

* '''Up, Down''': change force

* '''mouse drag''': act on selected path in the current mode

* '''Ctrl+mouse drag''': temporarily switch to Shrink (while Ctrl is down)

* '''Shift+Ctrl+mouse drag''': temporarily switch to Grow (while Shift+Ctrl is down)

==3D Box tool==

Inkscape is a two-dimensional drawing tool. However, very often it is used to draw three-dimensional objects. The new '''3D box tool''' helps you create such 3D drawings by automating the most common operation: creating a three-dimensional box in a given perspective. The tool automatically ensures that all sides of the box lie on the corresponding perspective lines. We're not going to compete with Blender - but even simple things can go a long way.

Currently in the 3D box tool you can:

* draw a 3D box by dragging on canvas (use Shift+dragging without releasing the mouse button to extrude in z direction)

* adjust any of its 3 dimensions by handles

* move a 3D box "in perspective" by dragging its center; without modifiers, movement occurs within the XY-plane (press Ctrl to constrain the movement to the directions of the coordinate axes or diagonals), with Shift the box moves parallel to the Z-axis

* adjust the vanishing points of a perspective by dragging them across the canvas (see below) or toggling their states; all boxes sharing this perspective are transformed accordingly

In SVG, a 3D box is represented as a '''group''' (svg:g) with a special extension attribute (in inkscape namespace); this group contains the 6 quadrilateral '''paths''' representing the sides of the box. Only the 3D box tool treats this object as a box; for all other tools it is just a group, so you can select any of the paths by Ctrl+click, apply any style to it, delete it, etc. You can of course transform the entire box or any face in it using Selector or Node tools.

When several boxes are selected, all vanishing points of their associated perspectives are shown on the canvas. If vanishing points of different perspectives coincide, they are combined in a single "dragger". Moving this dragger moves all the vanishing points simultaneously and transforms the associated boxes accordingly. Note that some non-selected boxes may also be reshaped if their perspectives share the same vanishing point. Pressing Shift while moving the dragger can be used to only transform the selected boxes, separating their perspectives from the non-selected ones'. On the other hand, when a vanishing point being dragged comes close enough to another one, both snap together and are combined in a single dragger.

===Keyboard shortcuts===

* '''X''', '''Alt+F4''': switch to the 3D box tool

* The various kinds of parentheses, namely '''[''' ''']''', '''(''' ''')''', '''{''' '''}''', can be used to rotate infinite (i.e., parallel) perspective lines in X-, Y-, and Z-direction, respectively. Closing parentheses rotate clockwise and opening parentheses rotate counterclockwise. The angle of rotation is taken from the preferences. Pressing '''Alt''' reduces the amount of rotation to 1 screen pixel.

* '''L''': toggle visibility of perspective lines

* '''A''': when perspective lines are visible, toggle between "all lines" and "only lines connected to front corners" (this can help to avoid visual clutter)

[max]

==Gradient Tool==
===Selecting multiple stops===
'''More than one gradient stop''' can be selected at a time. Shortcuts for working with multiple stop selections are generally modeled on the Node tool.
* Add a stop to the selected stops by '''Shift+click'''.
* Press '''Ctrl+A''' to select all stops in the selected objects.
Multiple selected stops:
*Can be moved together by '''mouse drag''' or by '''arrow keys'''. For example, creating a linear gradient, then press Ctrl+A to select all stops and use arrow keys to move the entire gradient as a whole.
*Can be deleted at the same time by pressing '''Del'''.
An always up-to-date description of the current handle selection is provided in the statusbar in the Gradient tool, including the number of selected handles (and the type of the single selected handle), as well as the total number of handles and selected objects.

===Editing intermediate stops===
'''Intermediate stops''' in gradients can be added, deleted, and edited on canvas (previously this was only possible in the Gradient Editor dialog).
*Stops can be added by '''double clicking''' or by '''Ctrl+Alt+Click''' on the gradient line.
*When two or more adjacent stops are selected, pressing '''Ins''' adds stops in the middles of all selected stop intervals.
*Intermediate stops can be '''mousedrag'''ged along their gradient line, within the limits of the adjacent unselected stops (or end handles).
:*Dragging with '''Ctrl''' moves the selected stops snapping them to 1/10 fractions of the available range.
:*Dragging with '''Alt''' moves the selected stops depending on how close each one is to the stop being dragged, using a smooth bell-like curve similar to the node sculpting feature in Node tool. This makes it easy to approximate different gradient profiles; for example, if you have a two-stop gradient that you want to shape according to a curve profile, select both ends of the gradient, press '''Ins''' a few times to add a number of intermediate nodes, then '''Alt+drag''' a node in the middle to smoothly profile the gradient.
*Stops can be deleted by '''Ctrl+Alt+Click''' on a stop or by the '''Del''' key for all the selected stop(s).
:*When you delete an end stop, the nearest intermediate stop becomes the new end stop of the gradient (without moving - i.e., the gradient span becomes shorter).
:*When you delete an end stop and there are no intermediate stops, the object will be painted with a solid fill taken from the color & opacity of the remaining stop.
*Pressing '''Ctrl+L''' with some intermediate stops selected attempts to ''simplify'' the selected portion of the gradient, removing those stops that can be removed without too much change in the way the gradient looks. In particular, new stops created by double-clicking or pressing Ins initially do not change the appearance of the gradient, so if you press Ctrl+L, all redundant stops that weren't moved or repainted since creation will be deleted.

===Style indication of gradient stops===
*When you have one of the '''gradient handles selected''', its style (color and opacity) is reflected by the selected style indicator (left of the statusbar) and the Fill&Stroke dialog. Previously, opacity of a gradient handle was reflected as fill-opacity and stroke-opacity; now it is reflected as '''master opacity''' (the "O:" spinbutton in the selected style indicator, the "Master opacity" slider in Fill&Stroke). This makes it much easier to view and change opacity of gradient handles using only the selected style indicator in the statusbar.
:*When multiple gradient stops are selected, the selected style indicator (in the statusbar) displays and controls the averaged color and opacity of the selected stops.[FIXME]
*If the selected object(s) have gradient in fill or stroke, the '''selected style indicator''' in the bottom-left corner of the editing window now displays a '''live gradient preview''' prefixed by '''R''' or '''L''' to indicate Radial or Linear gradients (instead of displaying "L Gradient" or "R Gradient" text labels as before). Also, this and other similar widget now use italic font face to indicate None and bold to indicate Unset.

===Automatic duplication of gradients===
* When copy/pasting or duplicating an object with gradient, it now automatically gets a '''copy''' of the original gradient, so modifying it does not affect the source object's gradient anymore (before, you had to press the Duplicate button on the Gradient controls bar for this).

==Calligraphy tool: Engraver's Toolbox ==

Several new features were added to the Calligraphic pen to make
Inkscape capable of the ancient art of '''line
engraving'''. Traditional engraving is a very labour-intensive
process, and while for a long time it was the only practical way
of reproducing lifelike images in black-and-white print, about a
century ago it was almost completely displaced by automatic
halftone screens. However, line engravings have their
characteristic charm, and there's no reason not to try to
resurrect this art form with the help of Inkscape.

A brief visual guide to the new functionality can be seen on
these screenshots:

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.46-engraving1.png

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.46-engraving2.png

===Tracking a guide path with Ctrl===

One of the most common operations in line engraving is
'''hatching''' (or sometimes ''cross-hatching'' when several
hatching grids cross): filling a space with many parallel
straight or variously curved lines (usually of varying width to
represent a gradual shading). You could try to achieve a similar
effect with e.g. path interpolation (blending), but it is rather
cumbersome and limited; manual drawing of hatch lines, on the
other hand, is tedious and nearly impossible to do
uniformly. Now Inkscape provides "assisted hatching" by
'''tracking a guide path''', allowing you to hatch quickly and
uniformly and at the same time giving you sufficient manual
control over the process.

Here's how to do this. First, select the '''guide path''' that
you will track. It may be another calligraphic stroke, any path
or shape, or even a letter of a text object. Then switch to
Calligraphic pen, select the desired parameters (line width,
angle, fixation etc.) and, before starting to draw, press
Ctrl. You will see a gray '''track circle''' centered at your
mouse pointer and touching the closest point on the selected
guide path. (If you have no guide path selected, a statusbar
message will tell you to select it.)

Now move your mouse close to the guide path, so that the track
circle radius is equal to the desired spacing of your hatch
pattern, and start drawing along the guide path. At that moment,
the radius of the circle gets locked; now the circle slides
along the guide path - and the actual stroke is drawn by the
center of the tracking circle, ''not'' by your mouse point. As
a result, you are getting a smooth stroke going parallel to the
guide path and always at the same distance from it.

When the stroke is ready, release your mouse button (or lift
your tablet pen) but '''do not let go of the Ctrl key''' because
as long as you have it pressed, the tool remembers the hatch
spacing you set when you started drawing. Now, you have just
created a new stroke and, as usual with Inkscape tools, it gets
selected instead of what was selected before. In our case, this
means that the newly drawn stroke itself becomes the new guide
path. Next, you can draw a second stroke along the first one,
then a third one along the second, etc. Eventually you can fill
any desired space with uniform hatching.

Alternatively, if you uncheck "Select new path" in the Calligraphy tool preferences, newly created strokes will not be selected, so your original guide path will be kept selected. In this mode, Inkscape will increase the tracking distance after each created stroke so that you can create uniformly spaced hatching by tracking a single guide path.

The attachment to the guide path is not absolute. If you stray
your mouse pointer far enough from the guide path, you will be
able to tear it off (the track circle turns from green to red)
and move freely. This is intentional; this feature allows you,
for example, to continue drawing a stroke past the end of a
guide stroke, thus making your hatching cover a wider area than
the initial guide path. Special care is taken to make such
tearing off as smooth as possible and to suppress violent jerks,
but this is not always possible; the general advice is to not
try to hatch too fast. If jerking and unintended tearoffs still
bother you, try increasing the Mass parameter.

Also, special code is in place to prevent flipovers - accidental
jumps to the other side of the guide path. Brief flipovers are
suppressed, but if you intentionally go over to the other side
and stay there, eventually Inkscape will obey and your tracking
stroke will also flip over to follow you.

Tracking a guide also allows some slight feedback by gradually
changing the tracking distance in response to your drawing
behavior. Thus, if you're consistently trying to draw closer or
farther from the guide than the current tracking distance, the
distance will correspondingly decrease or increase, so you will
get a hatching that is slightly spacing in or out. (The effect
is very slight, however, so as not to become a nuisance.) Also,
note that since tracking follows the edge of the stroke, strokes
of varying width (such as those tracing background, see below)
will result in gradual bending of the hatching pattern as you
proceed.

===Tracing background by stroke width===

There is a new toggle button on the Calligraphy tool's controls
bar, '''Trace background'''. When on, the width of your pen
depends on the lightness of the background under the stroke in
each point, so that white translates into the minimum stoke
width (1) and black translates to the maximum (which is set by the
Width parameter). This can work alone or in combination with
pressure sensitivity, depending on whether the "Use pressure" button
is also toggled.

This feature allows you to not only hatch over an imported
bitmap image or any drawing, but to do so automatically
reproducing the highlights and shades of the background with
your strokes becoming lighter and heavier as needed.

===Misc features===

* For consistency with other drawing tools, drawing with '''Shift''' in Calligraphy tool automatically '''unions''' the newly created stroke with whatever paths were selected (and selects the result). Thus, you can do a series of overlapping Shift+strokes to create one unioned path object instead of separate objects as before.

* To facilitate changing the Width parameter, the Home/End keys in Calligraphy tool switch you to the minimum (1) and maximum (100) width, correspondingly. (This is in addition to the Left/Right arrow keys that change Width by 1; remember also that you can press Alt+X, type any width, and press Enter.)

==Selector==

* A new selection mode is available: '''selecting by touch'''. In this mode, you draw a freehand path across the objects; when you release mouse button, all objects that are touched by this path get selected. This mode is very convenient in situations where you need to select objects so intermingled that selecting them by the rectangular rubberband is too difficult and so numerous that click-selecting them one by one is too tedious.

:To activate selecting by touch, whenever you are drawing a rubberband rectangle, just press '''Alt''' to switch it to the touch mode. The rectangle will disappear and a red ''touch path'' will be shown instead. When dragging from an empty space, you can press '''Alt''' first and then start to drag to get the touch mode (note that your selection must be empty, otherwise Alt+dragging will move the selected objects instead). To start a touch selection from a point over an object, or to add to existing selection by touching, press '''Shift+Alt''' and then start to drag.

* Previously, the only way to switch selection from scale mode to rotate mode or back was to click on it, which was rather inconvenient when the selected object is in a group or under other objects. Now you can switch modes with keyboard as well by pressing '''Shift+S''' in Selector tool.

* Draging the '''scale handles with Alt''' now scales selection by an integer factor, i.e. up to '''2''', '''3''', '''4''', etc. times the original size or down to '''1/2'''. '''1/3''', '''1/4''', etc. of the original size (in any of the two dimensions independently). This way you can, for example, mirror any object around one of the edges of its box. (This replaces the old and rarely used "slow" scaling mode with Alt.)

* '''Horizontal/vertical flipping''': So far, flipping a selection made it flip within its bounding box, so that the latter remained fixed. In the move/scale mode of the selector tool, this behaviour remains unchanged. However, in rotate/shear mode flipping now happens about an (imaginary) vertical/horizontal axis through the rotation center. This is very handy, since the latter can be freely dragged around and snaps to all kinds of objects if desired.

* '''Objects to Marker''' was added to the objects menu, which converts the current selection to a marker, with the center point of the selection being set to the center of the marker.

==Node tool==
[sculpt profiles - bbyak]

* If any of the nodes in the currently selected path is mouseovered, then horizontal/vertical flipping ('H' and 'V' keys), stepwise rotation ('[' and ']' keys) and scaling ('<' and '>' keys) now all use this specific node as center/axis. If there is no mouseovered node, the center of the bounding box is used instead (as is currently the case unconditionally). Nodes that are covered by one of their handles are also detected as mouseovered.

* [helper path display - johan]

==Text tool==
* [text toolbar - deadchip?]
* If text contains a tref element, the text tool's behavior may not be as expected. Please see [[#The tref Element]]

=SVG features=

==The tref element==

Inkscape can now correctly open files with '''tref''' elements, and new tref elements can be created manually in the XML editor.

The actual character data contained in a text element can either be embedded directly, or it can be the character content of an element referenced by a '''tref'''.

While the textual content from the referenced element will be stripped of any markup before being used by the '''tref''', the '''tref''' element can itself have the same attributes as a '''tspan'''. In fact, when rendered, it is as though the '''tref''' element is replaced by a '''tspan''' with the same attributes, and the referenced character data is embedded in that '''tspan'''.

The property '''xlink:href''' is used to refer to another element whose character data will be used. Any element can be referred to except an ancestor of the '''tref'''. When any of the text contained in the referred element changes, the '''tref''' will immediately be updated to display the new data.

Existing tref elements can be converted into tspan elements with '''Edit > Clone > Unlink Clone'''. If more than one '''tref''' is contained within a selection, all '''trefs''' will be converted into '''tspans'''. All attributes applied to the '''tref''' will be retained in the new '''tspan'''.

A '''tref''' element can be mixed with any other elements allowed to be contained by a text element.

The cloned character data rendered by the '''tref''' may not be edited, but any characters surrounding it can be changed. Styles cannot be applied to a subset of the cloned characters, but if all are selected, a style can be applied to the '''tref'''.

==SVG filters==

===New filters supported===

* The '''feBlend''' filter primitive gives us image blending modes, like in many image manipulation programs. These modes are screen, multiply, darken and lighten. There's a caveat, though: when blending an object against an semi-transparent background, the background will be accumulated twice, resulting in thicker objects under the bounding box of blended object. This is a limitation of current version of SVG format, not a bug in Inkscape.

* The '''feOffset''' filter primitive offsets the image by an user-defined amount. For example, this is useful for drop shadows, as the shadow has to be in a slightly different position than the actual object.

[[Filter Effects]]

===Filters UI===

* New dialog for creating and modifying filter effects ('''Object>Filter Effects...''')
* The list at the left of the dialog displays all filters currently in the document.
** New filters can be added with the '''Add''' button beneath the list
** Right-clicking a filter for the pop-up menu allows duplicating or removing a filter.
** Double-clicking a filter will apply it to all selected objects
** A black dot is placed next to whatever filter is applied to the selected objects. If more than one filter is in use by selected objects, an unfilled dot is used instead.
* The second list, at the left of the dialog, displays the '''filter primitives''' that are contained within the currently-selected filter.
** New primitives can be added by selecting the primitive type from the combo box beneath the list, and then pressing the '''Add''' button.
** Right-clicking a primitive for the pop-up menu allows duplicating or removing a primitive.
** Primitives can be rearranged by clicking and dragging any filter in the list.
** When a filter is selected, the '''Settings''' group at the bottom of the dialog will change to display the attributes available for that primitive. Changing a setting results in an immediate update to the document.
** The "in" and "in2" attributes for filters that support them are not shown in the '''Settings''' group. These input connections are displayed graphically in the list, under the '''Connections''' column.
*** Inputs for a particular filter are displayed as triangles. Depending on the primitive type, there may be one or two inputs (or more for Merge primitives.) Connections can be created by clicking on a triangle and dragging.
*** There are six standard input types that can be used for any primitive input; Source Graphic, Source Alpha, Background Image, Background Alpha, Fill Paint, and Stroke Paint. These are displayed vertically on the far right of the list. Click and drag from an input triangle to one of the standard inputs to connect them.
*** Primitives can also be connected to other primitives by clicking an input triangle and dragging upwards to another primitive. A primitive can only be connected to one higher up the list.
*** Single-clicking on an input triangle will unset it, returning it to the default. If it is on a Merge primitive, the input will be deleted.
*** Merge inputs have an empty input at the end. Dragging a connection from this input will add a new input to the primitive.

=Live path effects=

'''Live path effects''' (not to be confused with extension effects or SVG filters) are a new way to non-destructively modify path and shape objects. Path effects can only affect the path of an object and not its style. The original path is preserved and can be edited directly, and the path effect applied to it will be updated.

In this version, we include several path effects that are analogous to the corresponding extension effects (such as Path along Path effect that replaces the extension of the same name). The most important advantage of live path effects is that they are, indeed, live - you can still edit the original path and the effect will update in real time (unlike the extension effects which were one-time one-way transformations). In the future, we plan to reimplement most if not all of path-changing extensions as live path effects.

[Path Effects dialog, Ctrl+Shift+7]

[Paste Path Effect command, Ctrl+7]

[lpe can be node-edited, preserved in simplify]

When a path with a path effect applied is selected, the statusbar description mentions that, for example "'''Path''' (4 nodes, path effect)".

Live path effects were developed as part of the GSoC 2007.

==Path along path==
The Path along Path effect can curve a path along another path. When this effect is applied to path A (called ''skeleton''), another path B (called ''pattern'') can then be passed as a parameter. The result is that path B is bent along path A. With the node edit tool, path A can be changed on-canvas and the result is updated live. This provides a direct equivalent of "vector brushes" or "skeletal strokes" features in other vector editors.

In the effect's control panel in the Path Effects dialog, you can select how many copies of the pattern are attached (either '''single''' or '''repeated''') and whether the pattern is '''stretched''' to fill the skeleton path. You can also choose the pattern for the selected skeleton [either directly or] by '''pasting''' it from clipboard (that is, you select and copy to the clipboard the pattern, then select the skeleton, apply the Path along path effect, and paste the pattern). The '''Scale width''' parameter allows you to change the width of the pattern applied to the path.

Example file: live-path-effects-pathalongpath.svg

==Curve Stitching==
The Curve Stitching effect connects points from two subpaths of the path with straight line or curved segments. The result is also referred to as "String Art". For some examples of what can be made with this method, see http://members.shaw.ca/jillbritton/string_art/jbstringart.htm. Note that this effect can only be applied to a path with two subpaths in it (use Path > Combine to create such a path from two separate paths).

Example file: live-path-effects-curvestitch.svg

==Gears==
The Gears effect is a toy effect. It generates a chain of interconnected gears from the path that has the effect applied to it. The nodes of the path define the centers of the gears. The first 3 nodes are special; the first defines the start angle of the chain, the second defines the center of the first gear and the third knot specifies the radius of the first gear. That is, to create a chain of 2 gears, you will need a path with 4 nodes; for 3 gears, 5 nodes, and so on.

Example file: live-path-effects-gears.svg

==Development of new effects==
One of the goals of the Summer of Code project was to make it easy to create new effects. There is a framework that greatly simplifies effect implementation; very little code is needed to get the effect hooked into Inkscape. This leaves valuable time for the actual effect to be implemented. See the http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MakingLivePathEffects wiki page for an explanation of how to get started with your own effect!

[johan]

=Extension effects=

== Live preview ==

* '''Live preview of effects''': Using the async behavior (see below), as soon as the parameters dialog for an effect is shown, the script is executed in the background and the screen updates as soon as it's finished. This can result is seemingly faster execution if no parameters are changed. If some parameters are adjusted, the script is restarted. This allows you to see immediately the effects of any parameter change without pressing the OK button on the effect's dialog.

* '''Spawn Glib API''': Scripting extension have been moved to the Glib spawn API to ensure that parameters and variables aren't interpreted by a shell. This also means that scripting extensions are executed in a separate process asynchronously allowing the GTK main loop to continue to execute.

* '''Progress dialog''': While an extension is working on a document, a small dialog is shown allowing the user to cancel the execution.

== New and improved effects ==

* The new '''Render > Barcode''' extension creates a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode barcode]. Supported types include EAN13, EAN8, UPC-A, UPC-E, UPC-5, Code39, Code39Ext, Code93, Code128, and RM4SCC.

* The new '''Render > Gear''' extension creates a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear mechanical gear] given the number of teeth, the circular pitch (in px units), and the pressure angle.

* The new '''Render > [[Spirograph]]''' extension creates intricate mathematical curves akin to the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph mechanical Spirograph toy] (see [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/images/Spirograph_Samples.svg samples]).

* A group of new effects in the '''Text''' submenu performs various case conversions on selected text objects: converting to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence case, Title Case, as well as flipping case (switching uppercase to lowercase and vice versa) and rANdoMiZInG cAse. If no texts are selected, the effect works on all texts in the document.

* Another effect in the Text submenu, '''Replace text''', performs search-and-replace on the selected text objects or (if nothing is selected) on all texts in the document. Searching is case sensitive. You can use this effect to globally delete all occurrences of some text fragment by replacing it with empty string. Conversely, if you search for an empty string and replace it with some string, this string will be inserted after every character of your text; for example, you can space out a text by replacing in it an empty string with a single space.

* A new effect, '''Replace color''' in the Color submenu, simply replaces one RRGGBB-specified color to another within selection or, if there's no selection, in the entire document. As with other effects in that submenu, the replacement affects fill, stroke, and gradient colors, but not colors of bitmaps.

*The '''Whirl''' extension uses the center of view as the center of whirl, so you don't have to enter the center coordinates numerically.

*The '''Render > Grid''' extension has got an extended range of grid spacings, from 0.1 to 1000 px.

*The '''Render > Function Plotter''' extension can now plot using polar coordinates.

*[color randomize]

== XSLT effects ==

* '''XSLT''' is now supported for input, output and effect extensions. This is used to support the XAML file format (both import and export) and the Adobe Illustrator SVG import which removes Adobe's stuff from SVG.

== ImageMagick effects ==

New raster operations available through the effects drop-down menu, powered by the ImageMagick library. For any of these effects to work, you need to have an '''image object selected''' in the drawing.

* '''Adaptive Threshold''' applies adaptive thresholding to the bitmap. Average color of rectangle provided by '''width''' and '''height''' used as threshold value. Use '''offset''' to apply a different threshold than the average.

* '''Add Noise''' adds random noise of certain types to the bitmap.

* '''Blur''' blurs the bitmap, using '''radius''' as the amount of blur. Higher radius means more blur. (Note that unlike the vector Gaussian blur of objects, this bitmap blur will not extend the edges of the image, so it may appear truncated at the edges.)

* '''Channel''' extracts the specified channel from the bitmap.

* '''Charcoal''' applies a charcoal drawing style to a bitmap. Radius controls the width (or detail) of charcoal strokes. Higher '''radius''' means lower detail. '''Sigma''': the higher it is, the less defined the charcoal is.

* '''Colorize''' overlays the bitmap with a given color at a given intensity.

* '''Contrast''' lightly enhances the contrast (difference between lights and darks) of a bitmap.

* '''Cycle Colormap''' cycles the colormap of a bitmap.

* '''Despeckle''' reduce the speckle noise in a bitmap.

* '''Edge''' hilights edges in a bitmap.

* '''Emboss''' embosses a bitmap, hilighting edges with 3D effect.

* '''Enhance''' enhance a bitmap, minimizing noise.

* '''Equalize''' equalizes a bitmap. Histogram equalization.

* '''Flop''' mirrors a bitmap, reflecting each scanline in the horizontal direction.

* '''Gaussian Blur''' blurs a bitmap, more strongly than regular blur.

* '''Implode''' sucks everything towards the center of the bitmap.

* '''Level''' scales values falling between the given '''Black Point''' to '''White Point''' range to the full color range.

* '''Level Channel''' acts the same way as level but for only one channel.

* '''Median Filter''' filters a a bitmap by replacing each pixel component with the median color in a circular neighborhood

* '''Modulate''' adjusts the percent hue, saturation, and brightness of a bitmap.

* '''Negate''' takes the inverse of a bitmap.

* '''Normalize''' normalizes a bitmap, expanding color range to the full possible range of color.

* '''Oil Paint''' stylizes a bitmap so that it appears to be painted with oils.

* '''Opacity''' modifies the opacity channel of a bitmap.

* '''Raise''' alters the lightness of the edges of a bitmap to create a raised appearance, much like a frame.

* '''Reduce Noise''' reduces noise in a bitmap by using a noise peak elimination filter.

* '''Shade''' shades a bitmap by simulating a distant light source

* '''Sharpen''' sharpens a bitmap.

* '''Solarize''' solarizes a bitmap, like overexposing photographic film.

* '''Spread''' randomly spread pixels in a bitmap within the radius of '''amount'''.

* '''Swirl''' swirls the bitmap around the center point.

* '''Threshold''' thresholds a bitmap.

* '''Unsharpmask''' sharpens a bitmap using an unsharp mask algorithm.

* '''Wave''' alters a bitmap along the sine wave.

These effects are part of the Google Summer of Code 2007, coded by Christopher Brown.

== New Python XML library ==

* All Python effects are switched from the old and unmaintained PyXML library to the new powerful [http://codespeak.net/lxml/ lxml] library.

=Color management=

== Calibrated SVG color including CMYK ==

Inkscape now supports color-managed color definitions that use a colorspace other than sRGB (for example Adobe RGB, or calibrated CMYK colors). In the SVG file, this is done using the
optional "icc-color(...)" paint components as described in section 11.2 "Specifying paint" of the SVG 1.1 specification
[http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/painting.html#SpecifyingPaint]. A fallback sRGB value will be used, for non color-managed workflows. This allows for the use of calibrated color spaces, including using CMYK values that are preserved across applications.

The new CMS color selector tab allows these colors to be edited.

== Display calibration ==

In Inkscape Preferences, Color Management tab, there's a new option for enabling display color calibration; you can select any calibration profile (an ICC file) suitable for your display. Options for rendering intent can also be chosen.

== Soft Proofing ==

In Inkscape Preferences, Color Management tab, there's a new option for enabling output device preview; you can select any calibration profile (an ICC file) suitable for your output device. Options for rendering intent can also be chosen, along with out of gamut warnings.

=Snapping=

* In addition to all other snapping modes and techniques, snapping has been implemented or improved in many tools and contexts:

:* Drawing of new '''shapes''' (such as rectangles or ellipses) snaps to grid/guides/objects.

:* '''Handles''' of existing objects and gradient handles snap.

:* '''Skewing''' objects in Selector snaps.

:* Snapping to objects works for '''images''' and '''clones''' (not only paths/shapes as before).

:* Snapping of '''text baselines''' works again.

:* When moved in Selector, an object optionally snaps with its '''rotation axis''' (which is by default in the geometric center of its bounding box, but can be arbitrarily moved and its position is remembered for every object). It is also possible to snap to a rotation axis with another object.

:* While dragging a '''guide''', it now snaps to object nodes

:Other snapping fixes and improvements include:

:* The snapping preferences dialog has been restyled to make it more intuitive

:* Snapping distance is now set in screen pixels and is therefore independent of zoom.

:* Snapping to bounding boxes has been added

:* Snapping of objects has been made more clean, by only snapping bounding box corners to bounding boxes, and nodes to other nodes and paths.

:* The time it takes to snap to objects using the selector tool has been reduced dramatically.

:* The bug where "node-to-node" snapping caused jerky movement of nodes is fixed.

:* The aspect ratio is correctly preserved while scaling objects with snapping turned on.

:* All four bounding box corners now snap instead of only the lower-left and upper-right as before.

:* Snapping while uniformly scaling has been improved.

* The confusing "Default transformations origin" option is removed. Now Inkscape always uses the opposite edge of the object's bounding box as the transformation origin (though the bounding box itself can now be different, see next item).

* A new preference option has been added to specify the kind of '''bounding box''' to be used for transforming objects (see Inkscape Preferences, Tools, Selector). You can choose between the '''visual bounding box''' (which takes into account the stroke width, markers, and blur margins; this is the default behavior) or '''geometric bounding box''' (which encloses only the path itself, disregarding stroke width).

=Grids=

* a new tab in the document properties dialog, solely meant for grids; the former grid/guide tab is now solely for guides. I envision a list of guides there in the future, for easier deletion of guides etc.
* more than one grid can be active at the same time, although i am having trouble in finding a usefull case for this
* multiple views on the same document share the same grids, but the grid can be turned off for each view separately. For example: one could have an overview view without grid enabled. Duplicate that window and zoom in on some detail; then grids can be shown only for that view, and snapping will only happen in those views for which grids are enabled. (sorry i am not able to explain more clearly)
* grid information is now stored in SVG as a child of sodipodi:namedview. Can someone please make an extension that converts an old grid definition to the new format?
* axonometric grid (not yet snapping)
* dots instead of lines

From developer perspective:

* implementation of new grids is much easier now; subclassing CanvasGrid and adding an entry in the is enough. Have a peek at how the rectangular grid is implemented (CanvasXYGrid).
* note that there is no longer "the grid", there might be several grids active now!

[Future plans (i will not be working on this soon, due to GSoC Live effects!):
** possibility of enabling not all but a selection of grids for a view. Eg. when there are 4 grids defined in the document, only enable grid2 for a certain view.
** new grids!
** better snapping mechanism to enable snapping to intersections of guides&grids and grids&grids.

A side effect of removal of old gridcode: apparantly the origin of the desktop rules used to be set to the origin of the grid. I find this strange: specifying a grid origin of (2,2) would have me think the origin would be at ruler location (2,2) instead of (0,0) as it is in 0.45.1.
I have commented the grid-origin correction to the ruler range, because now there is not a single grid anymore to correct it for. Isn't there a control somewhere to define the documents origin? Now the ruler origin is set to (0,0) -- johan]

=Import/Export=

==PDF and AI import==

In this version, Inkscape can natively (i.e. without any additional software) import PDF files and the newer PDF-based Adobe Illustrator files (starting from AI version 9.0).

'''Implemented features''': The new import extension can import '''paths''', '''text''', '''clippaths''', '''masked or non-masked images''', and '''softmasks'''. It supports '''pattern fills''' (XStep and YStep attributes are ignored) as well as '''linear and radial gradients''' (only those using sampled or exponential functions). '''Gradient meshes''' are imported, but they get converted to groups of small tiles (flat-colored paths) that approximate the mesh; the user can adjust the precision of this approximation.

'''PDF import settings''': After opening a PDF or AI document, the PDF Import Settings dialog shows up. Here you can select:

* the '''page''' to be imported from a multipage PDF;

* the overall '''clip region''' (which can be none or set to any of the PDF boxes, e.g. the crop box, the media box, the trim box, etc.);

* the '''precision''' for the approximation of '''gradient meshes'''; note that setting this too high may result in a huge SVG file and slow performance when importing files with gradient meshes;

* a checkbox controlling whether the '''images''' should be '''embedded''' into the resulting SVG document or saved on the current path;

* a '''preview''' of the selected page (shown if poppler-cairo is present on the system or if the selected page has a thumbnail embedded into the PDF document).

'''Text editing tips''': Any text imported from PDF or AI has each letter's precise place on the page ''fixed''. While this preserves the exact appearance (e.g. justification of text blocks) of the imported document, it makes editing such text difficult: deleting text fails to contract the text line and inserting text fails to expand it, i.e. typed letters overlay the existing letters. (However, you still can replace a letter with another letter of about the same width, although you may need to kern it into place with Alt+arrows.)

To work around this, select the text object you want to edit and use '''Text > Remove manual kerns''' command. This will remove the exact positioning information, so if the text block was justified it will lose justification, but instead you will be able to edit it as usual.

Note that there is a way to select even a single line in a text block. For this, open the XML editor, expand the <svg:text> tree branch corresponding to your text, and select any of the <svg:tspan> objects under it. Now you can remove manual kerns from this line only. After you finish editing the line, you can manually justify it back, for example by adding spaces, manual kerns (Alt+arrows), or by adjusting letterspacing (select the whole line and use Alt+> or Alt+<).

The native PDF/AI importer is based on the poppler library and was implemented by Miklós Erdélyi as part of the Google Summer of Code 2007.

==PDF export==

* '''[if enabled! - mental]''' A new cairo-based PDF exporter has been added to Inkscape. Inkscape 0.46 can export shapes, strokes, transparency, gradients, patterns, text, and images correctly to cairo. While clipping paths and masks are known to be faulty or missing. cairo will write a PDF with vector graphics when possible and fall back to raster graphics when needed. What can be exported as vectors and how much of the image will be rasterized when the fallback kicks in depends on your version of cairo. cairo version 1.2 with the pdf backend compiled in is the minimum requirement for any cairo-based PDF exports.

* A new cairo-based exporter can be used to export to PostScript. The cairo PS backend is not as mature as the PDF backend. It rasterizes a lot of its content. Text output does not work where it works with the PDF backend.

==CDR (CorelDraw) import==

Inkscape can use [http://www.sk1project.org/modules.php?name=Products&product=uniconvertor UniConvertor] if it's installed on your system to import documents in CDR format (CorelDraw). This feature is Unix-only at this time (since UniConvertor is Unix-only) and requires that you have Python and UniConvertor installed. As of UniConvertor 1.0rc2, only versions from 7 to X3 of the CDR format are supported, and text objects are not converted.

==XAML import/export==

* Inkscape can import vector graphics portions of XAML documents, as well as export its documents to XAML.

==Adobe Illustrator SVG clean import==

* Using this new import filter, Inkscape can open an SVG document removing any elements and attributes in the namespaces that Adobe Illustrator uses for its stuff. This will clean out everything except the actual SVG content.

==Bitmap export==

* '''Batch export''': The Bitmap Export dialog (Ctrl+Shift+E) got a new checkbox, ''Batch export all selected objects''. This checkbox is available when two or more objects are selected. If it is checked, instead of exporting selection as a whole, Inkscape exports each selected object separately into its own PNG file. This uses each object's export hints (i.e. export filename and DPI) if they are remembered from a previous export; otherwise, the filename is created from the object ID and the DPI is 90 pixels per inch. '''Caution:''' Unlike regular export, batch export overwrites all existing PNG files without warning.

:This makes it possible to implement all kinds of '''image slicing''' and automated export scenarios. For example, if you are working on a web site design, you can create a separate "export" layer. In that layer, "slice" your web page image into separate areas by creating invisible rectangles with no fill and no stroke. Select each rectangle (by Tab/Shift+Tab, or by switching to Outline mode where even an invisible rectangle can be selected by clicking on its outline) and export it into the corresponding filename (which gets saved as that object's export hint). After that, if you do any changes to your graphics, it's very easy to reexport all the slices: just switch to the "export" layer, select all in that layer (Ctrl+A), and export with the ''Batch export selected objects'' checkbox on.

* '''Hide all except selected''': A new checkbox allows you to hide in the exported image everything except selected object(s).

* The Export dialog automatically appends the '''.png''' extension to the export filename you specify.

=Command line=

Several new command line options are added that make Inkscape even more scriptable and automatable than before.

* --verb-list will list all the Verb IDs and their names in Inkscape. This makes writing your own menus and hotkeys much easier as you can easily find out what the choices are.

* --verb followed by a verb ID allows you to specify a verb to be called on every document opened by Inkscape initially from the command line.

* --select followed by a node ID will allow you to add a node to the list of selected objects.

These options can be used, for example, for performance testing. You could do something like this:

$ time inkscape --verb=FileClose my_complex_file.svg

to measure the time it takes to load and display the file.

Of course, with the ability to select objects, it can be much more useful than
that. You can call extension effects, or any other verb, then FileSave and
FileClose to automate all kinds of operations on your drawings.

=User interface=

== [dockable dialogs - gustav] ==

Inkscape now has a '''dock panel''' to the right of the canvas, on
which dialogs can be docked.

The new dockable dialog behavior exists alongside the old floating dialogs behavior. If the old behavior is preferred, one can select it under Inkscape Preferences > Windows > Dialog behavior.

Known issues:

* It doesn't work well with multiple open documents. Fixing it requires a bit of rewrite of the current dialog manager.

* Resizing in-dock dialogs can be cumbersome. More specifically, one won't be able to expand a dialog placed in the dock unless all dialogs beneath it are expanded in advance. Fixing this requires some changes in GDL, I've got it somewhat working, but decided that it's still too flaky to commit in its current state.

* Remembered positions of dockable floating dialogs is inexact.

Note that this change only applies to gtkmm:ified dialogs,
i.e. dialogs that subclass UI::Dialog. I've gtkmm:ified "Fill &
Stroke" and with this change, that version is now default. Dialogs
left to be gtkmm:ified are the "XML Editor", "Tiled Clones", "Object
Properties", "Text and Font".

[
One can now change to tabbed layout if it's preferred by setting
"options.dock[switcherstyle]" to "4".

Done, the new option is called "options.dock[cancenterdock]" (="1" by
default).

The new option is "options.dock[dockbarstyle]". Setting
it to "0" will give you icons only.
]

== [toolbars - [[JonCruz]]] ==

'''Main toolbar''' on the left can now optionally use '''smaller buttons'''. With the several new tools added in this version, this may help users with small screens where the toolbar otherwise may not fit vertically. The toggle is on the Misc tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog.

[calligraphy: menus, tooltips; star; ...]

Switched to stock GTK+ toolbars.

Extra magic secret sauce added.

== [filedialogs - [[JonCruz]]] ==

== Print dialog integration ==

* '''Print Dialog''': The GTK Unix Print Dialog has been hooked up! From the dialog, you can select any of the Postscript-capable printers known to your system and configure them as with any other GTK application.

== Saving window geometry globally ==

Previously, window geometry (size and position of document windows) could only be saved into the document (so that each document stored its own window geometry). Now, a new option is added to save the geometry of the last used window to the preferences and apply this geometry to all new windows. Thus, with the "Save geometry to preferences" option enabled, new windows will open with the shape of the most recent previous window. This mode also remembers and restores the maximized/fullscreen state (unlike geometry saved to documents).

== Preserving zoom/view of reverted documents ==

When reverting files to their previously saved state, the current zoom factor/panning is now retained (as opposed to reverted to the saved state, too, as it was the case before). This less interrupts the workflow when one is working on some detail in the drawing.

== New ways to scroll and zoom ==

* You can now enable Space+mouse drag to pan canvas, as it does in Adobe Illustrator. This mode is enabled by the '''Left mouse button pans when Space is pressed''' checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inksape Preferences dialog. By default it is off and pressing the spacebar key switches you to Selector and back, as it always did in Inkscape.

* By default, rotating the mouse wheel scrolls the canvas vertically and Ctrl+wheel zooms in and out. Now, if you turn on the '''Mouse wheel zooms by default''' checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inksape Preferences dialog, this behavior is reversed: mouse wheel zooms without Ctrl and scrolls with Ctrl. This new mode should be familiar for users of AutoCAD and CorelDraw.

* In the Zoom tool, right mouse button always zooms out instead of calling the context menu (which is rather useless in this tool anyway).

== Using other keys in place of Alt ==

* Many Linux users have found the use of '''Alt-drag''' and '''Alt+click''' in Inkscape problematical because this shortcut is often captured by window managers. In 0.46, instead of disabling of the window manager shortcut as suggested in [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_to_make_Alt.2Bclick_and_Alt.2Bdrag_work_on_Linux.3F the FAQ], you can change a setting in your preferences.xml file called <code>mapalt</code> in the <code>options</code> group. This numerical value ranges from 1 to 5; 1 indicates no change, any other value refers to some special key on a keyboard, such as '''Alt Gr''', the '''Windows''' key, etc. The specific mapping of these values to the keys on your keyboard can be viewed and/or editied by '''xkeycaps''', available from [http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps www.jwz.org].

== GTK theme on OS X ==

A GTK theme is now included in Inkscape.app bundle on OS X. If the user does not have any personal customization (e.g. in a .gtkrc-2.0 file) this theme is used. It reflects the OS X settings for "Appearance" and "Highlight Color" set in System Preferences > Appearance.

=Other changes and improvements=

* '''Gnome VFS Improvements''': Gnome VFS Non-Local files are now usable through all of our file choosers in Open, Save and Export. This compile-time option allowed people to open any Gnome-VFS-based URI from the command-line in the past, but not non-local resources (WebDAV, SFTP, etc) and this now allows for all the lovely possibilities Gnome-VFS provides.

* In previous versions, Inkscape didn't allow you to '''group a single object.''' Yet in some cases, this operation is useful (for example, to blur the clipped edged of an object, or apply more than one clippath/mask to an object). Now this limitation is removed; just select any single object and group it to get a single-object group.

* The somewhat cryptic "F:" and "S:" labels in the selected style indicator (at the left end of the statusbar) and in tool's style swatches are now spelled out as '''Fill:''' and '''Stroke:'''. We believe this makes the interface, even if less space-efficient, a bit more friendly for newbies.

* The '''style swatches''' at the right end of object-creating tools' control bars now open the Preferences page of the corresponding tool when clicked. Also, now these swatches display a tooltip explaining its purpose (e.g. "Style of new rectangles", "Style of new calligraphic strokes", etc.)

* After dragging a curve segment in Node tool, Inkscape no longer selects the two adjacent nodes if they were not selected before.

* The '''Tile Clones''' dialog now uses the object's defined '''rotation axis''' (which can be freely moved by Selector tool and which is saved separately for each object) for all rotations (including both symmetry rotations and the Rotation tab rotations), scales, and flips. This renders unnecessary the previous workarounds where you had to group an object with another transparent object to affect how it's rotated by the clone tiler.

* In '''Pencil''' and '''Calligraphic''' tools, pressing '''Esc''' or '''Ctrl+Z''' while drawing cancels the currently drawn path or stroke. When not drawing, these keys work as before (Esc deselects, Ctrl+Z undoes last action). (This is the same behavior as in the Pen tool where it was introduced in a previous version.)

* A set of new verbs has been added to allow the user to easily '''unlock all locked objects''' or '''unhide all hidden objects'''. There are two variants one that operates on the current layer and its children and one that operates globally. While searching for hidden or locked object descendants of locked layers are ignored.

* Several more '''rotation snapping increments''' are available in the Steps tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog: 36, 22.5, 18, 12, and 0.5 degrees.

* The list of folder shortcuts in the '''Open''' dialog includes the folder with Inkscape's SVG '''examples''' for easy access. Similarly, the '''Save''' dialog has a shortcut for the user's own '''templates''' dialog making it easy to save the current document as a template (if saved as <code>default.svg</code>, it will be loaded every time you run Inkscape or create new document with Ctrl+N; with any other name, it will be added to the File > New submenu).

* For time-intensive operations such as Paint Bucket and Simplify, the system's busy wait cursor is displayed to indicate to the user that Inkscape is actively working, and not frozen.

* Several improvements in '''inkview''': busy cursor is shown while loading file, the button window stays on top and responds to keyboard shortcuts; several memleaks stopped and bugs fixed. The "slideshow mode" of the main inkscape application (-s or --slideshow command line option) is removed; use inkview instead.

* In Document Metadata dialog, updated Creative Commons Licenses to version 3.0.

* In addition to Shift+click, right clicking on a colour swatch now also sets the stroke colour.

* File dialog windows (open/save) now have a "Enable preview" checkbox which allows you to disable the preview pane.

* In the Calligraphic pen controls, the toggle button to enable tablet pressure sensitivity is moved to the Width control, and the button for tilt sensitivity is moved to Angle, to better reflect what parameters these toggles affect.

* The option '''Import bitmap as <image>''' is removed; it was added several versions ago to allow optionally importing images as rectangles with image pattern, to make clipping the images easier. Now that you can easily use clipping paths, as well as convert any image to rectangle with pattern with Alt+I, this option is not really necessary and removed to reduce confusion. Bitmaps are always imported into SVG as an <image> element.

* Support has been added for stock patterns, in the same way that stock markers were already supported. Adding patterns to share/patterns/patterns.svg, and giving them a inkscape-stockid attribute as found on the examples already there will make them available in all Inkscape sessions from the patterns tab of the fill & stroke dialog.

=Notable bugfixes=

These are bugfixes compared to 0.45.1; for a list of fixes in 0.45.1 compared to 0.45, see [[ReleaseNotes045|0.45.1 release notes]].

* The '''sodipodi:docbase''' attribute is no longer added to the root <svg> element. This attribute used to keep the latest directory that the document was saved to, and thus represented a mild privacy violation (i.e., by sharing your Inkscape SVG files you allowed others to have a peek into your directory structure). Note, however, that Inkscape does not remove this attribute from old documents it opens; if you want you can remove it yourself. Inkscape just no longer creates this attribute in new documents.

* A fix in the blur rendering code made '''exporting blurred objects to bitmap''' much faster and fixed the disappearing of blurred objects in exported bitmaps which happened for large objects in 0.45. The same fix got rid of the rendering artefacts that sometimes appeared on blurred objects during scrolling.

* Inkscape now properly quotes <code>font-family</code> values and therefore can use '''fonts''' with various '''nonalphanumeric characters''' in their names, which previously failed.

* If you have saved documents with a previous version of Inkscape which used '''right-to-left text''' (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew) then the paragraph alignment of non-flowed text has been reversed in this release. This is due to a bug in previous versions - the new behaviour is compliant with the SVG specification and compatible with other editors and viewers. To correct your images, simply reverse the paragraph alignment by selecting the text and clicking the appropriate button on the toolbar.

* A large family of bugs was exterminated where an object's style could only refer other objects (such as gradients, patterns, and filters) that come after it in the document. Now any objects can be referenced from a style regardless of their place in the document. This fixed the '''disappearance of gradients/patterns/filters''' after you undo an effect, as well as lots of assorted crashes and misrenderings (mostly on non-Inkscape SVG files).

* On Windows, '''file opening/saving dialogs''' can no longer sink under the main editor window (they now have the inkscape window set correctly as their parent window).

* '''Stock markers''' now appear in the "recently used markers" section of the marker selector dropdowns in the Fill & Stroke dialog. Before, any markers with stock id's (including markers modified by the user) were hidden, making it difficult to work with modified stock markers.

* A regression in 0.45 caused crashes when '''undo or redo''' was attempted before the previous action could complete (e.g. pressing ctrl+z while you are still drawing a rectangle). This is now fixed.

* Previously, if there was a single '''invalid property''' in a <code>style</code> attribute, the entire attribute was discarded, i.e. the object lost all styling. Now Inkscape's behavior is more compliant to the CSS specification: it ignores only the invalid property but reads in all the rest.

* Several bugs are fixed in '''searching for linked images'''. Now moving SVG documents with their associated images to a different place or a different machine should work more reliably.

* Master opacity did not apply to stroke '''markers''' as it should; fixed.

* '''Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration URI''' points to the right location now.

* Text objects didn't display the '''pattern editing handles'''; fixed.

* On Windows, the Inkscape uninstaller deleted all files under the install directory. This could lead to removing user-created files, or even other program files not related to inkscape if the install directory was C:\Program Files. The new uninstaller '''tracks all installed files and asks for confirmation before deleting any other files'''. However, installation and uninstallation process is now slower.

= Previous releases =

* [[ReleaseNotes045]]
* [[ReleaseNotes044]]
* [[ReleaseNotes043]]
* [[ReleaseNotes042]]
* [[ReleaseNotes041]]
* [[ReleaseNotes040]]
* [[ReleaseNotes039]]
* [[ReleaseNotes038]]
* [[ReleaseNotes037]]
* [[ReleaseNotes036]]
* [[ReleaseNotes035]]

[[Category:Marketing]]

Release notes/0.46

2007-10-09T19:36:29Z

Simarilius: /* Selector */

=Inkscape 0.46=
'''(not released yet)'''

Highlights in this release:

* Paintbucket tool

* Tweak tool

* 3D Box tool

* Live path effects

* Color management

* New SVG filters and UI

* Native PDF and AI import

* XAML import/export

* Open Clip Art Library integration (import/export)

* Bitmap editing extension effects

* Full on-canvas gradient editing

* Engraver's Toolbox in the Calligraphic tool

* Touch selection

* Dockable dialogs

* Command-line access to verbs

* Snapping made usable

* Significant speed and interactivity improvements

* Hundreds of smaller features and bugfixes

=Speed and interactivity=

* In this version, Inkscape starts using the [http://www.cairographics.org cairo] library for rendering. It is now used for '''outline mode''' display which, thanks to using cairo and other optimizations, redraws '''faster by about 25%'''. More impressive are memory savings: thanks to cairo, in outline mode Inkscape now takes only about '''50% of the memory''' used by 0.45 for the same file.

* '''Smart redraw directionality:''' With complex images and/or on slow computers, you may have noticed that Inkscape redraws the screen image in horizontal strips, and these strips are painted in order from top to bottom. Now the redraw always starts '''at your mouse cursor location''' and proceed upwards and downwards from it, so that the area near the cursor is always redrawn first. This significantly improves program's responsiveness in some situations. For example, when you are node-editing part of a complex path, the entire path needs to be redrawn on each change, but now this redraw starts from the point you're working on. Moreover, the redraw is interruptible, so each mouse movement starts new redraw from the mouse cursor area. As a result, during such operations those parts that you're working on redraw often and feel snappy and responsive, while areas further away may lag behind more.

* '''Faster blur''' for exporting and high quality on-screen rendering: Inkscape now uses an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filter for blurring with large radius. This greatly improves the speed of blur redraw at high zooms or in high-resolution export (or simply with very large blur radius). On the other hand, the results are an approximation to a true Gaussian blur, so a drawing may look slightly different from the mathematically precise blur (usually the differences are far from visible, though). This code is mainly based on: ''Recursive Gaussian Derivative Filters'' by L.J. van Vliet, I.T. Young and P.W. Verbeek (see the source code for more detailed references).

:'''Exporting drawings with blur''' was particularly slow in 0.45; some files could take hours to export. Now this is fixed, in part by the faster algorithm mentioned above and in part by a bugfix in the export code. Now even the quite complex files with large blurs export at high resolution in at most a few minutes.

* [faster gradients - mental]

* '''Dragging handles and nodes''' as well as '''dragging and transforming objects''' by mouse became more responsive, so that working in complex drawings and especially editing complex paths is noticeably easier. In particular, this fixes the annoying latency issue where a node or a handle could follow mouse cursor even after you release mouse button after a drag.

* '''Moving the cursor around''' in a file with large and complex paths has become much snappier and more responsive. Previously, in extreme cases Inkscape could freeze for seconds while catching up with the mouse cursor; such delays are now eliminated.

* Several improvements make '''canvas panning and scrolling''' smoother and more interactive in complex slow-rendering documents:

:* When panning by the middle mouse button, Inkscape no longer attempts to redraw the canvas while your mouse button is pressed. Any redrawing only happens after you release the mouse. As a result, the newly revealed parts of the canvas are somewhat more "dirty" but the '''panning is smoother than before''', with few if any "hiccups".

:* '''Redrawing the newly exposed parts of the canvas''' after scrolling, especially diagonal scrolling, is now faster because only the exposed areas are redrawn; before, this often resulted in the entire screen being redrawn which was much slower.

:* Previously, if you started panning with middle button while Inkscape is still redrawing screen in a complex drawing, panning sometimes completely failed or moved canvas just a little step. Now it is '''guaranteed to pan the canvas all the way''' from mouse-press point to mouse-release point in any case, even if sometimes it fails to show the intermediate positions.

:* When pressing and holding Ctrl+arrows to scroll canvas, Inkscape normally accelerates scrolling so that each next scrolling step is bigger than the previous. Previously, in complex drawings this acceleration sometimes got interrupted, which made scrolling annoyingly bumpy and slow. Now this is fixed so that '''scrolling is smoothly accelerated''' even in a slow-rendering document.

:* The default '''starting speed and acceleration''' of Ctrl+arrows scrolling are slightly increased. (They are both settable in Preferences.)

* Better responsiveness and more visual feedback in user interface:

:*When you zoom, the '''zoom control''' on the right end of the statusbar now updates immediately, not after screen redraw as before.

:*Many potentially slow commands (Save, Simplify, Combine, Break Apart and others) now display a '''busy cursor''' and flash a message in the statusbar (e.g. "Saving document...") while they work.

:*The '''statusbar messages''' displayed while you're drawing a shape or a path in Pen tool do not lag behind the mouse movements.

* '''Combine''' and '''Convert to paths''' commands are now orders of magnitude faster when applied to a selection with hundreds or thousands of objects.

* The time it takes to '''snap to objects''' using the selector tool has been reduced dramatically, which is most noticeable for snapping to complex paths.

=Tools=

==Paint Bucket tool==

The new Paint Bucket tool works exactly as you would expect: click in any area bounded on all sides and it will '''fill it with color'''. Being a vector tool, however, Inkscape's Paint Bucket just creates a new ''path'' that "fills in" the area in which you clicked.

===How it works===

It is important to note that the tool is '''perceptual''', not geometric. That is, when looking for the boundaries around the point you clicked, it takes for such boundaries any ''visible'' color changes. This means that filling will stop at gradients, blurs, and even the color boundaries in imported bitmaps, but will ignore any paths or other objects that are fully (or almost) transparent or for any other reason do not stand out from the background. In short, it will work exactly as if you were filling a rasterized version of your image in a bitmap editor like Photoshop or GIMP - but will give you a vector object to work with.

For example, now you can scan a pencil sketch, import the bitmap into Inkscape, and quickly fill all its cells with colors even without tracing the bitmap first. This is a very convenient and interactive way of digitizing your paper drawings, making the '''traditional bitmap tracing unnecessary''' in many cases.

Internally, the tool works by performing a bitmap-based flood fill on a rendered version of the visible canvas, then tracing the resulting fill using [[potrace]] and placing the traced path into the document.

It places the rendered path onto the current layer, so you can have a layer on top (for example, "Inks") and select the layer below ("Colors") and do the fills so that they always appear below the Inks.

The '''resolution''' of the bitmap image used to perform the trace is dependent upon your '''current zoom level''' -- the more zoomed in to an area that you are, the higher the resolution of the bitmap-based flood fill. So, if you are got a fill that is too imprecise, has rough corners, or don't go into small nooks and appendices where it is supposed to go, just undo, zoom in closer and repeat filling from the same point. Conversely, if the fill leaks out through a small gap, zoom out to make the gap less visible and fill again (or use the auto gap closing parameter, see below).

===Style===

Like all object-creating tools, the Paint Bucket may use the '''last-set style''' for the objects it creates (this is the default), or it can use its own '''fixed style'''. You can switch between these modes on this tool's page in Inkscape Preferences (Ctrl+Shift+P). As in all other tools, the '''style swatch''' on the far right of the Controls bar shows the style that will be used for the next fill object you create.

===Controls===

In the tool's '''Controls bar''':

* Paint Bucket's perceptual fill can use either all visible colors or specific color channels. Using the '''Fill by''' drop-down list, you can restrict the fill algorithm to one the following channels:
** Red
** Green
** Blue
** Hue
** Saturation
** Lightness
** Alpha

* The '''Threshold''' (in per cent units) controls how large must be color difference at a point (compared to the initial click point) to stop the fill. Zero tolerance means only the area of strictly the same color will be filled; the larger the tolerance, the easier it will be for the fill to leak into adjacent different-color areas. The default value is 10%.

* Using the '''Grow/shrink by''' parameter, you can control the amount of inset/outset to be applied to the created fill path. Setting a positive outset causes fill paths to be larger than the filled bitmap area (good for eliminating anti-aliasing errors), while setting a negative outset causes the path to be smaller. This works much the same as the Outset and Inset path commands, except it's done automatically after every fill.

* With the '''Close gaps''' parameter, you can make the Paint Bucket tool ignore any gaps in the area boundaries that would normally cause the fill to spill out of the desired area. There are four settings to auto gap:
** None
** Small (close gaps up to 2 pixels in size)
** Medium (4 pixels)
** Large (6 pixels)
:Note that setting this parameter to other than None may slow down noticeably the filling of large areas.

===Shortcuts===

The tool's '''shortcuts''' are:

* '''Single click''' performs filling from the click point.

* '''Shift+click''' performs filling from the click point and then unions the resulting path with the selected path. This way, if your first attempt did not fill in all of the desired area, you can Shift+click the remaining corner to fill it in separately and combine the result with the result of the previous fill.

* '''Ctrl+click''' on an object simply changes that object's fill to the current fill color of the tool, and '''Shift+Ctrl+click''' changes the stroke to the current stroke color.

* '''Click and drag''' performs filling from '''all of the points''' that you pass while dragging (you will see your path visualized by a red line). From each point, the fill spreads to the neighbors with the colors similar to that point - in other words, it's like clicking with this tool at each point of the drag path and unioning the results. This lets you easily fill an area occupied by a gradient or blur - just drag from the darkest to the lightest points in the area you want to fill.

* '''Alt+click and drag''' works similarly to simple drag, except from each point of the drag path, the fill spreads to the neighbors (if any) with the colors similar to the ''initial point'' (the point where you started the drag). This lets you fill a series of similarly-colored yet separated areas (for example, multiple cells in a cartoon) by starting the drag in one of those areas, and alt+dragging the tool through all the other areas.

==Tweak tool==

The Tweak tool is an exciting new way to edit drawings which largely blurs the
distinction between vector and raster editing. Instead of meticulously selecting some
objects and then performing an action on the selection, you can now select ''all''
objects (or all objects you are interested in) and apply the Tweak tool's brush to
smoothly and naturally change the shape or style of only those objects (or parts
thereof) ''that the brush touches''.

The area of the tool's action - its ''brush'' - is marked by an orange-colored circular
outline that moves with your mouse cursor. However, that area actually has no sharp
boundaries; the power of the tool's action falls off gradually, following a smooth
bell-shaped profile. This makes the tool act softly and smoothly.

The tool will work on any number of selected objects; for example, you can select all
(Ctrl+A) and "smear" your entire drawing by Push mode or paint it by Color Paint
mode. You can also apply it to groups of objects; it will go into groups and act on
individual objects inside groups. If you're trying to use it without anything selected,
it will remind you by a statusbar message to select some objects.

===Width===

The width of the tool's brush, in the range from 1 to 100, can be changed by the
'''Width''' control in the tool's controls bar above the canvas. You can also change
width by '''Left''' and '''Right''' arrow keys (same as in the Calligraphy tool) at any
time (including during action) as well as '''Home''' and '''End'''. Also, as in Calligraphy
tool, the visible width of the brush is independent of zoom; simply zooming in or out is
often easier than adjusting the width if you want to cover a smaller or larger area of
the drawing.

===Force===

The next control is '''Force''' which adjusts the power of the action, also in the
range from 1 to 100. You can also change width by '''Up''' and '''Down''' arrow keys at
any time (including during action).

If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet and your "Use pressure" button on the right-hand
end of the controls bar is on, then the force will also depend on how hard you actually
press your pen into your tablet, changing in the range from zero to whatever you set in
the Force control. If all you have is a mouse, then the force will be constant but still
settable by the Force control.

===Path editing modes===

The Tweak tool has a number of '''modes''', selectable by toggle buttons in the tool's
Controls bar and by keyboard shortcuts. Some of these modes change the shapes of
paths while others affect the colors of objects. All these modes share the Width and
Force controls but otherwise are quite different. Let's look at the path editing modes
first.

Unlike the Node tool, to edit paths with the Tweak tool you don't need to worry about
where the nodes of a path are and how to manipulate them. You just apply the tool's
brush to any point, and the selected paths at that point will reshape smoothly and
naturally - as if made of soft jelly - regardless of where its nodes lie. If applied to
a shape or text object, the tool converts them to paths automatically.

While not very useful for technical drawings, tweaking paths will be indispensable for
artistic uses of Inkscape - cartoons, drawings, sketches, anime, etc. This new
functionality is somewhat similar to the tools such as "Pucker" and "Bloat" in the
latest versions of Adobe Illustrator.

There are currently six path editing modes in the Tweak tool: '''Push''', '''Shrink''',
'''Grow''', '''Attract''', '''Repel''', and '''Roughen'''.

* This default mode of the tool, '''Push''', simply displaces the part of the path under the cursor in the direction of the drag. The path behaves like soft jelly, bending and bulging smoothly and naturally. It's an easy way to produce various irregular, lifelike, handmade-looking shapes starting from something as simple as an ellipse or a calligraphic stroke. For parallel-stroke hatching (engraving) done in the Calligraphy tool, pushing is an easy way to bend, pinch, or curve the entire hatching uniformly.

* The '''Shrink''' and '''Grow''' are two opposite modes that move each point of a path in a direction perpendicular to the path's surface at the point, either inwards (Shrink) or outwards (Grow). This is similar to the Inset and Outset commands, except that the Tweak tool can act on a part of a path instead of the whole path.

:For example, the visible lightness/darkness of an engraving hatching may not exactly correspond to your artistic intention. Also, the ends of Calligraphy pen strokes are often far from ideal - they may be too blunt or have unsightly bends or blobs. This is where the Tweak tool may help. Select all the strokes in a hatching pattern and apply a light Shrink action where you want the lines to become thinner (and the hatching to become lighter), up until total disappearance. If you press hard, shrinking works as an eraser, so you can easily clean the strokes' ends to make them thin, sharp, and uniform. Conversely, applying Grow makes strokes wider (i.e. the hatching becomes darker).

:Of course, shrinking and growing are useful not only for calligraphic strokes. Same as with Push, with Shrink and Grow you can '''sculpt''' any path, spawning smooth treacle-like appendages with Inflating and carving holes with Melting. Unlike the "node sculpting" mode in the Node tool, however, this does not require adding new nodes to the shape.

* The '''Attract''' and '''Repel''' modes work by moving each affected point on a path towards (Attract) or from (Repel) the cursor point. In some cases this may look similar to Shrink and Grow, but the difference is that shrinking/growing moves paths perpendicularly to the path in each point, whereas attracting/repelling moves them to or from the cursor regardless of the path shape. These modes are similar to the Pinch effect in ; you can use them for various central-symmetric distortions in parts of your paths.

* The '''Roughen''' mode does exactly this: roughens the edge of the path without changing its overall shape. Slight roughening simply makes the edge crooked and uneven; strong roughening tears and explodes the edge into random blobs and splotches. Note that this operation, especially with high Fidelity, adds a lot of nodes which increases the size of your SVG document and may slow down Inkscape considerably. In particular, pushing/melting/inflating of a roughened path becomes much slower and more difficult, so it's recommended to finalize the overall shape of a path first and roughen it, if necessary, only as the final step.

====Fidelity====

Any tweaking of a path slightly distorts the entire path, including even those parts
that you didn't touch. These distortions are similar to those that a Simplify command
produces. The '''Fidelity''' value (also in the range from 1 to 100, default is 50)
allows you to control the amount of these distortions. With a higher fidelity, the
distortions are less noticeable, but the path may end up having a lot of nodes which
inflates up the SVG size and slows down Inkscape.

The best value of Fidelity depends on the nature of your artwork. If you're sculpting an
amorphous blob, you can do with low fidelity of about 20. If, however, you are pushing
or inflating a text string (as a single path) and want the letters outside the distorted
area to remain crisp and clean, you will need to raise fidelity to 80 or more.

====Known problems====

Known problems with the path editing modes in Tweak tool:

# they don't work on open paths (an open path becomes closed if you tweak it);
# they are rather slow;
# they quickly eat memory; and
# they are sometimes buggy - thin calligraphic strokes may suddenly disappear or change their shape drastically as you're melting or inflating them.

For (4), it helps to increase Fidelity. Also, you can undo the bad change and try again with less pressure on the pen - if you do your thinning in several light touches instead of one heavy press, usually you will be able to get the desired result without the buggy behavior.

Also, sometimes after roughening, further tweaking of a path becomes impossible with this diagnostic:

WARNING **: Shape error in ConvertToShape: directedEulerian(a) == false

All these problems stem from the livarot library that we use for geometric manipulation of paths. Fortunately, livarot is scheduled for replacement by lib2geom, a new library now in development, so hopefully these issues will be addressed then.

===Color-changing modes===

The '''Color Paint''' and '''Color Jitter''' modes, unlike the path editing modes,
change the colors of objects instead of their shapes. Yet they share enough common
features with the path-changing modes to be part of the same tool: These modes also use
a circular soft-edged brush controlled by the Width and Force parameters on the Controls
bar and affected by the pen pressure (if you have a pressure-sensitive tablet).

* '''Color Paint''' applies the style of the tool to the selected objects under the brush. The style of the tool is visible in the style swatch at the rightmost end of the tool's control bar; it can be changed by clicking on the color palette or by any other style assignment command, such as Fill and Stroke dialog. ('''Note''': unlike all other tools, in Tweak tool in Color Paint mode you cannot assign style directly to selected objects; any style-setting command changes the tool's style instead.)

:The fill from the tool's style applies to the fills of the painted objects, and the stroke applies to the strokes. If the tool's style has no fill or no stroke, it won't affect fills or strokes, correspondingly. For example, if you want to color the fills of objects blue but leave their strokes untouched, assign blue fill to the tool's style (just click blue on the palette) but set its stroke to None (middle-click the Stroke swatch in the statusbar). Similarly, master opacity in the tool's style affects master opacities of the touched objects (if the O channel is on, see below).

:This mode allows you to literally paint over objects, shifting their colors towards the target style of the tool. For example, if you paint with yellow fill over a blue-filled object, the object will become greenish blue, then green, then yellowish green, and end up being exactly the yellow color you're painting with. This speed of this gradual transition depends on both Force parameter and pen pressure; also, objects touched by the periphery of the brush are less affected than those hit by the brush center. Overall, using this tool is very similar to a soft brush in a raster editor such as Gimp or Photoshop.

* '''Color Jitter''' mode does not apply any color, but instead jitters (randomizes) the colors of the objects it touches. The force of the action determines how strong is the randomization, i.e. how far the colors deviate from the original values. This mode does not use the tool's style.

Both modes work on flat fills and gradients; for gradients, the tool takes into account not only the position of the entire object with gradient, but also the position of each gradient stop relative to the brush. This means that, for example, you can change the blue color only in an object filled with blue-red gradient simply by painting over its blue end with a brush small enough to not touch the red. (Note that color tweaking does not create gradients on objects that used flat color before, but only adjusts existing gradients in the drawing.)

====Channels====

Color Paint and Color Jitter honor the '''Channels''' control. This control comprises
the four buttons: '''H''', '''S''', '''L''', and '''O''', which allow you to turn on and off
the tool's action on the object's hue, saturation, lightness, and opacity,
correspondingly. For example, if you want to raise the saturation of some part of your
drawing without changing the hue, select some maximum-saturation color (e.g. pure red)
and turn off all Channels buttons except S. Similarly, you can replace the hues without
affecting saturation or lightness (only H pressed), or lighten/darken all colors without
changing their hues and saturation (only L pressed). Pressing O allows you to apply the
master opacity from the tool's style to the master opacity of objects (but not fill or
stroke opacity).

====Usage notes====

Color painting with Tweak tool is similar, but not exactly analogous to bitmap
painting. Even though the tool itself works as a soft brush, it still applies its color
to vector objects, which behave as vector objects usually do. For example, if you want
to change the tint of the face in your drawing, and if a hand in the drawing is part of
the same object as the face, that hand will change its tint too even if it's located far
from the point you are painting. (We foresee a "fracture" command in one of the next
versions of Inkscape which will help you turn a monolithic object into a mosaic of small
fragments that will be then easy to paint with Tweak tool.) Still, even with this
limitation, color painting is a novel way of dealing with vector drawings which allows
you to quickly and intuitively make adjustments which would be awkward and slow with
traditional approach.

Drawings containing patterns or scatterings of small independent objects are best suited
for color painting with Tweak tool. Examples include:

* freehand drawings with Calligraphy pen, consisting of many separate strokes;

* gradient meshes imported from Adobe Illustrator files (Inkscape renders these meshes as lattices of small polygons; while there's no direct support for gradient meshes in Inkscape yet, color painting on such lattices is almost as good);

* text converted to paths and with Break Apart command applied so that each letter is a separate path;

* patterns made with the Tile Clones command; note that you need to unset the fill and/or stroke on the original object and use the Color tab to assign some initial color to the clones - this will make them paintable with the Tweak tool without unlinking.

Moreover, color tweaking can be useful for compositions with a few objects or even for
single objects. Unlike all other color selection methods, painting with the Tweak tool
implements the ''color mixing'' metaphor which is much more familiar to traditional
artists than RGB sliders or even the color wheel. For example, start with a rectagle of
pure blue color; then, pick different colors by Color Paint and apply light touches with
minimum Force and minimum pen pressure: add a little green, a little brown, a little
yellow, etc. until you have the exact hue you need. Similarly, you can whiten or blacken
any hue by admixing white or black.

You can also use color tweaking to add a tint, darken/lighten, saturate/desaturate, or
color jitter your entire drawing. Just select all in all layers, zoom out, choose a
large brush width so it covers all of the drawing, and apply a little color tweaking
(with minimum Force) that will therefore affect all visible objects.

===Keyboard shortcuts===

* '''W''', '''Shift+F2''': switch to the Tweak tool

* '''Shift+P''': switch to the Push mode

* '''Shift+S''': switch to the Shrink mode

* '''Shift+G''': switch to the Grow mode

* '''Shift+A''': switch to the Attract mode

* '''Shift+E''': switch to the Repel mode

* '''Shift+R''': switch to the Roughen mode

* '''Shift+C''': switch to the Color Paint mode

* '''Shift+J''': switch to the Color Jitter mode

* '''Left, Right, Home, End''': change width

* '''Up, Down''': change force

* '''mouse drag''': act on selected path in the current mode

* '''Ctrl+mouse drag''': temporarily switch to Shrink (while Ctrl is down)

* '''Shift+Ctrl+mouse drag''': temporarily switch to Grow (while Shift+Ctrl is down)

==3D Box tool==

Inkscape is a two-dimensional drawing tool. However, very often it is used to draw three-dimensional objects. The new '''3D box tool''' helps you create such 3D drawings by automating the most common operation: creating a three-dimensional box in a given perspective. The tool automatically ensures that all sides of the box lie on the corresponding perspective lines. We're not going to compete with Blender - but even simple things can go a long way.

Currently in the 3D box tool you can:

* draw a 3D box by dragging on canvas (use Shift+dragging without releasing the mouse button to extrude in z direction)

* adjust any of its 3 dimensions by handles

* move a 3D box "in perspective" by dragging its center; without modifiers, movement occurs within the XY-plane (press Ctrl to constrain the movement to the directions of the coordinate axes or diagonals), with Shift the box moves parallel to the Z-axis

* adjust the vanishing points of a perspective by dragging them across the canvas (see below) or toggling their states; all boxes sharing this perspective are transformed accordingly

In SVG, a 3D box is represented as a '''group''' (svg:g) with a special extension attribute (in inkscape namespace); this group contains the 6 quadrilateral '''paths''' representing the sides of the box. Only the 3D box tool treats this object as a box; for all other tools it is just a group, so you can select any of the paths by Ctrl+click, apply any style to it, delete it, etc. You can of course transform the entire box or any face in it using Selector or Node tools.

When several boxes are selected, all vanishing points of their associated perspectives are shown on the canvas. If vanishing points of different perspectives coincide, they are combined in a single "dragger". Moving this dragger moves all the vanishing points simultaneously and transforms the associated boxes accordingly. Note that some non-selected boxes may also be reshaped if their perspectives share the same vanishing point. Pressing Shift while moving the dragger can be used to only transform the selected boxes, separating their perspectives from the non-selected ones'. On the other hand, when a vanishing point being dragged comes close enough to another one, both snap together and are combined in a single dragger.

===Keyboard shortcuts===

* '''X''', '''Alt+F4''': switch to the 3D box tool

* The various kinds of parentheses, namely '''[''' ''']''', '''(''' ''')''', '''{''' '''}''', can be used to rotate infinite (i.e., parallel) perspective lines in X-, Y-, and Z-direction, respectively. Closing parentheses rotate clockwise and opening parentheses rotate counterclockwise. The angle of rotation is taken from the preferences. Pressing '''Alt''' reduces the amount of rotation to 1 screen pixel.

* '''L''': toggle visibility of perspective lines

* '''A''': when perspective lines are visible, toggle between "all lines" and "only lines connected to front corners" (this can help to avoid visual clutter)

[max]

==Gradient Tool==
===Selecting multiple stops===
'''More than one gradient stop''' can be selected at a time. Shortcuts for working with multiple stop selections are generally modeled on the Node tool.
* Add a stop to the selected stops by '''Shift+click'''.
* Press '''Ctrl+A''' to select all stops in the selected objects.
Multiple selected stops:
*Can be moved together by '''mouse drag''' or by '''arrow keys'''. For example, creating a linear gradient, then press Ctrl+A to select all stops and use arrow keys to move the entire gradient as a whole.
*Can be deleted at the same time by pressing '''Del'''.
An always up-to-date description of the current handle selection is provided in the statusbar in the Gradient tool, including the number of selected handles (and the type of the single selected handle), as well as the total number of handles and selected objects.

===Editing intermediate stops===
'''Intermediate stops''' in gradients can be added, deleted, and edited on canvas (previously this was only possible in the Gradient Editor dialog).
*Stops can be added by '''double clicking''' or by '''Ctrl+Alt+Click''' on the gradient line.
*When two or more adjacent stops are selected, pressing '''Ins''' adds stops in the middles of all selected stop intervals.
*Intermediate stops can be '''mousedrag'''ged along their gradient line, within the limits of the adjacent unselected stops (or end handles).
:*Dragging with '''Ctrl''' moves the selected stops snapping them to 1/10 fractions of the available range.
:*Dragging with '''Alt''' moves the selected stops depending on how close each one is to the stop being dragged, using a smooth bell-like curve similar to the node sculpting feature in Node tool. This makes it easy to approximate different gradient profiles; for example, if you have a two-stop gradient that you want to shape according to a curve profile, select both ends of the gradient, press '''Ins''' a few times to add a number of intermediate nodes, then '''Alt+drag''' a node in the middle to smoothly profile the gradient.
*Stops can be deleted by '''Ctrl+Alt+Click''' on a stop or by the '''Del''' key for all the selected stop(s).
:*When you delete an end stop, the nearest intermediate stop becomes the new end stop of the gradient (without moving - i.e., the gradient span becomes shorter).
:*When you delete an end stop and there are no intermediate stops, the object will be painted with a solid fill taken from the color & opacity of the remaining stop.
*Pressing '''Ctrl+L''' with some intermediate stops selected attempts to ''simplify'' the selected portion of the gradient, removing those stops that can be removed without too much change in the way the gradient looks. In particular, new stops created by double-clicking or pressing Ins initially do not change the appearance of the gradient, so if you press Ctrl+L, all redundant stops that weren't moved or repainted since creation will be deleted.

===Style indication of gradient stops===
*When you have one of the '''gradient handles selected''', its style (color and opacity) is reflected by the selected style indicator (left of the statusbar) and the Fill&Stroke dialog. Previously, opacity of a gradient handle was reflected as fill-opacity and stroke-opacity; now it is reflected as '''master opacity''' (the "O:" spinbutton in the selected style indicator, the "Master opacity" slider in Fill&Stroke). This makes it much easier to view and change opacity of gradient handles using only the selected style indicator in the statusbar.
:*When multiple gradient stops are selected, the selected style indicator (in the statusbar) displays and controls the averaged color and opacity of the selected stops.[FIXME]
*If the selected object(s) have gradient in fill or stroke, the '''selected style indicator''' in the bottom-left corner of the editing window now displays a '''live gradient preview''' prefixed by '''R''' or '''L''' to indicate Radial or Linear gradients (instead of displaying "L Gradient" or "R Gradient" text labels as before). Also, this and other similar widget now use italic font face to indicate None and bold to indicate Unset.

===Automatic duplication of gradients===
* When copy/pasting or duplicating an object with gradient, it now automatically gets a '''copy''' of the original gradient, so modifying it does not affect the source object's gradient anymore (before, you had to press the Duplicate button on the Gradient controls bar for this).

==Calligraphy tool: Engraver's Toolbox ==

Several new features were added to the Calligraphic pen to make
Inkscape capable of the ancient art of '''line
engraving'''. Traditional engraving is a very labour-intensive
process, and while for a long time it was the only practical way
of reproducing lifelike images in black-and-white print, about a
century ago it was almost completely displaced by automatic
halftone screens. However, line engravings have their
characteristic charm, and there's no reason not to try to
resurrect this art form with the help of Inkscape.

A brief visual guide to the new functionality can be seen on
these screenshots:

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.46-engraving1.png

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.46-engraving2.png

===Tracking a guide path with Ctrl===

One of the most common operations in line engraving is
'''hatching''' (or sometimes ''cross-hatching'' when several
hatching grids cross): filling a space with many parallel
straight or variously curved lines (usually of varying width to
represent a gradual shading). You could try to achieve a similar
effect with e.g. path interpolation (blending), but it is rather
cumbersome and limited; manual drawing of hatch lines, on the
other hand, is tedious and nearly impossible to do
uniformly. Now Inkscape provides "assisted hatching" by
'''tracking a guide path''', allowing you to hatch quickly and
uniformly and at the same time giving you sufficient manual
control over the process.

Here's how to do this. First, select the '''guide path''' that
you will track. It may be another calligraphic stroke, any path
or shape, or even a letter of a text object. Then switch to
Calligraphic pen, select the desired parameters (line width,
angle, fixation etc.) and, before starting to draw, press
Ctrl. You will see a gray '''track circle''' centered at your
mouse pointer and touching the closest point on the selected
guide path. (If you have no guide path selected, a statusbar
message will tell you to select it.)

Now move your mouse close to the guide path, so that the track
circle radius is equal to the desired spacing of your hatch
pattern, and start drawing along the guide path. At that moment,
the radius of the circle gets locked; now the circle slides
along the guide path - and the actual stroke is drawn by the
center of the tracking circle, ''not'' by your mouse point. As
a result, you are getting a smooth stroke going parallel to the
guide path and always at the same distance from it.

When the stroke is ready, release your mouse button (or lift
your tablet pen) but '''do not let go of the Ctrl key''' because
as long as you have it pressed, the tool remembers the hatch
spacing you set when you started drawing. Now, you have just
created a new stroke and, as usual with Inkscape tools, it gets
selected instead of what was selected before. In our case, this
means that the newly drawn stroke itself becomes the new guide
path. Next, you can draw a second stroke along the first one,
then a third one along the second, etc. Eventually you can fill
any desired space with uniform hatching.

Alternatively, if you uncheck "Select new path" in the Calligraphy tool preferences, newly created strokes will not be selected, so your original guide path will be kept selected. In this mode, Inkscape will increase the tracking distance after each created stroke so that you can create uniformly spaced hatching by tracking a single guide path.

The attachment to the guide path is not absolute. If you stray
your mouse pointer far enough from the guide path, you will be
able to tear it off (the track circle turns from green to red)
and move freely. This is intentional; this feature allows you,
for example, to continue drawing a stroke past the end of a
guide stroke, thus making your hatching cover a wider area than
the initial guide path. Special care is taken to make such
tearing off as smooth as possible and to suppress violent jerks,
but this is not always possible; the general advice is to not
try to hatch too fast. If jerking and unintended tearoffs still
bother you, try increasing the Mass parameter.

Also, special code is in place to prevent flipovers - accidental
jumps to the other side of the guide path. Brief flipovers are
suppressed, but if you intentionally go over to the other side
and stay there, eventually Inkscape will obey and your tracking
stroke will also flip over to follow you.

Tracking a guide also allows some slight feedback by gradually
changing the tracking distance in response to your drawing
behavior. Thus, if you're consistently trying to draw closer or
farther from the guide than the current tracking distance, the
distance will correspondingly decrease or increase, so you will
get a hatching that is slightly spacing in or out. (The effect
is very slight, however, so as not to become a nuisance.) Also,
note that since tracking follows the edge of the stroke, strokes
of varying width (such as those tracing background, see below)
will result in gradual bending of the hatching pattern as you
proceed.

===Tracing background by stroke width===

There is a new toggle button on the Calligraphy tool's controls
bar, '''Trace background'''. When on, the width of your pen
depends on the lightness of the background under the stroke in
each point, so that white translates into the minimum stoke
width (1) and black translates to the maximum (which is set by the
Width parameter). This can work alone or in combination with
pressure sensitivity, depending on whether the "Use pressure" button
is also toggled.

This feature allows you to not only hatch over an imported
bitmap image or any drawing, but to do so automatically
reproducing the highlights and shades of the background with
your strokes becoming lighter and heavier as needed.

===Misc features===

* For consistency with other drawing tools, drawing with '''Shift''' in Calligraphy tool automatically '''unions''' the newly created stroke with whatever paths were selected (and selects the result). Thus, you can do a series of overlapping Shift+strokes to create one unioned path object instead of separate objects as before.

* To facilitate changing the Width parameter, the Home/End keys in Calligraphy tool switch you to the minimum (1) and maximum (100) width, correspondingly. (This is in addition to the Left/Right arrow keys that change Width by 1; remember also that you can press Alt+X, type any width, and press Enter.)

==Selector==

* A new selection mode is available: '''selecting by touch'''. In this mode, you draw a freehand path across the objects; when you release mouse button, all objects that are touched by this path get selected. This mode is very convenient in situations where you need to select objects so intermingled that selecting them by the rectangular rubberband is too difficult and so numerous that click-selecting them one by one is too tedious.

:To activate selecting by touch, whenever you are drawing a rubberband rectangle, just press '''Alt''' to switch it to the touch mode. The rectangle will disappear and a red ''touch path'' will be shown instead. When dragging from an empty space, you can press '''Alt''' first and then start to drag to get the touch mode (note that your selection must be empty, otherwise Alt+dragging will move the selected objects instead). To start a touch selection from a point over an object, or to add to existing selection by touching, press '''Shift+Alt''' and then start to drag.

* Previously, the only way to switch selection from scale mode to rotate mode or back was to click on it, which was rather inconvenient when the selected object is in a group or under other objects. Now you can switch modes with keyboard as well by pressing '''Shift+S''' in Selector tool.

* Draging the '''scale handles with Alt''' now scales selection by an integer factor, i.e. up to '''2''', '''3''', '''4''', etc. times the original size or down to '''1/2'''. '''1/3''', '''1/4''', etc. of the original size (in any of the two dimensions independently). This way you can, for example, mirror any object around one of the edges of its box. (This replaces the old and rarely used "slow" scaling mode with Alt.)

* '''Horizontal/vertical flipping''': So far, flipping a selection made it flip within its bounding box, so that the latter remained fixed. In the move/scale mode of the selector tool, this behaviour remains unchanged. However, in rotate/shear mode flipping now happens about an (imaginary) vertical/horizontal axis through the rotation center. This is very handy, since the latter can be freely dragged around and snaps to all kinds of objects if desired.

* '''Objects to Marker''' was added to the objects menu, which converts the current selection to a marker, with the center point of the selection being set to the center of the marker.

==Node tool==
[sculpt profiles - bbyak]

* If any of the nodes in the currently selected path is mouseovered, then horizontal/vertical flipping ('H' and 'V' keys), stepwise rotation ('[' and ']' keys) and scaling ('<' and '>' keys) now all use this specific node as center/axis. If there is no mouseovered node, the center of the bounding box is used instead (as is currently the case unconditionally). Nodes that are covered by one of their handles are also detected as mouseovered.

* [helper path display - johan]

==Text tool==
* [text toolbar - deadchip?]
* If text contains a tref element, the text tool's behavior may not be as expected. Please see [[#The tref Element]]

=SVG features=

==The tref element==

Inkscape can now correctly open files with '''tref''' elements, and new tref elements can be created manually in the XML editor.

The actual character data contained in a text element can either be embedded directly, or it can be the character content of an element referenced by a '''tref'''.

While the textual content from the referenced element will be stripped of any markup before being used by the '''tref''', the '''tref''' element can itself have the same attributes as a '''tspan'''. In fact, when rendered, it is as though the '''tref''' element is replaced by a '''tspan''' with the same attributes, and the referenced character data is embedded in that '''tspan'''.

The property '''xlink:href''' is used to refer to another element whose character data will be used. Any element can be referred to except an ancestor of the '''tref'''. When any of the text contained in the referred element changes, the '''tref''' will immediately be updated to display the new data.

Existing tref elements can be converted into tspan elements with '''Edit > Clone > Unlink Clone'''. If more than one '''tref''' is contained within a selection, all '''trefs''' will be converted into '''tspans'''. All attributes applied to the '''tref''' will be retained in the new '''tspan'''.

A '''tref''' element can be mixed with any other elements allowed to be contained by a text element.

The cloned character data rendered by the '''tref''' may not be edited, but any characters surrounding it can be changed. Styles cannot be applied to a subset of the cloned characters, but if all are selected, a style can be applied to the '''tref'''.

==SVG filters==

===New filters supported===

* The '''feBlend''' filter primitive gives us image blending modes, like in many image manipulation programs. These modes are screen, multiply, darken and lighten. There's a caveat, though: when blending an object against an semi-transparent background, the background will be accumulated twice, resulting in thicker objects under the bounding box of blended object. This is a limitation of current version of SVG format, not a bug in Inkscape.

* The '''feOffset''' filter primitive offsets the image by an user-defined amount. For example, this is useful for drop shadows, as the shadow has to be in a slightly different position than the actual object.

[[Filter Effects]]

===Filters UI===

* New dialog for creating and modifying filter effects ('''Object>Filter Effects...''')
* The list at the left of the dialog displays all filters currently in the document.
** New filters can be added with the '''Add''' button beneath the list
** Right-clicking a filter for the pop-up menu allows duplicating or removing a filter.
** Double-clicking a filter will apply it to all selected objects
** A black dot is placed next to whatever filter is applied to the selected objects. If more than one filter is in use by selected objects, an unfilled dot is used instead.
* The second list, at the left of the dialog, displays the '''filter primitives''' that are contained within the currently-selected filter.
** New primitives can be added by selecting the primitive type from the combo box beneath the list, and then pressing the '''Add''' button.
** Right-clicking a primitive for the pop-up menu allows duplicating or removing a primitive.
** Primitives can be rearranged by clicking and dragging any filter in the list.
** When a filter is selected, the '''Settings''' group at the bottom of the dialog will change to display the attributes available for that primitive. Changing a setting results in an immediate update to the document.
** The "in" and "in2" attributes for filters that support them are not shown in the '''Settings''' group. These input connections are displayed graphically in the list, under the '''Connections''' column.
*** Inputs for a particular filter are displayed as triangles. Depending on the primitive type, there may be one or two inputs (or more for Merge primitives.) Connections can be created by clicking on a triangle and dragging.
*** There are six standard input types that can be used for any primitive input; Source Graphic, Source Alpha, Background Image, Background Alpha, Fill Paint, and Stroke Paint. These are displayed vertically on the far right of the list. Click and drag from an input triangle to one of the standard inputs to connect them.
*** Primitives can also be connected to other primitives by clicking an input triangle and dragging upwards to another primitive. A primitive can only be connected to one higher up the list.
*** Single-clicking on an input triangle will unset it, returning it to the default. If it is on a Merge primitive, the input will be deleted.
*** Merge inputs have an empty input at the end. Dragging a connection from this input will add a new input to the primitive.

=Live path effects=

'''Live path effects''' (not to be confused with extension effects or SVG filters) are a new way to non-destructively modify path and shape objects. Path effects can only affect the path of an object and not its style. The original path is preserved and can be edited directly, and the path effect applied to it will be updated.

In this version, we include several path effects that are analogous to the corresponding extension effects (such as Path along Path effect that replaces the extension of the same name). The most important advantage of live path effects is that they are, indeed, live - you can still edit the original path and the effect will update in real time (unlike the extension effects which were one-time one-way transformations). In the future, we plan to reimplement most if not all of path-changing extensions as live path effects.

[Path Effects dialog, Ctrl+Shift+7]

[Paste Path Effect command, Ctrl+7]

[lpe can be node-edited, preserved in simplify]

When a path with a path effect applied is selected, the statusbar description mentions that, for example "'''Path''' (4 nodes, path effect)".

Live path effects were developed as part of the GSoC 2007.

==Path along path==
The Path along Path effect can curve a path along another path. When this effect is applied to path A (called ''skeleton''), another path B (called ''pattern'') can then be passed as a parameter. The result is that path B is bent along path A. With the node edit tool, path A can be changed on-canvas and the result is updated live. This provides a direct equivalent of "vector brushes" or "skeletal strokes" features in other vector editors.

In the effect's control panel in the Path Effects dialog, you can select how many copies of the pattern are attached (either '''single''' or '''repeated''') and whether the pattern is '''stretched''' to fill the skeleton path. You can also choose the pattern for the selected skeleton [either directly or] by '''pasting''' it from clipboard (that is, you select and copy to the clipboard the pattern, then select the skeleton, apply the Path along path effect, and paste the pattern). The '''Scale width''' parameter allows you to change the width of the pattern applied to the path.

Example file: live-path-effects-pathalongpath.svg

==Curve Stitching==
The Curve Stitching effect connects points from two subpaths of the path with straight line or curved segments. The result is also referred to as "String Art". For some examples of what can be made with this method, see http://members.shaw.ca/jillbritton/string_art/jbstringart.htm. Note that this effect can only be applied to a path with two subpaths in it (use Path > Combine to create such a path from two separate paths).

Example file: live-path-effects-curvestitch.svg

==Gears==
The Gears effect is a toy effect. It generates a chain of interconnected gears from the path that has the effect applied to it. The nodes of the path define the centers of the gears. The first 3 nodes are special; the first defines the start angle of the chain, the second defines the center of the first gear and the third knot specifies the radius of the first gear. That is, to create a chain of 2 gears, you will need a path with 4 nodes; for 3 gears, 5 nodes, and so on.

Example file: live-path-effects-gears.svg

==Development of new effects==
One of the goals of the Summer of Code project was to make it easy to create new effects. There is a framework that greatly simplifies effect implementation; very little code is needed to get the effect hooked into Inkscape. This leaves valuable time for the actual effect to be implemented. See the http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MakingLivePathEffects wiki page for an explanation of how to get started with your own effect!

[johan]

=Extension effects=

== Live preview ==

* '''Live preview of effects''': Using the async behavior (see below), as soon as the parameters dialog for an effect is shown, the script is executed in the background and the screen updates as soon as it's finished. This can result is seemingly faster execution if no parameters are changed. If some parameters are adjusted, the script is restarted. This allows you to see immediately the effects of any parameter change without pressing the OK button on the effect's dialog.

* '''Spawn Glib API''': Scripting extension have been moved to the Glib spawn API to ensure that parameters and variables aren't interpreted by a shell. This also means that scripting extensions are executed in a separate process asynchronously allowing the GTK main loop to continue to execute.

* '''Progress dialog''': While an extension is working on a document, a small dialog is shown allowing the user to cancel the execution.

== New and improved effects ==

* The new '''Render > Barcode''' extension creates a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode barcode]. Supported types include EAN13, EAN8, UPC-A, UPC-E, UPC-5, Code39, Code39Ext, Code93, Code128, and RM4SCC.

* The new '''Render > Gear''' extension creates a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear mechanical gear] given the number of teeth, the circular pitch (in px units), and the pressure angle.

* The new '''Render > [[Spirograph]]''' extension creates intricate mathematical curves akin to the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph mechanical Spirograph toy] (see [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/images/Spirograph_Samples.svg samples]).

* A group of new effects in the '''Text''' submenu performs various case conversions on selected text objects: converting to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence case, Title Case, as well as flipping case (switching uppercase to lowercase and vice versa) and rANdoMiZInG cAse. If no texts are selected, the effect works on all texts in the document.

* Another effect in the Text submenu, '''Replace text''', performs search-and-replace on the selected text objects or (if nothing is selected) on all texts in the document. Searching is case sensitive. You can use this effect to globally delete all occurrences of some text fragment by replacing it with empty string. Conversely, if you search for an empty string and replace it with some string, this string will be inserted after every character of your text; for example, you can space out a text by replacing in it an empty string with a single space.

* A new effect, '''Replace color''' in the Color submenu, simply replaces one RRGGBB-specified color to another within selection or, if there's no selection, in the entire document. As with other effects in that submenu, the replacement affects fill, stroke, and gradient colors, but not colors of bitmaps.

*The '''Whirl''' extension uses the center of view as the center of whirl, so you don't have to enter the center coordinates numerically.

*The '''Render > Grid''' extension has got an extended range of grid spacings, from 0.1 to 1000 px.

*The '''Render > Function Plotter''' extension can now plot using polar coordinates.

*[color randomize]

== XSLT effects ==

* '''XSLT''' is now supported for input, output and effect extensions. This is used to support the XAML file format (both import and export) and the Adobe Illustrator SVG import which removes Adobe's stuff from SVG.

== ImageMagick effects ==

New raster operations available through the effects drop-down menu, powered by the ImageMagick library. For any of these effects to work, you need to have an '''image object selected''' in the drawing.

* '''Adaptive Threshold''' applies adaptive thresholding to the bitmap. Average color of rectangle provided by '''width''' and '''height''' used as threshold value. Use '''offset''' to apply a different threshold than the average.

* '''Add Noise''' adds random noise of certain types to the bitmap.

* '''Blur''' blurs the bitmap, using '''radius''' as the amount of blur. Higher radius means more blur. (Note that unlike the vector Gaussian blur of objects, this bitmap blur will not extend the edges of the image, so it may appear truncated at the edges.)

* '''Channel''' extracts the specified channel from the bitmap.

* '''Charcoal''' applies a charcoal drawing style to a bitmap. Radius controls the width (or detail) of charcoal strokes. Higher '''radius''' means lower detail. '''Sigma''': the higher it is, the less defined the charcoal is.

* '''Colorize''' overlays the bitmap with a given color at a given intensity.

* '''Contrast''' lightly enhances the contrast (difference between lights and darks) of a bitmap.

* '''Cycle Colormap''' cycles the colormap of a bitmap.

* '''Despeckle''' reduce the speckle noise in a bitmap.

* '''Edge''' hilights edges in a bitmap.

* '''Emboss''' embosses a bitmap, hilighting edges with 3D effect.

* '''Enhance''' enhance a bitmap, minimizing noise.

* '''Equalize''' equalizes a bitmap. Histogram equalization.

* '''Flop''' mirrors a bitmap, reflecting each scanline in the horizontal direction.

* '''Gaussian Blur''' blurs a bitmap, more strongly than regular blur.

* '''Implode''' sucks everything towards the center of the bitmap.

* '''Level''' scales values falling between the given '''Black Point''' to '''White Point''' range to the full color range.

* '''Level Channel''' acts the same way as level but for only one channel.

* '''Median Filter''' filters a a bitmap by replacing each pixel component with the median color in a circular neighborhood

* '''Modulate''' adjusts the percent hue, saturation, and brightness of a bitmap.

* '''Negate''' takes the inverse of a bitmap.

* '''Normalize''' normalizes a bitmap, expanding color range to the full possible range of color.

* '''Oil Paint''' stylizes a bitmap so that it appears to be painted with oils.

* '''Opacity''' modifies the opacity channel of a bitmap.

* '''Raise''' alters the lightness of the edges of a bitmap to create a raised appearance, much like a frame.

* '''Reduce Noise''' reduces noise in a bitmap by using a noise peak elimination filter.

* '''Shade''' shades a bitmap by simulating a distant light source

* '''Sharpen''' sharpens a bitmap.

* '''Solarize''' solarizes a bitmap, like overexposing photographic film.

* '''Spread''' randomly spread pixels in a bitmap within the radius of '''amount'''.

* '''Swirl''' swirls the bitmap around the center point.

* '''Threshold''' thresholds a bitmap.

* '''Unsharpmask''' sharpens a bitmap using an unsharp mask algorithm.

* '''Wave''' alters a bitmap along the sine wave.

These effects are part of the Google Summer of Code 2007, coded by Christopher Brown.

== New Python XML library ==

* All Python effects are switched from the old and unmaintained PyXML library to the new powerful [http://codespeak.net/lxml/ lxml] library.

=Color management=

== Calibrated SVG color including CMYK ==

Inkscape now supports color-managed color definitions that use a colorspace other than sRGB (for example Adobe RGB, or calibrated CMYK colors). In the SVG file, this is done using the
optional "icc-color(...)" paint components as described in section 11.2 "Specifying paint" of the SVG 1.1 specification
[http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/painting.html#SpecifyingPaint]. A fallback sRGB value will be used, for non color-managed workflows. This allows for the use of calibrated color spaces, including using CMYK values that are preserved across applications.

The new CMS color selector tab allows these colors to be edited.

== Display calibration ==

In Inkscape Preferences, Color Management tab, there's a new option for enabling display color calibration; you can select any calibration profile (an ICC file) suitable for your display. Options for rendering intent can also be chosen.

== Soft Proofing ==

In Inkscape Preferences, Color Management tab, there's a new option for enabling output device preview; you can select any calibration profile (an ICC file) suitable for your output device. Options for rendering intent can also be chosen, along with out of gamut warnings.

=Snapping=

* In addition to all other snapping modes and techniques, snapping has been implemented or improved in many tools and contexts:

:* Drawing of new '''shapes''' (such as rectangles or ellipses) snaps to grid/guides/objects.

:* '''Handles''' of existing objects and gradient handles snap.

:* '''Skewing''' objects in Selector snaps.

:* Snapping to objects works for '''images''' and '''clones''' (not only paths/shapes as before).

:* Snapping of '''text baselines''' works again.

:* When moved in Selector, an object optionally snaps with its '''rotation axis''' (which is by default in the geometric center of its bounding box, but can be arbitrarily moved and its position is remembered for every object). It is also possible to snap to a rotation axis with another object.

:* While dragging a '''guide''', it now snaps to object nodes

:Other snapping fixes and improvements include:

:* The snapping preferences dialog has been restyled to make it more intuitive

:* Snapping distance is now set in screen pixels and is therefore independent of zoom.

:* Snapping to bounding boxes has been added

:* Snapping of objects has been made more clean, by only snapping bounding box corners to bounding boxes, and nodes to other nodes and paths.

:* The time it takes to snap to objects using the selector tool has been reduced dramatically.

:* The bug where "node-to-node" snapping caused jerky movement of nodes is fixed.

:* The aspect ratio is correctly preserved while scaling objects with snapping turned on.

:* All four bounding box corners now snap instead of only the lower-left and upper-right as before.

:* Snapping while uniformly scaling has been improved.

* The confusing "Default transformations origin" option is removed. Now Inkscape always uses the opposite edge of the object's bounding box as the transformation origin (though the bounding box itself can now be different, see next item).

* A new preference option has been added to specify the kind of '''bounding box''' to be used for transforming objects (see Inkscape Preferences, Tools, Selector). You can choose between the '''visual bounding box''' (which takes into account the stroke width, markers, and blur margins; this is the default behavior) or '''geometric bounding box''' (which encloses only the path itself, disregarding stroke width).

=Grids=

* a new tab in the document properties dialog, solely meant for grids; the former grid/guide tab is now solely for guides. I envision a list of guides there in the future, for easier deletion of guides etc.
* more than one grid can be active at the same time, although i am having trouble in finding a usefull case for this
* multiple views on the same document share the same grids, but the grid can be turned off for each view separately. For example: one could have an overview view without grid enabled. Duplicate that window and zoom in on some detail; then grids can be shown only for that view, and snapping will only happen in those views for which grids are enabled. (sorry i am not able to explain more clearly)
* grid information is now stored in SVG as a child of sodipodi:namedview. Can someone please make an extension that converts an old grid definition to the new format?
* axonometric grid (not yet snapping)
* dots instead of lines

From developer perspective:

* implementation of new grids is much easier now; subclassing CanvasGrid and adding an entry in the is enough. Have a peek at how the rectangular grid is implemented (CanvasXYGrid).
* note that there is no longer "the grid", there might be several grids active now!

[Future plans (i will not be working on this soon, due to GSoC Live effects!):
** possibility of enabling not all but a selection of grids for a view. Eg. when there are 4 grids defined in the document, only enable grid2 for a certain view.
** new grids!
** better snapping mechanism to enable snapping to intersections of guides&grids and grids&grids.

A side effect of removal of old gridcode: apparantly the origin of the desktop rules used to be set to the origin of the grid. I find this strange: specifying a grid origin of (2,2) would have me think the origin would be at ruler location (2,2) instead of (0,0) as it is in 0.45.1.
I have commented the grid-origin correction to the ruler range, because now there is not a single grid anymore to correct it for. Isn't there a control somewhere to define the documents origin? Now the ruler origin is set to (0,0) -- johan]

=Import/Export=

==PDF and AI import==

In this version, Inkscape can natively (i.e. without any additional software) import PDF files and the newer PDF-based Adobe Illustrator files (starting from AI version 9.0).

'''Implemented features''': The new import extension can import '''paths''', '''text''', '''clippaths''', '''masked or non-masked images''', and '''softmasks'''. It supports '''pattern fills''' (XStep and YStep attributes are ignored) as well as '''linear and radial gradients''' (only those using sampled or exponential functions). '''Gradient meshes''' are imported, but they get converted to groups of small tiles (flat-colored paths) that approximate the mesh; the user can adjust the precision of this approximation.

'''PDF import settings''': After opening a PDF or AI document, the PDF Import Settings dialog shows up. Here you can select:

* the '''page''' to be imported from a multipage PDF;

* the overall '''clip region''' (which can be none or set to any of the PDF boxes, e.g. the crop box, the media box, the trim box, etc.);

* the '''precision''' for the approximation of '''gradient meshes'''; note that setting this too high may result in a huge SVG file and slow performance when importing files with gradient meshes;

* a checkbox controlling whether the '''images''' should be '''embedded''' into the resulting SVG document or saved on the current path;

* a '''preview''' of the selected page (shown if poppler-cairo is present on the system or if the selected page has a thumbnail embedded into the PDF document).

'''Text editing tips''': Any text imported from PDF or AI has each letter's precise place on the page ''fixed''. While this preserves the exact appearance (e.g. justification of text blocks) of the imported document, it makes editing such text difficult: deleting text fails to contract the text line and inserting text fails to expand it, i.e. typed letters overlay the existing letters. (However, you still can replace a letter with another letter of about the same width, although you may need to kern it into place with Alt+arrows.)

To work around this, select the text object you want to edit and use '''Text > Remove manual kerns''' command. This will remove the exact positioning information, so if the text block was justified it will lose justification, but instead you will be able to edit it as usual.

Note that there is a way to select even a single line in a text block. For this, open the XML editor, expand the <svg:text> tree branch corresponding to your text, and select any of the <svg:tspan> objects under it. Now you can remove manual kerns from this line only. After you finish editing the line, you can manually justify it back, for example by adding spaces, manual kerns (Alt+arrows), or by adjusting letterspacing (select the whole line and use Alt+> or Alt+<).

The native PDF/AI importer is based on the poppler library and was implemented by Miklós Erdélyi as part of the Google Summer of Code 2007.

==PDF export==

* '''[if enabled! - mental]''' A new cairo-based PDF exporter has been added to Inkscape. Inkscape 0.46 can export shapes, strokes, transparency, gradients, patterns, text, and images correctly to cairo. While clipping paths and masks are known to be faulty or missing. cairo will write a PDF with vector graphics when possible and fall back to raster graphics when needed. What can be exported as vectors and how much of the image will be rasterized when the fallback kicks in depends on your version of cairo. cairo version 1.2 with the pdf backend compiled in is the minimum requirement for any cairo-based PDF exports.

* A new cairo-based exporter can be used to export to PostScript. The cairo PS backend is not as mature as the PDF backend. It rasterizes a lot of its content. Text output does not work where it works with the PDF backend.

==CDR (CorelDraw) import==

Inkscape can use [http://www.sk1project.org/modules.php?name=Products&product=uniconvertor UniConvertor] if it's installed on your system to import documents in CDR format (CorelDraw). This feature is Unix-only at this time (since UniConvertor is Unix-only) and requires that you have Python and UniConvertor installed. As of UniConvertor 1.0rc2, only versions from 7 to X3 of the CDR format are supported, and text objects are not converted.

==XAML import/export==

* Inkscape can import vector graphics portions of XAML documents, as well as export its documents to XAML.

==Adobe Illustrator SVG clean import==

* Using this new import filter, Inkscape can open an SVG document removing any elements and attributes in the namespaces that Adobe Illustrator uses for its stuff. This will clean out everything except the actual SVG content.

==Bitmap export==

* '''Batch export''': The Bitmap Export dialog (Ctrl+Shift+E) got a new checkbox, ''Batch export all selected objects''. This checkbox is available when two or more objects are selected. If it is checked, instead of exporting selection as a whole, Inkscape exports each selected object separately into its own PNG file. This uses each object's export hints (i.e. export filename and DPI) if they are remembered from a previous export; otherwise, the filename is created from the object ID and the DPI is 90 pixels per inch. '''Caution:''' Unlike regular export, batch export overwrites all existing PNG files without warning.

:This makes it possible to implement all kinds of '''image slicing''' and automated export scenarios. For example, if you are working on a web site design, you can create a separate "export" layer. In that layer, "slice" your web page image into separate areas by creating invisible rectangles with no fill and no stroke. Select each rectangle (by Tab/Shift+Tab, or by switching to Outline mode where even an invisible rectangle can be selected by clicking on its outline) and export it into the corresponding filename (which gets saved as that object's export hint). After that, if you do any changes to your graphics, it's very easy to reexport all the slices: just switch to the "export" layer, select all in that layer (Ctrl+A), and export with the ''Batch export selected objects'' checkbox on.

* '''Hide all except selected''': A new checkbox allows you to hide in the exported image everything except selected object(s).

* The Export dialog automatically appends the '''.png''' extension to the export filename you specify.

=Command line=

Several new command line options are added that make Inkscape even more scriptable and automatable than before.

* --verb-list will list all the Verb IDs and their names in Inkscape. This makes writing your own menus and hotkeys much easier as you can easily find out what the choices are.

* --verb followed by a verb ID allows you to specify a verb to be called on every document opened by Inkscape initially from the command line.

* --select followed by a node ID will allow you to add a node to the list of selected objects.

These options can be used, for example, for performance testing. You could do something like this:

$ time inkscape --verb=FileClose my_complex_file.svg

to measure the time it takes to load and display the file.

Of course, with the ability to select objects, it can be much more useful than
that. You can call extension effects, or any other verb, then FileSave and
FileClose to automate all kinds of operations on your drawings.

=User interface=

== [dockable dialogs - gustav] ==

Inkscape now has a '''dock panel''' to the right of the canvas, on
which dialogs can be docked.

The new dockable dialog behavior exists alongside the old floating dialogs behavior. If the old behavior is preferred, one can select it under Inkscape Preferences > Windows > Dialog behavior.

Known issues:

* It doesn't work well with multiple open documents. Fixing it requires a bit of rewrite of the current dialog manager.

* Resizing in-dock dialogs can be cumbersome. More specifically, one won't be able to expand a dialog placed in the dock unless all dialogs beneath it are expanded in advance. Fixing this requires some changes in GDL, I've got it somewhat working, but decided that it's still too flaky to commit in its current state.

* Remembered positions of dockable floating dialogs is inexact.

Note that this change only applies to gtkmm:ified dialogs,
i.e. dialogs that subclass UI::Dialog. I've gtkmm:ified "Fill &
Stroke" and with this change, that version is now default. Dialogs
left to be gtkmm:ified are the "XML Editor", "Tiled Clones", "Object
Properties", "Text and Font".

[
One can now change to tabbed layout if it's preferred by setting
"options.dock[switcherstyle]" to "4".

Done, the new option is called "options.dock[cancenterdock]" (="1" by
default).

The new option is "options.dock[dockbarstyle]". Setting
it to "0" will give you icons only.
]

== [toolbars - [[JonCruz]]] ==

'''Main toolbar''' on the left can now optionally use '''smaller buttons'''. With the several new tools added in this version, this may help users with small screens where the toolbar otherwise may not fit vertically. The toggle is on the Misc tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog.

[calligraphy: menus, tooltips; star; ...]

Switched to stock GTK+ toolbars.

Extra magic secret sauce added.

== [filedialogs - [[JonCruz]]] ==

== Print dialog integration ==

* '''Print Dialog''': The GTK Unix Print Dialog has been hooked up! From the dialog, you can select any of the Postscript-capable printers known to your system and configure them as with any other GTK application.

== Saving window geometry globally ==

Previously, window geometry (size and position of document windows) could only be saved into the document (so that each document stored its own window geometry). Now, a new option is added to save the geometry of the last used window to the preferences and apply this geometry to all new windows. Thus, with the "Save geometry to preferences" option enabled, new windows will open with the shape of the most recent previous window. This mode also remembers and restores the maximized/fullscreen state (unlike geometry saved to documents).

== Preserving zoom/view of reverted documents ==

When reverting files to their previously saved state, the current zoom factor/panning is now retained (as opposed to reverted to the saved state, too, as it was the case before). This less interrupts the workflow when one is working on some detail in the drawing.

== New ways to scroll and zoom ==

* You can now enable Space+mouse drag to pan canvas, as it does in Adobe Illustrator. This mode is enabled by the '''Left mouse button pans when Space is pressed''' checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inksape Preferences dialog. By default it is off and pressing the spacebar key switches you to Selector and back, as it always did in Inkscape.

* By default, rotating the mouse wheel scrolls the canvas vertically and Ctrl+wheel zooms in and out. Now, if you turn on the '''Mouse wheel zooms by default''' checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inksape Preferences dialog, this behavior is reversed: mouse wheel zooms without Ctrl and scrolls with Ctrl. This new mode should be familiar for users of AutoCAD and CorelDraw.

* In the Zoom tool, right mouse button always zooms out instead of calling the context menu (which is rather useless in this tool anyway).

== Using other keys in place of Alt ==

* Many Linux users have found the use of '''Alt-drag''' and '''Alt+click''' in Inkscape problematical because this shortcut is often captured by window managers. In 0.46, instead of disabling of the window manager shortcut as suggested in [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_to_make_Alt.2Bclick_and_Alt.2Bdrag_work_on_Linux.3F the FAQ], you can change a setting in your preferences.xml file called <code>mapalt</code> in the <code>options</code> group. This numerical value ranges from 1 to 5; 1 indicates no change, any other value refers to some special key on a keyboard, such as '''Alt Gr''', the '''Windows''' key, etc. The specific mapping of these values to the keys on your keyboard can be viewed and/or editied by '''xkeycaps''', available from [http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps www.jwz.org].

== GTK theme on OS X ==

A GTK theme is now included in Inkscape.app bundle on OS X. If the user does not have any personal customization (e.g. in a .gtkrc-2.0 file) this theme is used. It reflects the OS X settings for "Appearance" and "Highlight Color" set in System Preferences > Appearance.

=Other changes and improvements=

* '''Gnome VFS Improvements''': Gnome VFS Non-Local files are now usable through all of our file choosers in Open, Save and Export. This compile-time option allowed people to open any Gnome-VFS-based URI from the command-line in the past, but not non-local resources (WebDAV, SFTP, etc) and this now allows for all the lovely possibilities Gnome-VFS provides.

* In previous versions, Inkscape didn't allow you to '''group a single object.''' Yet in some cases, this operation is useful (for example, to blur the clipped edged of an object, or apply more than one clippath/mask to an object). Now this limitation is removed; just select any single object and group it to get a single-object group.

* The somewhat cryptic "F:" and "S:" labels in the selected style indicator (at the left end of the statusbar) and in tool's style swatches are now spelled out as '''Fill:''' and '''Stroke:'''. We believe this makes the interface, even if less space-efficient, a bit more friendly for newbies.

* The '''style swatches''' at the right end of object-creating tools' control bars now open the Preferences page of the corresponding tool when clicked. Also, now these swatches display a tooltip explaining its purpose (e.g. "Style of new rectangles", "Style of new calligraphic strokes", etc.)

* After dragging a curve segment in Node tool, Inkscape no longer selects the two adjacent nodes if they were not selected before.

* The '''Tile Clones''' dialog now uses the object's defined '''rotation axis''' (which can be freely moved by Selector tool and which is saved separately for each object) for all rotations (including both symmetry rotations and the Rotation tab rotations), scales, and flips. This renders unnecessary the previous workarounds where you had to group an object with another transparent object to affect how it's rotated by the clone tiler.

* In '''Pencil''' and '''Calligraphic''' tools, pressing '''Esc''' or '''Ctrl+Z''' while drawing cancels the currently drawn path or stroke. When not drawing, these keys work as before (Esc deselects, Ctrl+Z undoes last action). (This is the same behavior as in the Pen tool where it was introduced in a previous version.)

* A set of new verbs has been added to allow the user to easily '''unlock all locked objects''' or '''unhide all hidden objects'''. There are two variants one that operates on the current layer and its children and one that operates globally. While searching for hidden or locked object descendants of locked layers are ignored.

* Several more '''rotation snapping increments''' are available in the Steps tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog: 36, 22.5, 18, 12, and 0.5 degrees.

* The list of folder shortcuts in the '''Open''' dialog includes the folder with Inkscape's SVG '''examples''' for easy access. Similarly, the '''Save''' dialog has a shortcut for the user's own '''templates''' dialog making it easy to save the current document as a template (if saved as <code>default.svg</code>, it will be loaded every time you run Inkscape or create new document with Ctrl+N; with any other name, it will be added to the File > New submenu).

* For time-intensive operations such as Paint Bucket and Simplify, the system's busy wait cursor is displayed to indicate to the user that Inkscape is actively working, and not frozen.

* Several improvements in '''inkview''': busy cursor is shown while loading file, the button window stays on top and responds to keyboard shortcuts; several memleaks stopped and bugs fixed. The "slideshow mode" of the main inkscape application (-s or --slideshow command line option) is removed; use inkview instead.

* In Document Metadata dialog, updated Creative Commons Licenses to version 3.0.

* In addition to Shift+click, right clicking on a colour swatch now also sets the stroke colour.

* File dialog windows (open/save) now have a "Enable preview" checkbox which allows you to disable the preview pane.

* In the Calligraphic pen controls, the toggle button to enable tablet pressure sensitivity is moved to the Width control, and the button for tilt sensitivity is moved to Angle, to better reflect what parameters these toggles affect.

* The option '''Import bitmap as <image>''' is removed; it was added several versions ago to allow optionally importing images as rectangles with image pattern, to make clipping the images easier. Now that you can easily use clipping paths, as well as convert any image to rectangle with pattern with Alt+I, this option is not really necessary and removed to reduce confusion. Bitmaps are always imported into SVG as an <image> element.

=Notable bugfixes=

These are bugfixes compared to 0.45.1; for a list of fixes in 0.45.1 compared to 0.45, see [[ReleaseNotes045|0.45.1 release notes]].

* The '''sodipodi:docbase''' attribute is no longer added to the root <svg> element. This attribute used to keep the latest directory that the document was saved to, and thus represented a mild privacy violation (i.e., by sharing your Inkscape SVG files you allowed others to have a peek into your directory structure). Note, however, that Inkscape does not remove this attribute from old documents it opens; if you want you can remove it yourself. Inkscape just no longer creates this attribute in new documents.

* A fix in the blur rendering code made '''exporting blurred objects to bitmap''' much faster and fixed the disappearing of blurred objects in exported bitmaps which happened for large objects in 0.45. The same fix got rid of the rendering artefacts that sometimes appeared on blurred objects during scrolling.

* Inkscape now properly quotes <code>font-family</code> values and therefore can use '''fonts''' with various '''nonalphanumeric characters''' in their names, which previously failed.

* If you have saved documents with a previous version of Inkscape which used '''right-to-left text''' (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew) then the paragraph alignment of non-flowed text has been reversed in this release. This is due to a bug in previous versions - the new behaviour is compliant with the SVG specification and compatible with other editors and viewers. To correct your images, simply reverse the paragraph alignment by selecting the text and clicking the appropriate button on the toolbar.

* A large family of bugs was exterminated where an object's style could only refer other objects (such as gradients, patterns, and filters) that come after it in the document. Now any objects can be referenced from a style regardless of their place in the document. This fixed the '''disappearance of gradients/patterns/filters''' after you undo an effect, as well as lots of assorted crashes and misrenderings (mostly on non-Inkscape SVG files).

* On Windows, '''file opening/saving dialogs''' can no longer sink under the main editor window (they now have the inkscape window set correctly as their parent window).

* '''Stock markers''' now appear in the "recently used markers" section of the marker selector dropdowns in the Fill & Stroke dialog. Before, any markers with stock id's (including markers modified by the user) were hidden, making it difficult to work with modified stock markers.

* A regression in 0.45 caused crashes when '''undo or redo''' was attempted before the previous action could complete (e.g. pressing ctrl+z while you are still drawing a rectangle). This is now fixed.

* Previously, if there was a single '''invalid property''' in a <code>style</code> attribute, the entire attribute was discarded, i.e. the object lost all styling. Now Inkscape's behavior is more compliant to the CSS specification: it ignores only the invalid property but reads in all the rest.

* Several bugs are fixed in '''searching for linked images'''. Now moving SVG documents with their associated images to a different place or a different machine should work more reliably.

* Master opacity did not apply to stroke '''markers''' as it should; fixed.

* '''Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration URI''' points to the right location now.

* Text objects didn't display the '''pattern editing handles'''; fixed.

* On Windows, the Inkscape uninstaller deleted all files under the install directory. This could lead to removing user-created files, or even other program files not related to inkscape if the install directory was C:\Program Files. The new uninstaller '''tracks all installed files and asks for confirmation before deleting any other files'''. However, installation and uninstallation process is now slower.

= Previous releases =

* [[ReleaseNotes045]]
* [[ReleaseNotes044]]
* [[ReleaseNotes043]]
* [[ReleaseNotes042]]
* [[ReleaseNotes041]]
* [[ReleaseNotes040]]
* [[ReleaseNotes039]]
* [[ReleaseNotes038]]
* [[ReleaseNotes037]]
* [[ReleaseNotes036]]
* [[ReleaseNotes035]]

[[Category:Marketing]]

Release notes/0.46

2007-10-09T19:35:24Z

Simarilius: /* Selector */

=Inkscape 0.46=
'''(not released yet)'''

Highlights in this release:

* Paintbucket tool

* Tweak tool

* 3D Box tool

* Live path effects

* Color management

* New SVG filters and UI

* Native PDF and AI import

* XAML import/export

* Open Clip Art Library integration (import/export)

* Bitmap editing extension effects

* Full on-canvas gradient editing

* Engraver's Toolbox in the Calligraphic tool

* Touch selection

* Dockable dialogs

* Command-line access to verbs

* Snapping made usable

* Significant speed and interactivity improvements

* Hundreds of smaller features and bugfixes

=Speed and interactivity=

* In this version, Inkscape starts using the [http://www.cairographics.org cairo] library for rendering. It is now used for '''outline mode''' display which, thanks to using cairo and other optimizations, redraws '''faster by about 25%'''. More impressive are memory savings: thanks to cairo, in outline mode Inkscape now takes only about '''50% of the memory''' used by 0.45 for the same file.

* '''Smart redraw directionality:''' With complex images and/or on slow computers, you may have noticed that Inkscape redraws the screen image in horizontal strips, and these strips are painted in order from top to bottom. Now the redraw always starts '''at your mouse cursor location''' and proceed upwards and downwards from it, so that the area near the cursor is always redrawn first. This significantly improves program's responsiveness in some situations. For example, when you are node-editing part of a complex path, the entire path needs to be redrawn on each change, but now this redraw starts from the point you're working on. Moreover, the redraw is interruptible, so each mouse movement starts new redraw from the mouse cursor area. As a result, during such operations those parts that you're working on redraw often and feel snappy and responsive, while areas further away may lag behind more.

* '''Faster blur''' for exporting and high quality on-screen rendering: Inkscape now uses an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filter for blurring with large radius. This greatly improves the speed of blur redraw at high zooms or in high-resolution export (or simply with very large blur radius). On the other hand, the results are an approximation to a true Gaussian blur, so a drawing may look slightly different from the mathematically precise blur (usually the differences are far from visible, though). This code is mainly based on: ''Recursive Gaussian Derivative Filters'' by L.J. van Vliet, I.T. Young and P.W. Verbeek (see the source code for more detailed references).

:'''Exporting drawings with blur''' was particularly slow in 0.45; some files could take hours to export. Now this is fixed, in part by the faster algorithm mentioned above and in part by a bugfix in the export code. Now even the quite complex files with large blurs export at high resolution in at most a few minutes.

* [faster gradients - mental]

* '''Dragging handles and nodes''' as well as '''dragging and transforming objects''' by mouse became more responsive, so that working in complex drawings and especially editing complex paths is noticeably easier. In particular, this fixes the annoying latency issue where a node or a handle could follow mouse cursor even after you release mouse button after a drag.

* '''Moving the cursor around''' in a file with large and complex paths has become much snappier and more responsive. Previously, in extreme cases Inkscape could freeze for seconds while catching up with the mouse cursor; such delays are now eliminated.

* Several improvements make '''canvas panning and scrolling''' smoother and more interactive in complex slow-rendering documents:

:* When panning by the middle mouse button, Inkscape no longer attempts to redraw the canvas while your mouse button is pressed. Any redrawing only happens after you release the mouse. As a result, the newly revealed parts of the canvas are somewhat more "dirty" but the '''panning is smoother than before''', with few if any "hiccups".

:* '''Redrawing the newly exposed parts of the canvas''' after scrolling, especially diagonal scrolling, is now faster because only the exposed areas are redrawn; before, this often resulted in the entire screen being redrawn which was much slower.

:* Previously, if you started panning with middle button while Inkscape is still redrawing screen in a complex drawing, panning sometimes completely failed or moved canvas just a little step. Now it is '''guaranteed to pan the canvas all the way''' from mouse-press point to mouse-release point in any case, even if sometimes it fails to show the intermediate positions.

:* When pressing and holding Ctrl+arrows to scroll canvas, Inkscape normally accelerates scrolling so that each next scrolling step is bigger than the previous. Previously, in complex drawings this acceleration sometimes got interrupted, which made scrolling annoyingly bumpy and slow. Now this is fixed so that '''scrolling is smoothly accelerated''' even in a slow-rendering document.

:* The default '''starting speed and acceleration''' of Ctrl+arrows scrolling are slightly increased. (They are both settable in Preferences.)

* Better responsiveness and more visual feedback in user interface:

:*When you zoom, the '''zoom control''' on the right end of the statusbar now updates immediately, not after screen redraw as before.

:*Many potentially slow commands (Save, Simplify, Combine, Break Apart and others) now display a '''busy cursor''' and flash a message in the statusbar (e.g. "Saving document...") while they work.

:*The '''statusbar messages''' displayed while you're drawing a shape or a path in Pen tool do not lag behind the mouse movements.

* '''Combine''' and '''Convert to paths''' commands are now orders of magnitude faster when applied to a selection with hundreds or thousands of objects.

* The time it takes to '''snap to objects''' using the selector tool has been reduced dramatically, which is most noticeable for snapping to complex paths.

=Tools=

==Paint Bucket tool==

The new Paint Bucket tool works exactly as you would expect: click in any area bounded on all sides and it will '''fill it with color'''. Being a vector tool, however, Inkscape's Paint Bucket just creates a new ''path'' that "fills in" the area in which you clicked.

===How it works===

It is important to note that the tool is '''perceptual''', not geometric. That is, when looking for the boundaries around the point you clicked, it takes for such boundaries any ''visible'' color changes. This means that filling will stop at gradients, blurs, and even the color boundaries in imported bitmaps, but will ignore any paths or other objects that are fully (or almost) transparent or for any other reason do not stand out from the background. In short, it will work exactly as if you were filling a rasterized version of your image in a bitmap editor like Photoshop or GIMP - but will give you a vector object to work with.

For example, now you can scan a pencil sketch, import the bitmap into Inkscape, and quickly fill all its cells with colors even without tracing the bitmap first. This is a very convenient and interactive way of digitizing your paper drawings, making the '''traditional bitmap tracing unnecessary''' in many cases.

Internally, the tool works by performing a bitmap-based flood fill on a rendered version of the visible canvas, then tracing the resulting fill using [[potrace]] and placing the traced path into the document.

It places the rendered path onto the current layer, so you can have a layer on top (for example, "Inks") and select the layer below ("Colors") and do the fills so that they always appear below the Inks.

The '''resolution''' of the bitmap image used to perform the trace is dependent upon your '''current zoom level''' -- the more zoomed in to an area that you are, the higher the resolution of the bitmap-based flood fill. So, if you are got a fill that is too imprecise, has rough corners, or don't go into small nooks and appendices where it is supposed to go, just undo, zoom in closer and repeat filling from the same point. Conversely, if the fill leaks out through a small gap, zoom out to make the gap less visible and fill again (or use the auto gap closing parameter, see below).

===Style===

Like all object-creating tools, the Paint Bucket may use the '''last-set style''' for the objects it creates (this is the default), or it can use its own '''fixed style'''. You can switch between these modes on this tool's page in Inkscape Preferences (Ctrl+Shift+P). As in all other tools, the '''style swatch''' on the far right of the Controls bar shows the style that will be used for the next fill object you create.

===Controls===

In the tool's '''Controls bar''':

* Paint Bucket's perceptual fill can use either all visible colors or specific color channels. Using the '''Fill by''' drop-down list, you can restrict the fill algorithm to one the following channels:
** Red
** Green
** Blue
** Hue
** Saturation
** Lightness
** Alpha

* The '''Threshold''' (in per cent units) controls how large must be color difference at a point (compared to the initial click point) to stop the fill. Zero tolerance means only the area of strictly the same color will be filled; the larger the tolerance, the easier it will be for the fill to leak into adjacent different-color areas. The default value is 10%.

* Using the '''Grow/shrink by''' parameter, you can control the amount of inset/outset to be applied to the created fill path. Setting a positive outset causes fill paths to be larger than the filled bitmap area (good for eliminating anti-aliasing errors), while setting a negative outset causes the path to be smaller. This works much the same as the Outset and Inset path commands, except it's done automatically after every fill.

* With the '''Close gaps''' parameter, you can make the Paint Bucket tool ignore any gaps in the area boundaries that would normally cause the fill to spill out of the desired area. There are four settings to auto gap:
** None
** Small (close gaps up to 2 pixels in size)
** Medium (4 pixels)
** Large (6 pixels)
:Note that setting this parameter to other than None may slow down noticeably the filling of large areas.

===Shortcuts===

The tool's '''shortcuts''' are:

* '''Single click''' performs filling from the click point.

* '''Shift+click''' performs filling from the click point and then unions the resulting path with the selected path. This way, if your first attempt did not fill in all of the desired area, you can Shift+click the remaining corner to fill it in separately and combine the result with the result of the previous fill.

* '''Ctrl+click''' on an object simply changes that object's fill to the current fill color of the tool, and '''Shift+Ctrl+click''' changes the stroke to the current stroke color.

* '''Click and drag''' performs filling from '''all of the points''' that you pass while dragging (you will see your path visualized by a red line). From each point, the fill spreads to the neighbors with the colors similar to that point - in other words, it's like clicking with this tool at each point of the drag path and unioning the results. This lets you easily fill an area occupied by a gradient or blur - just drag from the darkest to the lightest points in the area you want to fill.

* '''Alt+click and drag''' works similarly to simple drag, except from each point of the drag path, the fill spreads to the neighbors (if any) with the colors similar to the ''initial point'' (the point where you started the drag). This lets you fill a series of similarly-colored yet separated areas (for example, multiple cells in a cartoon) by starting the drag in one of those areas, and alt+dragging the tool through all the other areas.

==Tweak tool==

The Tweak tool is an exciting new way to edit drawings which largely blurs the
distinction between vector and raster editing. Instead of meticulously selecting some
objects and then performing an action on the selection, you can now select ''all''
objects (or all objects you are interested in) and apply the Tweak tool's brush to
smoothly and naturally change the shape or style of only those objects (or parts
thereof) ''that the brush touches''.

The area of the tool's action - its ''brush'' - is marked by an orange-colored circular
outline that moves with your mouse cursor. However, that area actually has no sharp
boundaries; the power of the tool's action falls off gradually, following a smooth
bell-shaped profile. This makes the tool act softly and smoothly.

The tool will work on any number of selected objects; for example, you can select all
(Ctrl+A) and "smear" your entire drawing by Push mode or paint it by Color Paint
mode. You can also apply it to groups of objects; it will go into groups and act on
individual objects inside groups. If you're trying to use it without anything selected,
it will remind you by a statusbar message to select some objects.

===Width===

The width of the tool's brush, in the range from 1 to 100, can be changed by the
'''Width''' control in the tool's controls bar above the canvas. You can also change
width by '''Left''' and '''Right''' arrow keys (same as in the Calligraphy tool) at any
time (including during action) as well as '''Home''' and '''End'''. Also, as in Calligraphy
tool, the visible width of the brush is independent of zoom; simply zooming in or out is
often easier than adjusting the width if you want to cover a smaller or larger area of
the drawing.

===Force===

The next control is '''Force''' which adjusts the power of the action, also in the
range from 1 to 100. You can also change width by '''Up''' and '''Down''' arrow keys at
any time (including during action).

If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet and your "Use pressure" button on the right-hand
end of the controls bar is on, then the force will also depend on how hard you actually
press your pen into your tablet, changing in the range from zero to whatever you set in
the Force control. If all you have is a mouse, then the force will be constant but still
settable by the Force control.

===Path editing modes===

The Tweak tool has a number of '''modes''', selectable by toggle buttons in the tool's
Controls bar and by keyboard shortcuts. Some of these modes change the shapes of
paths while others affect the colors of objects. All these modes share the Width and
Force controls but otherwise are quite different. Let's look at the path editing modes
first.

Unlike the Node tool, to edit paths with the Tweak tool you don't need to worry about
where the nodes of a path are and how to manipulate them. You just apply the tool's
brush to any point, and the selected paths at that point will reshape smoothly and
naturally - as if made of soft jelly - regardless of where its nodes lie. If applied to
a shape or text object, the tool converts them to paths automatically.

While not very useful for technical drawings, tweaking paths will be indispensable for
artistic uses of Inkscape - cartoons, drawings, sketches, anime, etc. This new
functionality is somewhat similar to the tools such as "Pucker" and "Bloat" in the
latest versions of Adobe Illustrator.

There are currently six path editing modes in the Tweak tool: '''Push''', '''Shrink''',
'''Grow''', '''Attract''', '''Repel''', and '''Roughen'''.

* This default mode of the tool, '''Push''', simply displaces the part of the path under the cursor in the direction of the drag. The path behaves like soft jelly, bending and bulging smoothly and naturally. It's an easy way to produce various irregular, lifelike, handmade-looking shapes starting from something as simple as an ellipse or a calligraphic stroke. For parallel-stroke hatching (engraving) done in the Calligraphy tool, pushing is an easy way to bend, pinch, or curve the entire hatching uniformly.

* The '''Shrink''' and '''Grow''' are two opposite modes that move each point of a path in a direction perpendicular to the path's surface at the point, either inwards (Shrink) or outwards (Grow). This is similar to the Inset and Outset commands, except that the Tweak tool can act on a part of a path instead of the whole path.

:For example, the visible lightness/darkness of an engraving hatching may not exactly correspond to your artistic intention. Also, the ends of Calligraphy pen strokes are often far from ideal - they may be too blunt or have unsightly bends or blobs. This is where the Tweak tool may help. Select all the strokes in a hatching pattern and apply a light Shrink action where you want the lines to become thinner (and the hatching to become lighter), up until total disappearance. If you press hard, shrinking works as an eraser, so you can easily clean the strokes' ends to make them thin, sharp, and uniform. Conversely, applying Grow makes strokes wider (i.e. the hatching becomes darker).

:Of course, shrinking and growing are useful not only for calligraphic strokes. Same as with Push, with Shrink and Grow you can '''sculpt''' any path, spawning smooth treacle-like appendages with Inflating and carving holes with Melting. Unlike the "node sculpting" mode in the Node tool, however, this does not require adding new nodes to the shape.

* The '''Attract''' and '''Repel''' modes work by moving each affected point on a path towards (Attract) or from (Repel) the cursor point. In some cases this may look similar to Shrink and Grow, but the difference is that shrinking/growing moves paths perpendicularly to the path in each point, whereas attracting/repelling moves them to or from the cursor regardless of the path shape. These modes are similar to the Pinch effect in ; you can use them for various central-symmetric distortions in parts of your paths.

* The '''Roughen''' mode does exactly this: roughens the edge of the path without changing its overall shape. Slight roughening simply makes the edge crooked and uneven; strong roughening tears and explodes the edge into random blobs and splotches. Note that this operation, especially with high Fidelity, adds a lot of nodes which increases the size of your SVG document and may slow down Inkscape considerably. In particular, pushing/melting/inflating of a roughened path becomes much slower and more difficult, so it's recommended to finalize the overall shape of a path first and roughen it, if necessary, only as the final step.

====Fidelity====

Any tweaking of a path slightly distorts the entire path, including even those parts
that you didn't touch. These distortions are similar to those that a Simplify command
produces. The '''Fidelity''' value (also in the range from 1 to 100, default is 50)
allows you to control the amount of these distortions. With a higher fidelity, the
distortions are less noticeable, but the path may end up having a lot of nodes which
inflates up the SVG size and slows down Inkscape.

The best value of Fidelity depends on the nature of your artwork. If you're sculpting an
amorphous blob, you can do with low fidelity of about 20. If, however, you are pushing
or inflating a text string (as a single path) and want the letters outside the distorted
area to remain crisp and clean, you will need to raise fidelity to 80 or more.

====Known problems====

Known problems with the path editing modes in Tweak tool:

# they don't work on open paths (an open path becomes closed if you tweak it);
# they are rather slow;
# they quickly eat memory; and
# they are sometimes buggy - thin calligraphic strokes may suddenly disappear or change their shape drastically as you're melting or inflating them.

For (4), it helps to increase Fidelity. Also, you can undo the bad change and try again with less pressure on the pen - if you do your thinning in several light touches instead of one heavy press, usually you will be able to get the desired result without the buggy behavior.

Also, sometimes after roughening, further tweaking of a path becomes impossible with this diagnostic:

WARNING **: Shape error in ConvertToShape: directedEulerian(a) == false

All these problems stem from the livarot library that we use for geometric manipulation of paths. Fortunately, livarot is scheduled for replacement by lib2geom, a new library now in development, so hopefully these issues will be addressed then.

===Color-changing modes===

The '''Color Paint''' and '''Color Jitter''' modes, unlike the path editing modes,
change the colors of objects instead of their shapes. Yet they share enough common
features with the path-changing modes to be part of the same tool: These modes also use
a circular soft-edged brush controlled by the Width and Force parameters on the Controls
bar and affected by the pen pressure (if you have a pressure-sensitive tablet).

* '''Color Paint''' applies the style of the tool to the selected objects under the brush. The style of the tool is visible in the style swatch at the rightmost end of the tool's control bar; it can be changed by clicking on the color palette or by any other style assignment command, such as Fill and Stroke dialog. ('''Note''': unlike all other tools, in Tweak tool in Color Paint mode you cannot assign style directly to selected objects; any style-setting command changes the tool's style instead.)

:The fill from the tool's style applies to the fills of the painted objects, and the stroke applies to the strokes. If the tool's style has no fill or no stroke, it won't affect fills or strokes, correspondingly. For example, if you want to color the fills of objects blue but leave their strokes untouched, assign blue fill to the tool's style (just click blue on the palette) but set its stroke to None (middle-click the Stroke swatch in the statusbar). Similarly, master opacity in the tool's style affects master opacities of the touched objects (if the O channel is on, see below).

:This mode allows you to literally paint over objects, shifting their colors towards the target style of the tool. For example, if you paint with yellow fill over a blue-filled object, the object will become greenish blue, then green, then yellowish green, and end up being exactly the yellow color you're painting with. This speed of this gradual transition depends on both Force parameter and pen pressure; also, objects touched by the periphery of the brush are less affected than those hit by the brush center. Overall, using this tool is very similar to a soft brush in a raster editor such as Gimp or Photoshop.

* '''Color Jitter''' mode does not apply any color, but instead jitters (randomizes) the colors of the objects it touches. The force of the action determines how strong is the randomization, i.e. how far the colors deviate from the original values. This mode does not use the tool's style.

Both modes work on flat fills and gradients; for gradients, the tool takes into account not only the position of the entire object with gradient, but also the position of each gradient stop relative to the brush. This means that, for example, you can change the blue color only in an object filled with blue-red gradient simply by painting over its blue end with a brush small enough to not touch the red. (Note that color tweaking does not create gradients on objects that used flat color before, but only adjusts existing gradients in the drawing.)

====Channels====

Color Paint and Color Jitter honor the '''Channels''' control. This control comprises
the four buttons: '''H''', '''S''', '''L''', and '''O''', which allow you to turn on and off
the tool's action on the object's hue, saturation, lightness, and opacity,
correspondingly. For example, if you want to raise the saturation of some part of your
drawing without changing the hue, select some maximum-saturation color (e.g. pure red)
and turn off all Channels buttons except S. Similarly, you can replace the hues without
affecting saturation or lightness (only H pressed), or lighten/darken all colors without
changing their hues and saturation (only L pressed). Pressing O allows you to apply the
master opacity from the tool's style to the master opacity of objects (but not fill or
stroke opacity).

====Usage notes====

Color painting with Tweak tool is similar, but not exactly analogous to bitmap
painting. Even though the tool itself works as a soft brush, it still applies its color
to vector objects, which behave as vector objects usually do. For example, if you want
to change the tint of the face in your drawing, and if a hand in the drawing is part of
the same object as the face, that hand will change its tint too even if it's located far
from the point you are painting. (We foresee a "fracture" command in one of the next
versions of Inkscape which will help you turn a monolithic object into a mosaic of small
fragments that will be then easy to paint with Tweak tool.) Still, even with this
limitation, color painting is a novel way of dealing with vector drawings which allows
you to quickly and intuitively make adjustments which would be awkward and slow with
traditional approach.

Drawings containing patterns or scatterings of small independent objects are best suited
for color painting with Tweak tool. Examples include:

* freehand drawings with Calligraphy pen, consisting of many separate strokes;

* gradient meshes imported from Adobe Illustrator files (Inkscape renders these meshes as lattices of small polygons; while there's no direct support for gradient meshes in Inkscape yet, color painting on such lattices is almost as good);

* text converted to paths and with Break Apart command applied so that each letter is a separate path;

* patterns made with the Tile Clones command; note that you need to unset the fill and/or stroke on the original object and use the Color tab to assign some initial color to the clones - this will make them paintable with the Tweak tool without unlinking.

Moreover, color tweaking can be useful for compositions with a few objects or even for
single objects. Unlike all other color selection methods, painting with the Tweak tool
implements the ''color mixing'' metaphor which is much more familiar to traditional
artists than RGB sliders or even the color wheel. For example, start with a rectagle of
pure blue color; then, pick different colors by Color Paint and apply light touches with
minimum Force and minimum pen pressure: add a little green, a little brown, a little
yellow, etc. until you have the exact hue you need. Similarly, you can whiten or blacken
any hue by admixing white or black.

You can also use color tweaking to add a tint, darken/lighten, saturate/desaturate, or
color jitter your entire drawing. Just select all in all layers, zoom out, choose a
large brush width so it covers all of the drawing, and apply a little color tweaking
(with minimum Force) that will therefore affect all visible objects.

===Keyboard shortcuts===

* '''W''', '''Shift+F2''': switch to the Tweak tool

* '''Shift+P''': switch to the Push mode

* '''Shift+S''': switch to the Shrink mode

* '''Shift+G''': switch to the Grow mode

* '''Shift+A''': switch to the Attract mode

* '''Shift+E''': switch to the Repel mode

* '''Shift+R''': switch to the Roughen mode

* '''Shift+C''': switch to the Color Paint mode

* '''Shift+J''': switch to the Color Jitter mode

* '''Left, Right, Home, End''': change width

* '''Up, Down''': change force

* '''mouse drag''': act on selected path in the current mode

* '''Ctrl+mouse drag''': temporarily switch to Shrink (while Ctrl is down)

* '''Shift+Ctrl+mouse drag''': temporarily switch to Grow (while Shift+Ctrl is down)

==3D Box tool==

Inkscape is a two-dimensional drawing tool. However, very often it is used to draw three-dimensional objects. The new '''3D box tool''' helps you create such 3D drawings by automating the most common operation: creating a three-dimensional box in a given perspective. The tool automatically ensures that all sides of the box lie on the corresponding perspective lines. We're not going to compete with Blender - but even simple things can go a long way.

Currently in the 3D box tool you can:

* draw a 3D box by dragging on canvas (use Shift+dragging without releasing the mouse button to extrude in z direction)

* adjust any of its 3 dimensions by handles

* move a 3D box "in perspective" by dragging its center; without modifiers, movement occurs within the XY-plane (press Ctrl to constrain the movement to the directions of the coordinate axes or diagonals), with Shift the box moves parallel to the Z-axis

* adjust the vanishing points of a perspective by dragging them across the canvas (see below) or toggling their states; all boxes sharing this perspective are transformed accordingly

In SVG, a 3D box is represented as a '''group''' (svg:g) with a special extension attribute (in inkscape namespace); this group contains the 6 quadrilateral '''paths''' representing the sides of the box. Only the 3D box tool treats this object as a box; for all other tools it is just a group, so you can select any of the paths by Ctrl+click, apply any style to it, delete it, etc. You can of course transform the entire box or any face in it using Selector or Node tools.

When several boxes are selected, all vanishing points of their associated perspectives are shown on the canvas. If vanishing points of different perspectives coincide, they are combined in a single "dragger". Moving this dragger moves all the vanishing points simultaneously and transforms the associated boxes accordingly. Note that some non-selected boxes may also be reshaped if their perspectives share the same vanishing point. Pressing Shift while moving the dragger can be used to only transform the selected boxes, separating their perspectives from the non-selected ones'. On the other hand, when a vanishing point being dragged comes close enough to another one, both snap together and are combined in a single dragger.

===Keyboard shortcuts===

* '''X''', '''Alt+F4''': switch to the 3D box tool

* The various kinds of parentheses, namely '''[''' ''']''', '''(''' ''')''', '''{''' '''}''', can be used to rotate infinite (i.e., parallel) perspective lines in X-, Y-, and Z-direction, respectively. Closing parentheses rotate clockwise and opening parentheses rotate counterclockwise. The angle of rotation is taken from the preferences. Pressing '''Alt''' reduces the amount of rotation to 1 screen pixel.

* '''L''': toggle visibility of perspective lines

* '''A''': when perspective lines are visible, toggle between "all lines" and "only lines connected to front corners" (this can help to avoid visual clutter)

[max]

==Gradient Tool==
===Selecting multiple stops===
'''More than one gradient stop''' can be selected at a time. Shortcuts for working with multiple stop selections are generally modeled on the Node tool.
* Add a stop to the selected stops by '''Shift+click'''.
* Press '''Ctrl+A''' to select all stops in the selected objects.
Multiple selected stops:
*Can be moved together by '''mouse drag''' or by '''arrow keys'''. For example, creating a linear gradient, then press Ctrl+A to select all stops and use arrow keys to move the entire gradient as a whole.
*Can be deleted at the same time by pressing '''Del'''.
An always up-to-date description of the current handle selection is provided in the statusbar in the Gradient tool, including the number of selected handles (and the type of the single selected handle), as well as the total number of handles and selected objects.

===Editing intermediate stops===
'''Intermediate stops''' in gradients can be added, deleted, and edited on canvas (previously this was only possible in the Gradient Editor dialog).
*Stops can be added by '''double clicking''' or by '''Ctrl+Alt+Click''' on the gradient line.
*When two or more adjacent stops are selected, pressing '''Ins''' adds stops in the middles of all selected stop intervals.
*Intermediate stops can be '''mousedrag'''ged along their gradient line, within the limits of the adjacent unselected stops (or end handles).
:*Dragging with '''Ctrl''' moves the selected stops snapping them to 1/10 fractions of the available range.
:*Dragging with '''Alt''' moves the selected stops depending on how close each one is to the stop being dragged, using a smooth bell-like curve similar to the node sculpting feature in Node tool. This makes it easy to approximate different gradient profiles; for example, if you have a two-stop gradient that you want to shape according to a curve profile, select both ends of the gradient, press '''Ins''' a few times to add a number of intermediate nodes, then '''Alt+drag''' a node in the middle to smoothly profile the gradient.
*Stops can be deleted by '''Ctrl+Alt+Click''' on a stop or by the '''Del''' key for all the selected stop(s).
:*When you delete an end stop, the nearest intermediate stop becomes the new end stop of the gradient (without moving - i.e., the gradient span becomes shorter).
:*When you delete an end stop and there are no intermediate stops, the object will be painted with a solid fill taken from the color & opacity of the remaining stop.
*Pressing '''Ctrl+L''' with some intermediate stops selected attempts to ''simplify'' the selected portion of the gradient, removing those stops that can be removed without too much change in the way the gradient looks. In particular, new stops created by double-clicking or pressing Ins initially do not change the appearance of the gradient, so if you press Ctrl+L, all redundant stops that weren't moved or repainted since creation will be deleted.

===Style indication of gradient stops===
*When you have one of the '''gradient handles selected''', its style (color and opacity) is reflected by the selected style indicator (left of the statusbar) and the Fill&Stroke dialog. Previously, opacity of a gradient handle was reflected as fill-opacity and stroke-opacity; now it is reflected as '''master opacity''' (the "O:" spinbutton in the selected style indicator, the "Master opacity" slider in Fill&Stroke). This makes it much easier to view and change opacity of gradient handles using only the selected style indicator in the statusbar.
:*When multiple gradient stops are selected, the selected style indicator (in the statusbar) displays and controls the averaged color and opacity of the selected stops.[FIXME]
*If the selected object(s) have gradient in fill or stroke, the '''selected style indicator''' in the bottom-left corner of the editing window now displays a '''live gradient preview''' prefixed by '''R''' or '''L''' to indicate Radial or Linear gradients (instead of displaying "L Gradient" or "R Gradient" text labels as before). Also, this and other similar widget now use italic font face to indicate None and bold to indicate Unset.

===Automatic duplication of gradients===
* When copy/pasting or duplicating an object with gradient, it now automatically gets a '''copy''' of the original gradient, so modifying it does not affect the source object's gradient anymore (before, you had to press the Duplicate button on the Gradient controls bar for this).

==Calligraphy tool: Engraver's Toolbox ==

Several new features were added to the Calligraphic pen to make
Inkscape capable of the ancient art of '''line
engraving'''. Traditional engraving is a very labour-intensive
process, and while for a long time it was the only practical way
of reproducing lifelike images in black-and-white print, about a
century ago it was almost completely displaced by automatic
halftone screens. However, line engravings have their
characteristic charm, and there's no reason not to try to
resurrect this art form with the help of Inkscape.

A brief visual guide to the new functionality can be seen on
these screenshots:

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.46-engraving1.png

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.46-engraving2.png

===Tracking a guide path with Ctrl===

One of the most common operations in line engraving is
'''hatching''' (or sometimes ''cross-hatching'' when several
hatching grids cross): filling a space with many parallel
straight or variously curved lines (usually of varying width to
represent a gradual shading). You could try to achieve a similar
effect with e.g. path interpolation (blending), but it is rather
cumbersome and limited; manual drawing of hatch lines, on the
other hand, is tedious and nearly impossible to do
uniformly. Now Inkscape provides "assisted hatching" by
'''tracking a guide path''', allowing you to hatch quickly and
uniformly and at the same time giving you sufficient manual
control over the process.

Here's how to do this. First, select the '''guide path''' that
you will track. It may be another calligraphic stroke, any path
or shape, or even a letter of a text object. Then switch to
Calligraphic pen, select the desired parameters (line width,
angle, fixation etc.) and, before starting to draw, press
Ctrl. You will see a gray '''track circle''' centered at your
mouse pointer and touching the closest point on the selected
guide path. (If you have no guide path selected, a statusbar
message will tell you to select it.)

Now move your mouse close to the guide path, so that the track
circle radius is equal to the desired spacing of your hatch
pattern, and start drawing along the guide path. At that moment,
the radius of the circle gets locked; now the circle slides
along the guide path - and the actual stroke is drawn by the
center of the tracking circle, ''not'' by your mouse point. As
a result, you are getting a smooth stroke going parallel to the
guide path and always at the same distance from it.

When the stroke is ready, release your mouse button (or lift
your tablet pen) but '''do not let go of the Ctrl key''' because
as long as you have it pressed, the tool remembers the hatch
spacing you set when you started drawing. Now, you have just
created a new stroke and, as usual with Inkscape tools, it gets
selected instead of what was selected before. In our case, this
means that the newly drawn stroke itself becomes the new guide
path. Next, you can draw a second stroke along the first one,
then a third one along the second, etc. Eventually you can fill
any desired space with uniform hatching.

Alternatively, if you uncheck "Select new path" in the Calligraphy tool preferences, newly created strokes will not be selected, so your original guide path will be kept selected. In this mode, Inkscape will increase the tracking distance after each created stroke so that you can create uniformly spaced hatching by tracking a single guide path.

The attachment to the guide path is not absolute. If you stray
your mouse pointer far enough from the guide path, you will be
able to tear it off (the track circle turns from green to red)
and move freely. This is intentional; this feature allows you,
for example, to continue drawing a stroke past the end of a
guide stroke, thus making your hatching cover a wider area than
the initial guide path. Special care is taken to make such
tearing off as smooth as possible and to suppress violent jerks,
but this is not always possible; the general advice is to not
try to hatch too fast. If jerking and unintended tearoffs still
bother you, try increasing the Mass parameter.

Also, special code is in place to prevent flipovers - accidental
jumps to the other side of the guide path. Brief flipovers are
suppressed, but if you intentionally go over to the other side
and stay there, eventually Inkscape will obey and your tracking
stroke will also flip over to follow you.

Tracking a guide also allows some slight feedback by gradually
changing the tracking distance in response to your drawing
behavior. Thus, if you're consistently trying to draw closer or
farther from the guide than the current tracking distance, the
distance will correspondingly decrease or increase, so you will
get a hatching that is slightly spacing in or out. (The effect
is very slight, however, so as not to become a nuisance.) Also,
note that since tracking follows the edge of the stroke, strokes
of varying width (such as those tracing background, see below)
will result in gradual bending of the hatching pattern as you
proceed.

===Tracing background by stroke width===

There is a new toggle button on the Calligraphy tool's controls
bar, '''Trace background'''. When on, the width of your pen
depends on the lightness of the background under the stroke in
each point, so that white translates into the minimum stoke
width (1) and black translates to the maximum (which is set by the
Width parameter). This can work alone or in combination with
pressure sensitivity, depending on whether the "Use pressure" button
is also toggled.

This feature allows you to not only hatch over an imported
bitmap image or any drawing, but to do so automatically
reproducing the highlights and shades of the background with
your strokes becoming lighter and heavier as needed.

===Misc features===

* For consistency with other drawing tools, drawing with '''Shift''' in Calligraphy tool automatically '''unions''' the newly created stroke with whatever paths were selected (and selects the result). Thus, you can do a series of overlapping Shift+strokes to create one unioned path object instead of separate objects as before.

* To facilitate changing the Width parameter, the Home/End keys in Calligraphy tool switch you to the minimum (1) and maximum (100) width, correspondingly. (This is in addition to the Left/Right arrow keys that change Width by 1; remember also that you can press Alt+X, type any width, and press Enter.)

==Selector==

* A new selection mode is available: '''selecting by touch'''. In this mode, you draw a freehand path across the objects; when you release mouse button, all objects that are touched by this path get selected. This mode is very convenient in situations where you need to select objects so intermingled that selecting them by the rectangular rubberband is too difficult and so numerous that click-selecting them one by one is too tedious.

:To activate selecting by touch, whenever you are drawing a rubberband rectangle, just press '''Alt''' to switch it to the touch mode. The rectangle will disappear and a red ''touch path'' will be shown instead. When dragging from an empty space, you can press '''Alt''' first and then start to drag to get the touch mode (note that your selection must be empty, otherwise Alt+dragging will move the selected objects instead). To start a touch selection from a point over an object, or to add to existing selection by touching, press '''Shift+Alt''' and then start to drag.

* Previously, the only way to switch selection from scale mode to rotate mode or back was to click on it, which was rather inconvenient when the selected object is in a group or under other objects. Now you can switch modes with keyboard as well by pressing '''Shift+S''' in Selector tool.

* Draging the '''scale handles with Alt''' now scales selection by an integer factor, i.e. up to '''2''', '''3''', '''4''', etc. times the original size or down to '''1/2'''. '''1/3''', '''1/4''', etc. of the original size (in any of the two dimensions independently). This way you can, for example, mirror any object around one of the edges of its box. (This replaces the old and rarely used "slow" scaling mode with Alt.)

* '''Horizontal/vertical flipping''': So far, flipping a selection made it flip within its bounding box, so that the latter remained fixed. In the move/scale mode of the selector tool, this behaviour remains unchanged. However, in rotate/shear mode flipping now happens about an (imaginary) vertical/horizontal axis through the rotation center. This is very handy, since the latter can be freely dragged around and snaps to all kinds of objects if desired.

* Objects to Marker was added to the ojects menu, which converts the current selection to a marker, with the center point of the selection being set to the center of the marker.

==Node tool==
[sculpt profiles - bbyak]

* If any of the nodes in the currently selected path is mouseovered, then horizontal/vertical flipping ('H' and 'V' keys), stepwise rotation ('[' and ']' keys) and scaling ('<' and '>' keys) now all use this specific node as center/axis. If there is no mouseovered node, the center of the bounding box is used instead (as is currently the case unconditionally). Nodes that are covered by one of their handles are also detected as mouseovered.

* [helper path display - johan]

==Text tool==
* [text toolbar - deadchip?]
* If text contains a tref element, the text tool's behavior may not be as expected. Please see [[#The tref Element]]

=SVG features=

==The tref element==

Inkscape can now correctly open files with '''tref''' elements, and new tref elements can be created manually in the XML editor.

The actual character data contained in a text element can either be embedded directly, or it can be the character content of an element referenced by a '''tref'''.

While the textual content from the referenced element will be stripped of any markup before being used by the '''tref''', the '''tref''' element can itself have the same attributes as a '''tspan'''. In fact, when rendered, it is as though the '''tref''' element is replaced by a '''tspan''' with the same attributes, and the referenced character data is embedded in that '''tspan'''.

The property '''xlink:href''' is used to refer to another element whose character data will be used. Any element can be referred to except an ancestor of the '''tref'''. When any of the text contained in the referred element changes, the '''tref''' will immediately be updated to display the new data.

Existing tref elements can be converted into tspan elements with '''Edit > Clone > Unlink Clone'''. If more than one '''tref''' is contained within a selection, all '''trefs''' will be converted into '''tspans'''. All attributes applied to the '''tref''' will be retained in the new '''tspan'''.

A '''tref''' element can be mixed with any other elements allowed to be contained by a text element.

The cloned character data rendered by the '''tref''' may not be edited, but any characters surrounding it can be changed. Styles cannot be applied to a subset of the cloned characters, but if all are selected, a style can be applied to the '''tref'''.

==SVG filters==

===New filters supported===

* The '''feBlend''' filter primitive gives us image blending modes, like in many image manipulation programs. These modes are screen, multiply, darken and lighten. There's a caveat, though: when blending an object against an semi-transparent background, the background will be accumulated twice, resulting in thicker objects under the bounding box of blended object. This is a limitation of current version of SVG format, not a bug in Inkscape.

* The '''feOffset''' filter primitive offsets the image by an user-defined amount. For example, this is useful for drop shadows, as the shadow has to be in a slightly different position than the actual object.

[[Filter Effects]]

===Filters UI===

* New dialog for creating and modifying filter effects ('''Object>Filter Effects...''')
* The list at the left of the dialog displays all filters currently in the document.
** New filters can be added with the '''Add''' button beneath the list
** Right-clicking a filter for the pop-up menu allows duplicating or removing a filter.
** Double-clicking a filter will apply it to all selected objects
** A black dot is placed next to whatever filter is applied to the selected objects. If more than one filter is in use by selected objects, an unfilled dot is used instead.
* The second list, at the left of the dialog, displays the '''filter primitives''' that are contained within the currently-selected filter.
** New primitives can be added by selecting the primitive type from the combo box beneath the list, and then pressing the '''Add''' button.
** Right-clicking a primitive for the pop-up menu allows duplicating or removing a primitive.
** Primitives can be rearranged by clicking and dragging any filter in the list.
** When a filter is selected, the '''Settings''' group at the bottom of the dialog will change to display the attributes available for that primitive. Changing a setting results in an immediate update to the document.
** The "in" and "in2" attributes for filters that support them are not shown in the '''Settings''' group. These input connections are displayed graphically in the list, under the '''Connections''' column.
*** Inputs for a particular filter are displayed as triangles. Depending on the primitive type, there may be one or two inputs (or more for Merge primitives.) Connections can be created by clicking on a triangle and dragging.
*** There are six standard input types that can be used for any primitive input; Source Graphic, Source Alpha, Background Image, Background Alpha, Fill Paint, and Stroke Paint. These are displayed vertically on the far right of the list. Click and drag from an input triangle to one of the standard inputs to connect them.
*** Primitives can also be connected to other primitives by clicking an input triangle and dragging upwards to another primitive. A primitive can only be connected to one higher up the list.
*** Single-clicking on an input triangle will unset it, returning it to the default. If it is on a Merge primitive, the input will be deleted.
*** Merge inputs have an empty input at the end. Dragging a connection from this input will add a new input to the primitive.

=Live path effects=

'''Live path effects''' (not to be confused with extension effects or SVG filters) are a new way to non-destructively modify path and shape objects. Path effects can only affect the path of an object and not its style. The original path is preserved and can be edited directly, and the path effect applied to it will be updated.

In this version, we include several path effects that are analogous to the corresponding extension effects (such as Path along Path effect that replaces the extension of the same name). The most important advantage of live path effects is that they are, indeed, live - you can still edit the original path and the effect will update in real time (unlike the extension effects which were one-time one-way transformations). In the future, we plan to reimplement most if not all of path-changing extensions as live path effects.

[Path Effects dialog, Ctrl+Shift+7]

[Paste Path Effect command, Ctrl+7]

[lpe can be node-edited, preserved in simplify]

When a path with a path effect applied is selected, the statusbar description mentions that, for example "'''Path''' (4 nodes, path effect)".

Live path effects were developed as part of the GSoC 2007.

==Path along path==
The Path along Path effect can curve a path along another path. When this effect is applied to path A (called ''skeleton''), another path B (called ''pattern'') can then be passed as a parameter. The result is that path B is bent along path A. With the node edit tool, path A can be changed on-canvas and the result is updated live. This provides a direct equivalent of "vector brushes" or "skeletal strokes" features in other vector editors.

In the effect's control panel in the Path Effects dialog, you can select how many copies of the pattern are attached (either '''single''' or '''repeated''') and whether the pattern is '''stretched''' to fill the skeleton path. You can also choose the pattern for the selected skeleton [either directly or] by '''pasting''' it from clipboard (that is, you select and copy to the clipboard the pattern, then select the skeleton, apply the Path along path effect, and paste the pattern). The '''Scale width''' parameter allows you to change the width of the pattern applied to the path.

Example file: live-path-effects-pathalongpath.svg

==Curve Stitching==
The Curve Stitching effect connects points from two subpaths of the path with straight line or curved segments. The result is also referred to as "String Art". For some examples of what can be made with this method, see http://members.shaw.ca/jillbritton/string_art/jbstringart.htm. Note that this effect can only be applied to a path with two subpaths in it (use Path > Combine to create such a path from two separate paths).

Example file: live-path-effects-curvestitch.svg

==Gears==
The Gears effect is a toy effect. It generates a chain of interconnected gears from the path that has the effect applied to it. The nodes of the path define the centers of the gears. The first 3 nodes are special; the first defines the start angle of the chain, the second defines the center of the first gear and the third knot specifies the radius of the first gear. That is, to create a chain of 2 gears, you will need a path with 4 nodes; for 3 gears, 5 nodes, and so on.

Example file: live-path-effects-gears.svg

==Development of new effects==
One of the goals of the Summer of Code project was to make it easy to create new effects. There is a framework that greatly simplifies effect implementation; very little code is needed to get the effect hooked into Inkscape. This leaves valuable time for the actual effect to be implemented. See the http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MakingLivePathEffects wiki page for an explanation of how to get started with your own effect!

[johan]

=Extension effects=

== Live preview ==

* '''Live preview of effects''': Using the async behavior (see below), as soon as the parameters dialog for an effect is shown, the script is executed in the background and the screen updates as soon as it's finished. This can result is seemingly faster execution if no parameters are changed. If some parameters are adjusted, the script is restarted. This allows you to see immediately the effects of any parameter change without pressing the OK button on the effect's dialog.

* '''Spawn Glib API''': Scripting extension have been moved to the Glib spawn API to ensure that parameters and variables aren't interpreted by a shell. This also means that scripting extensions are executed in a separate process asynchronously allowing the GTK main loop to continue to execute.

* '''Progress dialog''': While an extension is working on a document, a small dialog is shown allowing the user to cancel the execution.

== New and improved effects ==

* The new '''Render > Barcode''' extension creates a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode barcode]. Supported types include EAN13, EAN8, UPC-A, UPC-E, UPC-5, Code39, Code39Ext, Code93, Code128, and RM4SCC.

* The new '''Render > Gear''' extension creates a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear mechanical gear] given the number of teeth, the circular pitch (in px units), and the pressure angle.

* The new '''Render > [[Spirograph]]''' extension creates intricate mathematical curves akin to the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph mechanical Spirograph toy] (see [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/images/Spirograph_Samples.svg samples]).

* A group of new effects in the '''Text''' submenu performs various case conversions on selected text objects: converting to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence case, Title Case, as well as flipping case (switching uppercase to lowercase and vice versa) and rANdoMiZInG cAse. If no texts are selected, the effect works on all texts in the document.

* Another effect in the Text submenu, '''Replace text''', performs search-and-replace on the selected text objects or (if nothing is selected) on all texts in the document. Searching is case sensitive. You can use this effect to globally delete all occurrences of some text fragment by replacing it with empty string. Conversely, if you search for an empty string and replace it with some string, this string will be inserted after every character of your text; for example, you can space out a text by replacing in it an empty string with a single space.

* A new effect, '''Replace color''' in the Color submenu, simply replaces one RRGGBB-specified color to another within selection or, if there's no selection, in the entire document. As with other effects in that submenu, the replacement affects fill, stroke, and gradient colors, but not colors of bitmaps.

*The '''Whirl''' extension uses the center of view as the center of whirl, so you don't have to enter the center coordinates numerically.

*The '''Render > Grid''' extension has got an extended range of grid spacings, from 0.1 to 1000 px.

*The '''Render > Function Plotter''' extension can now plot using polar coordinates.

*[color randomize]

== XSLT effects ==

* '''XSLT''' is now supported for input, output and effect extensions. This is used to support the XAML file format (both import and export) and the Adobe Illustrator SVG import which removes Adobe's stuff from SVG.

== ImageMagick effects ==

New raster operations available through the effects drop-down menu, powered by the ImageMagick library. For any of these effects to work, you need to have an '''image object selected''' in the drawing.

* '''Adaptive Threshold''' applies adaptive thresholding to the bitmap. Average color of rectangle provided by '''width''' and '''height''' used as threshold value. Use '''offset''' to apply a different threshold than the average.

* '''Add Noise''' adds random noise of certain types to the bitmap.

* '''Blur''' blurs the bitmap, using '''radius''' as the amount of blur. Higher radius means more blur. (Note that unlike the vector Gaussian blur of objects, this bitmap blur will not extend the edges of the image, so it may appear truncated at the edges.)

* '''Channel''' extracts the specified channel from the bitmap.

* '''Charcoal''' applies a charcoal drawing style to a bitmap. Radius controls the width (or detail) of charcoal strokes. Higher '''radius''' means lower detail. '''Sigma''': the higher it is, the less defined the charcoal is.

* '''Colorize''' overlays the bitmap with a given color at a given intensity.

* '''Contrast''' lightly enhances the contrast (difference between lights and darks) of a bitmap.

* '''Cycle Colormap''' cycles the colormap of a bitmap.

* '''Despeckle''' reduce the speckle noise in a bitmap.

* '''Edge''' hilights edges in a bitmap.

* '''Emboss''' embosses a bitmap, hilighting edges with 3D effect.

* '''Enhance''' enhance a bitmap, minimizing noise.

* '''Equalize''' equalizes a bitmap. Histogram equalization.

* '''Flop''' mirrors a bitmap, reflecting each scanline in the horizontal direction.

* '''Gaussian Blur''' blurs a bitmap, more strongly than regular blur.

* '''Implode''' sucks everything towards the center of the bitmap.

* '''Level''' scales values falling between the given '''Black Point''' to '''White Point''' range to the full color range.

* '''Level Channel''' acts the same way as level but for only one channel.

* '''Median Filter''' filters a a bitmap by replacing each pixel component with the median color in a circular neighborhood

* '''Modulate''' adjusts the percent hue, saturation, and brightness of a bitmap.

* '''Negate''' takes the inverse of a bitmap.

* '''Normalize''' normalizes a bitmap, expanding color range to the full possible range of color.

* '''Oil Paint''' stylizes a bitmap so that it appears to be painted with oils.

* '''Opacity''' modifies the opacity channel of a bitmap.

* '''Raise''' alters the lightness of the edges of a bitmap to create a raised appearance, much like a frame.

* '''Reduce Noise''' reduces noise in a bitmap by using a noise peak elimination filter.

* '''Shade''' shades a bitmap by simulating a distant light source

* '''Sharpen''' sharpens a bitmap.

* '''Solarize''' solarizes a bitmap, like overexposing photographic film.

* '''Spread''' randomly spread pixels in a bitmap within the radius of '''amount'''.

* '''Swirl''' swirls the bitmap around the center point.

* '''Threshold''' thresholds a bitmap.

* '''Unsharpmask''' sharpens a bitmap using an unsharp mask algorithm.

* '''Wave''' alters a bitmap along the sine wave.

These effects are part of the Google Summer of Code 2007, coded by Christopher Brown.

== New Python XML library ==

* All Python effects are switched from the old and unmaintained PyXML library to the new powerful [http://codespeak.net/lxml/ lxml] library.

=Color management=

== Calibrated SVG color including CMYK ==

Inkscape now supports color-managed color definitions that use a colorspace other than sRGB (for example Adobe RGB, or calibrated CMYK colors). In the SVG file, this is done using the
optional "icc-color(...)" paint components as described in section 11.2 "Specifying paint" of the SVG 1.1 specification
[http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/painting.html#SpecifyingPaint]. A fallback sRGB value will be used, for non color-managed workflows. This allows for the use of calibrated color spaces, including using CMYK values that are preserved across applications.

The new CMS color selector tab allows these colors to be edited.

== Display calibration ==

In Inkscape Preferences, Color Management tab, there's a new option for enabling display color calibration; you can select any calibration profile (an ICC file) suitable for your display. Options for rendering intent can also be chosen.

== Soft Proofing ==

In Inkscape Preferences, Color Management tab, there's a new option for enabling output device preview; you can select any calibration profile (an ICC file) suitable for your output device. Options for rendering intent can also be chosen, along with out of gamut warnings.

=Snapping=

* In addition to all other snapping modes and techniques, snapping has been implemented or improved in many tools and contexts:

:* Drawing of new '''shapes''' (such as rectangles or ellipses) snaps to grid/guides/objects.

:* '''Handles''' of existing objects and gradient handles snap.

:* '''Skewing''' objects in Selector snaps.

:* Snapping to objects works for '''images''' and '''clones''' (not only paths/shapes as before).

:* Snapping of '''text baselines''' works again.

:* When moved in Selector, an object optionally snaps with its '''rotation axis''' (which is by default in the geometric center of its bounding box, but can be arbitrarily moved and its position is remembered for every object). It is also possible to snap to a rotation axis with another object.

:* While dragging a '''guide''', it now snaps to object nodes

:Other snapping fixes and improvements include:

:* The snapping preferences dialog has been restyled to make it more intuitive

:* Snapping distance is now set in screen pixels and is therefore independent of zoom.

:* Snapping to bounding boxes has been added

:* Snapping of objects has been made more clean, by only snapping bounding box corners to bounding boxes, and nodes to other nodes and paths.

:* The time it takes to snap to objects using the selector tool has been reduced dramatically.

:* The bug where "node-to-node" snapping caused jerky movement of nodes is fixed.

:* The aspect ratio is correctly preserved while scaling objects with snapping turned on.

:* All four bounding box corners now snap instead of only the lower-left and upper-right as before.

:* Snapping while uniformly scaling has been improved.

* The confusing "Default transformations origin" option is removed. Now Inkscape always uses the opposite edge of the object's bounding box as the transformation origin (though the bounding box itself can now be different, see next item).

* A new preference option has been added to specify the kind of '''bounding box''' to be used for transforming objects (see Inkscape Preferences, Tools, Selector). You can choose between the '''visual bounding box''' (which takes into account the stroke width, markers, and blur margins; this is the default behavior) or '''geometric bounding box''' (which encloses only the path itself, disregarding stroke width).

=Grids=

* a new tab in the document properties dialog, solely meant for grids; the former grid/guide tab is now solely for guides. I envision a list of guides there in the future, for easier deletion of guides etc.
* more than one grid can be active at the same time, although i am having trouble in finding a usefull case for this
* multiple views on the same document share the same grids, but the grid can be turned off for each view separately. For example: one could have an overview view without grid enabled. Duplicate that window and zoom in on some detail; then grids can be shown only for that view, and snapping will only happen in those views for which grids are enabled. (sorry i am not able to explain more clearly)
* grid information is now stored in SVG as a child of sodipodi:namedview. Can someone please make an extension that converts an old grid definition to the new format?
* axonometric grid (not yet snapping)
* dots instead of lines

From developer perspective:

* implementation of new grids is much easier now; subclassing CanvasGrid and adding an entry in the is enough. Have a peek at how the rectangular grid is implemented (CanvasXYGrid).
* note that there is no longer "the grid", there might be several grids active now!

[Future plans (i will not be working on this soon, due to GSoC Live effects!):
** possibility of enabling not all but a selection of grids for a view. Eg. when there are 4 grids defined in the document, only enable grid2 for a certain view.
** new grids!
** better snapping mechanism to enable snapping to intersections of guides&grids and grids&grids.

A side effect of removal of old gridcode: apparantly the origin of the desktop rules used to be set to the origin of the grid. I find this strange: specifying a grid origin of (2,2) would have me think the origin would be at ruler location (2,2) instead of (0,0) as it is in 0.45.1.
I have commented the grid-origin correction to the ruler range, because now there is not a single grid anymore to correct it for. Isn't there a control somewhere to define the documents origin? Now the ruler origin is set to (0,0) -- johan]

=Import/Export=

==PDF and AI import==

In this version, Inkscape can natively (i.e. without any additional software) import PDF files and the newer PDF-based Adobe Illustrator files (starting from AI version 9.0).

'''Implemented features''': The new import extension can import '''paths''', '''text''', '''clippaths''', '''masked or non-masked images''', and '''softmasks'''. It supports '''pattern fills''' (XStep and YStep attributes are ignored) as well as '''linear and radial gradients''' (only those using sampled or exponential functions). '''Gradient meshes''' are imported, but they get converted to groups of small tiles (flat-colored paths) that approximate the mesh; the user can adjust the precision of this approximation.

'''PDF import settings''': After opening a PDF or AI document, the PDF Import Settings dialog shows up. Here you can select:

* the '''page''' to be imported from a multipage PDF;

* the overall '''clip region''' (which can be none or set to any of the PDF boxes, e.g. the crop box, the media box, the trim box, etc.);

* the '''precision''' for the approximation of '''gradient meshes'''; note that setting this too high may result in a huge SVG file and slow performance when importing files with gradient meshes;

* a checkbox controlling whether the '''images''' should be '''embedded''' into the resulting SVG document or saved on the current path;

* a '''preview''' of the selected page (shown if poppler-cairo is present on the system or if the selected page has a thumbnail embedded into the PDF document).

'''Text editing tips''': Any text imported from PDF or AI has each letter's precise place on the page ''fixed''. While this preserves the exact appearance (e.g. justification of text blocks) of the imported document, it makes editing such text difficult: deleting text fails to contract the text line and inserting text fails to expand it, i.e. typed letters overlay the existing letters. (However, you still can replace a letter with another letter of about the same width, although you may need to kern it into place with Alt+arrows.)

To work around this, select the text object you want to edit and use '''Text > Remove manual kerns''' command. This will remove the exact positioning information, so if the text block was justified it will lose justification, but instead you will be able to edit it as usual.

Note that there is a way to select even a single line in a text block. For this, open the XML editor, expand the <svg:text> tree branch corresponding to your text, and select any of the <svg:tspan> objects under it. Now you can remove manual kerns from this line only. After you finish editing the line, you can manually justify it back, for example by adding spaces, manual kerns (Alt+arrows), or by adjusting letterspacing (select the whole line and use Alt+> or Alt+<).

The native PDF/AI importer is based on the poppler library and was implemented by Miklós Erdélyi as part of the Google Summer of Code 2007.

==PDF export==

* '''[if enabled! - mental]''' A new cairo-based PDF exporter has been added to Inkscape. Inkscape 0.46 can export shapes, strokes, transparency, gradients, patterns, text, and images correctly to cairo. While clipping paths and masks are known to be faulty or missing. cairo will write a PDF with vector graphics when possible and fall back to raster graphics when needed. What can be exported as vectors and how much of the image will be rasterized when the fallback kicks in depends on your version of cairo. cairo version 1.2 with the pdf backend compiled in is the minimum requirement for any cairo-based PDF exports.

* A new cairo-based exporter can be used to export to PostScript. The cairo PS backend is not as mature as the PDF backend. It rasterizes a lot of its content. Text output does not work where it works with the PDF backend.

==CDR (CorelDraw) import==

Inkscape can use [http://www.sk1project.org/modules.php?name=Products&product=uniconvertor UniConvertor] if it's installed on your system to import documents in CDR format (CorelDraw). This feature is Unix-only at this time (since UniConvertor is Unix-only) and requires that you have Python and UniConvertor installed. As of UniConvertor 1.0rc2, only versions from 7 to X3 of the CDR format are supported, and text objects are not converted.

==XAML import/export==

* Inkscape can import vector graphics portions of XAML documents, as well as export its documents to XAML.

==Adobe Illustrator SVG clean import==

* Using this new import filter, Inkscape can open an SVG document removing any elements and attributes in the namespaces that Adobe Illustrator uses for its stuff. This will clean out everything except the actual SVG content.

==Bitmap export==

* '''Batch export''': The Bitmap Export dialog (Ctrl+Shift+E) got a new checkbox, ''Batch export all selected objects''. This checkbox is available when two or more objects are selected. If it is checked, instead of exporting selection as a whole, Inkscape exports each selected object separately into its own PNG file. This uses each object's export hints (i.e. export filename and DPI) if they are remembered from a previous export; otherwise, the filename is created from the object ID and the DPI is 90 pixels per inch. '''Caution:''' Unlike regular export, batch export overwrites all existing PNG files without warning.

:This makes it possible to implement all kinds of '''image slicing''' and automated export scenarios. For example, if you are working on a web site design, you can create a separate "export" layer. In that layer, "slice" your web page image into separate areas by creating invisible rectangles with no fill and no stroke. Select each rectangle (by Tab/Shift+Tab, or by switching to Outline mode where even an invisible rectangle can be selected by clicking on its outline) and export it into the corresponding filename (which gets saved as that object's export hint). After that, if you do any changes to your graphics, it's very easy to reexport all the slices: just switch to the "export" layer, select all in that layer (Ctrl+A), and export with the ''Batch export selected objects'' checkbox on.

* '''Hide all except selected''': A new checkbox allows you to hide in the exported image everything except selected object(s).

* The Export dialog automatically appends the '''.png''' extension to the export filename you specify.

=Command line=

Several new command line options are added that make Inkscape even more scriptable and automatable than before.

* --verb-list will list all the Verb IDs and their names in Inkscape. This makes writing your own menus and hotkeys much easier as you can easily find out what the choices are.

* --verb followed by a verb ID allows you to specify a verb to be called on every document opened by Inkscape initially from the command line.

* --select followed by a node ID will allow you to add a node to the list of selected objects.

These options can be used, for example, for performance testing. You could do something like this:

$ time inkscape --verb=FileClose my_complex_file.svg

to measure the time it takes to load and display the file.

Of course, with the ability to select objects, it can be much more useful than
that. You can call extension effects, or any other verb, then FileSave and
FileClose to automate all kinds of operations on your drawings.

=User interface=

== [dockable dialogs - gustav] ==

Inkscape now has a '''dock panel''' to the right of the canvas, on
which dialogs can be docked.

The new dockable dialog behavior exists alongside the old floating dialogs behavior. If the old behavior is preferred, one can select it under Inkscape Preferences > Windows > Dialog behavior.

Known issues:

* It doesn't work well with multiple open documents. Fixing it requires a bit of rewrite of the current dialog manager.

* Resizing in-dock dialogs can be cumbersome. More specifically, one won't be able to expand a dialog placed in the dock unless all dialogs beneath it are expanded in advance. Fixing this requires some changes in GDL, I've got it somewhat working, but decided that it's still too flaky to commit in its current state.

* Remembered positions of dockable floating dialogs is inexact.

Note that this change only applies to gtkmm:ified dialogs,
i.e. dialogs that subclass UI::Dialog. I've gtkmm:ified "Fill &
Stroke" and with this change, that version is now default. Dialogs
left to be gtkmm:ified are the "XML Editor", "Tiled Clones", "Object
Properties", "Text and Font".

[
One can now change to tabbed layout if it's preferred by setting
"options.dock[switcherstyle]" to "4".

Done, the new option is called "options.dock[cancenterdock]" (="1" by
default).

The new option is "options.dock[dockbarstyle]". Setting
it to "0" will give you icons only.
]

== [toolbars - [[JonCruz]]] ==

'''Main toolbar''' on the left can now optionally use '''smaller buttons'''. With the several new tools added in this version, this may help users with small screens where the toolbar otherwise may not fit vertically. The toggle is on the Misc tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog.

[calligraphy: menus, tooltips; star; ...]

Switched to stock GTK+ toolbars.

Extra magic secret sauce added.

== [filedialogs - [[JonCruz]]] ==

== Print dialog integration ==

* '''Print Dialog''': The GTK Unix Print Dialog has been hooked up! From the dialog, you can select any of the Postscript-capable printers known to your system and configure them as with any other GTK application.

== Saving window geometry globally ==

Previously, window geometry (size and position of document windows) could only be saved into the document (so that each document stored its own window geometry). Now, a new option is added to save the geometry of the last used window to the preferences and apply this geometry to all new windows. Thus, with the "Save geometry to preferences" option enabled, new windows will open with the shape of the most recent previous window. This mode also remembers and restores the maximized/fullscreen state (unlike geometry saved to documents).

== Preserving zoom/view of reverted documents ==

When reverting files to their previously saved state, the current zoom factor/panning is now retained (as opposed to reverted to the saved state, too, as it was the case before). This less interrupts the workflow when one is working on some detail in the drawing.

== New ways to scroll and zoom ==

* You can now enable Space+mouse drag to pan canvas, as it does in Adobe Illustrator. This mode is enabled by the '''Left mouse button pans when Space is pressed''' checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inksape Preferences dialog. By default it is off and pressing the spacebar key switches you to Selector and back, as it always did in Inkscape.

* By default, rotating the mouse wheel scrolls the canvas vertically and Ctrl+wheel zooms in and out. Now, if you turn on the '''Mouse wheel zooms by default''' checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inksape Preferences dialog, this behavior is reversed: mouse wheel zooms without Ctrl and scrolls with Ctrl. This new mode should be familiar for users of AutoCAD and CorelDraw.

* In the Zoom tool, right mouse button always zooms out instead of calling the context menu (which is rather useless in this tool anyway).

== Using other keys in place of Alt ==

* Many Linux users have found the use of '''Alt-drag''' and '''Alt+click''' in Inkscape problematical because this shortcut is often captured by window managers. In 0.46, instead of disabling of the window manager shortcut as suggested in [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_to_make_Alt.2Bclick_and_Alt.2Bdrag_work_on_Linux.3F the FAQ], you can change a setting in your preferences.xml file called <code>mapalt</code> in the <code>options</code> group. This numerical value ranges from 1 to 5; 1 indicates no change, any other value refers to some special key on a keyboard, such as '''Alt Gr''', the '''Windows''' key, etc. The specific mapping of these values to the keys on your keyboard can be viewed and/or editied by '''xkeycaps''', available from [http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps www.jwz.org].

== GTK theme on OS X ==

A GTK theme is now included in Inkscape.app bundle on OS X. If the user does not have any personal customization (e.g. in a .gtkrc-2.0 file) this theme is used. It reflects the OS X settings for "Appearance" and "Highlight Color" set in System Preferences > Appearance.

=Other changes and improvements=

* '''Gnome VFS Improvements''': Gnome VFS Non-Local files are now usable through all of our file choosers in Open, Save and Export. This compile-time option allowed people to open any Gnome-VFS-based URI from the command-line in the past, but not non-local resources (WebDAV, SFTP, etc) and this now allows for all the lovely possibilities Gnome-VFS provides.

* In previous versions, Inkscape didn't allow you to '''group a single object.''' Yet in some cases, this operation is useful (for example, to blur the clipped edged of an object, or apply more than one clippath/mask to an object). Now this limitation is removed; just select any single object and group it to get a single-object group.

* The somewhat cryptic "F:" and "S:" labels in the selected style indicator (at the left end of the statusbar) and in tool's style swatches are now spelled out as '''Fill:''' and '''Stroke:'''. We believe this makes the interface, even if less space-efficient, a bit more friendly for newbies.

* The '''style swatches''' at the right end of object-creating tools' control bars now open the Preferences page of the corresponding tool when clicked. Also, now these swatches display a tooltip explaining its purpose (e.g. "Style of new rectangles", "Style of new calligraphic strokes", etc.)

* After dragging a curve segment in Node tool, Inkscape no longer selects the two adjacent nodes if they were not selected before.

* The '''Tile Clones''' dialog now uses the object's defined '''rotation axis''' (which can be freely moved by Selector tool and which is saved separately for each object) for all rotations (including both symmetry rotations and the Rotation tab rotations), scales, and flips. This renders unnecessary the previous workarounds where you had to group an object with another transparent object to affect how it's rotated by the clone tiler.

* In '''Pencil''' and '''Calligraphic''' tools, pressing '''Esc''' or '''Ctrl+Z''' while drawing cancels the currently drawn path or stroke. When not drawing, these keys work as before (Esc deselects, Ctrl+Z undoes last action). (This is the same behavior as in the Pen tool where it was introduced in a previous version.)

* A set of new verbs has been added to allow the user to easily '''unlock all locked objects''' or '''unhide all hidden objects'''. There are two variants one that operates on the current layer and its children and one that operates globally. While searching for hidden or locked object descendants of locked layers are ignored.

* Several more '''rotation snapping increments''' are available in the Steps tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog: 36, 22.5, 18, 12, and 0.5 degrees.

* The list of folder shortcuts in the '''Open''' dialog includes the folder with Inkscape's SVG '''examples''' for easy access. Similarly, the '''Save''' dialog has a shortcut for the user's own '''templates''' dialog making it easy to save the current document as a template (if saved as <code>default.svg</code>, it will be loaded every time you run Inkscape or create new document with Ctrl+N; with any other name, it will be added to the File > New submenu).

* For time-intensive operations such as Paint Bucket and Simplify, the system's busy wait cursor is displayed to indicate to the user that Inkscape is actively working, and not frozen.

* Several improvements in '''inkview''': busy cursor is shown while loading file, the button window stays on top and responds to keyboard shortcuts; several memleaks stopped and bugs fixed. The "slideshow mode" of the main inkscape application (-s or --slideshow command line option) is removed; use inkview instead.

* In Document Metadata dialog, updated Creative Commons Licenses to version 3.0.

* In addition to Shift+click, right clicking on a colour swatch now also sets the stroke colour.

* File dialog windows (open/save) now have a "Enable preview" checkbox which allows you to disable the preview pane.

* In the Calligraphic pen controls, the toggle button to enable tablet pressure sensitivity is moved to the Width control, and the button for tilt sensitivity is moved to Angle, to better reflect what parameters these toggles affect.

* The option '''Import bitmap as <image>''' is removed; it was added several versions ago to allow optionally importing images as rectangles with image pattern, to make clipping the images easier. Now that you can easily use clipping paths, as well as convert any image to rectangle with pattern with Alt+I, this option is not really necessary and removed to reduce confusion. Bitmaps are always imported into SVG as an <image> element.

=Notable bugfixes=

These are bugfixes compared to 0.45.1; for a list of fixes in 0.45.1 compared to 0.45, see [[ReleaseNotes045|0.45.1 release notes]].

* The '''sodipodi:docbase''' attribute is no longer added to the root <svg> element. This attribute used to keep the latest directory that the document was saved to, and thus represented a mild privacy violation (i.e., by sharing your Inkscape SVG files you allowed others to have a peek into your directory structure). Note, however, that Inkscape does not remove this attribute from old documents it opens; if you want you can remove it yourself. Inkscape just no longer creates this attribute in new documents.

* A fix in the blur rendering code made '''exporting blurred objects to bitmap''' much faster and fixed the disappearing of blurred objects in exported bitmaps which happened for large objects in 0.45. The same fix got rid of the rendering artefacts that sometimes appeared on blurred objects during scrolling.

* Inkscape now properly quotes <code>font-family</code> values and therefore can use '''fonts''' with various '''nonalphanumeric characters''' in their names, which previously failed.

* If you have saved documents with a previous version of Inkscape which used '''right-to-left text''' (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew) then the paragraph alignment of non-flowed text has been reversed in this release. This is due to a bug in previous versions - the new behaviour is compliant with the SVG specification and compatible with other editors and viewers. To correct your images, simply reverse the paragraph alignment by selecting the text and clicking the appropriate button on the toolbar.

* A large family of bugs was exterminated where an object's style could only refer other objects (such as gradients, patterns, and filters) that come after it in the document. Now any objects can be referenced from a style regardless of their place in the document. This fixed the '''disappearance of gradients/patterns/filters''' after you undo an effect, as well as lots of assorted crashes and misrenderings (mostly on non-Inkscape SVG files).

* On Windows, '''file opening/saving dialogs''' can no longer sink under the main editor window (they now have the inkscape window set correctly as their parent window).

* '''Stock markers''' now appear in the "recently used markers" section of the marker selector dropdowns in the Fill & Stroke dialog. Before, any markers with stock id's (including markers modified by the user) were hidden, making it difficult to work with modified stock markers.

* A regression in 0.45 caused crashes when '''undo or redo''' was attempted before the previous action could complete (e.g. pressing ctrl+z while you are still drawing a rectangle). This is now fixed.

* Previously, if there was a single '''invalid property''' in a <code>style</code> attribute, the entire attribute was discarded, i.e. the object lost all styling. Now Inkscape's behavior is more compliant to the CSS specification: it ignores only the invalid property but reads in all the rest.

* Several bugs are fixed in '''searching for linked images'''. Now moving SVG documents with their associated images to a different place or a different machine should work more reliably.

* Master opacity did not apply to stroke '''markers''' as it should; fixed.

* '''Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration URI''' points to the right location now.

* Text objects didn't display the '''pattern editing handles'''; fixed.

* On Windows, the Inkscape uninstaller deleted all files under the install directory. This could lead to removing user-created files, or even other program files not related to inkscape if the install directory was C:\Program Files. The new uninstaller '''tracks all installed files and asks for confirmation before deleting any other files'''. However, installation and uninstallation process is now slower.

= Previous releases =

* [[ReleaseNotes045]]
* [[ReleaseNotes044]]
* [[ReleaseNotes043]]
* [[ReleaseNotes042]]
* [[ReleaseNotes041]]
* [[ReleaseNotes040]]
* [[ReleaseNotes039]]
* [[ReleaseNotes038]]
* [[ReleaseNotes037]]
* [[ReleaseNotes036]]
* [[ReleaseNotes035]]

[[Category:Marketing]]

Win32 Poppler

2007-07-13T22:07:59Z

Simarilius: Win32 poppler build info and link

Win32 compile of poppler-0.5.9

http://john.cliff.googlepages.com/libpopplerlib_d.rar

Its compiled with mingw, used the Sumatra projects win32 build setup for Code Blocks, replaced the sumatra poppler directory with the contents of the latest source tar off the poppler site then fixed errors as they came up.

Changes to Source:
Changed Gstring references in win32 sections to GooString
Changed GList to Goolist in Win32 sections,
Commented out lines 814 to 818 of GlobalParams.cc to get it to compile (winfontdir was not defined in that scope apparently)

The first 2 changes are in line with the code in the Sumatra version of poppler. The setup they have for the param stuff is different, so i was on my own there... the last one may be evil, not sure, couldnt find anywhere that was actually being called, if we have font issues with this lib, this is probably why.

SimTODO

2007-07-13T22:02:03Z

Simarilius:

Thought a place to keep track of what I was planning to do was a good Idea.

== Toolbars ==
* Add True poly mode to star tool - DONE
* Add aux toolbars to expose functionality currently in tool options - DONE
* Allow aux toolbars in shape contexts to modify shapes in selection - DONE
* Tidy up aux toolbars - font size etc. - DONE
* Add Cx and Cy spin buttons to all shape context aux toolbars (UPDATE: not as easy as it sounds, for these will have to have a unit selector, and will have to take into account the object's transform)
* Add start and end angle spinbuttons, chord/segment checkbox for ellipse - DONE
* Agg arg1 and arg2 spinbuttons for star (arg2 grayed out for polygon)
* Add event handlers for focus etc to toolbar spin buttons. DONE
* Add handles to contexts like bulia added to rect. - DONE
* Add listeners to spin buttons so they update when handles used - DONE
* Fix c/p of gradients between docs - DONE
* Remove (or increase substantially) the limits on sides, revs etc from tools.(DONE -- bb)
* Make sharpness spin button smarter (DONE -- bb)
* Replace distance calcs with NR::LInfty(d)
* fix tool tips - DONE
* make defaults for star and spiral settable, take them from e.g. tools.shapes.star.defaultcorners, to be user-editable in the [[PreferencesDialog]]

fix that [[annoying Crash]] - DONE (by fred :D )

== Multi Stop Gradient editor: ==
* check offset of stop before and after, and limit adjust to between those values. DONE
* Make the spin update when you select a different stop DONE
* add buttons to add stops - and add the callback to do it! DONE
* add buttons to delete stops - and add the callback to do it! DONE
* Make the stop list update when stop added / deleted. DONE
* work out tidying the layout, ie making offset slider the right size. DONE
* Add color sample for each stop to drop down menu, and make it update. DONE
* Add listener so if something else modifies the stops
(ie if their deleted in XML editor) it doesnt break the dialog. DONE
* detect if a shape with a different grad is selected and update dialog accordingly.
* Make new stops appear midway between existing rather than right next to current DONE
* Add Notches to gradient preview
* Make em dragable
* Make preview right clickable to add/delete stops at mouse position.

== Marker Stuff: ==
* Fix icons in existing code - add to iconfactory. - DONE by Carl H
* add marker to def if not present, and apply to current selection. - DONE by both me and Carl, in different ways :)
* Code drop downs which shows a list of markers available. - DONE
* Import Markers from markers.svg to list - DONE
* Import Markers into doc from marker.svg when selected - DONE
* Create previews of markers for drop down. - DONE, bulia fixed my bodged attempt
* Notice if a new marker is added
* Enable easy creation of new markers. - Patch in tracker
* Fix auto align on mid and end markers. - DONE Carl fixed the end, I got the middle :)
* Fix the fact when you turn on mid it puts one on the start - DONE
* Create some markers - DONE
* Create a better method for handling [[stock items]] - DONE for markers, see \src\helper\stock-items.cpp

== Pattern Fills: ==
* Add pane to paint selector widget - DONE
* Add support for pattern mode to fill-style and stroke-style - DONE
* Add UI to import Bitmaps to patterns in def - DONE
* Add Dropdown listing patterns in doc - DONE
* Add Previews to dropdown
* Add pattern delete - Mentals garbage collection kinda handles this?
* Add pattern offset (x+y) - per object - DONE
* Add pattern rotation - per object - DONE
* Add pattern scale - per object - DONE
* Fix the fact some objects translate and some edit node positions. - Done by Bulia
* Work out why SVG patterns render so weird, then fix it. - Done by Bulia
* Add UI to create SVG pattern from selection - Done by Bulia
* Enable any image in the doc to be used as a pattern - Done by Bulia (Alt-I)

== More Marker stuff ==
* Make [[markers inherit style]] from parent line. (maybe dependant on an inkscape:inherit_col tag?)

== Grid Arrange Dialog ==
* Implement a Dialog to arrange the selection in a grid pattern - DONE
* Make it respond to changes in selection - DONE
* Move to a tab in align dialog
* allow sizing of rows and columns - DONE
* deal with units stuff (spacing and row/column size)
* fix the scatter affect if selections not aligned to begin. - DONE
* Make OK not do anything if pressed twice. - DONE
* fit into Selection BBox option - DONE & fixed :)
* Make it sort the objects by pos rather than z order - DONE
* allow some randomness in spacing
* allow horizontal cell align (left, centre, right) - DONE
* allow vertical cell align (top, centre, bottom) - DONE
* allow some randomness in rotation?
* reconfigure layout ala bulias mockup - 85% Done
* redo gtkmm stuff to use bryces code - DONE
* Fix sorting to preserve existing order - DONE
* Fix weird numbers of rows on first opening dialog - DONE
* sort out it wandering if you do fit to selection and align

Had some fun with gradients: upload:marbles_tut.svg

original non tut: upload:marbles.svg
rounded edge rect : upload:rounded_rect_button.svg

example for kwikson : upload:4kwikson.svg

gradient weirdness: upload:weirdness.svg

example of interpolate : upload:interpolate.jpg

editable calligraphy thoughts - upload:callig_control.svg

perspective: upload:summer.jpg
write up some suggestions for [[googles Summer of code]]

[[Win32 Poppler]]

[[Attributes List]]

[[Category:Developer]]

Inkscape

2006-07-04T22:19:54Z

Simarilius: getting rid of some spam

This is a freeform area for Inkscape development and discussion.
Curious about [[WikiSyntax]]?

Aqui la versión del wiki de [[Inkscape en español]]

Hier die Version des Wiki auf [[Startseite|Deutsch]]
<table cellspacing="11" width="100%"><tr valign="top">
<td style="width:33%;background-color: #EFFBFF; padding:.5em; border: 1px solid #BFEEFF">
=== About Inkscape ===
* [http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape Homepage]
* [[About Inkscape]]
* [[InkscapeFeatures]]
* [[FAQ]] - Frequently Asked Questions
* [[ProjectInfo]]
* [[SupportedOperatingSystems]]
* [[Tools]] - Supporting Tools and Applications
* [[Galleries]]
* [[ArticlesAndPresentations]]
* [[TestimonialComments]]
* [[InkscapePopularity]]
* [[ContactInfo]] our heroes

</td><td style="width:33%;;background-color: #FFF1EF; padding:.5em; border: 1px solid #FFC7BF;margin:.5em">

=== User Documentation ===
* [[InstallHelp]]
* [[InkscapeTerminology]]
* [[UserManual]]
* [http://inkscape.org/doc/ Tutorials]
* [[InkscapeSVG|Inkscape SVG vs. Plain SVG]]
* [[GettingExtensionsWorking]]
* [[GettingEffectsWorking]]
* [[WhatEffectsDo]]
* [[UsingTheConnectorTool]]
* [[Installing Fonts as a User]]
* [[EmergencySave]]
* [[ReleaseNotes045|Release Notes]] for 0.45 (unstable)
* [[ReleaseNotes044|Release Notes]] for 0.44 and past
* [[Announcing Releases]] for 0.44 and past
* [[ArticleIntroducingInkscape0_40|Introducing Inkscape 0.40]]
* [[TricksAndTips]]
</td><td style="width:33%;background-color: #FFFAE5; padding:.5em; border: 1px solid #FFFF66; margin:.5em">

=== Help Inkscape Without Coding ===

* [[PrintingConsensusPoll]]
* [[HelpWanted]]
* [[CreatingDists]]: how to build packages
* [[WebsiteEditing]]
* [[UpdatingTrackerItems]]
* [[TutorialIdeas]]

* [[TestingInkscape]]

</td></tr></table><table cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="background-color: #FFFAE5; border-width:0em .5em; border-style:solid; border-color:white"><tr valign="top" style="padding:11px 0em 0em 11px">
<th colspan="2" align="left" style="padding:.5em 0em 0em .5em">

=== Developer Documentation ===
</th></tr><tr valign="top" align="left"><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">
==== General ====
* [[DeveloperManual]]
* [[CompilingInkscape]]
* [[WorkingWithSVN]]
* [[HandlingPreferences]]: creating and using preference values
* [[AddSPObject]]: how to add a new SPObject type
* [[ReprListeners]]: responding to XML doc changes
* [[ErrorsAndWarnings]]: how to deal with reporting errors, warnings, and other messages
* [[DebuggingTips]]: random tips to help debug problems

* [[DeveloperTitles]]: terms for various roles in Inkscape
* [[InkscapeJanitors]]: small tasks that need doing
* [http://livarot.sourceforge.net/ Livarot]: for boolean ops
* [[ExtensionAttributes]]: currently defined attributes in Inkscape's XML namespace and what they do
* [[ExtensionsRepository]]: an Internet central for Inkscape Extensions
* [[OtherProjects]] (outside links)

</td><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">

==== Development Discussion ====
* [[Roadmap]]: the main todo list
* [[NewFeatureProposals]]
* [[ExtensionArchitectureProposals]]
* [[Coding Style|Coding Style Discussion]]
* [[FileTypes]]
* [[ApplicationIcons]] ( Application + Interface )
* [[InkscapeColor]]
* [[PrintingSubsystem]]
* [[SVG Competitors Plan]] - MS WVG vs SVG, etc
* [[SVG Tiny Compliance]]
* [[SVG Test Suite Compliance]] - [[W3C]] full test suite
* [[CSS Support]]
* [[OpenVG]] Standard (draft)
* [[OpenDocument proposal]]
* [[Googles Summer Of Code]]

</td></tr><tr valign="top" align="left"><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">

==== User Interface Discussion ====
* [[Translation_information]]
* [[AccessibleGraphics]]
* [[ObjectManager]]
* [[DialogsReorganization]]
* [[DialogReplacement]]
* [[ModalInterfaces]]
* [[TextUsability]]: text tool /dialog dialog
* [[KeyboardShortcutsToDo]]
** [[KeyboardProfiles]]: how you can help
* [[StatusbarAPI]]
* [[Animation-(Timeline)]]
* [[Free Desktop Graphic Suite]]

</td><td style="width:50%;padding:.5em">
==== Rearchitecture Discussion ====
* [[SubsystemRearchitecture]]
* [[GtkMMification]]: replace C boilerplate with gtkmm objects
* [[PathRepresentation]]
* [[Cairoification]]
* [[ScribusInteroperability]]

</td></tr></table>
----
* [[WikiAttic]]: pages that are no longer relevant but kept for historical value

__NOTOC__

Simarilius

2004-09-23T21:07:15Z

Simarilius: added website mockup shot.

[[Galleries|Back to Galleries]]

http://members.lycos.co.uk/simarilius/svgfiles/asterix_scr_fin.jpg

Asterix characters and name copyright Goscinny and Uderzo

http://members.lycos.co.uk/simarilius/svgfiles/mockup.jpg

Recently used inkscape to create a mockup of a photo gallery website I was making.

plus theres the 50 odd roadsigns in the OpenClipart project :)

Compiling Inkscape on Windows 32-bit

2004-09-07T18:35:02Z

Simarilius: updated url for bobs site

See the [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=847856&group_id=93438&atid=604308 Win32 Build ticket] for some info.

=== Inkscape under Windows ===

We have made the building of Inkscape on Win32, or cross-compiling from Linux to Win32, as easy
as 1-2-3.

[http://troi.hous.es3.titan.com/~rjamison/inkscape/ See this page for simple Win32 building instructions]

-- Bob Jamison

==== A Note from Jon about UNICODE on Win32 ====

Actually, Microsoft themselves never use _UNICODE, nor it's 'evil' friends TCHAR and _T.
If it is used, it results in a binary that can not be run on Windows 95/98/ME. It is more of a "Windows NT only" define.

Microsoft applications like MS Office have been pure 16-bit Unicode internally for years now. Also remember that BSTRs in Win32 are required to have 16-bit Unicode data. So for any COM access on a Win32 box running Win9x/ME 'multibyte' or '8-bit' COM calls convert all ANSI data to Unicode once you pass things in. To avoid this, Microsoft just keeps data 16-bit Unicode and then translates to local ANSI codepage only when data needs to be passed directly to a Win32 call.

To help developers, Microsoft finally made public their API they had been using. It's [http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/dev/mslu_announce.mspx "The Microsoft Layer for Unicode"].

Although that simplifies things, it's not required. I've done Win32 programs that are 16-bit Unicode and run on Windows 95/98/ME with no problems years before they released that.

Soo.... _UNICODE can't be used as it makes your binary unusable on Win9x/ME. Then it turns out that TCHAR and _T can't be used either. (Oh, and MS can't really use them, since Office does run on Win9x/ME). So just explicitly use some 16-bit datatype for chars. Microsoft is misleading in their documentation when they state that wchar_t is 16-bit. Most other platforms (including Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, BSD, etc) follow the language standard's recommendation and make it 32-bit. So it is best to avoid wchar_t for any real cross-platform code.

So, some general guidelines are:
* Never define _UNICODE
* Don't use _T
* Don't use TCHAR
* Don't use wchar_t
* Use some explicit 16-bit type for characters/strings
** [http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu/ IBM's ICU] does this

So then it's a simple matter of converting data from the standard UTF-8 GTK+ data to UTF-16 data before passing to Win32-land.

The result? A single binary that executes properly on both Win9X/ME and WinNT/2K/XP, including full and proper font and filename support.

And, as I've mentioned before, I've actually achieved this for a few different shipping products and projects.

-- [JonCruz Jon C]

=== CVS and Windows ===

If you want to do developer CVS access to SF on windows, I'd heartily recomend TortoiseCVS.
It has the SSH stuff built into it so you dont have to mess about with putty, and
it integrates right into explorer, so CVS becomes just an extension of the file commands.
get it from http://tortoisecvs.sourceforge.net/

John

Wiki syntax

2004-08-17T17:00:15Z

Simarilius: *

You might want to learn simply [[how to start a page]]. If you want the details about how to edit a Wikipedia page, though, you've come to the right place.

It's very easy to edit a Wiki page. Simply click on the "edit this page right now!" link at the top or bottom of a Wiki page. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the text of that Wiki page. Then type away, and press "Save" when finished! (You can also preview your changes before saving if you like.)

What you see in the text box will be mostly plain text, but you will see some special things the Wiki software uses to create links, lists, and other effects. The rest of this page is a demonstration of how to use these features. After the first few sections, you will have to "teach yourself" by pressing the "edit" link (above or below) to see for yourself how various effects were achieved! You can practice editing in the [[SandBox]] before taking on other pages if you like.

<h2>Adding links</h2>

Let's say that you're editing a page about sports, and you mention soccer. Well, there's probably a Wiki page about soccer (and if there isn't, there should be) and you want to make the word a link to that article. Simple: type double square brackets around it <code>[[like this]]</code> and continue editing. That's it! If the page already exists, a link will be made to it. If the page doesn't already exist, a link will be made that allows someone to create it.

There are a few rules about making these links that you might run into. Foreign characters and punctuation cannot be used in the text of a link, so if you want to make a link to "John's Dog", you'll have to leave out the apostrophe. Also, the Wiki software will link to a page title that is the same as the text of your link, except that the first letter will be uppercased, and spaces may be condensed. For example, if you type <code>[[card game]]</code>, it will be linked to a page entitled "Card game".

Older versions of the Wiki software only made one-word links <code>LikeThis</code>, and didn't require the brackets to make them links. You can still do that, but it's generally discouraged because it LooksFunny. It is handy to use singular words like "game" rather than "games", because that makes it easier to create links in other pages.

Finally, sometimes the text you would like to make into a link just doesn't make a good page title. In that case, you can specify both inside the brackets separated by a vertical bar like this: <code>[[Page link|text of link]]</code>. This will appear as "text of link", but will link to a page entitled "Page link".

Examples of Good links:
:<code>[[my new page]]</code>
:<code>[[My new page]]</code>
:<code>JohnSmith</code>
:<code>[[Johns Dog]]</code>
:<code>[[Johns Dog|John's Dog]]</code>
Bad links:
:<code>[[my_new_page]]</code> (underscores not necessary)
:<code>[[My_new_page]]</code> (underscores not necessary)
:<code>johnsmith</code> (needs two capital letters or brackets)
:<code>[[John's Dog]]</code> (will not link to the page you want it to link to)
See [[naming conventions]] when choosing names for pages!

<h2>Making a new page</h2>

There are two ways to make a new page:

# As mentioned above, while you're editing the text of an old page, you can just put something in brackets. For example, you would type: <code>[[my page]]</code>. When you save the page you're editing, if the link you included doesn't exist, you will see a question mark after the text. Click on that question mark and you will be taken to a newly-created page that you can edit. Replace "Describe the new page here." with whatever text you want to put on the page!
#Type the URL of the new page in the "address" line of your browser and hit return. The URL of the new page will be the text of a link, with the first letter uppercased and spaces replaced by underscores (see [[Wiki Canonization]] for more details about this). For example, in the URL above, you would replace
 <code>http://intranet.pdx.osdl.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?How_does_one_edit_a_page</code>
 with the new URL
 <code>http://intranet.pdx.osdl.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Name_of_your_new_page</code>
 and then hit return.

See also [[how to start a page]].

<h2>Demonstration area</h2>

*What follows is an area for demonstrating the various effects possible using Wiki, such as bold, italics, numbered lists, etc., etc.
*Click "edit" at the top or bottom of this page (i.e., the page you are now reading!) to see how these effects were achieved!!!
*If you don't click "edit" now you won't understand what's going on!!!

New paragraphs are made by simply pressing the "enter" or "return" key twice. If you press it just once,
like this,
a new paragraph ''will not'' be made (as you can see).

Here is
 the proper way
 to make single-spaced lines.

:This line is indented.
::This line is indented even farther.
:::Who knows how far it can go?

This line is indented by using an initial space,
but since I didn't use a colon ( : )
at the beginning of the line, it appears as a monospace font such as "Courier".
In other words, if you begin a paragraph with spaces, that
line will be both indented and in a monospace font.
This is very useful for importing monospace formatted tabular materials, especially source code. Also note that space-indented lines will not wrap! They will simply increase the width of your window.

''This line is in italics.'' (Using double single quote marks!)
 And so is this one! (Using good old html tags!)
 And this! (Using still different code! How versatile! How confusing! But any of them will do.)

'''This line is bold.''' (Using triple single quote marks!)
 So is this one! (Using the standard html tag!)

Here is a new style link: [[Larry Sanger]] (see [[Free Links]])
 Here is an old style link: HomePage
 Consider not capitalizing your page names: [[definition of philosophy]]; see [[naming conventions]]
 [[HomePage|the text of this link is different from the name of the page it links to]]
 [[HomePage|it really doesn't MatterWhat youType in the...link description. It's all linkéd!]]
 An external link: http://www.nupedia.com/about.shtml
 Another external
link: [http://www.nupedia.com/about.shtml Nupedia about page]

If you type in the URL of a picture, it will be displayed rather than linked to: http://www.wikipedia.com/wikia.gif

You don't have to create weird page titles, like [[Platos]], just to make the plural or possessive form of a name. [[Plato's]] wouldn't work anyway. You can write: [[Plato]]'s or (more cleverly) [[Plato|Plato's]]. In the old linking system you'd do it like this: JimboWales's homepage (using ""). (Just Say No to the old linking system; after all, you can now link to [[Jimbo Wales]]'s homepage!) But it ''does'' look like you're stuck with [[Platos Republic]], because [[Plato's Republic]] doesn't work, as you can see, although if you want to type a bit more you can cleverly create [[Platos Republic|Plato's Republic]].

Here is a numbered list:
#Item 1
#Item 2
#Item 8
#Notice, this line isn't numbered because it is not flush left.
:#Neither is this line

Here is a bulleted list:
*Here's an item
* Here's another item
**We can do bullets within bullets, as it were
*** Pretty nifty, huh?

You can make a horizontal "rule" (line) on a page: ----
Or two, if you wish:
----
----

There are three ways to display, rather than parse, wiki code:
#<code>you can use the <code> tag</code>
#<pre>you can use the <pre> tag</pre>
#<nowiki>you can use the <nowiki> tag</nowiki>
The difference between <nowiki><code> and <pre></nowiki> is that the pre tag preserves line breaks, while the code tag does not. The nowiki tag works like the <code><code></code> tag except that it doesn't use a monospace font. (We made liberal use of the <code><code></code> tag on this page.)

Lines that \
end with backslashes \
will wrap if it is the *last* character on the line.
If there is trailing spaces, the backslash won't cause word wrapping.

You can create subpages: /Talk
 Sorry, but you cannot create sub-subpages: /Talk/TalkAboutTalk
 You can link to other subpages: [[Charlize Theron/Filmography]] or even [[charlize Theron/Filmography]].

We can do tables the old fashioned HTML way:
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>Item one</td>
<td>Item two</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Item three</td>
<td>Item four</td>
</tr>
</table>

The preformatted text approach might
be a better way to
do columnar types of tables. ;-)

Sometimes you might need to use special characters, like these: ü À α

You can make superscripts and subscripts and you can control the font size and color!

*f(x) = a0 + a1x1 + a2x22 + a3x33 + ...

*f(x) = a0 + a1x1 + a2x22 + a3x33 + ...

If you want to redirect traffic going to one page to another page (with a better title, for example), then use the command <code>#REDIRECT [[pagename]]</code> at the top of the page. To look at the history of the old page, click on the "<code>(redirected from OldPageName)</code>" link at the top of the new page.

Practice editing pages in our SandBox!

Then, go forth and [[be bold in updating pages]]!

----
This page is borrowed & adapted from [http://www.wikipedia.com/ Wikipedia.com], and is reusable under the terms of the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License (FDL)].

 This is what I am trying....

TufteStylePresentation

2004-08-17T16:58:10Z

Simarilius: *

= Edward Tufte Style Presentation of Inkscape Overview =

All slides for this type of presentation are in share/examples/presentation/, included in the latest CVS copies of Inkscape. Please edit/add/change them to fit your need and commit upgrades to the content of each slide.

=== 1. Introduction ===

This chart shows three stunning screenshots of Inkscape displaying some of the incredible variety of graphics
that Inkscape can make. In stylistic, artistic lettering the chart reads, "Inkscape is a Scalable Vector Graphics
program written in Open Source C++ that runs on Linux, UNIX, Mac OS X, and Windows."

At the bottom of the page is a timeline showing how the codebase has evolved from its Gill and Sodipodi
origins, with graphical indication of quantity of people involved in development up to today.

=== 2. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) ===

This slide compares vector graphics to raster. The left side shows the source format, the right shows images, with vector on the
top and raster on the bottom. Both images include a "zoomed in" highlight that emphasizes the pixilated nature of raster images
vs. the perfect scalability of SVG. Show XML syntax of SVG with example of the square.

=== 3. Open Source ===

* Open Source means:
** The source code is available for free to the whole world
** The development process is open to all to participate in and enjoy

In faint text in the margins around the page are some of the open source mantras, like "With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow,"
"Patch first, discuss later", "Release Early, Release Often," "KISS," "SPOT."

=== 4. Uses of Inkscape: Vector Graphics / Vector Aesthetics ===
Show several specific examples of this type of drawing
* Vectoralized photos
* Cartoons
* typography
* tattoos

=== 5. Uses of Inkscape: Symbology + Signage ===
Show several specific examples of this type of drawing
* Logos
* Flags
* Street Signs

=== 6. Uses of Inkscape: Web Graphics ===
Show several specific examples of this type of drawing

=== 7. Uses of Inkscape: Technical Graphics ===
Show several specific examples of this type of drawing
* Visually Attractive Maps
* Diagrams
* Technical Drawings

=== 8. Why is Inkscape important? ===
* In order to discuss this, one must define the community to which this is important.
* GNOME/OSS
** A production ready vector-software does not exist in the GNU/Linux world.
** As most ppl would be concerned, this type of tool doesn't exist!
* Art Community
** It is free.
** It is high quality and production ready!
** Supports positive ideals!
*** Copyright is what it is, but we would like to see more opened up tools and codebases. Promotes development and honesty.
* Scientific Community
** Visualizations
** equations

=== 9. Development Community/Process ===

Show graphs of activity based on the Inkscape Status metrics and screenshots of Wiki, the Mailing List archives, Jabber, and the Bug Tracker. In a corner include the text: "Inkscape is a collaborative open source project involving dozens of developers from all over the world, that embodies the Best Practices of the open source development process."

Maybe include something that puts the viewer "in the picture", like a web/network of people, with "YOU" as a node being added to the edge.

=== 10. Common Misconceptions (Low Hanging Fruit) ===

* Isn't this just an open source Illustrator?
* Isn't there X, Y, and Z projects that already do this?
* Open Source doesn't innovate, it only imitates.

=== 11. Future ===

* extension system
** quicker development
** don't have to know as much about the internals
* networked editing (shared space)
* XMP Metadata Integration
* layers
* clipart.freedesktop.org

=== 12. Conclusion ===

* Can use your help!
** Testing
** Join as a Developer!

* bibliography of where to look to learn
* presenters contact info

How to start a page

2004-08-17T16:56:15Z

Simarilius: Removing Spam

There are two basic ways to start a Wiki page:
#As you're reading through already-existing articles, you'll see question marks that are clickable links. You can click on a "?" link that appears after an article title, and you'll arrive at a page that says "Describe the new page here." Just delete that text and replace it with the text of your article. When you're finished, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. (Use the "[[Preview]]" button if you want to see what the page will look like first.) -- Modifying arbitrary pages by adding/wikifying a new term and then adding a well-written entry linked from that page are a great way to continually add new topics to the site.
#If you want to create a brand-new topic, probably the first thing to do is to use the "search" form (see the bottom of this page, for example) and see whether someone has not already created some very similar page. If not, you can find some related topic, edit ''that'' page, and (in an appropriate place) add the title of the article you want to create between double brackets, <nowiki>[[like this]]</nowiki>. Then press the "save" button at the bottom of the page. On the page you just edited, you should see a clickable "?"; click on that and go to work on your new page! --
Some thoughts:
* If you like, you can enter just a line or two of text for an entry. It's a start. Full-blown articles are not required. Adding any (accurate, helpful) information is welcome! Of course, if you can write more, that's all the better; some people do, as a matter of habit, usually write more than just a few lines when they start a new article.
* How you word your articles will determine, to some extent, how likely it is other people will work on it. Examples:
**An article that leaves many intriguing-sounding links or leaves ellipses (...), etc., might invite other know-it-alls to fill in the blanks.
**Straightforward requests for information in an article can lead to good articles. For example, one might supply a rough description of a thing or place and then ask about its history; some people who know the answer will find it difficult to pass up the opportunity to teach.

----
This article is a slightly edited version of one by the same name from [http://www.wikipedia.com Wikipedia.com], reusable under the terms of the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License].

TufteStylePresentation

2004-08-16T21:29:14Z

Simarilius: Removing Spam

Keyboard profiles

2004-08-16T21:27:14Z

Simarilius: Removing Spam

Several people suggested that making keyboard shortcuts user-configurable and providing "profiles" imitating other vector editors. There are currently four categories of shortcuts, and not all of them are equally easy to make user-configurable:

* Global verbs (in shortcuts.cpp): these work everywhere (both in document and in dialogs) except text-editing dialog widgets. They switch tools, zoom, etc.; they should be easy to read from a config file.

* Global context shortcuts (in event-context.cpp): these work in all tools but only within the document window. These are actions that make no sense without a document window, e.g. panning the canvas by ctrl-arrows. These are more tricky to make configurable.

* Per-tool shortcuts (in select-context.cpp, node-context.cpp, etc): these are actions specific to the tool. They are difficult to make configurable, and moreover, many of the actions they trigger would have no exact match in other vector apps.

* Widget shortcuts in dialogs, such as Tab for moving between widgets. I don't know how to change these, and anyway they are mostly standard enough so we don't need to bother with them.

So perhaps as a first step, we can make global verbs configurable and see if this is sufficient to imitate other vector apps well enough.

== What is to be done ==

If you like this idea, you could already start working towards this. Please pick your favorite non-Inkscape vector app and make a list of its shortcuts and corresponding functions. Please also categorize each function into one of the following groups:

1. There is a corresponding function (with the same or different shortcut) in shortcuts.cpp (i.e. this is a global verb in Inkscape).

2. There is no such function in shortcuts.cpp but such a function is listed on the KeyboardShortcuts wiki page (which tracks all shortcuts currently implemented in Inkscape).

3. There's no such function in Inkscape, but it would be relatively straightforward to implement it.

4. There's no such function in Inkscape, and it's not clear how to implement it (i.e. we don't have such a tool, or palette, etc.).

Please use Wiki for creating your lists. You can link your list pages from this page and from under "Interface discussions" on the Wiki front page.

DevelopmentRoadmap

2004-08-16T21:25:42Z

Simarilius: *

#REDIRECT Roadmap

DevelopmentRoadmap

2004-08-16T21:24:29Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

#REDIRECT Roadmap

DevelopmentRoadmap

2004-08-16T21:23:58Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

#REDIRECT Roadmap

NetworkedEditing

2004-08-16T21:16:26Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

This page explores implementation of adding network I/O capabilities to Inkscape.

NetworkedEditing could work in one of two broad modes:
* A user downloads an image over the Internet, works on it, and posts it back. "Network retrieval and posting."
* Several people work on the same image simultaneously, and see each other's edits in real time. "White boarding."

See also: WhiteboardSeniorProjectProposal - for notes on a "White boarding" effort.

== White Boarding ==

The user would select 'Connect...' from the File menu in order to connect a drawing to a remote server.
Inkscape would then serve as a client application, receiving and submitting SVG modifications as
transactions. The server authorizes changes and serves as the authoritative definition for the document's
composition.

Changes arrive to Inkscape via slots as described in the link above.

The document Inkscape views could be read-only or read-write. Multiple people could be able to write at
the same time. Through 'locking', some drawing objects could be made available to the user to edit
while others are not.

== Network Retrieval and Posting ==

Another option would be to tie into WebDAV. Edits would not be live.

You could connect by XML-RPC, WebDAV, or some standardized GET/POST system.

You might want to export PNG images as well. This depends on whether image servers can convert SVG's to PNG's automatically or not.

With the proposed ExtensionArchitectureProposals, you should be able to do this pretty easily.

== Networked Editing & Wiki ==

There are many possibilities for wiki here. See [http://wikifeatures.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/WikiWhiteboard WikiFeatures:WikiWhiteboard], [http://interwiki.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/MarkupSkins InterWiki:MarkupSkins]

''Live editing would be nice, but isn't necessary. You could just: Connect to a wiki by XML-RPC, select a page, select an SVG image on the page, retrieve the image, edit the image locally, and click "export." Since most browser can't read SVG right now, you'd export both the new SVG image, and a PNG imprint.''

''If anyone would like to work on this, please contact me (lion at speakeasy.net), or Thomas Waldmann on irc.freenode.net #moin.''

=== Uses of Networked Editing ===

Wiki - editing SVG images on wiki pages

Distributed whiteboarding - Multiple people could work on brainstorming a diagram.

Multiperson drawing - Several people could work on different areas of the drawing at the same time.
Could be useful for mapmaking or for DTP work.

Shared Component Repositories - Folks could set up Internet-based repositories for clipart, styles,
symbols, maps, flags-of-the-world, etc. and allow Inkscape users to log in to browse and import/export. (See also: [http://www.openclipart.org/ Open Clip Art Project])

Slideshows - a remote user can walk a group through a presentation, such as during a teleconference.

Games - By implementing additional logic on the server, simple SVG-based games could be created.

=== Patent Problems? ===

It looks like there are some patent problems with this extension. Sorry, I just have a german link:
http://www.golem.de/0311/28512.html

Please summarize in English.

I found an English article about this:
http://www.itworld.com/App/4155/031125netmeeting/
or just use http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Thanks. But without knowing the particulars of the patent it's difficult to see whether there
are actually patent problems with this. Is it a patent over the entire concept of whiteboarding
or just some specific whiteboarding feature contained in the application in question? -- bryce

I found the patent number. It's 5,206,934 and the patent is from Imagexpo. And here is the link:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=5,206,934.WKU.&OS=PN/5,206,934&RS=PN/5,206,934

''That's easy to get around. Just go to a pull model rather than a push. Trigger the pulls by ringing a bell from the changing process.''

''In fact, it can even work ''better'' this way- after the bell rings, wait 150 ms. If you get another ring on the bell, keep waiting... When activity dies down, go fetch your changes. Alternatively, if a maximum period passes (say, 500ms-1000ms) perform a fetch.''

''You'll note that in the patent, you have to send the data and commands with the change notification. Thus, this change means you are free from the patent.''

''I am not a lawyer. This is my opinion only.''

-- [http://speakeasy.org/~lion/ Lion Kimbro]

Hi Lion - I think you and I worked together on a project once before - Wikipedia? FreeBooks?
Thanks for the feedback on the patent, sounds like there are ways to work around it.
-- BryceHarrington

That's it! Free Books, with Ben Crowell. :) -- LionKimbro

=== Other Projects ===

*[http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm Jarnal,] written in Java, [http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal-net.htm includes network editing features.]

*[http://www.adebenham.com/gournal/ Gournal(GTK2/Perl)] - A Note-taking Tablet Application for Linux has something like this. ''Does it? I don't see anything on the web page suggesting this..?''
: Yes, it does. Just download it and test it. You can even look at the screenshot, there are connect and listening buttons.

*[http://www.thekompany.com/products/aethera/tkwhiteboard/ tkWhiteboard]

=== Other Notes ===

Gtkmm provides the ability to check on file descriptors for changed data. See
http://www.gtkmm.org/gtkmm2/docs/tutorial/html/ch17s02.html for details.

Compiling Inkscape on Windows 32-bit

2004-08-16T21:13:44Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

See the [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=847856&group_id=93438&atid=604308 Win32 Build ticket] for some info.

=== Inkscape under Windows ===

We have made the building of Inkscape on Win32, or cross-compiling from Linux to Win32, as easy
as 1-2-3.

[http://troi.titan-aeu.com/~rjamison/inkscape/ See this page for simple Win32 building instructions]

-- Bob Jamison

==== A Note from Jon about UNICODE on Win32 ====

Actually, Microsoft themselves never use _UNICODE, nor it's 'evil' friends TCHAR and _T.
If it is used, it results in a binary that can not be run on Windows 95/98/ME. It is more of a "Windows NT only" define.

Microsoft applications like MS Office have been pure 16-bit Unicode internally for years now. Also remember that BSTRs in Win32 are required to have 16-bit Unicode data. So for any COM access on a Win32 box running Win9x/ME 'multibyte' or '8-bit' COM calls convert all ANSI data to Unicode once you pass things in. To avoid this, Microsoft just keeps data 16-bit Unicode and then translates to local ANSI codepage only when data needs to be passed directly to a Win32 call.

To help developers, Microsoft finally made public their API they had been using. It's [http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/dev/mslu_announce.mspx "The Microsoft Layer for Unicode"].

Although that simplifies things, it's not required. I've done Win32 programs that are 16-bit Unicode and run on Windows 95/98/ME with no problems years before they released that.

Soo.... _UNICODE can't be used as it makes your binary unusable on Win9x/ME. Then it turns out that TCHAR and _T can't be used either. (Oh, and MS can't really use them, since Office does run on Win9x/ME). So just explicitly use some 16-bit datatype for chars. Microsoft is misleading in their documentation when they state that wchar_t is 16-bit. Most other platforms (including Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, BSD, etc) follow the language standard's recommendation and make it 32-bit. So it is best to avoid wchar_t for any real cross-platform code.

So, some general guidelines are:
* Never define _UNICODE
* Don't use _T
* Don't use TCHAR
* Don't use wchar_t
* Use some explicit 16-bit type for characters/strings
** [http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu/ IBM's ICU] does this

So then it's a simple matter of converting data from the standard UTF-8 GTK+ data to UTF-16 data before passing to Win32-land.

The result? A single binary that executes properly on both Win9X/ME and WinNT/2K/XP, including full and proper font and filename support.

And, as I've mentioned before, I've actually achieved this for a few different shipping products and projects.

-- [JonCruz Jon C]

=== CVS and Windows ===

If you want to do developer CVS access to SF on windows, I'd heartily recomend TortoiseCVS.
It has the SSH stuff built into it so you dont have to mess about with putty, and
it integrates right into explorer, so CVS becomes just an extension of the file commands.
get it from http://tortoisecvs.sourceforge.net/

John

WhiteboardSeniorProjectProposal

2004-08-16T21:12:48Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

Many times a picture can describe ideas that are impossible over simple text based communication (chat). With many work teams having physically diverse locations sometimes sharing and working on pictures can be very difficult. This project is to create a real-time online whiteboarding application using instant messaging protocols. The problems with previous projects of this type is that they use very simplified drawing models that restrict the user or they use a specially designed protocol that requires special set up. This project aims to remove both of those restrictions by using standards, and an existing vector drawing application.

This project involves extending a current vector drawing program (Inkscape) using the standard XMPP messaging protocol (Jabber). Inkscape is based on the W3C's XML based vector graphics format SVG. Internally, Inkscape maintains the structure of this document, and has events occur when this model is changed by the user. When this occurs, a message can be sent to another instance of Inkscape monitoring an XMPP stream on another host, perhaps in another country.

This project would involve learning the Inkscape architecture, SVG and XMPP standard and then extending them to achieve the required functionality. Depending on the team size, group chat should also be supported.

-----

Hi, Ted! My name is LionKimbro. Good to meet you! :)

We've made a primitive, but already useful, text whiteboarding app [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/SubPathetaEdit over at IntComm.] We use it regularly in our IRC, now, particularly while development.

(You can [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/2004_2d5_2d9 see our cheezy ASCII drawings,] made during our IRC meetings.)

Obviously, we need an SVG whiteboard editor. We've had our eyes on Inkscape for a while now, because the project devs appear to be sympathetic to the idea of whiteboarding.

I know that I myself, [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/LionKimbro (LionKimbro,)] [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/JonathanRoes JonathanRoes,] and perhaps Evan Podramou, would be excited to work on a whiteboard project.

I would think though, that the ''easiest'' thing to do, immediately, is to do ''exactly'' what we did in our text communications system: Just throw the entire SVG file over the network, once every 3 seconds.

Have an XML-RPC doc server. It can ''even'' be the ''exact'' same document server we are using right now, with [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/SubPathetaEdit IntComm:SubPathetaEdit.]

Then make periodic 3 second "GET" requests to the document server.

In the event that you ''did'' something, perform a POST.

Yes, I know: It's ''gross.'' But: It works! Even with large documents.

''Then,'' after you get this very simple and cheezy system done, you can get more elaborate. And you have the help of a whiteboard as you develop your new system!

You're invited to talk with us over in irc.freenode.net #onebigsoup -

I would be surprised if we couldn't get this working within 3 days, after we are able to build Inkscape, and an XML-RPC library.

Basically, we just need to make it Load or a Save automatically every three seconds.

-- LionKimbro

----

Well, for right now I think I need to see if this gets picked up as a Senior project. As I'm proposing it to be done with me as the 'industry contact'. I wouldn't want to change it too much from the proposal. Part of the goal is to come up with a project that will take ~1000 man hours. I think that Jabber provides alot of benifits overall, and there is already the Loudmouth library to implement it. So, I'd be interested if it doesn't get picked up by a Senior proejct team - but I'm going to wait a couple weeks for that.

-- Ted

Release notes/0.37

2004-08-16T21:11:04Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

= Inkscape 0.37 =

== In brief: ==

* New functionality: boolean operations on paths, dynamic and linked offsets, path outlining, standalone SVG viewer, drag-and-drop, letter-spacing.
* More convenient editing: top panel, new color widget, 256x zoom, snapped rotation with Ctrl everywhere, selecting within groups, lots of new shortcuts, and more.
* Interface and usability: saving view with the document, zoom history, fullscreen, hide/show all open dialogs, smarter export dialog, helpful statusbar, and much more.
* Inkscape internals: built with C++, brand new classes for points, rects, matrices, and URIs, massive cleanups.
* Last but not least: tutorial for new users, keys and mouse reference, Inkscape User mailing list, hassle-free Windows builds.

== New functionality ==

* Boolean operations on shapes are now implemented: union, difference, intersection, and exclusive OR (XOR).
* Paths can be inset or outset (i.e., contracted or expanded orthogonally to the path in each point). You can do simple inset/outset of a path, or you can create a dynamic offset object that you can adjust interactively using the node tool. Moreover, a dynamic offset object can be linked to its original path so that editing the path will have the offset updated automatically.
* A stroke can now be converted to a closed path (i.e. outlined, taking into account stroke width).
* A standalone SVG viewer is now available, which can be used as a slideshow viewer. Just type <tt>inkview *.svg</tt>; see http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Inkview for details.
* You can now drag SVG files from Konqueror (and probably other KDE apps, too) to Inkscape. And when The Gimp gets full support for path drag-and-drop, we'll be able to accept drops from them, too.
* The Document Options dialog now lets you change the background and border colors of a document, with the background color also used for bitmap exports - which means you can easily produce PNGs with non-transparent background.
* Support for the letter-spacing CSS property is implemented. Press Alt+< or Alt+> when editing text to adjust the letterspacing of the current line.
* The Help menu contains a new interactive tutorial for beginner users of Inkscape and a complete Keys and Mouse reference in SVG (see an HTML version at http://inkscape.org/doc/keys.html).

== More convenient editing ==

* Complete keyboard control in selector and node tool: now you can not only select and move objects/nodes with keyboard, but also rotate them by [] keys and scale by <> keys, with various modifiers. For nodes, rotating and scaling is applied to the control handles of all selected nodes.
* The top panel for selector tool provides editable fields for the coordinates, width, and height of the selection. Press Alt+X to access the panel via keyboard.
* Maximum zoom was upped from 32x to 256x, which was possible by increasing the coordinate precision used by the program and stored in SVG.
* A new color widget on the Fill and Stroke dialog allows you to select between RGB, CMYK, HSV sliders or an HSV color wheel (resize the dialog if you want the wheel to grow larger). Also in that dialog, editing gradients is now easier, as you can drag the control points of linear and radial gradients.
* Many new keyboard+mouse modes make mousework a lot more convenient. In selector and node tool, as well as in pen, spiral, and star tools, rotating objects or control handles of a node with Ctrl restricts rotation to 15 degree increments. Dragging nodes may be restricted to horizontal/vertical (with Ctrl) and to the directions of the node's handles (with Ctrl+Alt). Dragging a node's control points with Alt locks the length of the handle, and with Shift, rotates the other handle by the same angle.
* In selector, Ctrl+click and Ctrl+Shift+click select objects within groups.
* In node tool, Ctrl+click toggles cusp/smooth/symmetric, Ctrl+Alt+click deletes a node.
* Previously in selector, mouse dragging from an empty spot started rubberband selection, while dragging from an object moved that object. Now you can press Shift and Inkscape will start rubberband from any spot, object or not. This makes selecting in complex drawings more convenient.

== Interface and usability ==

* When you save a document, Inkscape now remembers the zoom level and the center of view and restores them on load, so you'll be looking at exactly the same point at the same magnification as the last time you saved the document. Optionally, it also saves window size and position for each document and restores them on load. Moreover, Inkscape can read the view template from the preferences to set the zoom level, window geometry, grid settings, and guides in all new documents.
* More helpful statusbar display: default hints for all tools, explanations for most non-fatal errors, visual feedback for non-trivial actions (such as Unicode mode in text tool), the number and type of selected nodes in node tool, the font face and size for text objects.
* Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab cycle forward and backward through the document windows of the program.
* Inkscape now preserves the history of zoom settings for each document. The ` key restores previous zoom; pressing ` repeatedly will guide you through all the zoom settings you've used in this session. Shift+` moves forward in the zoom history.
* Middle click zooms in, Shift+middle click zooms out (in addition to middle button drag which pans canvas).
* All zooming operations via mouse now preserve the point under cursor (no centering).
* Improvements in the Export dialog: the Browse button, helpful error messages, and even a progress bar. The dialog remembers and restores the export area and dpi settings.
* The fullscreen mode is implemented; press F11 to toggle.
* F12 temporarily hides all open dialogs; press F12 again to restore them.
* More screen real estate: you can now hide rulers (Ctrl+R) and scrollbars (Ctrl+B). These settings are remembered across sessions.
* All menus now have mnemonics.
* Many obsolete and confusing console debug messages removed, some of them reworded in plain English and displayed in the statusbar or (for important errors) in modal messageboxes.
* Many cosmetic improvements in the UI.

== Internals ==

* Inkscape is now built using a C++ compiler. More and more code is being translated from C to C++.
* In particular, we now use NR::Point, NR::Matrix and NR::Rect classes instead of the clunky old macros.
* We now have the beginnings of an Inkscape::URI class for working with URIs.
* Using Inkscape::URIReference, clipping paths, masks, and gradients are updated properly when their id is changed.
* Inkscape can use libgnomeprint 2.2 now (Note: it should print to the gnome default printer, but was not fully tested before the release)
* Massive cleanups, bugfixes, and trimming dead code.

== Infrastructure and ports ==

* Join the new Inkscape User mailing list! http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/inkscape-user
* The Windows build is now created daily, available at http://troi.lincom-asg.com/~rjamison/inkscape/ (link no longer works, use http://troi.titan-aeu.com/~rjamison/inkscape/ instead). What's better, now it does not require installing any external libraries - just unzip and run!

== Known problems ==

* Some window managers, notably Sawfish, interact badly with the "Autoraise Dialogs" feature and do not display dialog window decorations, making it difficult to use them. For the present, users of such window managers can turn this option off in the Dialogs menu. This will be fixed in a future release.
* The Autoraise Dialogs option has no effect on Windows.
* When using Copy and Paste (or Paste style) commands, you cannot copy gradients or arrowheads from one document to another. Workaround: use the XML editor to copy the content of the <defs> element from the source document to the target document, then copying gradients and arrowheads will work.
* Pasting text directly into a text object on the canvas does not work. Workaround: open the Text dialog (Shift+Ctrl+T) and paste into the text editing area there, then click Apply.
* The RGBA field in the Fill and Stroke dialog may sometimes lose its value. We are investigating the cause.

== How you can help ==

* Help answer questions on the new Inkscape User mailing list (http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/inkscape-user)
* We are always looking for more developers. Come join us, Inkscape development is fun!
* We need doc writers to build Inkscape documentation.
* We need translators to translate the interface.
* We need artists to create new and consistent icons. Many new commands are without icons, and some old icons are quite ugly. (Yes, you can draw icons for Inkscape using Inkscape!)
* Above all, we want you to use Inkscape as much as possible and report any problems or suggestions. Bug tracker, RFE tracker, mailing lists, Wiki - any form of feedback is valuable.

== Previous releases ===

* ReleaseNotes036 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes036)

Release notes/0.38

2004-08-16T21:06:09Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

= Inkscape 0.38 =

== In brief ==

The focus of this release has been our Bug Hunt. Of the 57 open bug reports at the time of our last release, only 12 remain; of the 107 bugs submitted during this bughunt, all but 17 are now closed; the ratio of open to total bugs went down from 33% to 10%. Of the 285 bugs reported since the inception of the project, fewer than 30 remain. In total, over 135 bug reports were closed during the Bug Hunt. Countless other bugs were discovered by the developers and exterminated on the spot without ever going into the tracker. We are especially appreciative of the many users who have helped us identify the various bugs and verify the solutions.

Aside from bugfixes, a good deal of new features and usability enhancements went into this release:

* Text and fonts: full kerning and spacing support, better installed font detection, better alternate font matching, better usability
* Path operations: new commands to cut paths, less distortions, better usability
* Gradients: full support for multi-stop gradients, bugfixes
* Shape tools: polygons, dramatically better usability with the top panel, bugfixes
* Libinkjar: a library for compound document support of packaged SVG and PNG files
* Pure usability: canvas autoscrolling, accelerated scrolling, inversion for visibility, more intuitive cut-and-paste, per-object selection indication, save dialog, new icons
* Paraphernalia: new and expanded tutorials, clipart, translation updates

== New functionality ==

* There's a complete support for horizontal and vertical kerning in text objects (the dx and dy attributes in SVG). Text objects with kerns remain fully editable.
* New boolean operations: Division (Ctrl+/), when applied to two objects, cuts the bottom object into pieces along the edges of the top object; Cut Path (Ctrl+Alt+/) is similar, but only cuts the stroke of the bottom object (convenient for cutting paths without fill).
* Multi-stop gradients are now fully supported: the redesigned gradient editor can add, delete, move, and set color/alpha for an arbitrary number of stops in a gradient.
* The star tool now has a polygon mode which generates true polygons instead of stars with flat points, so that you don't get extra points when you convert to path.
* There is a new library, libinkjar, which can read [http://www.openoffice.org OpenOffice] .sxw (and some .jar) files. This allows you to bundle a bunch of SVGs and embedded files like .png for viewing in inkscape or inkview. This is work in progress.

== Important bugfixes ==

* Inkscape's font support is cleaned up and improved. More installed fonts than before are now seen, displayed, and correctly applied. Font matcher is more intelligent yet faster and supports generic families and multiple family specifications, so bad font substitutions are now rare. Besides, Inkscape will warn you whenever it cannot find the exact match for the family or style requested by the document.
* The new polygon intersector code fixed a number of ugly rendering screw-ups and lock-ups.
* Previously, Inkscape canvas tended to "stick" after mouse release when you were panning a complex document by middle mouse button. This is now fixed.
* Non-ASCII filenames (e.g. Cyrillic) are fully supported for all file operations (opening, saving, importing, exporting).
* Problems on localized Windows systems caused by the wrong numeric format (comma as decimal separator in SVG) are resolved.
* The show/hide guidelines toggle (the | key) is restored and fully functional.
* The Inset and Outset commands create paths with much smaller distortions than before.
* A newly created group, or a combined path, now remains at the level of its topmost member, instead of jumping to the top as before. Several other commands are also fixed to preserve the z-order and the parent of the object(s) they work on.
* Copy/paste of objects with gradients now works between documents.
* The bounding box of an object now includes stroke width (this fixes the truncated bitmap export and some other problems).
* Several bugfixes were ported from Sodipodi; notably, the font size mismatch between Windows and Unix is now gone.

== Interface and usability ==

* Complete spacing/kerning control via keyboard in the text tool: when editing, Alt+< and Alt+> adjust letter spacing in the current line, Ctrl+Alt+< and Ctrl+Alt+> adjust spacing between lines, and Alt+arrows shift any character horizontally or vertically.
* In text tool, clicking on a text object positions the cursor closest to the click, instead of at the end of the text object as before.
* Node tool, text tool, and all shape tools now select objects regardless of grouping. This means you don't need to switch to selector for a Ctrl+click if you want to edit a grouped text object, path, or shape.
* The shape tools (Rectangle, Ellipse, Star, and Spiral) are vastly more convenient to use:
** All controls, such as the number of sides of a polygon, are moved from the "Tool Options" dialog to the editing window's top panel and are immediately accessible.
** The top panel controls affect (any number of) the selected object(s) of the relevant type, not only the next created object as was the case with "Tool Options".
** When you have any of the shape tools activated, the selected object now displays editing handles on the canvas, just like it did in the node tool before. This means you can draw a shape and edit it immediately, without switching to node tool.
** You can now select objects by clicking (regardless of grouping), or deselect by Esc, while in a shape tool.
** There's a two-way connection between the selected object and the top panel: dragging handles updates the relevant top panel controls, and editing the controls moves the handles.
* The Paste command (Ctrl+V) now places the pasted objects(s) right under the mouse cursor. The old behavior - pasting to the original location - is available as the Paste In Place command (Crtl+Alt+V).
* The Raise and Lower commands reorder the selected objects only relative to those objects that overlap them, instead of all objects in the document.
* Autoscrolling: The canvas now scrolls automatically when you drag an object or node, or do a rubberband selection, and go near or beyond the edge of the canvas. Similarly, autoscrolling keeps the text cursor always visible.
* Accelerated scrolling: if you press and hold Ctrl+arrow to scroll canvas, Inkscape will gradually speed up scrolling. This makes navigating in complex documents much faster, without losing precision.
* Accelerated Simplify: similar to scrolling, a single Simplify (Ctrl+L) does a slight simplification, but invoking it several times in quick succession makes it act more and more aggressively on the selected objects. It is thus easy to apply the exact amount of simplification you need for each case.
* Scale/selection handles and the rubberband selection rectangle now use inversion and are therefore visible on any background. (Even 50% gray... our inversion is smart :-) Path nodes and node/shape controls also use inverted elements for better visibility. Text editing cursor is also inverse.
* In multi-object selections, every selected object now displays a small inverse diamond mark in the top left corner of its bounding box. This lets you see at once what objects are selected and what are not.
* In the linear and radial gradient panes of the Fill and Stroke dialog:
** You can press Ctrl while dragging handles to snap the linear gradient angle to 15 degrees increments (makes it easy to create strictly horizontal/vertical gradients).
** The handles, bounding box, and gradient axes use inversion for better visibility.
** The default linear gradient goes through the center of the object.
** The radial gradient displays a radius handle for adjusting the gradient radius.
* The save dialog now remembers output format, can append file extension automatically, and warns when overwriting files. You can now save a file in Postscript format.
* Many new icons are added, and many old icons are redrawn to be crisper, more informative, and more laconic.

== Clipart, documentation, translations ==

* Inkscape now ships with a small collection of clipart (when it grows big enough we may separate it into a package of its own).
* The Inkscape tutorial is split into two parts, Basic and Advanced, and significantly expanded (new sections on offsets, simplification, compound paths, text tool, and more).
* Two new tutorials,"Elements of design" and "Tips and Tricks," are added.
* The Basic tutorial is available in Russian translation.
* French, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish interface translations are updated.

== Build requirements ==

Based on RH/FC-1/SuSE rpm builds:

* XFree86-devel >= 4.0
* libgnomeprintui-devel >= 2.2.0
* libpng-devel
* desktop-file-utils
* gettext
* libart_lgpl-devel >= 2.3.10
* freetype2-devel
* libxml2-devel >= 2.4.24
* gtk2-devel
* pango-devel
* atk-devel
* pkgconfig
* libsigc++2 >= 1.2.5
* perl-XML-Parser

Note: SuSE 9.0 users need libsigc2++, which is available at : http://guru.unixtech.be/rpm/packages/Development/libsigc++/

== Known issues ==

* Saving as (or printing via) Postscript does not support gradients or transparency. The workaround is to export to bitmap (or print as bitmap).
* Pasting text from another application into a text object on the canvas does not work. Workaround: open the Text dialog (Shift+Ctrl+T) and paste into the text editing area there, then click Apply.
* Windows builds do not fully support SVGZ (gzipped SVG) format - they can read it but not write.
* Windows builds may stop responding to mouse when you drag outside of the canvas. Workaround: press any tool switching key (e.g. F3) to unfreeze.
* Windows builds still cannot handle non-ASCII characters in filenames or in text tool.

== Previous releases ===

* ReleaseNotes037 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes037)
* ReleaseNotes036 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes036)

Galleries

2004-08-16T21:04:10Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

== Galleries ==

Add a link to your Inkscape Gallery here

*[http://www.peepo.co.uk symbol portal]
* [[Haypo]]
* [http://lunar8.rydia.net/ Mental's Lunar 8 Comics]
* [http://programmer-art.org/?page=art Daniel G. Taylor's Art Page]
* [[simarilius]]
* [http://www.le-radar.com/?art/galerie Cedric Gemy]
* [[Jofo]]
* [[twb]]
* http://lilija.com.ua
* http://artemiolabs.com
* http://artemio.net
* [http://gallery.urosevic.net/svg Urke MMI]
* [http://www.kde-look.org/usermanager/search.php?username=salahuddin66 Great Wallpapers!]
* [[Simondebelem]]
* [http://david.bellot.free.fr SVG-cards]
* [http://zubauza.deviantart.com/gallery zubauza's gallery @ deviantART]
* [http://freddy.narrowdesign.net/bleed.png Wallpaper by Freddy]

OpenClipArtProject

2004-08-16T20:58:00Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

Warning: This page may be obsolete.

=== Summary ===

==== Steps to Actualizing this Project ====

* Try to unify several clipart projects into this one and the efforts from sodipodi and inkscape developers.
* (DONE) Develop a name for the project first - decided to use "clipart.freedesktop.org" for now...
** Free Clip Art Project
** Open Clip Art Project
** Grand Unified Clip Art Repository
** Open Graphics Repository
* Get project space from fd.o
* Setup project like any open source project: wiki, mailing list, etc
* Allow the project to develop fluidly.
* (DONE) Create [[WikiMailinglistReplacement]] as long as we don't have a real one.
* (DONE) mailinglist http://freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/clipart

==== Project Outline ====

* Project Hosting
** sf.net said no!
** myrkraverk volunteered space
** freedesktop.org (fd.o) - the best option
*** [http://www.freedesktop.org/Main/GettingInvolved fd.o getting involved]
**** We chatted with an fd.o project admin, and he said: as long as you have people willing to start developing, and this isn't just going to end up like half the sourceforge projects, email daniel@freedesktop.org with username(s), ssh key (s), a project name, and a project description

* Packaging System
** official packages
** web based interface

* Repository

** KISS!!!
** generally needs to be carefully thought out for scalability, security, etc.
** I'd suggest splitting up the software into separate components. One that just does the upload + adding keywords, another that just does packaging given a query, and another that does the web navigation browsing w/ thumbnails
** e.g., for the navigation and browsing perhaps we could start from Pat's tool

** Emergent Categories
*** emergent categories is that they will represent the users...
*** look at categories at: [runme.org runme.org]
*** yeah how to deal with unacceptable stuff...
*** I'm not saying it shouldn't be emergent, it would be nice though to have some control to make some categories more important.
**** So basically 'adult' is always a high level category, even if it only has one picture.
*** maybe we give the users the power to do some form of emergent censoring and self-editing, like in wikipedia?
*** I guess we'd have to defer to fd.o about their conditions

** Keyword-based system
*** I'm thinking about a keyword system. Where each object gets assigned keywords - and the categories are derived from there. So a list of keywords is generated, then the one that covers the most images gets at the highest level. Then those are reevaluted with the same criteria to create subcategories. etc. etc.
*** have a list of "standard" keywords that can be selected, or let the user add new keywords
*** I was thinking that categories are made until there is some tollerance of images left (like three) and then those are dropped in the current folder.
*** I think that an administrative duty will be to try and clean up the keywords.
*** categories are just a particular kind of keyword

** Versioning
*** For the repository, either just keep each copy of the file with a version number appended; that should be sufficient
*** make sure to include a way for viewing and retrieving old versions

** homebrew versioning system
*** simple php submission engine

** webDAV
*** Catacomb is perhaps the most advanced OSS WebDAV server
*** Subversion can basically be used like a [http://svnbook.red-bean.com/svnbook/apc.html WedDAV server] also.
**** It provides [http://svnbook.red-bean.com/svnbook/ch03s03.html revision control], [http://svnbook.red-bean.com/svnbook/ch07s02.html attachment of properties], and [http://svnbook.red-bean.com/svnbook/re02.html tracking of authorship]

** Zope CMS : Plone?

** CVS
*** I've tried using CVS as a backend for a DMS before... it's a royal pain in the ass
*** web-based cvs tool doesn't exist!!!
*** has too much of a learning curve for artists

* Philosophical
** this is a revolution waiting to happen
** importance of this project

* Filetypes
** All open formats? Only 2d file formats? What about 3d, or does this project expand outwards to other MEDIA formats?
*** SVG
*** PNG
*** WMF

* Supported File Metadata
** XMP
*** [http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/main.html Adobe's XMP developments]
*** [http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/in-depth.html more indepth XMP pdfs]
*** [http://creativecommons.org/technology/xmp creative commons xmp support]

----

=== Comments ===

I think we should just use SVG. Bitmap sucks for clipart IMHO and I don't see what WMF offers that SVG don't. Christian S.

The only point I might see for including WMF as a format is that there are a number of WMF-based clipart packages that
could be aggregated with the SVG clipart. -- Bryce

I'd suggest limiting to 2d vector formats though, just for the sake of tightening focus. Leave the other stuff for later, or to other
projects to focus on. -- Bryce

Is this information ''old?'' I see [http://www.openclipart.org/ Open Clip Art Project] exists right now. Was this your doing?

Can this page be deleted?

-- LionKimbro

OtherGoals

2004-08-16T20:56:40Z

Simarilius: Removing spam

I think often people assume the goal of every software application is to
get as many users as possible. For proprietary software, sure, that
translates into more money since each user (in theory!) pays for their
copy of the software. Or it gets you bought out by Microsoft, or
whatnot. ;-)

But for an open source project, is it the case that more users equals
more goodness? Are users the ultimate customers?

My feeling is that no, users are more of a means to an end. Lots of
users can translate into a larger pool to draw developers from, and of
course potential developers will consider the (potential or actual) size
of the userbase when deciding whether to bother submitting their
changes. But of course in these cases the real goal is getting more
developer activity.

Sure there can be some personal satisfaction in knowing that the
software is very widely used. Many times the desire to gain more users
is what drives developers to work hard. But careful what you wish for!
With many users comes many demands for changes. Your open source
project can feel more like an job you can't get away from and don't get
paid for! ;-)

From my experience there's four motivations for open source development
that can easily be translated into goals; one is practical, one
idealogical, one educational, and one social:

First, you want good software available at a good price. For example,
this is why I got involved with Sodipodi originally. I wanted a good
drawing tool that I could tinker with to improve for my own d*mn needs.
I suspect this holds true for a lot of us. We have a job or a hobby
that needs a good tool. We want to make a good tool that'll last us and
do well by us for the remainder of our lives. If few others use it,
well then we can be special. If lots of users use it, and in doing so,
it results in a better tool for me, then well that's great too.

Second is the desire to make the world, or more specifically the open
source community, better. This is why adhering to and improving open
standards is important, for example. For this motivation, a large
userbase is kind of an objective, but again it's slanted in favor of
developers since by definition the "open source community" is people who
contribute to open source projects.

Third is to learn new things. Many open source projects started or gain
contributions from people who are doing it out of curiousity, interest,
or need to learn new skills, either for career purposes or personal
fulfilment. A large userbase (implying a widely known application) can
_maybe_ translate into recognition when interviewing, but otherwise is
not very relevant.

Fourth is a desire to work with good folk and have fun working together.
Because, really, for the developers this is a hobby, and hobbies should
be fun, especially if they're going to take up a lot of your time. For
this, the personality, friendliness, and dedication of the users and
developers is much more important than their sheer quantity.

So, for all these reasons, in a way other developers are the real
customers of the open source developers, and users are just lucky sods
that get all their benefits as a side effect! ;-)

For Inkscape, I think that we still need to grow the userbase. However
I feel that we can achieve that easily enough by just focusing on making
the code better; this is best achieved by encouraging developers to
develop.

Bryce

P.S. I should add to the above that I use the verb 'develop' to mean
more than just programming. Develop could mean a variety of activities
that improve the tool, including especially documentation, design,
application art, testing, website, and administrative work. Even just
providing feedback can be considered development work if it is done with
consideration and in an organized fashion.

WhiteboardSeniorProjectProposal

2004-08-16T20:53:52Z

Simarilius: http://www.pureteenz.com/Aria-Giovanni/

Many times a picture can describe ideas that are impossible over simple text based communication (chat). With many work teams having physically diverse locations sometimes sharing and working on pictures can be very difficult. This project is to create a real-time online whiteboarding application using instant messaging protocols. The problems with previous projects of this type is that they use very simplified drawing models that restrict the user or they use a specially designed protocol that requires special set up. This project aims to remove both of those restrictions by using standards, and an existing vector drawing application.

This project involves extending a current vector drawing program (Inkscape) using the standard XMPP messaging protocol (Jabber). Inkscape is based on the W3C's XML based vector graphics format SVG. Internally, Inkscape maintains the structure of this document, and has events occur when this model is changed by the user. When this occurs, a message can be sent to another instance of Inkscape monitoring an XMPP stream on another host, perhaps in another country.

This project would involve learning the Inkscape architecture, SVG and XMPP standard and then extending them to achieve the required functionality. Depending on the team size, group chat should also be supported.

----

Hi, Ted! My name is LionKimbro. Good to meet you! :)

We've made a primitive, but already useful, text whiteboarding app [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/SubPathetaEdit over at IntComm.] We use it regularly in our IRC, now, particularly while development.

(You can [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/2004_2d5_2d9 see our cheezy ASCII drawings,] made during our IRC meetings.)

Obviously, we need an SVG whiteboard editor. We've had our eyes on Inkscape for a while now, because the project devs appear to be sympathetic to the idea of whiteboarding.

I know that I myself, [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/LionKimbro (LionKimbro,)] [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/JonathanRoes JonathanRoes,] and perhaps Evan Podramou, would be excited to work on a whiteboard project.

I would think though, that the ''easiest'' thing to do, immediately, is to do ''exactly'' what we did in our text communications system: Just throw the entire SVG file over the network, once every 3 seconds.

Have an XML-RPC doc server. It can ''even'' be the ''exact'' same document server we are using right now, with [http://intcomm.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/SubPathetaEdit IntComm:SubPathetaEdit.]

Then make periodic 3 second "GET" requests to the document server.

In the event that you ''did'' something, perform a POST.

Yes, I know: It's ''gross.'' But: It works! Even with large documents.

''Then,'' after you get this very simple and cheezy system done, you can get more elaborate. And you have the help of a whiteboard as you develop your new system!

You're invited to talk with us over in irc.freenode.net #onebigsoup -

I would be surprised if we couldn't get this working within 3 days, after we are able to build Inkscape, and an XML-RPC library.

Basically, we just need to make it Load or a Save automatically every three seconds.

-- LionKimbro

----

Well, for right now I think I need to see if this gets picked up as a Senior project. As I'm proposing it to be done with me as the 'industry contact'. I wouldn't want to change it too much from the proposal. Part of the goal is to come up with a project that will take ~1000 man hours. I think that Jabber provides alot of benifits overall, and there is already the Loudmouth library to implement it. So, I'd be interested if it doesn't get picked up by a Senior proejct team - but I'm going to wait a couple weeks for that.

-- Ted

UnsinkableDialogs

2004-08-16T20:48:57Z

Simarilius: removing spam

I just committed an update that makes the toolbar and the object-properties dialog (ctrl-shift-f) unsinkable. This means they re-transientize themselves whenever a new desktop window becomes active. That is, no matter how you switch between document windows, these dialogs remain on top. If you minimize the last (or the only) document window, however, the dialogs minimize too.

Implementation is very simple: the dialogs respond to the activate_desktop signal by attaching themselves to the window of the desktop that sent that signal. There are two problems where I may use someone's help, before I make all other dialogs similarly unsinkable:

* It's not 100% reliable. Sometimes dialogs fail to re-tranzientize. Looks like this happens when the signal is not sent for some unknown reason. Please test and report your observations or ideas.

:Also, when new windows are created too fast (press and hold ctrl-n for a couple seconds), this often results in "jitter" where windows fight for focus and frantically redisplay. I'll see if some new checks can heal this.

:'''UPDATE:''' Here's what I found so far. If I add a gtk_window_present(w) at the end of sp_transientize_callback (i.e. bring on top the document window that initiated the transientize), the dialog stays reliably on top, but it gives frantic races when there are too many document windows created too fast. If I remove this call, there are no races, but the dialog not always shows up on top of the document window; usually when you switch to a new document, it buries the dialogs (even though they are re-transientized!) and only if you click on the window bar of the document one more time, the dialogs emerge.

: So both options have their problems. I continue to thinks about it. Please test and share your insights!

:'''UPDATE 2:''' I did it! Not the most straightforward way, but it works. Now each retransientizing sets a semaphore that prevents another retransientizing for 20 msec after this one has finished (using timeout). This way, there are no more races (you can press and hold ctrl-n, or load *svg from an entire dir), but each transientizing brings dialogs nicely to top so they are truly unsinkable. Only two dialogs are made unsinkable so far, the toolbox and ctrl-shift-f. Please test the latest CVS and report your experience.

* The first (and only the first) desktop created by the program sends out the signal before a window for it is created, and the transientizing therefore fails. I added an ugly hack, inkscape_reactivate_desktop in inscape.c, which is called by sp_create_window in interface.c when it's done creating the window. This works but perhaps there's a better way. Ideas welcome.

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::I just got a chance to try this out and I generally like it. One thing I do not like is that the document window is auto-raising itself when it gets the focus. To me this is is counter-intuitive, as every other gnome application I use follows the window manager settings of not auto-raising windows when they get the focus. I think associating transients with the focused window is the right thing to do, but I dont think its a good idea to auto-raise the windows. Make sense? Let me know if I'm off-base here. -tvon

:::Please comment out gtk_window_present(w) inside sp_transientize_callback() in src/dialogs/dialog-events.c and see if this solves your problem. Please also check if the dialogs still stay on top after this change. As described above, I tried it without the gtk_window_present, but on my KDE it resulted in dialogs not emerging on top when I switch document windows, even though the dialogs are now re-transientized to the new document. For example, try switching between two maximized document windows and compare the behavior of dialogs with and without gtk_window_present(w). --bb

::::That seems to do it. The document windows no longer auto-raise, but the toolbox is always-on-top. Thanks much Bulia. --tvon