CompilingMacOsX

Using MacPorts

1. Download and install MacPorts
2. Edit the MacPorts variants config (optional).
   Add this line to /opt/local/etc/macports/variants.conf

   -x11 +quartz

3. In Terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal) type

   sudo port install \
        adwaita-icon-theme \
        boehmgc \
        boost \
        cairo \
        ccache \
        cmake \
        double-conversion \
        gdl3 \
        gettext \
        gsl \
        gtkmm3 \
        gtk-osx-application-gtk3 \
        lcms2 \
        libsoup \
        libxslt \
        ninja \
        poppler \
        potrace \
        py-lxml \
        py-numpy \
        -x11 +quartz
   

4. In Terminal, get Inkscape

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape.git
   

5. And build inkscape

   # use a clean MacPorts environment (optional)
   LIBPREFIX="/opt/local"
   export PATH="$LIBPREFIX/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
   
   # where to install
   PREFIX="$PWD/install-prefix"
   
   # where to build
   mkdir build
   cd build
   
   cmake \
       -G Ninja \
       -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$LIBPREFIX" \
       -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$PREFIX" \
       -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache \
       -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache \
       -DWITH_OPENMP=OFF \
       ../inkscape
   
   ninja
   ninja install
   

   Note: Using ccache and ninja is not required, but very common because it speeds up compilation.

6. Run Inkscape

   $PREFIX/bin/inkscape
   

Using Homebrew

If you are using Homebrew instead, you can still use the above guidelines with small modifications.

List of packages to install with brew (for Inkscape 1.1):

brew install \
    adwaita-icon-theme \
    bdw-gc \
    boost \
    cairomm \
    ccache \
    cmake \
    double-conversion \
    gettext \
    gsl \
    gspell \
    gtk-mac-integration \
    gtkmm3 \
    imagemagick \
    intltool \
    lcms2 \
    libomp \
    libsoup@2 \
    libxslt \
    ninja \
    poppler \
    potrace

You may substitute imagemagick with graphicsmagick.

gtk-mac-integration is not needed with latest 1.2-dev.

Some keg-only libraries need to be added to $PKG_CONFIG_PATH

Some libraries can cause trouble if they are picked up from the SDK instead of Homebrew (observed with libxslt and libxml2). Adding them to $PKG_CONFIG_PATH should fix this.

Check out the source if you haven't already:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape.git

Then cd inkscape and follow the steps below.

This was tested on an M1 MacBook Air with macOS 11.6 and Inkscape 1.2-dev, and an M2 MacBook Air with macOS 13.0.1 and Inkscape 1.2.1, 1.2.x from git.

# use a clean Homebrew environment (optional)
LIBPREFIX="/opt/homebrew"
export PATH="$LIBPREFIX/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"

# keg-only libraries
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$LIBPREFIX/opt/icu4c/lib/pkgconfig"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:$LIBPREFIX/opt/libsoup@2/lib/pkgconfig"

# prevent picking up libxslt and libxml2 from the (wrong) SDK
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:$LIBPREFIX/opt/libxslt/lib/pkgconfig"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:$LIBPREFIX/opt/libxml2/lib/pkgconfig"

# where to install
PREFIX="$PWD/install-prefix"

mkdir -p build
cd build

cmake \
    -G Ninja \
    -DCMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS="-L$LIBPREFIX/lib" \
    -DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS="-L$LIBPREFIX/lib" \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PREFIX \
    -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache \
    -DWITH_DBUS=OFF \
    ..

ninja
ninja install

See also

• Tracking Dependencies
• Extension requirements
• Compiling Inkscape
• Notes on Packaging for OS X
• https://github.com/valerioa/Inkscape-MacOS-Curated-Build
• ipatch's collection of notes about building Inkscape using Homebrew