Release notes/1.3.1

Changes and Bug Fixes

Released on Nov 18, 2023.

Inkscape 1.3.1 is a maintenance and bugfix release, which brings you fixes for many critical or irritating bugs, and even two new features.

The most important fixes and changes in this release are:

• more than 30 crash/freeze fixes, many of which affected PDF import and Live Path Effects
• a new feature to disable snapping to grid lines, while still snapping to grid intersections
• a new feature to split text into its letters (characters), while keeping the kerning (letter distances) intact
• the Shape Builder tool now creates an appropriate number of nodes
• activating a layer in the Layers dialog no longer requires you to double-click to enter the layer on the canvas to be able to work in it
• no more auto-expanding layers in the Layers dialog and improved behavior on deleting and moving layers
• right-clicking now applies the change to the selected object, not whatever group it is in
• the Page tool's size field no longer refuses to be edited
• improved handle visibility with dark desk colors
• multiple improvements for converting text objects to a path
• PDF files that could not be opened with Inkscape 1.3 can now be opened / imported again
• the English terms for Live Path Effects can now be searched for even if you use Inkscape in another language, so you can better follow tutorials
• on macOS and many current Linux distributions, gradient dithering is now available
• there exists a workaround that users can apply for the problem with the missing user interface fonts
• 3 fixes for extension bugs
• 16 improved user interface translations
• some small updates for the included tutorials and the man page
• and almost 40 more bug fixes

General User Interface

• A few user interface texts have been improved, and some missing icons have been added back (Bugs #3355, #4193, #4316, MR #5393).
• Activated buttons now stand out more when using the Adwaita theme (MR #5994).
• When using the Tab key to choose your tool from the tool bar, tool icons no longer stay highlighted erroneously (MR #6068).
• The status bar no longer talks about nothing having been deleted when you paste an object with any tool other than the Selector tool or the Node tool (Bug #3031, MR #5524).
• Ellipses no longer look cut off in certain cases at some zoom levels when moved close to the page's corner (Bug #4445).
• The text boxes that indicate what an object will be snapping to no longer flicker with grids (Bug #4242, MR #5580).
• Resizing handles have better visibility now if using a checkerboard background with a dark desk color (Bug #4513, MR #5637).
• Resizing handles are now also visible in Outline Overlay view mode when the desk color is dark (Bug #4579, MR #5779).
• Changing the View mode while it is still being rendered no longer makes Inkscape crash (Bug #4560, MR #5810).
• The toolbox's width now automatically adjusts when you change the size of its icons. When you change its width manually, it will now scale to fit the icons, in steps, so that no space is wasted (Bug #3334, MR #5545).
• Inkscape now makes a decision which document to show when multiple documents which have a grid are open alongside with their document properties, instead of oscillating between the documents (Bug #2827, MR #6074)

Dialogs

General

• When docking a dialog underneath another dialog, it no longer vanishes (Bug #4254, MR #5490).

Export Dialog

• 'Optimized PNG' can now be selected from the Export dialog and doesn't automatically switch back to normal PNG all the time (MR #5557).

Fill and Stroke Dialog

• When closing one of multiple open documents with the Fill and Stroke dialog undocked (floating), Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #4582, MR #5783).

Layers and Objects Dialog

• Activating a layer in the dialog no longer leads to the layer being selected on-canvas as if it were a normal group, so you can activate a layer to draw in again directly. A second click is now needed to select the layer on-canvas (Bug #8423, MR #5394).
• Layers no longer automatically expand to show their contents when they are selected (MR #5566).
• A right-click on a layer opens its context menu and activates the layer, but it no longer selects it like a group on-canvas (MR #5566).
• To select multiple layers in the dialog, each layer must now be selected with either Shift + Click or Ctrl+Click (MR #5566).
• The dialog's buttons for moving or deleting a layer or an object will now move and delete the right thing automatically, no matter the dialog's mode ('Layers only', or 'Layers and Objects') (Bug inbox#7792, MR #5394).
• When a layer is deleted, the next layer becomes the active layer again (instead of the document root) (Bug #3839, MR #5394).
• When setting a mask by using only the Layers and Objects dialog and a keyboard shortcut, Inkscape no longer crashes (MR #5532, Bug #4412).
• The buttons for moving and deleting now feature tooltips (MR #5560).

Snap Panel

• The advanced snap popover panel now correctly shows all disabled sub-items as disabled (Bug #3421, MR #5121).
• An option to disable snapping to grid lines has been added to the snap settings. It is currently only available from the snap popover, but not from the snap bar. When it is disabled, but the 'snap to grids' option is enabled, only grid intersections will function as snap targets (Bug #4510, MR #5999).

Symbols Dialog

• Symbols no longer suffer from an abundance of 'title' attributes when converting them back and forth to normal objects (Bug #2845, MR #5876).
• Files with broken symbols (where the symbol path does not contain any path data) no longer crash Inkscape when opening the Symbols dialog (Bug #4509, MR #5623).

Welcome Screen

• The Welcome Screen image now says 1.3.1 (MR #5997)
• The buttons at the bottom of the Welcome Screen dialog now all have the same color (MR #5989)

Tools

Bézier Tool

• Trying to create a cusp node with Shift + Click while using the Bézier tool in Spiro mode no longer leads to unexpected behavior (Bug #4366, MR #5945).

Node Tool

• Inkscape no longer crashes when using the node tool to select a path that contains a zero-length path segment (two overlapping nodes) (Bug #4602, MR #5875).
• Path outlines respect the preferences setting for their color again while editing. The layer's color is only used for highlighting when hovering over the path. (MR #5729, Bug #4061).

Page Tool

• When undoing the creation of a new page that follows a page with a custom label, Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #4432, MR #5678).
• When resizing a page to the selection in a document with a document scale other than 1:1, the grid origin is now moved to its correct position (MR #5642, Bug #4514).
• When resizing a page to the selection when the y-axis is upside down as per the user preferences, the page now ends up in the correct position (Bug #4537, MR #5681).
• Trying to edit the size of the current page in the Page tool's tool controls now works as expected (https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues/4407 Bug 4407], MR #5952).

Pencil Tool

• When undoing a change while using pressure sensitivity (i.e. using the PowerStroke LPE), Inkscape no longer crashes or freezes (Bug #4485, MR #5763).

Selector Tool

• Right-clicking on a selected object finally applies the right-click to that object again instead of the group it is in, a bug which had impacted workflows quite a bit since the release of Inkscape 1.2 (Bug #5620, MR #5626).
• Double-clicking on a shape (rectangle, star, ellipse, …) now again not only switches the tool to the tool for the shape, but also keeps the shape selected so you can continue editing it (Bug #4596, MR #5809).

Text Tool

• Worked around a bug that happened with a certain, outdated Gtk setting, where trying to use the Text tool would freeze Inkscape ((Bug #3664, MR #5236)).
• When using a subtraction frame to adjust the shape of a flowed text, the hole this creates in the text now appears in the correct position (MR #5662, Bug #3910).
• When converting a text with a gradient to a path, its gradient is no longer lost (Bug #4460, MR #5727).
• As many of you found the new (and very old) Text-to-Path conversion way impeding your workflows (text is now turned into a single, unioned path instead of a group of paths when converting it to a path, but you need single letter as paths), we have added an option to split the text into its letters. It is very similar to the 'Split text' extension, but it is accessible from the text menu and respects kerning. Use Text > Text to Glyphs before converting your text to path, to get the old behavior back (minus the grouping) (Bug #4595, MR #5805).
• Multiple small improvements and fixes for the Font Collections functionality (Bug #4196, MR #5278).

Images

• Files containing large, corrupted raster images no longer crash Inkscape when trying to open them (Bug #4454, MR #5942).

Import / Export

• Inkscape no longer crashes when importing a PDF file whose page names are encoded in UTF-16 (Bug #4442, MR #5589).
• Inkscape no longer crashes or loses font information when importing a PDF file with fonts using uncommon names (MR #5676, Bugs #4504, #3919, #2601, #4540).
• There is no crash or freeze anymore when opening a PDF file with an empty page inside (Bug #4597, MR #5821).
• Inkscape no longer fails to import a PDF file with broken font names, but gives a warning (on the command line) instead (Bug #4577, #4613, MR #5829, MR #5973). A related issue that caused those files with broken font names to be created in the first place was caused by a bug in the version 1.17.8 of libcairo2 and has been fixed with version 1.18.0 of the library.
• When importing a PDF file with text in different colors, Inkscape now more reliably assigns the correct color to the correct text (Bug #4545, MR #5707).
• Inkscape also no longer crashes when a clone is in the selection that you want to export to PDF or SVG (Bug #4482, MR #5615).
• When exporting a file with transparent and visible text to PDF, the visible text will no longer be lost (Bug #4572, MR #5912).
• Bleed is no longer ignored when exporting documents with just a single page to PDF (Bug #4487, MR #5620).
• When saving a file containing a comment as Plain SVG, Inkscape no longer breaks it by inserting odd line feed characters (MR #5663, Bug #4526).

Path Operations

• Using the "Division" path operation and the Shape Builder tool now results in a much more reasonable number of nodes (Bug #471, Bug #4494, MR #5962).
• Converting a text object to path that uses different styling for different parts of the text now respects that styling again in all cases (Bug #4403, MR #5515).
• Converting a stroked rectangle to a path using Stroke to Path no longer creates an extraneous node on one side of the outline (MR #5818).

Live Path Effects

• Deleting a segment of a path using the Corners LPE no longer leads to a crash (Bug #4390, MR #5528).
• Another crash with the Corners LPE has been fixed (MR #6022).
• The bounding box of an object with the Corners LPE is now calculated correctly (Bug #4341, MR #5547).
• When copying or duplicating an object using the Taper Stroke LPE, Inkscape no longer crashes (MR #5641, MR #5703, Bugs #5641, #4462).
• When the tapering handles of a path with the Taper Stroke LPE touch, Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #4608, MR #5857).
• Trying to edit a path with the Taper Stroke LPE that has been created with an older Inkscape version no longer crashes Inkscape (Bug #4555, MR #5830).
• When clicking on some LPE's handles while holding Ctrl and Alt, Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #457, MR #5713).
• When working with paths that have the PowerStroke LPE applied, Inkscape sometimes crashed because it couldn't calculate the correct curvature. This is now fixed (Bug #9161, MR #5932).
• When choosing to cancel adding the 'Show Handles' LPE to a path, because that would lose all styling of the path, Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #4554, MR #5729).
• Editing a document with the PowerClip LPE inside triggered a variety of crashes which have been fixed (Bug #4610, MR #5931).
• Files with LPEs, but no mention of a display unit in their SVG code, no longer lead to a crash when trying to open them (Bug #4633, MR #5967).
• Changing the display units no longer affects the size of the gaps in the Tiling LPE or the measurements in the Ruler LPE (Bug #4547, MR #5934).
• When using an object with the Clone Original LPE derived from another object that is also using the Clone Original LPE and then trying to edit it with the Node tool, Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #4284, MR #5948).
• Using the Knot LPE with a value of 0 for the gaps (i.e. no visible effect) no longer unexpectedly loses whole segments of the path it is applied to (Bug #4625, MR #5940).
• Trying to turn an object that contains an LPE into a pattern no longer freezes Inkscape (Bug #4437, [1]).
• Searching the Live Path Effects dialog for LPEs in English, even if you're using Inkscape in your local language, now works again, so it is easier to follow along with online tutorials. You can also now use characters with accents in the search field to find your favorite LPE (Bug #4589, MR #5944).
• Path effect remnants are now better cleaned out when they are no longer needed, solving issues with jumping objects and out-of-place node handles on objects that have been copied from an LPE (Bugs #3467, #3893, MR #5954).

Extensions

• Extensions that need to call Inkscape to do their job no longer fail, freeze or crash Inkscape (MR #5664, Bug #8927).
• Deactivating the Live Preview for an extension no longer crashes Inkscape in files with complex Live Path Effects (MR #5672, Bug #4470).
• Toggling the live preview of extensions quickly no longer leads to data loss (Bug #4385, MR #5686).
• The QR Code extension now works faster with large QR codes (MR extensions#580).
• The Plotter extension no longer looks for non-existant dependencies (MR #599).
• The Hershey text extension now works without issuing a warning (MR #603).

Command Line

• Exporting muliple SVG files in a directory to PDF works again (Bug #4538, MR #5710).

Linux-specific Fixes

• Gradient dithering is now available if your operating system comes with libcairo2 > 1.18, e.g. starting from Ubuntu 23.10, Debian Trixie (testing), Fedora 39 (MR #6034).

Windows-specific Fixes

• Using the 7zip package of Inkscape no longer requires users to call 'inkscapecom' to access Inkscape on the command line (Bug inbox#8893, MR #5574).
• Trying to edit a gradient with the Node tool when there are many copies of the object containing the gradient in the file no longer crashes Inkscape on Windows (Bug #4630, MR #5951).

macOS-specific Fixes

• A crash when browsing the font list on macOS has been fixed (Bug #9347, MR #6044).
• Another crash that occurred when using a custom font and typing a space character has been fixed (Bug #9424, MR #6044)
• Trying to dock a dialog underneath another dialog now no longer has a 100% crash rate. A few crashes may still occur, but it is fixed for the majority of cases (Bug #4111, MR #5489).
• We've tried to fix the tofu (user interface text showing up as little rectangles instead of letters) that under some rare conditions showed up on macOS when the user interface font could not be found (MR #5625, Bug #3532). However, while this fixed it for some, it made the user interface look ugly for the majority of users, so we did not use the fix for this release.
  In the case that this bug affects you, you can work around it, though. In the ui folder (see Edit » Preferences » System), create a file called user.css, and add the following contents to it:
  

/* Fix for rare macOS systems that don't load the right system font */
{
		font-family: ".AppleSystemUIFont", system-ui;
}

Now save the file and restart Inkscape.

• Trying to change the Inkscape preferences by accessing them from the menu bar before opening any document on macOS led to a crash. Preferences are now made not editable until the canvas has been loaded (Bug #4459, MR #5877).
• Gradient dithering is now available for macOS (MR #5866).

Improvements for development / deployment / testing

• Inkscape builds again with musl libc on Linux (Bug #4427, MR #5558).
• Windows test builds for the 1.3.x branch are now run on GitLab again, and scripts have been updated for that (MR #5900).
• Increase speed and reliability of Windows test builds (MR #6024)
• Improve reliability of building the snap package for Linux (MR #6048)

Translations

The following UI translations received updates:

• Australian English
• Belarusian
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Croatian
• Czech
• French
• German
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Italian
• Spanish
• Traditional Chinese
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

The following documentation translations received updates:

• Croatian
• German
• Hungarian

Contributing to interface translations

Want to help with translations? Learn how to help!

Documentation

• The man page (command line help) has been updated (Commit documentation#b4dc61)
• The Tips tutorial has been updated to include on-canvas alignment (MR documentation#312)
• The keyboard shortcuts list now features anchor links for easier link sharing (Commit documentation#5be9b9, Commit documentation#28ccea)

Contributing to documentation and documentation translation

Contributions to the documentation translations, as well as improvements to its contents, are welcome at the inkscape-docs repository.

Other releases

• Inkscape 1.5 — development branch
• Inkscape 1.4 — current stable release branch
• Inkscape 1.3 (1.3.1, 1.3.2)
• Inkscape 1.2 (1.2.1, 1.2.2)
• Inkscape 1.1 (1.1.1, 1.1.2)
• Inkscape 1.0 (1.0.1, 1.0.2)
• Inkscape 0.92 (0.92.1, 0.92.2, 0.92.3, 0.92.4, 0.92.5)
• Inkscape 0.91
• Inkscape 0.48 (0.48.1, 0.48.2, 0.48.3, 0.48.4, 0.48.5)
• Inkscape 0.47
• Inkscape 0.46
• Inkscape 0.45
• Inkscape 0.44
• Inkscape 0.43
• Inkscape 0.42
• Inkscape 0.41
• Inkscape 0.40
• Inkscape 0.39
• Inkscape 0.38
• Inkscape 0.37
• Inkscape 0.36
• Inkscape 0.35