CompilingMacOsX

Section about MacPorts IS OUTDATED AND UNMAINTAINED! Section about HomeBrew IS UP TO DATE as of Oct 30, 2024

Using MacPorts

If you can build successfully with MacPorts, please update this file and remove above comment.

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

Prerequisites:

• Xcode (AppStore)
• Xcode command line tools (xcode-select --install)
• HomeBrew

If you are using Homebrew instead, you can still use the above guidelines with small modifications. (Make sure you don't have any MacPorts stuff in your PATH.)

List of packages to install with brew (for Inkscape on master branch using GTK4):

brew install \
    adwaita-icon-theme \
    bdw-gc \
    boost \
    cairomm \
    ccache \
    cmake \
    double-conversion \
    gettext \
    gsl \
    gspell \
    gtkmm4 \
    gtksourceview5 \
    imagemagick \
    intltool \
    lcms2 \
    libomp \
    libsoup@2 \
    libxslt \
    ninja \
    pkg-config \
    poppler \
    potrace

You may substitute imagemagick with graphicsmagick.

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.

Tested with:

• M1 MacBook Air with macOS 11.6 and Inkscape 1.2-dev
• M2 MacBook Air with macOS 13.0.1 and Inkscape 1.2.1, 1.2.x from git.
• M2 Mac Mini with macOS 14.2 and Inkscape 1.4-dev. (After adding pkg-config.)
• VM with macOS 15.1 and Inkscape 1.5-dev (master branch)

# 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

Packaging

If $PREFIX/bin/inkscape works when executed and you want to turn it into an app or a DMG, have a look at the files inside the inkscape/packaging/macos directory. More info can be found on upstream mibap:

• https://github.com/dehesselle/mibap

Follow the steps to install the toolset, package the app, and create a DMG. In case you use upstream mibap, you will get the app under /Users/Shared/work/mibap-*/ and you will get a DMG file in the same place you ran ./build_inkscape.sh.

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