Release notes/1.4.2

These Release Notes are in Draft Status. Important Links: Commit History Main Program Commit History Extensions Commit History Documentation

Pending questions: …

Definitely not released yet.

Changes and Bug Fixes

Inkscape 1.4.2 is a maintenance and bugfix release, which brings you fixes for many critical or irritating bugs, and even a few new features.

The most important fixes and changes in this release are:

• a new splash screen, providing a visual cue while Inkscape loads in the background
• initial support for importing Vectornator / Linearity Curve files
• a new extension to Clean up Paths
• substantially improved #Improvements_in_Particular_ExtensionsAffinity Designer files (.afdesign) import
• 20 crash/freeze fixes, many of which affected PDF import
• more than 50 bug fixes and small improvements, among them improvements to Boolean operations, layer selection, minimal window width and restoration of Spray tool buttons' functionality
• and 13 updated translations!

General Crash Fixes

• Inkscape no longer crashes on startup if a recently used file has multiple entries in recently-used.xbel (Bug #5311, MR #7014)
• CMS profiles with non-ASCII characters do not cause Inkscape to crash (Bug #5377, MR #7014)

General User Interface

• Some toolbars now have more collapsible groups, allowing Inkscape to fit on 720p screens (Bug #4987, MR #6910, MR #6707).
• A new splash screen has been added, letting users know that Inkscape is loading. This can be turned off in Edit > Preferences > Interface > Windows
• Closing the Welcome dialog does not create a new window (Bug #6746,MR #6584).
• Status bar hint for guides has been updated to explain how to access the guide's Edit dialog (MR #6772).
• Moving with arrow keys works for non integer values of nudge (Bug #5308,MR #6830).
• Modular grid now renders with inverted y-axis (MR #6917).
• Updated graphics for the new version number (MR #7110)
• Keyboard modifier names (Alt, Ctrl, Shift,...) are now translatable (MR #6941).

• 

  Inkscape's new splash screen at first run

• 

  The splash screen shown on further starts

• 

  Preferences setting for startup behavior

Dialogs

Align and Distribute Dialog

• Irrelevant alignment options are now correctly hidden on opening the Align and Distribute dialog (Bug #5187, MR #6730).

Document Properties Dialog

• Editing grids in the Document Properties dialog no longer results in a freeze (Bug #5612, MR #7083)

Export Dialog

• Batch Export: If the given export directory does not exist yet, Inkscape will ask whether it should be created (MR #6882).

Fill and Stroke Dialog

• Colors of Asian patterns can now be changed (Bug #9089,MR #6748)

Layers and Objects Dialog

• Selecting multiple objects using the Layers dialog no longer results in bugs/crashes (Bug #5454, MR #6982, MR #6983)
• Children of selected groups now look as if they are selected, too (MR #6983)
• Layers are no longer selected as if they were a group when you click on them, but only become the 'current layer' (Bug #11687, MR #6992)
• Addition of layers without an active layer does not lead to a crash. (Bug #5593, MR #7072)
• The context menu now also appears on right-click when the Layers and Objects dialog is floating (Bug #5660, MR #7123)

Swatches Dialog

• .ase color palettes using the LAB color space are imported correctly (Bug #5372,MR #6809)
• Loading color palettes through the dialog no longer crashes (Bug #5448, MR #6895)

XML Editor Dialog

• A crash on editing large embedded objects in the href attribute has been fixed by opening a mini-editor when trying to edit a link content (Bug #5556, MR #7079)

Tools

Calligraphy Tool

• Missing end-parentheses in tooltips have been restored MR #6486

Ellipse Tool

• Circles no longer move to an unpredictable position when using Undo (Bug #11365, MR #6837)

Measure Tool

• The Measure tool's toolbar now uses more descriptive names for its three sets of 'Options' (Bug #5160,MR #6815)

Node Tool

• Inkscape no longer crashes on Undo after node operations (delete, join, break path...) that changed which nodes are selected (Bug #4447,Bug #4599,Bug #4893,Bug #5028,MR #6701)

Shape Builder

• Shape builder no longer deforms circles that intersect with other shapes (Bug #4453,MR #6152).

Spray Tool

• Toggling the Spray tool options for spraying over opaque and transparent areas works instantly again (Bug #5600, Bug #5275, MR #7065)

Text Tool

• Inkscape no longer freezes when versions of Noto Color Emoji Fonts containing SVG glyphs are used (Bug #5368,MR #6827).

Clipboard

• Pasting Mesh Gradient no longer crashes (Bug #5350 MR #6865)
• Copying clones pointing to objects in a different open document does not crash anymore (Bug #5282, MR #6868).
• Copy-Pasting clones of groups moved to a different layers now works (Bug #5422,MR #6921)
• Pasting doesn't open a new window if SVG import mode is set to 'new' (MR #6929)

Images

• Making a bitmap copy now respects antialias setting (MR #6925).

Import / Export

• Inkscape no longer crashes when importing a PDF file with Type-3/Bitmap Colored fonts (Bug #5235, MR #6811).
• PDF import handles consecutive clippings properly (Bug #4135,MR #6912).
• The new PDF importer now handles character and word spacing in text properly (Bug #5367, MR #6828).
• Inkscape now automatically appends the correct extension upon changing file type (Bug #5246,MR #6768)
• Links are no longer misplaced when exporting to PDF (Bug #5299, MR #6779).
• Documents with links no longer fail to export under non-English locales (Bug #5354,MR #6816).
• Invalid URIs do not lead to crashes on export (Bug #5249,MR #6856).
• Inkscape defaults to SVG and not WMF if no extension if provided (Bug #5490,MR #6952)
• Opening a recently used PDF file as well as canceling to open such a file from the Commands bar no longer causes a crash (Bug #4413 , MR #7124)

Live Path Effects

• Boolean LPE: Difference mode can now handle holes properly (Bug #3265,MR #6152)
• Mirror LPE can now handle multi-page documents (Bug #5321,Bug #3648,MR #6817)
• Missing parameters in Perspective LPE have been restored (Bug #5297, MR #6759)
• PowerStroke LPE can now handle empty sub-paths properly (Bug #5263, MR #7020)
• Trying to join subpaths of a path with the Corners LPE no longer crashes Inkscape (Bug #4927, MR #7094)

Path Operations

• Boolean operations now respect fill-rule even if it is specified as a separate attribute (Bug #5437,MR #6876).
• Better division for paths containing arcs (circles and ellipses, for example) Bug #2875,MR #6152.
• Intersection on circles produces better result (Bug #3543,MR #6152).

Keyboard Shortcuts

• The shortcuts for aligning objects no longer require numpad (MR #6970)
• Shortcuts that contain braces { can now be reassigned (Bug #5333, MR #7031)
• The shortcuts for transforms respect selected anchor (Bug #5456, MR #6898)
• The shortcuts for Previous / Next Zoom Level work properly again (Bug #5588, MR#7128)

Extensions

New Extensions

• Initial support for import of Vectornator / Linearity Curve files. The import extensions is under active development. Please report all issues you encounter to the repository of the subproject.
• An extension to Clean up paths was added. The extension removes duplicate nodes and nodes closer than a given threshold. There is also an option to close paths and join subpaths if the nodes are separated by less than given thresholds. The extension can be found in Extensions > Modify Path -> Clean up path. Try it out! (MR extensions#499)

Dialog of the new extension for cleaning up paths

Improvements in Particular Extensions

• Many new features supported for the import of proprietary Affinity Designer files, such as:
  • more complex vector masks (vector masks of vector masks, vector masks with transparency, multiple vector masks)
  • linked and embedded images, including stroke on images
  • less nested groups, more natural editing of imported objects
  • read additional shapes: Pie, Ring, Polygon (incl. curvature), Cloud, Double star, Square star, Star (rounded tips, curved sides), Crescent, Segment, Heart, Tear
  • invert adjustment
  • symbols
• Various improvements to the DXF12 export: Colors are now included when saving DXF12 files (MR extensions#669) and DXF12 output now supports closed paths (MR extensions#673).
• When loading DXF files, Inkscape will preserve color in POLYLINE objects. (MR extensions#672)
• The Printing Marks extension now supports negative bleed values. It's useful to specify negative bleed when for example importing an image into inkscape that's prepared with some bleed margin in mind, but without printing marks. You can then specify negative bleed margin so it "cuts in" into the imported image, reflecting its intended bleed margin. (MR extensions#666)
• The typst formula extension no longer renders a white rectangle along with the formula (MR extensions#659)

Improvements and Fixes for All Extensions

• The text-decoration CSS shorthand is now correctly parsed (MR extensions#657)
• Fixed a problem with argument parsing on Python 3.14 (MR extensions#668)

Extension Development

• Added documentation on how to set the icon of an extension in the extension gallery (MR extensions#660)
• 3rd-party extension authors can now use inkex's type information more easily (MR extensions#674)
• inkex now works with Numpy 2 (MR extensions#661)

Command Line

• shell --export-page=all now correctly exports all pages (Bug #4850, MR #6833)
• A few incorrect commands in the man page have been fixed (MR documentation#322)

Linux-specific Fixes

• Printing from the Snap-packaged Inkscape no longer crashes (Bug #1734,MR #6947).
• Export dialog behaves properly in the Snap version (Bug #3648, Bug #4015, MR #6893).
• Drag and Drop in the Layers dialog no longer stops working after the first time on KDE Wayland (Bug #5182, MR #7030)

Windows-specific Fixes

• Scrolling through fonts with certain fonts installed no longer crashes Inkscape (Bug inkscape#4224, Pango MR #794).
• The Windows MSI Installer has been upgraded to WiX v4, fixing several issues (Bug #1617, Bug #1618, Bug #4679, MR #6582, MR #6576).
• Page size can now be edited without freezes (Bug #5391,MR #6824).
• Selecting large image files using the filepicker no longer crashes inkscape (Bug #11741, MR #6988)

MacOS-specific Fixes

• Inkscape doesn't crash anymore when the Preferences dialog is opened after closing a window (Bug #5484,MR #6943).

Improvements for Development / Deployment / Testing / Translating

• Failing snap package builds have been fixed (MR #6819)
• Some refactoring and code maintenance (spread over multiple MRs)
• Translations for many terms are now easier to do, because a comment for translators has been added (MR #6950).
• A new Weblate instance has been set up to simplify translating. It has already been used by our team for the translations for 1.4.2! We are currently in the process of fine-tuning the settings before we will expand access to a wider group.

Translations

The following user interface translations received updates (as of May 3):

• Arabic
• Belarusian
• Czech
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Hebrew
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Italian
• Polish
• Simplified Chinese
• Slovak

Contributing to interface translations

Want to help with translations? Learn how to help!

Documentation

The following documentation translations received updates:

• Simplified Chinese

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 (1.4.1, 1.4.2 next bugfix release)
• 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