Release notes/1.2

These Release Notes are in Draft Status. Important Links: Commit History Main Program (starting from: xxx) Commit History Extensions (starting from: xxx) Commit History Documentation (starting from: xxx)

Pending questions: …

Release highlights

Definitely not released yet.

Important changes for packagers

• New dependency on python-cssselect added which is required for usage of Inkscape extensions (MR #3239)

General user interface

Spinboxes are have smaller buttons and less padding. This can be turned off in Preferences > Interface : Use narrow number entry boxes https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3358

Canvas

Snapping

Alignment and Distribution snapping

Three new modes of on-canvas snapping have been added. These new modes make aligning and distributing objects a very easy drag and drop operation.

Alignment Guides

are horizontal or vertical lines that only appear when you're editing objects on the canvas. Temporary guide lines appear if the selected object can be aligned relative to another object on the canvas. Once a guide does occur, the movement of the selection is constrained in the general direction of the guide which makes placing objects on the canvas easier.

Self snapping

is useful for node editing. Nodes will snap to thier own geometry

Distribution Guides

are also a new feature added to Inkscape. These are spacing guides that appear in between equally spaced objects. These guides make it easier to place objects at equal distance from each other. These guides also appear in horizontal or vertical direction based on the optimum snap position.

The new snapping options can be enabled or disabled from the Snap toolbar using the following new options:

• Alignment Snapping : Toggle alignment snapping for objects.
  • Self snapping : Toggle alignment snapping for nodes in the same path while editing nodes.
• Distribution snapping : Toggle distribution snapping.

Alignment and distribution snapping also have their separately configurable snap tolerances which can be adjusted in Document Properties > Snap. Both Alignment and Distribution snapping also have a preference to show snap distances which can be enabled or disabled from Preference > Snapping > Show snap distance in case of alignment or distribution snap.

Related Merge Request: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3294

Tools

Selector Tool

Custom Origin

You can edit the Origin of the selection. By clicking on one of 8 canvas handles <-> changes the origin/ anchor point of the selection. After that, you will see a big gray cross from a new origin. This change will be reflected in the toolbar from where you can edit position and size with precise numbers. This is useful if you want to move/scale a selection with a precise number in mind. You can also move origin anywhere by dragging on the middle handle + .

2700

Text Tool

New feature padding knot to flow box 2769

SVG 2.0 flowed text allows for shape-padding and shape-subtract attributes, allowing for the text to flow into a shape and leave some space between it's edges and where the text will start to flow as well as subtracting shapes with margin, which allows text to flow around other objects in the scene. These attributes were supported in Inkscape 1.0, but not exposed to the user. This version of Inkscape includes both an adjustable on-canvas knot for changing the padding as well as a Text menu item for setting text subtraction properties with a further knot to adjust it's margins.

[See merge request for animated gifs to add here]

Dialogs

Trace Bitmap

Claen up of ui: Added sliders , fixed live preveiw, dialog is responsive

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3405

Color pallet and Swaches

We improved Look and settings options of this two panels. Scrolling is now posible just on vertical axies

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/2881

Aligment and distribution

We fused arrange dialogs into one dialog Aligment and distribution . its in 3 tabs with more user frendly names and small visual tweeks

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3382

Objects dialog

we remade Objects dialog from scrach .

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/2466

SVG Font Editor

Bug fixes and small face lift of the dialog

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3381

Fill and Stroke dialog

Gradient Editor is back

A replacement for the gradient editor was added to the Fill and Stroke dialog (MR #2688, But UX#67).

Users can now add, edit and delete gradient stops directly in the 'Fill and Stroke' dialog.

New stops can be added by double clicking on the gradient preview, and can be deleted by selecting them and pressing the Del or Backspace key. Their position can be adjusted with the mouse by dragging the stops along the gradient preview, or numerically using stop offset option for more precise adjustments.

The Gradient tool toolbar options `repeat mode`, `reverse gradient direction`, a gradient selection library and a list of all stops have been added here, too, so all the options pertaining to gradients are in easy reach.

Another way to add, edit and delete single stops is to use the list of gradient stops. Users can add stops by clicking on the + button, and can delete them by clicking on the - button.

With the new gradient selection dropdown, users can duplicate gradients by clicking on the + button.

Users can offset (move) the first and last stops of a gradient. The color beyond the last/first gradient stop is uniformly that of the last/first stop and it becomes transparent where the gradient postion handles end.

Other small changes

we reorder caps https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3402

Customization

Cursors

Drop shadow is now optional for mouse cursors. You can turn it off in Preferences > Interface : Enable Scaling and Preferences > Interface : Show drop shadow

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3352

Notable bugfixes

Even more bug fixes

There were even more issues fixed than those listed above, but these probably only affect a small portion of users, or are relevant for development and packaging only.

For a complete list, visit our GitLab issue tracker and see the commit history.

Translations

The following UI translations received updates:

• …

The Windows installer translation was updated for [2021-03-03]:

• …

The following documentation translations received updates:

• …

Contributing to interface translations

Want to help with translations? Learn how to help!

Documentation

• …

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.

Known issues

• Gradient editing [as of 2021-06-26]:
  • Gradient collecting is problematic. It deletes your gradient if it's not used by any other object. Will be fixed with 3361
  • If you convert your gradient to swatch, the gradient editor cannot be used for editing it anymore.
  • The first click after exiting the gradient library is ignored.
  • Canvas stops and gradient editor stops highlighting will stop working in some cases.

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