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

The padding of the + / - buttons for number entry fields has been reduced, so those fields now take up considerably less space. If you prefer the wider buttons, this can be turned off in Preferences > Interface : Use narrow number entry boxes . (MR #3358)

Canvas

Snapping

Snapping Settings

Snapping settings got unifed and settings are nolonger saved in to svg file but to to preferences inside of inkscape. All snapping settings are moved to Preferences> Behaiviour > Snapping

Snapping Toolbar

Snapping toobar got removed and replaced with new simplified snappinng pop over. You can find it in top Right corner ass a toggle swich with arrow for changeg preferences.

Preferences has two modes:

• Simple - 3 options (Bounding box, paths, Aligment snapping). This should be good simple preset for most of users needs.
• Advanced - All granualr control over every snapping option. This provides all funcionality for pro users

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.

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.

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.

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]

- kerning options moved to pop over to save spce in toolbar https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3434

Dialogs

General

You can hide the docking area on the left or right on the screen with a single mouse action now! Click on the vertical ... or drag the bar past 50% percent of the minimal dock width (MR #2969)

• 

  Toggle to hide/unhide dock

Preferences

Preferences zoom ruler respect theme look https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3450

Trace Bitmap

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

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

Color pallete and Swatches

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

Alignment and distribute

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

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

Layers and Objects dialog

We fused Layres and objects dialog in to new improved dialog.

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

SVG Font Editor

Bug fixes, small face lift and UX improvments of the dialog

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3396

Text and Font dialog

The dialog's width has been reduced, so it won't take up excessive amounts of space when docked (MR #3314).

Transform dialog

We cleaned up this dialog, reduced width and added explanation for metric transformations

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.

Markers

Markers have new dropdown options where you can control size offset and rotation of markers. This alloved us to remove duplicate markres so UI is much easier to navigate

You can also edit size rotation and offset of markers on canvas. By clicking on edit button in syle tab under marker

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3420

Custom Dash storkes

We added UI for editing custom dash strok pattern. Click on Custom option inside a dashstroke drodown and this field will be shown under it. Now you can add your custom pattern by typing numbers (dash gap dash gap ...)

Other small changes

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

color modes are hidden to dropdown. There is an option in preferences to change old look back https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3443

Customization

Themes

• A contrast slider was added for finetuning the selected theme's colors at Preferences ⯈ Interface ⯈ Themeing: Contrast (MR #906)

• 

  The contrast slider allows to fine-tune the theme's colors

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

UI

You can change what you see in down infobar. By defoult no changes are made just option to turn off informations https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/3445

Toolbars

 Preferences > interface > toolbars  

You can control size of the icons and also customize with tools are visible in a toolbar(toolbox).

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