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: …

Release highlights

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 two 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
• improved Affinity Designer files (.afdesign) import
• more than X crash/freeze fixes, many of which affected PDF import
• improvements to boolean operations
• and almost Y more bug fixes

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 Preference > 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 show effect of double clicking on guide (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).

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: Missing directory prompts creation of directory (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 show highlights (MR #6983)
• Layers are now only set as current on first click, not selected (Bug #11687, MR #6992)
• Addition of layers without an active layer does not lead to a crash. (Bug #5593, MR #7072)

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 has been fixed (Bug #5556, MR #7079)

Tools

Calligraphy Tool

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

Ellipse Tool

• SVG attributes of circles are updated correctly (Bug #11365, MR #6837)

Measure Tool

• Measure toolbar no longer has multiple 'Options' popovers (Bug #5160,MR #6815)

Node Tool

• Inkscape no longer crashes on undo after node operations (Bug #4447,Bug #4599,Bug #4893,Bug #5028,MR #6701)

Spray Tool

• Toggling spray tool options works instantly and does not require restarting (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).

Images

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

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)

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)

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.
• Shape builder no longer deforms circles that intersect with other shapes (Bug #4453,MR #6152).
• Intersection on circles produces better result (Bug #3543,MR #6152).

Live Path Effects

• Boolean LPE: Difference mode can now handle holes properly (Bug #3265,MR #6152)
• Mirror paths LPE can now handle Multipage 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)

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Shortcuts for aligning no longer require numpad (MR #6970)
• Shortcuts that contain braces { can now be reassigned (Bug #5333, MR #7031)
• Shortcuts for transforms respect selected anchor (Bug #5456, MR #6898)

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 Modify Path -> Clean up path. Try it out! (MR extensions!499)

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 was updated to work better with typst>=0.12 (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)

Linux-specific Fixes

• Printing from Snap Package no longer crashes (Bug #1734,MR #6947).
• Export dialog behaves properly (Snap version) (Bug #3648, Bug #4015, MR #6893).
• Drag and Drop in the Layers dialog no longer stops working after the first time [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 when preferences is invoked after closing window (Bug #5484,MR #6943).

Improvements for development / deployment / testing

• Failing snap package builds have been fixed (MR #6819)

Translations

Several parts of the UI are now translatable now have better context (MR #6941, MR #6950).

The following UI translations received updates:

• Belarusian
• Chinese - simplified
• German
• Polish
• French
• Dutch
• Slovak

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.

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