Adobe Illustrator's open source rival Inkscape 1.0.1 arrives - with experimental Scribus PDF export
(2020/09/09)
- Reference: 1599640206
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/09/inkscape_1_0_1/
- Source link:
Users accustomed to lengthy waits between releases will be surprised to find open-source vector graphic outfit, Inkscape, has squeezed out [1]version 1.0.1 of its editor mere months after the version 1.0 milestone was achieved.
It took 16 years for Inkscape to hit 1.0 last May and [2]we came away impressed by the polish of the cross-platform vector graphic editor.
While ostensibly a patch release for the inevitable bugs, the Inkscape team has popped in a number of features, some of which had been lurking beneath the covers of the previous release. The Selectors and CSS dialog which had been flagged as experimental in v1 has turned up in the Object menu and makes it possible to tinker with CSS properties saved in an element's style attribute.
Other new toys allow a user to list all colours in a document and Interpolate extension will now interpolate gradients in fills rather than just flat colours.
Most interesting is the arrival of an experimental Scribus PDF export extension which will squirt out a colour-managed CMYK PDF file with text converted to curves. The feature will be of great interest to those seeking to send something a bit more professional to the printers.
Scribus itself is a cross-platform open-source page layout program, and some knowledge of how it works would be handy before leaping feet-first into the experiment export extension. SVG features not supported by Scribus should not be used, along with bitmaps and filters. Scribus 1.5.x is also required.
We took it for a spin under Windows 10 and while Inkscape remains both stable and simple to use, there are a few rough edges: the GUI is not entirely consistent and Inkscape does not seem overly impressed with multi-monitor set-ups (clicking "About Inkscape", for example, resulted in a game of hunt-the-window on our system.)
There are installers for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows as well as binaries for Linux. A macOS version remains "coming soon" for the time being. ®
Get our [3]Tech Resources
[1] https://inkscape.org/news/2020/09/06/inkscape-version-101-patches-crashes-bugs/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/06/inkscape_v1/
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
It took 16 years for Inkscape to hit 1.0 last May and [2]we came away impressed by the polish of the cross-platform vector graphic editor.
While ostensibly a patch release for the inevitable bugs, the Inkscape team has popped in a number of features, some of which had been lurking beneath the covers of the previous release. The Selectors and CSS dialog which had been flagged as experimental in v1 has turned up in the Object menu and makes it possible to tinker with CSS properties saved in an element's style attribute.
Other new toys allow a user to list all colours in a document and Interpolate extension will now interpolate gradients in fills rather than just flat colours.
Most interesting is the arrival of an experimental Scribus PDF export extension which will squirt out a colour-managed CMYK PDF file with text converted to curves. The feature will be of great interest to those seeking to send something a bit more professional to the printers.
Scribus itself is a cross-platform open-source page layout program, and some knowledge of how it works would be handy before leaping feet-first into the experiment export extension. SVG features not supported by Scribus should not be used, along with bitmaps and filters. Scribus 1.5.x is also required.
We took it for a spin under Windows 10 and while Inkscape remains both stable and simple to use, there are a few rough edges: the GUI is not entirely consistent and Inkscape does not seem overly impressed with multi-monitor set-ups (clicking "About Inkscape", for example, resulted in a game of hunt-the-window on our system.)
There are installers for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows as well as binaries for Linux. A macOS version remains "coming soon" for the time being. ®
Get our [3]Tech Resources
[1] https://inkscape.org/news/2020/09/06/inkscape-version-101-patches-crashes-bugs/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/06/inkscape_v1/
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: I need some pointers
GrumpenKraut
> Is it just a question of investing a little more time?
Yes, though you may need more than "little more" time. Powerful software tends to be complex. Just take a look at blender: initially you are likely unable to do *anything* at all (certainly true for me).
If you use such software more than very occasionally that time is a very good investment.
I need some pointers
I remember using one of the earliest versions of Corel Draw. I never produced anything worth writing home about, but I did feel I could use the tool for some basic graphics.
With Inkskape 1.0 it felt as if I hit a wall as soon as the canvas revealed itself. I have to google tutorials for every little thing I want to play around with. Very frustrating.
Is it just a question of investing a little more time?