Inkscape 0.42 looks SWEET!

[senectus]

Has anyone seen the latest release? Any chance this will be in Breezy or better yet "backports" ?
Looks very nicely done.. I'm really going to have to learn how to use that with some skill I think.

[maruchan]

I installed the pre-release version with an autopackage. It really is nice! I made my avatar with it, as well as this, just for fun:

http://www.friendlyskies.net/7-14-05p.png

[panickedthumb]

*LOL*

what the heck?!

[dataw0lf]

.... 'Knicks' ? Or perhaps there's some subtle humor I'm missing? Either way, your art rocks. Good job.

[maruchan]

.... 'Knicks' ?

Well, how was I supposed to know? I live in California.

:)

[senectus]

holy cow.. that rocks dude.. How much time did it take you to knock that up?

[ayk]

I installed the pre-release version with an autopackage. It really is nice! I made my avatar with it, as well as this, just for fun:

http://www.friendlyskies.net/7-14-05p.png
It rocks ! Can you provide the svgz files ?

[NoTiG]

Is inkscape meant to do what gimp can? or something else? Ill have to dl it. One thing i noticed ... is that its coded in C++ whereas gimp uses plain C. What exactly is SVG? scalable vector graphics? will have to read about it......

[senectus]

What exactly is SVG? scalable vector graphics?

Yes.


That's it's whole purpose in life.. SVG.
And it does it really very well.

[maruchan]

holy cow.. that rocks dude.. How much time did it take you to knock that up?

Thanks! It took just under 5 hours.

It rocks ! Can you provide the svgz files ?

Thank you, but I can't provide the file at this time. I have adapted this for a commercial project and I don't want the client to go apenuts on me. If you have any questions about how it was created though, feel free to ask.

Edit: I should mention that I'm very, very happy with where Inkscape is right now; not only is it a capable vector editing app, but there has been a lot of innovation that would be great for a *proprietary* graphics package, let alone free software. The nice thing about free software like this: You don't pay for the professional version.

[BWF89]

The official Inkscape website is very slow so I can't answer my questions by myself there.

But how is Inkscape different from The GIMP?

[Mr. Electric Wizard]

Inkscape is a vector graphics program.
I is independent of screen resolution, meaning that you can zoom in as much as you want and the edges will still be perfect, etc.
Similar to Adobe Illustrator.
TheGIMP is a image editor (obviously), and you are limited by screen resolutions.

I hope I was clear.

BTW, sweet artwork maruchan!

[maruchan]

But how is Inkscape different from The GIMP?

Do you know the difference between raster images and vector images? A common example of a raster (or bitmap) image would be a photo. If you zoom in on a raster image, it gets really blocky looking, like it's a mosaic made of little squares. The GIMP is meant for raster image editing. Programs like this are commonly referred to as "painting" or "photo/image editing" applications.

Inkscape is a vector editor, commonly called a "drawing" application. Vector images are basically just lots of coordinates and mathematics. If you zoom in on a vector image, it doesn't look blocky or pixelized at all, because the image is defined by mathematical curves and lines, not by a mosaic of pixels. However, you can't really do fancy photo editing in a vector-editing program. Inkscape does have a cool feature that will "trace" your photos and turn them into vector art.

SVG is one type of vector image file format. Others include .AI (Adobe Illustrator), .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), and .CDR (Corel Draw).

The GIMP has an SVG import plugin that should be available through Synaptic. You can use it to import your Inkscape artwork as bezier curves, which can be quite handy.

Also, the 3D application Art of Illusion (http://aoi.sf.net) has an SVG import plugin available that allows you to import complex SVG shapes (like text, etc.) and use them to make 3D objects.

[Mr. Electric Wizard]

Very good explanation, I actually remember some of that stuff from college...
Ahhh, college... O:)

[sonny]

Does this program read and write CorelDraw files?

[maruchan]

Does this program read and write CorelDraw files?

Not directly, no. If you want to use Corel artwork, you should export from Corel to a different format like SVG if possible.

[majikstreet]

Where can you find some nice tutorials to make stuff in Inkscape?

All I can say is wow! Maruchan, nice work!

[maruchan]

Majikstreet, there are some excellent tutorials included with Inkscape, located in Help > Tutorials. They cover everything from the basics to calligraphy.

[BWF89]

Do you know the difference between raster images and vector images? A common example of a raster (or bitmap) image would be a photo. If you zoom in on a raster image, it gets really blocky looking, like it's a mosaic made of little squares. The GIMP is meant for raster image editing. Programs like this are commonly referred to as "painting" or "photo/image editing" applications.

Inkscape is a vector editor, commonly called a "drawing" application. Vector images are basically just lots of coordinates and mathematics. If you zoom in on a vector image, it doesn't look blocky or pixelized at all, because the image is defined by mathematical curves and lines, not by a mosaic of pixels. However, you can't really do fancy photo editing in a vector-editing program. Inkscape does have a cool feature that will "trace" your photos and turn them into vector art.

SVG is one type of vector image file format. Others include .AI (Adobe Illustrator), .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), and .CDR (Corel Draw).

The GIMP has an SVG import plugin that should be available through Synaptic. You can use it to import your Inkscape artwork as bezier curves, which can be quite handy.

Also, the 3D application Art of Illusion (http://aoi.sf.net) has an SVG import plugin available that allows you to import complex SVG shapes (like text, etc.) and use them to make 3D objects.
Thanks for the lesson. I might get Inkscape when versino 1.0 comes out. I learned not to use the beta stuff when a beta version of GIMP prevented me from useing it for almost 2 months.

[sonny]

Not directly, no. If you want to use Corel artwork, you should export from Corel to a different format like SVG if possible.
I'm not thinking about the artwork, but the files a user made. Because I'm planning to switch my mom to Linux, but I want to solve all the possible problems before they arrive, and one of those is the Corel files she's made, cuz she makes designs and most of the stuff she has are pretty valuable for her, so I'm looking for a Corel counterpart wich can read those files.

PS: I've tried to run Corel 11 on Wine without success.

[majikstreet]

Majikstreet, there are some excellent tutorials included with Inkscape, located in Help > Tutorials. They cover everything from the basics to calligraphy.
Thanks,
Once I get my system working I'll have a look.

[latrine]

Try to export them in SVG ans run inkscape for windows to see how she copes with it...

I gave it a spin today, some really nice features, but it seems very slow with hawfull response times... specially when working with text...

maybe its my pentium 4 1.7 and inboard graphics that kill the program... :|

[graigsmith]

i did this in inkscape. i was gonna try to compile the new version of inkscape but it requires a garbage collecting library one version higher that what is in the repositories. so i stopped trying. is there an easy to install package to get the latest version of inkscape?

http://webpages.charter.net/graigsmith/pika.png

[maruchan]

Cute, graigsmith!!! Very good work.

Here is the autopackage d/l link:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/inkscape/inkscape-0.42.x86.package?download

If you've never used an autopackage before, it's pretty easy (similar to a Windows install), but go to autopackage.org for details.

Edit: btw latrine (interesting nick!), it isn't the fastest app, is it? Anyway, it works fine for me.

[DirtDawg]

When I first tried Inkscape a year or so ago I thought it had some polishing to do (my avatar was done in Illustrator :( ) I agree it has come a long way since then. In fact, the "trace bitmap" feature alone is worth the price of admission. And the caligraphy tool is super nice.

[maruchan]

Yes, trace bitmap is very cool! I use it all the time, even when I'm using Illustrator :D

BTW, very cool comics on your site! I enjoyed visiting.

[DirtDawg]

Yes, trace bitmap is very cool! I use it all the time, even when I'm using Illustrator :D

BTW, very cool comics on your site! I enjoyed visiting.

Thanks! I've never built a website before and I'm still learning as I go. Thanks for the feedback. :)

[Apex]

i did this in inkscape. i was gonna try to compile the new version of inkscape but it requires a garbage collecting library one version higher that what is in the repositories. so i stopped trying. is there an easy to install package to get the latest version of inkscape?

http://webpages.charter.net/graigsmith/pika.png

switch repositories to breezy install the package for whatever you need to compile it- change reposiories back to hoary. That's what I did and she's runnin great on ubuntu 64 :)

[BWF89]

I'm downloading / installing Inkscape to see what the crazy is all about.

[miscz]

Thanks for the lesson. I might get Inkscape when versino 1.0 comes out. I learned not to use the beta stuff when a beta version of GIMP prevented me from useing it for almost 2 months.
Inkscape is pretty stable and complete application since 0.3x versions. It never crashed on me and available tools are usually more than enough to get the job done.

[BWF89]

Inkscape is pretty stable and complete application since 0.3x versions. It never crashed on me and available tools are usually more than enough to get the job done.
I played around with it yesterday but I want to know what's the point in having programs like Illustraitor or Inkscape? When your making a website you can't upload the image as the SVG file format that programs like that use which prevents them from becoming blocky no matter how close up you get to the image.

[miscz]

In my experience vector graphics have many uses. For example, when I wanted to create a t-shirt with some logo/image it was easiest to vectorize some simple raster graphics and then scale them so that they would have acceptable size and DPI. Vectors perform very nicely as an icon format since you only have to create them once and not for every possible size (they don't look very well when scaled down too much tough).

Firefox 1.5 will support SVG so it will be a little closer to becoming a widely accepted format altough we'll have to wait 20 years before Internet Explorer will do the same ;)

[maruchan]

When your making a website you can't upload the image

Well, my browser (http://www.opera.com) lets me view Inkscape SVGs. Doesn't yours? :D

which prevents them from becoming blocky no matter how close up you get to the image.

While that's a nice side effect of vector graphics (and maybe Google or someone will start leveraging that behavior soon), the fact that you can zoom in without seeing pixels is not the point. The point is, if you are an illustrator, you get an incredibly flexible and efficient design and distribution system:

For design, you can copy/paste/rotate/scale objects and edit points at will. Any part of your illustration can be reused immediately somewhere else. This is real efficiency, because the transition from artist to editor is made practically seamless.

For distribution, maybe this is fairly obvious, but scaling *up* (not zooming in) is the cool part. You can design something that's 2 inches across on your computer screen and the next week have it printed on a 50-foot banner without compromising image integrity.

Does that clear things up a little?

Edit: I'm not sure if you already knew this, but you can export SVGs from Inkscape into raster formats like PNG if you need to.

[DirtDawg]

For design, you can copy/paste/rotate/scale objects and edit points at will. Any part of your illustration can be reused immediately somewhere else. This is real efficiency, because the transition from artist to editor is made practically seamless.

This is especially true with web design. It would be nice to create just 1 image with the ability for multiple reuse without resizing. The only svg viewer plug-in I've found is from Adobe and I don't think too many people have bothered installing it. These two things have prevented me from using svg files, as incredibly cool as they are.
2 questions:
Is there some reason HTML couldn't one day read vector art without a plug-in?
And:
Is anyone else having trouble getting screenshots of the new Inkscape from the website? It's not working for me and it appears there's a few more tools in the toolbox that I'd like to have a look at.

[maruchan]

Well, as far as Inkscape.org goes, it looks like they're having problems with their site.

As for your HTML question, HTML and SVG are meant to co-exist. The way your web browser works is, it stands in between you and the plain-text HTML, and "renders" the HTML (and CSS) into fancy text and imagery for you. Otherwise, you'd just see the contents of the HTML file.

The only reason some browsers display SVGs as plain text now is because they lack equivalent rendering code that works with the SVG specification. This should be forthcoming for most browsers that don't have it. Opera implemented this a while ago, so I don't see the text of an SVG file now when I click on it; I see the image itself because Opera intercepts it and renders it for me. If Firefox and IE don't do this yet, hopefully they will soon.

The problem with IE is, Microsoft doesn't mind forcing users to have the Adobe SVG plugin, which sucks. IMO, they should just build it into the browser.

[Burgundavia]

This may make Breezy. It is in main, so I must convince the various powers that be that .42 is a good thing.

Corey

[senectus]

This may make Breezy. It is in main, so I must convince the various powers that be that .42 is a good thing.

Corey
That would be cool.. hey worse case scenario is that it gets into the breezy backports.. :-P

[panickedthumb]

maruchan, how do you trace your photos into SVG? I'm playing around with this now, but I can't seem to find it.

[Burgundavia]

1. Import them
2. Path-->Trace Bitmap

Enjoy!

Corey

[senectus]

maruchan, how do you trace your photos into SVG? I'm playing around with this now, but I can't seem to find it.

you mean "Path > Trace Bitmap" ?
(btw the inbuilt tutorials in the help menu cover this pretty nicely)

[panickedthumb]

Sorry I wasn't thinking when I typed. I CAN find it, but when I click "go" or whatever it is, it just sits there like nothing happened.

[maruchan]

After it just sits there, click on your image and drag it...is the original underneath? You may have traced the image without even knowing it.

[UbuWu]

You must first select the image you want to trace... maybe that helps.

[UbuWu]

Yes, trace bitmap is very cool! I use it all the time, even when I'm using Illustrator :D

I hope they build in autotrace support sometime...

http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/

The current trace feature is great, but only does black/white tracing. Autotrace can trace multiple colours.

(It is in the ubuntu repositories, but it is commandline only. There is a web interface at http://roitsystems.com/cgi-bin/r2v/tracer.pl )

[maruchan]

Cool, checking it out.

[DirtDawg]

I hope they build in autotrace support sometime...

http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/

The current trace feature is great, but only does black/white tracing. Autotrace can trace multiple colours.

(It is in the ubuntu repositories, but it is commandline only. There is a web interface at http://roitsystems.com/cgi-bin/r2v/tracer.pl )

Am I confused or missing something? The autotrace in Inkscape does color like a champ! Just use the multiple scanning feature.

[maruchan]

Heh, I was about to say that, but then I thought maybe he was just confused - it looks like Autotrace can only do B&W, from the screenshots.

[UbuWu]

Not confused, just still using inkscape .40 from hoary :grin: The multiple scanning option was added in .41 I just found out... that's great! Anyway autotrace can also do color images despite the black and white only screenshots on its website.

[stooshbunutu]

Hiya,

Front end for metapixel

I've created a webpage that gerneates the script based on input fields to be copy-and-pasted into terminal to run the command.

It is the attached file, just save the .txt file as a .html file, open it in firefox, and enjoy.

Let me know what you think, I am currently working on converting it into a program front end

Hope you like it :)