Interview with Inkscape Founder Bryce Harrington

Same here. Sodipodi rocks. I don't see any real improvements in Inkspace.

Could you please review and edit

http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SodiPodi

to make it more complete and objective. Thanks!

some work has been done to improve it (the calligraphy tool) looks sweet

should be in CVS now or soon

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.40-CVS-linux-calligraphy.png

The one you simply draw lines with.

It's also improved in 0.40.

It's all uneven lines for me.

There needs to be a balance between evenness and responsiveness. For me, Inkscape CVS gets this balance perfectly: when I draw an even line I get an even line, but when I do sharp turns and wiggles, they are reproduced well too. Sodipodi 0.34 does gives absolutely perfect lines, but at the expense of responsiveness: when you move too quickly, the line lags behind too much, and sharp turns are lost. For this reason Sodipodi freehand drawing is nearly useless for me because it cannot draw fast enough (and there are no tool options to adjust).

I can do it on paper, but I get something that looks like a rounded polygon in Inkscape, both with mouse and tablet. Inkscape does OK with straith lines and corners if you draw quickly, but once you try roundings or details (read slow strokes) Inkscape goes all bumpy.

Have you tried the latest Inkscape CVS? I tell you I can easily draw circles there, at least as good as on paper, and even better if I draw fast because it smoothes more then. It's very different from 0.39 which indeed had wrong sharp nodes and many bumps in freehand lines. It's all gone now. Please give the CVS a try, or wait when 0.40 is out.

Have there been any dramatic improvements since this release?

Apparently the developers think it's too slow and suggest to simplify your lines after drawing. :-(

What I would really like to see is a tool to join overlapping and almost overlapping nodes...

Simplifying is indeed often needed after freehand drawing - not because of the tool deficiencies but simply because you often have in mind a more abstract geometric shape than what you are able to draw by hand, and simplifying is a way to get it closer to that. Inkscape CVS draws exactly as smoothly or un-smoothly as you move your hand, and does it fast without any lagging. And by the way, Sodipodi has no Simplify command at all.

It would be much more usefull, if I could simplify only parts of a path. Currently if I want to get the bumps out of a straight segment Inkscape also rounds the corners I'd like to keep sharp.

Simplifying only a part of a path (between selected nodes) is a good idea indeed. You might want to submit a RFE to Inkscape tracker to notify the developers.

I have seen that the "Fill and Stroke" dialog offers "Pattern fill". For me this reports that there are no patterns in the current document. I haven't found a way to add patterns to a document though.

select an element (shape, image, group) and use Edit -> Tile (Alt+I) in order to use it as a pattern

- Nicu

> Well, except that some dialogs really need HIG love

I agree but the Inkscape developers will need to be extremely careful when making their chagnes because the the HIG only really addresses transient modal dialogs

non-modal dialogs or palettes that the designers intend to leave open need to be more compact and the kind of layout specified in the HIG does not cover nor was it intended to cover this kind of situation.

I'm sure the Inkscape developers will make serious efforts to follow the HIG but the difficult part is going to be knowing when NOT to follow the Guidelines.

- Alan H.

Could you explain the shearing you have in mind?

Edit/Tile will make a pattern out of the current selection.

Does the SVG spec allow this?

Could you explain the shearing you have in mind?

These icons illustrate pretty good what I mean:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:8y_Ahp9KwjAJ:http://www.kuhcampus.de/~roman/gimp-help-2/images/toolbox/shear.png
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:m18Ohr8CHDgJ:http://www.kuhcampus.de/~roman/gimp-help-2/images/toolbox/perspective.png

Edit/Tile will make a pattern out of the current selection.

Ah, Thanks, that's what I have been looking for.

Does the SVG spec allow this?

I have no idea.

Could you please do something about those page widening links?

Same question to Gnomedesktop administrators.

I can't (postings are only editable as long as there's no reply).
At 1600x1200 it works ;).

You'll need the development version for this.

1. Select the object
2. Edit/Make a bitmap copy (Alt+B)
3. Blur [documentname]-[objectname].png that has appeared in your home directory
4. Right click the bitmap object and select "Image properties"
5. Play around with the filename so the image gets updated

You can automate the process.

Thanks. I basicly did the same thing by editing a bitmap export in Gimp so far. I know it's usually only known from bitmap editing, but as a vector thingy it would be nice to have either ;).

It sounds like you are looking for these. Just click once on the selected object and the resize handles will turn into rotate/shear handles. Perspective seems to be on the to-do list.

Oh, cool, thanks for the info!