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Inkscape Announces 0.43 Release :: http://www.inkscape.org :: Draw Freely.

Submitted by Anonymous George on Mon, 2005-11-21 05:14. Inkscape
Inkscape

The Inkscape community today releases Inkscape 0.43, an Open Source Scalable
Vector Graphics (SVG) drawing tool available for Unix/Linux variants,
Mac OS X, and Windows.

The focus of this release is on the exciting new features sponsored by Google
through their Summer of Code (SoC) program which provided funding for four
individuals to contribute to Inkscape. The primary additions this release are:

  • Connectors: A new indispensable connector tool implements creation,
    editing, and auto-routing (object-avoiding) of connector lines between
    objects. It is indispensable for drawing diagrams. (Google SoC project)
  • Inkboard Collaborative Editing: One may now connect to other Inkscape
    users over a network and edit a shared document, watch changes, and
    contribute one's own changes. (Google SoC project)
  • Pressure and Tilt Sensitivity: The calligraphy tool may now use a tablet
    pen with pressure and tilt support to vary the width and angle of a
    calligraphic stroke.
  • Better Node Editing: One may freely drag, bend, and stretch a Bezier

    curve by any point and not only by a node. Also, one may easily add a new
    node at any point on the curve.

  • New Extensions: There are now extensions for envelope distortion,
    whirling, and adding nodes.
  • Refinements: Inkscape now supports improved precision, expanded limits,
    usability improvements and several bugfixes.
  • SVG Compliance: There is now additional support for the viewBox element
    improving SVG compatibility.

In response to the release, Tavmjong Bah updated his online book, "A Guide to
Inkscape", to cover
the Inkscape 0.43 features. This guide is not included with the Inkscape
release. Users are encouraged to read the guide in addition to Inkscape 0.43's
release notes and the help included with Inkscape.

Currently the Inkscape community is working on the next release which focuses
on stability and closing bugs. The next release will add an outline viewing
mode, a plan towards SVG Tiny compliance, a fill and stroke interface to the
bottom toolbar, and further application refinements.

Inkscape is open to all types of contributions by people with all different
skill levels from around the world. Inkscape needs translators, web designers,
people to help answer questions, and developers to help reach the project's
goal of SVG compliance. Visit Inkscape.org and Draw Freely.

Download Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X packages:

For many more details, see the complete Release Notes for 0.43:

Community submitted screenshots:

About Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool that uses the World Wide Web
Consortium's (W3C) scalable vector graphics format (SVG). Some supported SVG
features include basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending,
transforms, gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports Creative
Commons' metadata, node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path,
text-in-shape, and SVG XML editing. It also imports several formats like EPS,
PostScript, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports PNG as well as multiple
vector-based formats.

Inkscape's main motivation is to provide the Open Source community with a fully
W3C compliant XML, SVG, and CSS2 drawing tool. Additional work includes
conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to C++/Gtkmm,
emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added through an
extension mechanism, and the establishment of a friendly, open,
community-oriented development process.

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Used it for my first time

Submitted by Anonymous George on Tue, 2005-11-22 07:47.

And I must say some parts of the UI SUCKS! Like some dialogs have tabs going 3 levels deep! thats crazy!!!! I really hope for some redesign of these dialogs, I am sure there are parts of the HIG that talk about it... I know there is a part about if there is too many options for tabs rather swap to a side bar list... as you can see in applications like gaim in their prefernces dialog.

UI

Submitted by nicubunu on Wed, 2005-11-23 03:13.

in the 0.44 development process a large part of gtkmm-fication is expected to land, allowing for easier dialog replacement, so expect some dialogs to be redesigned for usability and greater HIG compliance.

we are fully aware the preference dialog sucks (it is the worst offender) and there are concrete plans to improve it.

Heh, if that rarely-used, by Anonymous George
Not that bad by Anonymous George

won't anyone say...

Submitted by Anonymous George on Mon, 2005-11-21 18:25.

kudos for the inkscape team??

thank you for all the wonderful work you guys have been putting into this.

you really kick ass!!

How connectors works?

Submitted by Anonymous George on Mon, 2005-11-21 15:53.

I downloaded the lates version but I have problems to figure aout how do they work.

Re: How connectors work?

Submitted by horga_83 on Mon, 2005-11-21 17:28.

It tells you right in the announcement.

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php

w98se? and no .deb's by Anonymous George

Ohhh I hope it still works on win9x

Submitted by pata_pata on Tue, 2005-11-22 16:25.

I hope the previous posters are right and InkScape still works in win9x. Previous version did, and gimp 2.2.8 works too and it uses gtk 2.8.

I'm planning on teaching Inkscape and Gimp to the kids in my institute (ages 15 to 17 aprox.), but we have adequately old computers in our lab (PIII with just 64 MB of RAM).

With so little memory any modern OS (including Linux) don't run well or at all, that's why we keep win98se on them.

Anyway congratulations to the Inkscape team, they deserve our consideration for their great work (and a free beer or two anytime we meet them, yeah!).

no win9x

Submitted by nicubunu on Tue, 2005-11-22 02:25.

this is because GTK 2.8 and later does not work anymore on Win9x, so expect all GTK/GNOME programs to drop support for Win9x at some point in the future.

as a reference, see bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=316878, with the most signifiant comment:

Ah yes, so what this bug actually means is that GTK+ 2.8.* doesn't run on Win9x? (Which is known and more or less by design, but not really advertised.)

About Windows 98

Submitted by Sodki on Mon, 2005-11-21 17:19.

I believe it's something like this: "well, Inkscape probably works with Windows 98, but we don't have the time to test it, so we'll say it's no longer supported, so peaple don't bug us with that issue. So, it probably works, but don't complain to us if it doesn't."

Sounds reasonable.

No by Anonymous George
where's the announcement by Anonymous George