Inkscape 0.47 Released 225
derrida writes "After over a year of intensive development and refactoring, Inkscape 0.47 is out. This version of the SVG-based vector graphics editor brings improved performance and tons of new features, including: timed autosave, Spiro splines, auto-smooth nodes, Eraser tool, new modes in Tweak tool, snapping options toolbar & greater snapping abilities, new live path effects (including Envelope), over 200 preset SVG filters, new Cairo-based PS and EPS export, spell checker, many new extensions, optimized SVG code options, and much more. Additionally, it would be wrong to not mention the hundreds of bug fixes. Check out the full release notes for more information about what has changed, enjoy the screenshots, or just jump right to downloading your package for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X." We've been following the progress of Inkscape for years (2006, 2005, 2004).
Re:Hurrah! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hurrah! (Score:5, Insightful)
But you forgot to say why!
Many times, developers will have a list of features that they figure are "1.0". They may not have reached all the features yet, but the features developed thusfar may be very stable.
A case in point is my own set of backup scripts (this is not) Backup Buddy [effortlessis.com]. I've been using them for years, they work very well, stable even with very large sets of data. (Well into the TBs currently, managing over 100 backup sources in 24 hour rotation)
But I don't consider them "1.0" yet because I always envisioned a handy-dandy web interface for managing backup rotations, verifying backups (currently working) and recovering files 1-by-1 securely. So, I edit config files. (aw shucks)
The closed circle (Score:5, Insightful)
As a general rule, "1.0" doesn't really hold a lot of significance in the open source community with regard to actual usefulness.
It's rather a pity that so many projects like Inkscape might be overlooked by all those folks living outside the open source community.
Where Rev. 0.x = Beta state, maybe, and Alpha, more than likely. Immature. Unstable. Basic features missing or unusable.
Think of it as another handicap, like naming your premier photo editing program The GIMP - which to the outsider translates simply as "crippled" and "sexually perverse."
Re:Brilliant piece of software (Score:3, Insightful)
Its far from standards compliant, unless you think Word is HTML compliant when you use it as an HTML editor.
Re:Brilliant piece of software (Score:4, Insightful)
It does not cover all of SVG, that does not mean it's not compliant with the standard.
Re:Brilliant piece of software (Score:5, Insightful)
Your argument is invalid. Yes, it might not be 100% draft compatible, but at least its SVG files are perfectly readable in all the software I ever tried... from Firefox, Opera, to Photoshop and whatnot. As far as I know, Word HTML is actually readable mostly in IE. It does so on purpose - 1. Get monopoly 2. Break standards 3. Get people to use your proprietary formats / equipment 4. Profit!
Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)
Dunno, but what they didn't fix was the incorrect naming of save/export.
They seem to think save is anything that outputs a vector format, and export is anything that outputs a bitmap, rather than the normal definition of save being anything you can re-open with zero loss of data, and export being things you might lose data (possibly all of it) if you try to re-import.
I lost a *lot* of time when I "saved" a load of files as pdfs, and then got told inkscape couldn't reopen them.
Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)
1) yes, illustrator works just fine reading/writing pdf as it's save format
2) yes, anything in the list of formats under "save" should allow me to open again... if it won't, it should be under "export" not "save".
Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)
As someone who works with Illustrator a fair amount, I implicitly know that pdfs can be reopened and worked on just fine without losing any data at all. I call this function save.
Inkscape does not have this feature, and thus should put pdf export in the export section, not the save section.
Re:A "must-have" package (Score:3, Insightful)
It's called karma-whoring.
Re:The closed circle (Score:2, Insightful)
While it's true that Blender is awful in the beginning, once you get the hang of it you understand why they made it this way. And frankly, it's not beyond the reach of somebody who really wants to start 3d editing (not a very common user). You should just understand that their target audience = poeple who spend a few hours configuring things and doing tutorials.
Re:Does it actually make standard SVGs yet? (Score:2, Insightful)
Well reality is that what the SVG export of a vector graphics program does is completely irrelevant to most users. Peer reviewed journals typically take .eps, .tif, .pdf and maybe .png. Who cares what the intermediate representation looks like? Only crazy people would say MS-Word is useless software because the HTML-export sucks. Same thing here.
PS: The ad-hominem at the end of your post makes *me* feel sorry for *you*. Not the other way round.
Re:0.47 (Score:3, Insightful)
What's wrong with that?
The problem is that the version number is something that has semantic relevance to most users, and the vast majority of programs don't think of version 1.0 as 'perfection', they think of it as (usually) the first reasonably feature-full, stable, release. Giving a program a version of 1 makes it sound like a beta or worse, which gives at least some users the impression that it may not be stable or acceptably solid.
Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that pdf is an open format that's actually remarkably simple to parse.
Re:Why is it such a big distribution? (Score:3, Insightful)
can someone please tell me why a simple graphics editor takes 190Mb disk space?
I suppose that the Windows package includes the entire gtk+ toolkit and various support libraries, too. The Debian package of Inkscape is just 20 MB because Debian has the libs in separate packages (which are often already installed for other purposes, such as GNOME, anyway). Here's the dependency list: http://packages.debian.org/lenny/inkscape [debian.org].
Re:Some suggestions (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll add my voice to this. Give me applications that are focused and good at what they do, don't create some hideous hybrid that merely does everything badly. Besides, GIMP is really the wrong tool for creating books. You should be exporting graphics from whatever program you use and then importing them in a proper desktop publishing program. If you want Libre software, you can look at Scribus [scribus.net] for these purposes. (That has some notable omissions such as decent table layout, but it might be sufficient for your needs). You don't want to be making a book in GIMP! (Or Inkscape). Use the right tools for the right job.
Huh! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)
If it's "remarkably simple to parse" then why it is so hard to find a non-Adobe application that can easily edit pdf files?