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VECTOR DRAWING

Inkscape

Version: 1.0 Web: https://inkscape.org

Were you to ask an open source user to name three drawing packages, the third one they’d mention would very likely be Inkscape, after GIMP and Krita. However, it’s the only vector graphics package on that list. That makes Inkscape hugely important to the open source world and after 16 years of development it’s just turned the big 1.0.

Getting hold of the latest build of Inkscape is about as easy as it comes. Inkscape offers builds in both Flatpak and Snap formats, which are now both widely supported. For Ubuntu users there’s a PPA that you can latch on to and obtain updates from, using
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:inkscape.dev/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install inkscape

The 1.0 release brings with it a host of low-level
performance improvements together with some new high-level features. Core to any drawing package is smooth performance and overall you’ll find this release is the best performing release ever. Its interface has also been designed to work beautifully with HiDPI displays, which arty types (and many others) like to use. To coincide with this is a new theme system that bundles the on-trend Dark Mode, and there’s the option to create custom font directories and icon sets.

One of the biggest feature changes is to Inkscape’s core Live Path Effects. There’s a new interface and reorganised toolbox that now enables you to make favourites or search it, together with a host of new effects. Again performance has been greatly improved, especially for node-heavy objects.

Other new additions include a split-view canvas to preview as you edit, and pressure control of line widths. The option to vectorise line drawings could come in handy, and there are new fillet and chamfer tools, too.

It’s a shame that Inkscape gets overshadowed by GIMP and Krita,but it’s almost inevitable that bitmap-based packages are most people’s primary choice for editing photography and comic-style art, while vector work has always seemed more complex to get started with. However, if you need to edit scalable vector graphics (SVG) then Inkscape should be your first choice.

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Version: 4.4 Web:www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/worker

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