Filed under: Software, Open Source
Inkscape - Open Source Vector Graphics Editor
Everyone knows about GIMP, the open source graphics editor that competes with Photoshop for editing bitmap images, or images with "pixels in a bitmap." But what if you need a free program that can work with vector-based images, such as those that Adobe Illustrator builds? Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor that runs in the X11 environment compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.Inkscape can import many and work with many of the common graphics formats, such as JPEG, PNG and TIFF, and can export as PNG and many of the common vector-based graphics formats.
GIMP and Inkscape combined can offer many of the same capabilities of their much more expensive cousins Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. If you're looking to build a graphic design machine on the cheap, you should at least check out these open source programs. They may just suit your needs.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeby said 1:23PM on 7-02-2006
I hate X11!!! :-(
I use Cenon... it's not the same but it doesn't need X11
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Henry said 1:50PM on 7-02-2006
I second Jeby, X11 sucks. Maybe it's just that I'm not very l33t, but I have never gotten X11 to work right.
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flowolf said 3:25PM on 7-02-2006
i do already use inkscape as my default vector graphix program, and gimp of course.
i don't like commercial tools, where there are so much good open source programs available.
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Dave Barnes said 4:46PM on 7-02-2006
One of the MAJOR reasons that I use a Mac is ease-of-use. Mac-oriented software is typically very user friendly.
Telling me about software that involves X11 is a waste of time. I have no intention of running X11. If I wanted to have "fun with UNIX", I would be running Linix and not Mac OS X.
A lot about "making computers more useful" is making them simpler from a user's perspective. Not more complicated.
(I suppose the next article will be about to use liquid nitrogen to overclock my CPU.)
,dave
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Conor Hastings said 4:54PM on 7-02-2006
guess what, this isn't the stuff for dave barnes blog, just becauase you don't like it doesn't mean other people won't. You dont have to complain about every post that isn't tailored to what you are interested in.
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Jason said 5:08PM on 7-02-2006
I'm with most here about not liking X on the Mac. I don't even like it in unix, although millions swear by it.
That aside, I've been using Inkscape for a while now on my mac and I really like it. It's a really great piece of software that can really do a lot, and for free.
While it is too bad there isn't a native version yet, it is still at least a great piece of software and people should check it out.
btw: it is not inkscape's fault it needs X, it is because the GTK library isn't OS X native yet. There is a work in progress however..
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Pirate Bill said 5:26PM on 7-02-2006
If you don't like the content here, go start your own Mac blog...
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doc said 8:41PM on 7-02-2006
What am I missing about X11 that so many people hate. For me, it is completely transparent. I click an icon on the dock and the program opens. It even works with iPhoto. I double click a photo and the file opens in GIMP. Whether it is running in X11 or not doesn't matter. I've only toyed with Inkscape, because I don't really do anything that requires it, but I use GIMP regularly and have never had an issue.
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Nik Fletcher said 8:44PM on 7-02-2006
I've used Inkscape for a couple of months. It's great, despite X11. Go buy Illustrator if you don't like X11... or quite with the whinging! :)
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Christopher said 9:21PM on 7-02-2006
I've tinkered w/ Inkscape and kind of like it. And thanks for the heads-up on Cenon, I'll check it out.
I'm not thrilled w/ X11 either. Glad the option exists, but it's pretty poor imho opinion compared to most OS X interfaces.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
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Jeby said 4:59AM on 7-03-2006
X11 is old, ugly, slow
command o, command s, command c, command v, etc. don't work
On my iBook G4 12" 1,33 GHZ, 1GB RAM, i click the icon of Inskape and.. I wait. I wait. I wait again. I wait again and again. Hey, are you sure you have really clicked the icon? Yes, and I wait....
http://jeby.blogspot.com
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Hervé Sainct said 6:29AM on 7-03-2006
For those of you that dare pay (OMG) a shareware, there is Intaglio, one of the easiest, nicest and most efficient GUI for vectorial drawing I know.
The way tangents or right angles appear when you wish to stick one line with another objet is so perfect that to me it is the essence of macintosh...
Intaglio is also Linkback-compatible with Keynotes which means by double-clicking your drawing right in Keynote you trigger Intaglio, reedit everything, close and find it updated back inside Keynote...
And it opens *everything* vectorial, from PDF files to old macdraw documents...
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Dave W said 10:12AM on 7-03-2006
And for those who really don't care or are not 1337 enough to care if it's a commercial program or if software is using X11 there is also the great looking Xara LX which is shaping up nicely. Open source software needs this kind of competition
http://www.xaraxtreme.org/
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