
Inkscape 1.0 - dragonsh
https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php?title=Release_notes/1.0#Inkscape_1.0
======
merricksb
Other recent discussions:

Inkscape 1.0 Release Candidate –
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22855357](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22855357)
(710 points, 23 days ago, 157 comments)

Inkscape 1.0 Beta 1 –
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21001969](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21001969)
(603 points, 7 months ago, 167 comments)

Inkscape launches versions 0.92.4 and 1.0 alpha –
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18940568](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18940568)
(299 points, Jan 18 2019, 68 comments)

~~~
Vinnl
Ha, and for this specific release:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071341](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071341)

Including an extensive comment by dang explaining why they didn't have it hit
the front page:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071428](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071428)

------
cs702
Inkscape is one of the most impressive examples of free/libre open-source
software (FLOSS). It's developed by a friendly, transparent, well-run
community of developers, writers and translators, testers, and designers.

As someone who has used Inkscape for well over a decade on desktop Linux, I
continue to be impressed at how nice it is, how well it works, and how much it
does. It's really a shining example of not-for-profit software development.

FYI, a short essay on the history of the project was just posted on its
website: [https://inkscape.org/news/2020/05/04/roots-and-shoots-
inksca...](https://inkscape.org/news/2020/05/04/roots-and-shoots-inkscape-
project/)

~~~
agumonkey
I may be misguided but it was also low on the radar of big graphical
applications in the linux world. For years all I saw was gimp gimp gimp then
one day a few people started to mention inkscape. Since then it has been a
constant improvement.

~~~
pedrogpimenta
They are very different in nature, and by their nature, Gimp is much more
used/needed, hence its popularity. Think Photoshop and Illustrator. Photoshop
is much much more popular in brand than Illustrator. And actually, Gimp is to
Photoshop as Inkscape is to Illustrator, so the analogy is perfect.

~~~
agumonkey
gimp is a lot less polished than inkscape, that's what surprised me about
inkscape low profile

~~~
prox
Gimps community was never very inviting nor open when I used it.

~~~
agumonkey
You know, even then, gimp could have been a technical masterpiece but to me
inkscape felt a lot more interesting at many levels.

That said community problems can impede quality obviously.

~~~
prox
Absolutely, Inkscape has been great and is a great example of open source done
right.

------
llarsson
Wonderful to hear that it is now a native application in macOS that does not
require XQuartz!

Perhaps related: Inkscape has always felt quite laggy for me, even with my
extremely basic needs. I pretty much just make text in boxes and connect them
with arrows. So together with all these new lovely features, I hope that
performance is improved in this release also.

~~~
oxguy3
The 1.0 version for macOS is a preview release and it still has performance
issues, but performance fixes are coming, according to the macOS download
page. Honestly, I'm so blown away with the beautiful native macOS support that
I'm perfectly content to wait a bit longer for better performance.

~~~
travisgriggs
Are you sure? I was at 1.0.0rc yesterday, and the brew bumped me up to 1.0.0.
Or maybe you are saying that macOS 1.0 version is still sort of "beta"?

Either way, I love Inkscape. I draw all of our apps icons as acts with it and
then use it to create all of our pdf icons of iOS and convert to drawables for
Android.

------
Communitivity
Congrats on a v1.0 and thank you for all the hard work. I've used Inkscape &
Gimp & script-fu as a professional-grade Adobe CS replacement for a some time,
and it works very well. There are some bumps and a lot of DIY, but the
experience gets better every year. I am also in the process of teaching my
daughter to use Inkscape and Gimp.

I'd love to see the wiki back up, and more v1.0 examples of scripting. Ideally
there would be a Inkscape specific Scheme-based language for scripting, with
scripts not needing to be packaged as extensions but loaded into a directory.
Insert 'I'd do it myself, but..' lame excuses here. I'd love to, but other
projects occupy my time.

------
Andrew_nenakhov
I love Inkscape, and all I wish for it is to take hints from modern design
tools like Sketch and Figma, so it would stop look and feel like it is still
in 2005.

Sketch has so many small life-improving tidbits, that combined they make me 50
times more productive when drawing anything, than in Inkscape.

~~~
myu701
> so it would stop look and feel like it is still in 2005

Please don't do this, or if you do, leave an option for those of us long-term
users who are used to the existing UI.

Between the Office Ribbon, Metro/Modern/WinRT/UWP/WinUI 3, Material design,
I've up to my ears in flat, wasted space UIs designed to look as empty as
possible in the name of 'cleanliness' and I'd hate to have my primary vector
editor fall victim to the 2010s UI dark ages.

~~~
Andrew_nenakhov
I wasn't talking about visual gimmicks at all, but about capabilities to point
the line to center of a pixel, mask layers, grouping, repeat-modes, automatic
rulers, etc. Things you don't even see but without which it is damn hard to
live without.

------
eduardoboss
I just used it to do a job for my company. it was very good!

[https://imgur.com/a/wFxf3jl](https://imgur.com/a/wFxf3jl)

~~~
mcnesium
OT: is that level difference to baseline in the logo intended?

~~~
lonelappde
It's pretend handwritten.

~~~
eduardoboss
yes, for a software architect that used inkscape for the first time, I guess
that have things to improve, but was a good experience.

------
xvilka
Only GIMP 3 release left, to finally ditch GTK 2[1] and Python 2[2].

[1]
[https://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Roadmap#GIMP_3.0](https://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Roadmap#GIMP_3.0)

[2]
[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/issues/4368](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/issues/4368)

~~~
sleavey
Oh, so is GTK 2 the reason why we still have Python 2 as the default `python`
command on Debian?

~~~
4gotunameagain
I don't think it's the sole reason, but all these are changing :)

[https://wiki.debian.org/Python/2Removal](https://wiki.debian.org/Python/2Removal)

------
rusticpenn
Used Inkscape for all pictures on my PhD work and the papers. Love it.

~~~
siver_john
This right here, I am in the exact same boat. Much better than making them in
powerpoint. And even though we have a (sort of) lab adobe CS key, all of my
computers run linux and we only have like 5 keys which makes the process quite
silly.

Now I just need to finish the figures for this paper so I can update to this
newest version. But everyone in my lab is quite excited about it.

------
Al-Khwarizmi
Congratulations to everyone who have made this possible.

Inkscape may not be perfect and perhaps it's not the best tool for graphics
professionals but, as a person who is really bad at anything having to do with
graphic design, drawing, layout design and graphics programs, it's the only
vector graphics program I have been able to learn at a relatively decent
level, allowing me to make effective diagrams for slides, papers, etc. With
every other vector graphics editor I've tried, the learning curve felt to me
like climbing a vertical ice wall.

So kudos for how intuitive it is, and hoping for many new versions to come.

------
zelphirkalt
Very importantly, Inkscape is also a very successful free software project,
which ensures, that Inkscape's functionality will remain free for as long as
its license is enforced.

~~~
lonelappde
There's no need to enforce any license. Inkscape is free and open for as long
no one takes away the license by force.

------
amelius
I absolutely love Inkscape!

Some features I'd like to see in upcoming releases:

\- Calligraphic strokes, and the possibility to convert them to paths.

\- Better UX for filters (e.g. adding a drop shadow and changing the
parameters could be simpler)

~~~
jansan
May I ask what (probably commerical) software you are using that already
implements calligraphic strokes?

~~~
amelius
Adobe Illustrator already implemented it years ago.

I used AI a lot for creating cartoons. But then at some point I completely
moved away from MS-Windows, which meant that I couldn't use AI any longer.
I've been missing the calligraphic strokes option ever since (including the
ability to convert these strokes to paths).

For more information about why calligraphic strokes are essential for
drawing/inking cartoons:

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/150671191X](https://www.amazon.com/dp/150671191X)

------
JohnTHaller
The portable version for use in cloud folders, USB drives, and machines
without admin rights has been posted as well:
[https://portableapps.com/news/2020-05-06--inkscape-
portable-...](https://portableapps.com/news/2020-05-06--inkscape-
portable-1.0-released)

------
indymike
As someone who has used Inkscape for what seems like forever, thanks to
everyone who has worked on it. Looking forward to tweaking some SVG assets
later today with it.

------
vadasambar
Might sound weird but I prefer to use Inkscape for basic image editing over
Gimp on Linux because of how user friendly and intuitive it is.

~~~
tasuki
I also prefer Inkscape over Gimp, but they have completely different use
cases.

Inkscape is for vectors (almost anything created primarily on a computer)
while Gimp is for rasters (when your input consists of pixels - eg a photo).

------
ainar-g
Grand congratulations to the team! Inkscape is an invaluable tool, especially
for amateur vexillologists like me.

~~~
MattRix
To save other people the trouble, vexillology is the study of flags.

~~~
toyg
The British used to be great vexillologists, clearly:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9W1zTEuKLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9W1zTEuKLY)

------
dest
Congrats. In my opinion Inkscape shines in usability (vs Gimp that I could
never grasp for example)

~~~
wegs
They don't do the same thing.

Inkscape/CorelDraw/Illustrator/etc. are drawing programs. They deal with
vector images.

Gimp/Photoshop/Paintshop Pro/etc. are painting programs. They deal with
bitmaps.

They're fundamentally different paradigms. Very little intuition from one
carries over to the other. Of course, they've been adding some bridge
functionality (Photoshop smartobjects, etc.), if people want to nitpick, but
the core UX is designed for something fundamentally different.

~~~
wpietri
I agree they don't do the same thing, but I agree with dest that the Inkscape
UI is much better than GIMP. I've used GIMP way more than Inkscape, so I
should be more comfortable with it. But I end up feeling like GIMP is fighting
me in ways that Inkscape would like me to get things done.

~~~
wegs
I personally find GIMP more intuitive than Inkscape. I think most of it
depends on what you're using the tool for, though, and I think I just do more
GIMPy takss than Inkscapey tasks right now.

Try using Inkscape to cut a person out of a photo, adjust contrast/white
balance, and add a vignette...

On the other hand, try making a beautiful invoice template in gimp, with a
nicely laid out table, and nicely typeset text....

It's kind of like comparing Word to PowerPoint. Both can place text on pages,
and it's possible to write an essay in PowerPoint, or make a presentation in
Word, but you'll be hurting to do it.

~~~
wpietri
Right. But somebody who uses both word processors and slide programs can
definitely cross-compare in terms of UI quality and polish.

To pick a more obvious dimension, if somebody said, "Word is buggier than
Powerpoint", nobody would say, "You can't compare them because they don't do
the same thing." Bugginess is an abstractable quality across kinds of product.

The same thing is true about UI quality. It goes well beyond intuitiveness.
You can look at fit-and-finish details. You can look at number of unnecessary
actions. You can look at difficulty for novices completing common tasks. You
can compare utility of error messages. How much are key concepts related to a
task obvious vs hidden? Et cetera, et cetera.

In my experience, Inkscape is better in that dimension. I think this even
though I have used GIMP a lot more, and so normally would be biased the other
way, because familiarity makes its UI issues less obvious to me.

------
mdorazio
Guess I'm in the minority. While Inkscape is incredibly powerful and a great
OSS option for vector editing, the UI has simply never made sense to me. After
using Illustrator for 10+ years, every time I try to do something in Inkscape
I find myself either lost or frustrated that buttons and options don't do what
I think they will. I feel like it's in the same land as Blender was before 2.8
(I'm a big fan of the 2.8 changes for usability).

~~~
ramraj07
Inkscape seems like a much more natural successor of something like Corel
Draw, and as someone who grew up doing things on that program, inkscape has
always made the most sense to me. So it's probably just familiarity than
anything else. I can definitely attest that inkscape has a very deterministic
and thoughtful UX and workflow process.

~~~
EvanAnderson
I'll second this assessment. I used a ton of Corel Draw in the 90s thru the
early 2000s. Inkscape feels like a spiritual successor. I was productive with
it almost immediately.

------
seventh-chord
I can appreciate inkscape as a tool, but I always dread starting it, because
it somehow takes 10 seconds to start up. What is it doing in those 10 seconds?

~~~
lewiscollard
That is definitely abnormal. For me (on an i5-3350P (!) Linux junk desktop
from Hell) it starts up in about one second, so eomething is definitely wrong
(or you're using an even worse machine than I am, in which case something
_else_ is definitely wrong). Maybe one of the Inkscape support channels could
help you here?

~~~
seventh-chord
I'm on a athlon x4 860k at the moment, which according to benchmarks is
marginally slower than your CPU.

Startup times certainly seem to be CPU bound, it pins one core to 100% during
startup. This means they somehow are spending something to the tune of 1e10
cpu cycles to start a vector editor.

When inkscape is started up they use around 70 mb of ram. If they just store
everything they need in ram in a linear file and load that at startup, the
program would launch in a fraction of a second on an SSD.

------
chaos_a
Anyone else getting a 502 error on this page?

I started using inkscape recently for editing a few svg's and was impressed at
how much this free program can do while also being easy to use.

I've been using gimp for a long time now and still get lost in it's poorly
laid out UI, with inkscape I can usually find what I'm looking for on the
first try.

------
rhabarba
I'd still take Affinity Designer over Inkscape any day. Being free is not the
only thing that counts in a software.

~~~
noahadavis
Affinity Designer also lacks features compared to Inkscape, so paying more
(than nothing) does not necessarily get you a better product.

~~~
rhabarba
But a better, more consistent user interface. (This is my personal opinion
though.)

------
closed
Excited to see! I had to pick up inkscape over the last month for--of all
things--machine embroidery. It has a python extension called inkstitch for
creating patterns.

At first it was very confusing, but I'm slowly realizing that where tools like
Sketch give a very clean, simple UX, inkscape often has the extra
functionality I need!

------
nuritzi
I've seen some really amazing things produced by the Inkscape community. One
of my favorite demos was at GNOME Asia a few years ago where I saw a shoe
company from Indonesia that exclusively uses open source tools like Inkscape
to produce their line of shoes ([https://coscup.org/2018/programs/using-
inkscape-to-design-sh...](https://coscup.org/2018/programs/using-inkscape-to-
design-shoes/)).

It's awesome to see this Inkscape 1.0 release and it's incredible to think
about how much impact Inkscape has had on the open source design tool
landscape.

I'm the Sr. Open Source Program Manager at GitLab, btw. Thanks @Inkscape for
being part of the GitLab for Open Source community!

------
cmrdporcupine
Inkscape looks to have made very impressive progress.

The one feature I'm missing before I can use it is multipage support, to be
able to print a large image across several sheets of paper (which can then be
taped together, etc.)

Apparently this isn't in there because SVG has no notion of such a thing?

~~~
Glyptodon
Sort of wonder if this could happen at the system print dialog level rather
than inside specific applications.

~~~
cmrdporcupine
Part of the problem is being able to keep the scale of the original document.
That is, I have a document with an image of a ski 175cm long, and when I print
it I need it to be 175cm in the real world, as I am using it as a template for
cutting material (if only I had a giant CNC machine...). So far I have not
found a way to get system print dialogs to do this for me. I can take a PDF or
PS file and print them, but the scale management is rudimentary.

Somehow I was able to do these things easier with 1990s DTP tools?

In the end Microsoft Publisher has worked for me. Sort of.

------
rrmm
Nice to see Inkscape continue to grow. I still get a lot of use out of it
myself. (And to toot my own tooter, I did some work on the pencil
interpolation code. I feel happy to have contributed something to a project
like this).

------
rhengles
I use Inkscape from a long time, and it's generally a very good experience.
The only thing I tried to do recently that didn't work was to open an .eps
file provided by Google (the official Google Play button - they do not have
.svg files, but even Apple has for their App Store). It couldn't directly open
the file, I searched for tools to convert it but nothing worked. The only
program that could open it was Adobe Illustrator, from there I could export it
to .svg. I'd hope Inkscape could open .eps files AND Google to provide a open
standard format for their vector files.

------
rhythmofrest
There are some absolutely huge changes in here. And they fixed my (least)
favourite bug, which is that Line Height basically didn't work. Not to mention
HiDPI. As a Surface Pro user, it's well worth the upgrade.

------
werber
I wanted to love this on MacOS so badly, but it was too laggy for basic usage
on a 2020 MBA. I have always found it fine on my less capable Debian box, but,
but Affinity Designer has become my go to on Mac.

------
BiteCode_dev
Inkscape is a fantastic product and it can be used for some many unexpected
things: editing a PDF, vectorizing an image, creating a pixel perfect
resume...

I'm amazed it just reached v1.

------
helij
Inkscape is amazing. I am using it for years now on all three major operating
systems. I am a complete amateur as far as graphic design is concerned but I
just used it to add a text to cartoon that designer did in...wait for
it....Inkscape.

Very user friendly for easy tasks but I am struggling with more complex edits.
But that is just because I never upgraded my knowledge since both Gimp and
Inkscape provide everything I need.

Thumbs up to Inkscape from me!

------
azangru
Lots of love expressed here about Inkscape and GIMP.

I am curious - does anyone here use Krita? How does it compare to either? What
is its place in the graphics toolbox?

~~~
schrijver
You can use Krita if you want to create illustrations or drawings not by
modifying vectors (like in Inkscape) but by drawing with a digital brush. It’s
pixel based like GIMP, which can also do digital drawing but with less ease
and sophistication I imagine than in Krita. Whether it’s useful to you really
depends on your illustration style, it’s probably less suited for a flat and
vectory look. It’s more for things like storyboarding or other forms of
digital painting.

------
javajosh
I really like Inkscape, it compares favorably with Affinity Designer. My only
wish is that it was written for the browser. A tool like this would actually
be a great starting point for SVG web apps, IMHO. Plus interactive SVG drawing
has been implemented about 3000 times, and it would be great to see some best
practice libs become standard.

------
kristopolous
Well that server didn't last long

------
hahamrfunnyguy
I really like Inkscape. I've been using it since the first release in 2003. I
do all of my illustration with it. If I need to print, then I will bring the
artwork into Illustrator and adjust the colors. Compared to Illustrator, it's
very fast and lightweight.

~~~
mark-r
Why do you need to adjust the colors in Illustrator?

------
cat199
amazing work - remember sodipodi and then inkscape first coming out - looking
forward to trying native quartz and of course on linux

side note - anyone know of an mspaint style 'simple' raster image editor? use
gimp currently but sometimes I just want the simplicity

~~~
rhabarba
Krita maybe?

------
laydn
Inkscape is outstanding. Thanks for all the hard work.

My one and only complaint is, for very large drawings, selecting a large
number of elements and moving them is very slooooooow. It would be great if,
going forward, performance improvements can be made.

~~~
microcolonel
Hopefully since this is such a sudden and severe regression in canvas
performance, it is related to a shallow bug rather than an architectural
misadventure.

------
dragonsh
Please try another link (if you are getting 502 error)
[https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.0/](https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.0/)

------
neltnerb
Congratulations! I've been using you for at least a decade, been more user
friendly for me than Illustrator with as many features and only getting
better. Thanks!

------
foxhop
I created the Remarkbox logo with Inkscape. Was a lot of fun to learn (watched
a few hours of YouTube to get an acceptable amount of understanding)

------
sccxy
Mirror?

502 Bad Gateway

nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu)

~~~
kozhevnikov
[https://archive.li/mMN8K#Inkscape_1.0](https://archive.li/mMN8K#Inkscape_1.0)

------
asimjalis
I am getting 502 Bad Gateway.

------
hajderr
Is this good for professional work, Illustrator seems more solid? Great FOSS
still though

