Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Graphic editors generally belong to two categories- Vector editors and bitmap editors and their capabilities complement each other.
Vector editors are better for graphic design, page layout, typography, logos, sharp-edged artistic illustrations, technical illustrations, diagramming and flowcharting. Bitmap editors are more suitable for retouching, photo processing, photorealistic illustrations, collage, and hand drawn illustrations using a pen tablet.
GIMP and Photoshop are great bitmap editors while CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Xara Xtreme, Adobe Fireworks, Inkscape or SK1 are the main vector editors.
Inkscape is amazingly powerful and can be used to create realistic images like the car image shown here. The interface is really cute and you need not wander around in search of any tool or option.
Creating objects
Pencil tool, the pen tool, calligraphy tool, paint Bucket tool, rectangle tool, ellipse tool, polygon tool and text tool help to create common objects and specialized tools like Spiral tool and 3D Box tool also will be handy in certain situations.
Object manipulation
Every object in the drawing can be subjected to transformations like moving, rotating, scaling and skewing. Inkscape has a comprehensive tool set to deal with paths, as they are the most common constituents of a vector image. The Node tool allows to edit the path on the single node level by tweaking the position of nodes and control points of Bezier paths.
Inkscape's text editing is powerful with a text rendering based on the Pango library, which allows Inkscape to support several complex scripts including Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, Tibetan, etc.
Unlike many other GTK+ applications, Inkscape uses its own renderer library to create graphics, called 'libnr' which can render images at up to 25600% zoom with anti-aliasing. Another advantage is the facility to save documents in PDF format.
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Graphic editors generally belong to two categories- Vector editors and bitmap editors and their capabilities complement each other.
Vector editors are better for graphic design, page layout, typography, logos, sharp-edged artistic illustrations, technical illustrations, diagramming and flowcharting. Bitmap editors are more suitable for retouching, photo processing, photorealistic illustrations, collage, and hand drawn illustrations using a pen tablet.
GIMP and Photoshop are great bitmap editors while CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Xara Xtreme, Adobe Fireworks, Inkscape or SK1 are the main vector editors.
Inkscape is amazingly powerful and can be used to create realistic images like the car image shown here. The interface is really cute and you need not wander around in search of any tool or option.
Creating objects
Pencil tool, the pen tool, calligraphy tool, paint Bucket tool, rectangle tool, ellipse tool, polygon tool and text tool help to create common objects and specialized tools like Spiral tool and 3D Box tool also will be handy in certain situations.
Object manipulation
Every object in the drawing can be subjected to transformations like moving, rotating, scaling and skewing. Inkscape has a comprehensive tool set to deal with paths, as they are the most common constituents of a vector image. The Node tool allows to edit the path on the single node level by tweaking the position of nodes and control points of Bezier paths.
Inkscape's text editing is powerful with a text rendering based on the Pango library, which allows Inkscape to support several complex scripts including Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, Tibetan, etc.
Unlike many other GTK+ applications, Inkscape uses its own renderer library to create graphics, called 'libnr' which can render images at up to 25600% zoom with anti-aliasing. Another advantage is the facility to save documents in PDF format.
Download
