1INKSCAPE(1) Inkscape Commands Manual INKSCAPE(1)
2
6 Inkscape - an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) editing program.
7
9 "inkscape [options] [filename ...]"
10 options:
12 -?, --help
14 --usage
15 -V, --version
16 -f, --file=FILENAME
18 -e, --export-png=FILENAME
20 -a, --export-area=x0:y0:x1:y1
21 -C, --export-area-page
22 -D, --export-area-drawing
23 --export-area-snap
24 -i, --export-id=ID
25 -j, --export-id-only
26 -t, --export-use-hints
27 -b, --export-background=COLOR
28 -y, --export-background-opacity=VALUE
29 -d, --export-dpi=DPI
30 -w, --export-width=WIDTH
31 -h, --export-height=HEIGHT
32 -P, --export-ps=FILENAME
34 -E, --export-eps=FILENAME
35 -A, --export-pdf=FILENAME
36 --export-pdf-version=VERSION-STRING
37 --export-latex
38 --export-ps-level {2,3}
40 -T, --export-text-to-path
42 --export-ignore-filters
43 -l, --export-plain-svg=FILENAME
45 -p, --print=PRINTER
47 -I, --query-id=ID
49 -X, --query-x
50 -Y, --query-y
51 -W, --query-width
52 -H, --query-height
53 -S, --query-all
54 -x, --extension-directory
56 --verb-list
58 --verb=VERB-ID
59 --select=OBJECT-ID
60 --shell
62 -g, --with-gui
64 -z, --without-gui
65 --vacuum-defs
67 --g-fatal-warnings
69
71 Inkscape is a GUI editor for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format
72 drawing files, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator,
73 CorelDraw, Xara Xtreme, etc. Inkscape features include versatile
74 shapes, bezier paths, freehand drawing, multi-line text, text on path,
75 alpha blending, arbitrary affine transforms, gradient and pattern
76 fills, node editing, many export and import formats including PNG and
77 PDF, grouping, layers, live clones, and a lot more. The interface is
78 designed to be comfortable and efficient for skilled users, while
79 remaining conformant to GNOME standards so that users familiar with
80 other GNOME applications can learn its interface rapidly.
81 SVG is a W3C standard XML format for 2D vector drawing. It allows
83 defining objects in the drawing using points, paths, and primitive
84 shapes. Colors, fonts, stroke width, and so forth are specified as
85 `style' attributes to these objects. The intent is that since SVG is a
86 standard, and since its files are text/xml, it will be possible to use
87 SVG files in a sizeable number of programs and for a wide range of
88 uses.
89 Inkscape uses SVG as its native document format, and has the goal of
91 becoming the most fully compliant drawing program for SVG files
92 available in the Open Source community.
93
95 -?, --help
96 Show help message
97 -V, --version
99 Show Inkscape version and build date.
100 -a x0:y0:x1:y1, --export-area=x0:y0:x1:y1
102 In PNG export, set the exported area in SVG user units
103 (anonymous length units normally used in Inkscape SVG). The
104 default is to export the entire document page. The point (0,0)
105 is the lower-left corner.
106 -C, --export-area-page
108 In PNG, PDF, PS, and EPS export, exported area is the page.
109 This is the default for PNG, PDF, and PS, so you don't need to
110 specify this unless you are using --export-id to export a
111 specific object. In EPS, however, this is not the default;
112 moreover, for EPS, the specification of the format does not
113 allow its bounding box to extend beyond its content. This
114 means that when --export-area-page is used with EPS export, the
115 page bounding box will be trimmed inwards to the bounding box
116 of the content if it is smaller.
117 -D, --export-area-drawing
119 In PNG, PDF, PS, and EPS export, exported area is the drawing
120 (not page), i.e. the bounding box of all objects of the
121 document (or of the exported object if --export-id is used).
122 With this option, the exported image will display all the
123 visible objects of the document without margins or cropping.
124 This is the default export area for EPS. For PNG, it can be
125 used in combination with --export-use-hints.
126 --export-area-snap
128 For PNG export, snap the export area outwards to the nearest
129 integer SVG user unit (px) values. If you are using the default
130 export resolution of 96 dpi and your graphics are pixel-snapped
131 to minimize antialiasing, this switch allows you to preserve
132 this alignment even if you are exporting some object's bounding
133 box (with --export-id or --export-area-drawing) which is itself
134 not pixel-aligned.
135 -b COLOR, --export-background=COLOR
137 Background color of exported PNG. This may be any SVG
138 supported color string, for example "#ff007f" or "rgb(255, 0,
139 128)". If not set, then the page color set in Inkscape in the
140 Document Options dialog will be used (stored in the pagecolor=
141 attribute of sodipodi:namedview).
142 -d DPI, --export-dpi=DPI
144 The resolution used for PNG export. It is also used for
145 fallback rasterization of filtered objects when exporting to
146 PS, EPS, or PDF (unless you specify --export-ignore-filters to
147 suppress rasterization). The default is 96 dpi, which
148 corresponds to 1 SVG user unit (px, also called "user unit")
149 exporting to 1 bitmap pixel. This value overrides the DPI hint
150 if used with --export-use-hints.
151 -e FILENAME, --export-png=FILENAME
153 Specify the filename for PNG export. If it already exists, the
154 file will be overwritten without asking.
155 -f FILENAME, --file=FILENAME
157 Open specified document(s). Option string may be omitted, i.e.
158 you can list the filenames without -f.
159 -g, --with-gui
161 Try to use the GUI (on Unix, use the X server even if $DISPLAY
162 is not set).
163 -h HEIGHT, --export-height=HEIGHT
165 The height of generated bitmap in pixels. This value overrides
166 the --export-dpi setting (or the DPI hint if used with
167 --export-use-hints).
168 -i ID, --export-id=ID
170 For PNG, PS, EPS, PDF and plain SVG export, the id attribute
171 value of the object that you want to export from the document;
172 all other objects are not exported. By default the exported
173 area is the bounding box of the object; you can override this
174 using --export-area (PNG only) or --export-area-page.
175 -j, --export-id-only
177 For PNG and plain SVG, only export the object whose id is given
178 in --export-id. All other objects are hidden and won't show in
179 export even if they overlay the exported object. Without
180 --export-id, this option is ignored. For PDF export, this is
181 the default, so this option has no effect.
182 -l, --export-plain-svg=FILENAME
184 Export document(s) to plain SVG format, without sodipodi: or
185 inkscape: namespaces and without RDF metadata.
186 -x, --extension-directory
188 Lists the current extension directory that Inkscape is
189 configured to use and then exits. This is used for external
190 extension to use the same configuration as the original
191 Inkscape installation.
192 --verb-list
194 Lists all the verbs that are available in Inkscape by ID. This
195 ID can be used in defining keymaps or menus. It can also be
196 used with the --verb command line option.
197 --verb=VERB-ID, --select=OBJECT-ID
199 These two options work together to provide some basic scripting
200 for Inkscape from the command line. They both can occur as
201 many times as needed on the command line and are executed in
202 order on every document that is specified.
203 The --verb command will execute a specific verb as if it was
205 called from a menu or button. Dialogs will appear if that is
206 part of the verb. To get a list of the verb IDs available, use
207 the --verb-list command line option.
208 The --select command will cause objects that have the ID
210 specified to be selected. This allows various verbs to act
211 upon them. To remove all the selections use
212 "--verb=EditDeselect". The object IDs available are dependent
213 on the document specified to load.
214 -p PRINTER, --print=PRINTER
216 Print document(s) to the specified printer using `lpr -P
217 PRINTER'. Alternatively, use `| COMMAND' to specify a
218 different command to pipe to, or use `> FILENAME' to write the
219 PostScript output to a file instead of printing. Remember to
220 do appropriate quoting for your shell, e.g.
221 inkscape --print='| ps2pdf - mydoc.pdf' mydoc.svg
223 -t, --export-use-hints
225 Use export filename and DPI hints stored in the exported object
226 (only with --export-id). These hints are set automatically
227 when you export selection from within Inkscape. So, for
228 example, if you export a shape with id="path231" as
229 /home/me/shape.png at 300 dpi from document.svg using Inkscape
230 GUI, and save the document, then later you will be able to
231 reexport that shape to the same file with the same resolution
232 simply with
233 inkscape -i path231 -t document.svg
235 If you use --export-dpi, --export-width, or --export-height
237 with this option, then the DPI hint will be ignored and the
238 value from the command line will be used. If you use
239 --export-png with this option, then the filename hint will be
240 ignored and the filename from the command line will be used.
241 -w WIDTH, --export-width=WIDTH
243 The width of generated bitmap in pixels. This value overrides
244 the --export-dpi setting (or the DPI hint if used with
245 --export-use-hints).
246 -y VALUE, --export-background-opacity=VALUE
248 Opacity of the background of exported PNG. This may be a value
249 either between 0.0 and 1.0 (0.0 meaning full transparency, 1.0
250 full opacity) or greater than 1 up to 255 (255 meaning full
251 opacity). If not set and the -b option is not used, then the
252 page opacity set in Inkscape in the Document Options dialog
253 will be used (stored in the inkscape:pageopacity= attribute of
254 sodipodi:namedview). If not set but the -b option is used,
255 then the value of 255 (full opacity) will be used.
256 -P FILENAME, --export-ps=FILENAME
258 Export document(s) to PostScript format. Note that PostScript
259 does not support transparency, so any transparent objects in
260 the original SVG will be automatically rasterized. Used fonts
261 are subset and embedded. The default export area is page; you
262 can set it to drawing by --export-area-drawing. You can specify
263 --export-id to export a single object (all other are hidden);
264 in that case export area is that object's bounding box, but can
265 be set to page by --export-area-page.
266 -E FILENAME, --export-eps=FILENAME
268 Export document(s) to Encapsulated PostScript format. Note that
269 PostScript does not support transparency, so any transparent
270 objects in the original SVG will be automatically rasterized.
271 Used fonts are subset and embedded. The default export area is
272 drawing; you can set it to page, however see --export-area-page
273 for applicable limitation. You can specify --export-id to
274 export a single object (all other are hidden).
275 -A FILENAME, --export-pdf=FILENAME
277 Export document(s) to PDF format. This format preserves the
278 transparency in the original SVG. Used fonts are subset and
279 embedded. The default export area is page; you can set it to
280 drawing by --export-area-drawing. You can specify --export-id
281 to export a single object (all other are hidden); in that case
282 export area is that object's bounding box, but can be set to
283 page by --export-area-page.
284 --export-pdf-version=PDF-VERSION
286 Select the PDF version of the exported PDF file. This option
287 basically exposes the PDF version selector found in the PDF-
288 export dialog of the GUI. You must provide one of the versions
289 from that combo-box, e.g. "1.4". The default pdf export version
290 is "1.4".
291 --export-latex
293 (for PS, EPS, and PDF export) Used for creating images for
294 LaTeX documents, where the image's text is typeset by LaTeX.
295 When exporting to PDF/PS/EPS format, this option splits the
296 output into a PDF/PS/EPS file (e.g. as specified by
297 --export-pdf) and a LaTeX file. Text will not be output in the
298 PDF/PS/EPS file, but instead will appear in the LaTeX file.
299 This LaTeX file includes the PDF/PS/EPS. Inputting
300 (\input{image.tex}) the LaTeX file in your LaTeX document will
301 show the image and all text will be typeset by LaTeX. See the
302 resulting LaTeX file for more information. Also see GNUPlot's
303 `epslatex' output terminal.
304 -T, --export-text-to-path
306 Convert text objects to paths on export, where applicable (for
307 PS, EPS, PDF and SVG export).
308 --export-ignore-filters
310 Export filtered objects (e.g. those with blur) as vectors,
311 ignoring the filters (for PS, EPS, and PDF export). By
312 default, all filtered objects are rasterized at --export-dpi
313 (default 96 dpi), preserving the appearance.
314 -I, --query-id
316 Set the ID of the object whose dimensions are queried. If not
317 set, query options will return the dimensions of the drawing
318 (i.e. all document objects), not the page or viewbox
319 -X, --query-x
321 Query the X coordinate of the drawing or, if specified, of the
322 object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user
323 units).
324 -Y, --query-y
326 Query the Y coordinate of the drawing or, if specified, of the
327 object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user
328 units).
329 -W, --query-width
331 Query the width of the drawing or, if specified, of the object
332 with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user units).
333 -H, --query-height
335 Query the height of the drawing or, if specified, of the object
336 with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user units).
337 -S, --query-all
339 Prints a comma delimited listing of all objects in the SVG
340 document with IDs defined, along with their x, y, width, and
341 height values.
342 --shell With this parameter, Inkscape will enter an interactive command
344 line shell mode. In this mode, you type in commands at the
345 prompt and Inkscape executes them, without you having to run a
346 new copy of Inkscape for each command. This feature is mostly
347 useful for scripting and server uses: it adds no new
348 capabilities but allows you to improve the speed and memory
349 requirements of any script that repeatedly calls Inkscape to
350 perform command line tasks (such as export or conversions).
351 Each command in shell mode must be a complete valid Inkscape
352 command line but without the Inkscape program name, for
353 example:
354 file.svg --export-pdf=file.pdf
356 --vacuum-defs
358 Remove all unused items from the <lt>defs<gt> section of the
359 SVG file. If this option is invoked in conjunction with
360 --export-plain-svg, only the exported file will be affected.
361 If it is used alone, the specified file will be modified in
362 place.
363 -z, --without-gui
365 Do not open the GUI (on Unix, do not use X server); only
366 process the files from console. This is assumed for -p, -e,
367 -l, and --vacuum-defs options.
368 --g-fatal-warnings
370 This standard GTK option forces any warnings, usually harmless,
371 to cause Inkscape to abort (useful for debugging).
372 --usage Display a brief usage message.
374
376 The main configuration file is located in
377 ~/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml; it stores a variety of
378 customization settings that you can change in Inkscape (mostly in the
379 Inkscape Preferences dialog). Also in the subdirectories there, you
380 can place your own:
381 $HOME/.config/inkscape/extensions/ - extension effects.
383 $HOME/.config/inkscape/icons/ - icons.
385 $HOME/.config/inkscape/keys/ - keyboard maps.
387 $HOME/.config/inkscape/templates/ - new file templates.
389
391 The program returns zero on success or non-zero on failure.
392 A variety of error messages and warnings may be printed to STDERR or
394 STDOUT. If the program behaves erratically with a particular SVG file
395 or crashes, it is useful to look at this output for clues.
396
398 While obviously Inkscape is primarily intended as a GUI application, it
399 can be used for doing SVG processing on the command line as well.
400 Open an SVG file in the GUI:
402 inkscape filename.svg
404 Print an SVG file from the command line:
406 inkscape filename.svg -p '| lpr'
408 Export an SVG file into PNG with the default resolution of 96 dpi (one
410 SVG user unit translates to one bitmap pixel):
411 inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png
413 Same, but force the PNG file to be 600x400 pixels:
415 inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png -w600 -h400
417 Same, but export the drawing (bounding box of all objects), not the
419 page:
420 inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png --export-area-drawing
422 Export to PNG the object with id="text1555", using the output filename
424 and the resolution that were used for that object last time when it was
425 exported from the GUI:
426 inkscape filename.svg --export-id=text1555 --export-use-hints
428 Same, but use the default 96 dpi resolution, specify the filename, and
430 snap the exported area outwards to the nearest whole SVG user unit
431 values (to preserve pixel-alignment of objects and thus minimize
432 aliasing):
433 inkscape filename.svg --export-id=text1555 --export-png=text.png --export-area-snap
435 Convert an Inkscape SVG document to plain SVG:
437 inkscape filename1.svg --export-plain-svg=filename2.svg
439 Convert an SVG document to EPS, converting all texts to paths:
441 inkscape filename.svg --export-eps=filename.eps --export-text-to-path
443 Query the width of the object with id="text1555":
445 inkscape filename.svg --query-width --query-id text1555
447 Duplicate the object with id="path1555", rotate the duplicate 90
449 degrees, save SVG, and quit:
450 inkscape filename.svg --select=path1555 --verb=EditDuplicate --verb=ObjectRotate90 --verb=FileSave --verb=FileClose
452
454 DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
455 TMPDIR to set the default path of the directory to use for temporary
457 files. The directory must exist.
458 INKSCAPE_PROFILE_DIR to set the path of the directory to use for the
460 user profile.
461
463 To load different icons sets instead of the default
464 /usr/share/inkscape/icons/icons.svg file, the directory
465 $HOME/.config/inkscape/icons/ is used. Icons are loaded by name (e.g.
466 fill_none.svg), or if not found, then from icons.svg. If the icon is
467 not loaded from either of those locations, it falls back to the default
468 system location.
469 The needed icons are loaded from SVG files by searching for the SVG id
471 with the matching icon name. (For example, to load the "fill_none"
472 icon from a file, the bounding box seen for SVG id "fill_none" is
473 rendered as the icon, whether it comes from fill_none.svg or
474 icons.svg.)
475
477 The canonical place to find Inkscape info is at
478 <http://www.inkscape.org/>. The website has news, documentation,
479 tutorials, examples, mailing list archives, the latest released version
480 of the program, bugs and feature requests databases, forums, and more.
481
483 potrace, cairo, rsvg, batik, ghostscript, pstoedit.
484 SVG compliance test suite: <http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Test/>
486 SVG validator: <http://jiggles.w3.org/svgvalidator/>
488 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification W3C Recommendation 14
490 January 2003 <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/>
491 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2 Specification W3C Working Draft 13
493 November 2003 <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/>
494 SVG 1.1/1.2/2.0 Requirements W3C Working Draft 22 April 2002
496 <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG2Reqs/>
497 Document Object Model (DOM): Level 2 Core Arnaud Le Hors et al editors,
499 W3C <http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core/>
500
502 To learn Inkscape's GUI operation, read the tutorials in Help >
503 Tutorials.
504 Apart from SVG, Inkscape can import (File > Import) most bitmap formats
506 (PNG, BMP, JPG, XPM, GIF, etc.), plain text (requires Perl), PS and EPS
507 (requires Ghostscript), PDF and AI format (AI version 9.0 or newer).
508 Inkscape exports 32-bit PNG images (File > Export PNG Image) as well as
510 AI, PS, EPS, PDF, DXF, and several other formats via File > Save as.
511 Inkscape can use the pressure and tilt of a graphic tablet pen for
513 width, angle, and force of action of several tools, including the
514 Calligraphic pen.
515 Inkscape includes a GUI front-end to the Potrace bitmap tracing engine
517 (<http://potrace.sf.net>) which is embedded into Inkscape.
518 Inkscape can use external scripts (stdin-to-stdout filters) that are
520 represented by commands in the Extensions menu. A script can have a GUI
521 dialog for setting various parameters and can get the IDs of the
522 selected objects on which to act via the command line. Inkscape comes
523 with an assortment of effects written in Python.
524
526 To get a complete list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts, view
527 doc/keys.html, or use the Keys and Mouse command in Help menu.
528
530 Many bugs are known; please refer to the website
531 (<http://www.inkscape.org>) for reviewing the reported ones and to
532 report newly found issues. See also the Known Issues section in the
533 Release Notes for your version (file `NEWS').
534
536 This codebase owes its existence to a large number of contributors
537 throughout its various incarnations. The following list is certainly
538 incomplete, but serves to recognize the many shoulders on which this
539 application sits:
540 Maximilian Albert, Joshua A. Andler, Tavmjong Bah, Pierre Barbry-Blot,
542 Jean-François Barraud, Campbell Barton, Bill Baxter, John Beard, John
543 Bintz, Arpad Biro, Nicholas Bishop, Joshua L. Blocher, Hanno Böck,
544 Tomasz Boczkowski, Henrik Bohre, Boldewyn, Daniel Borgmann, Bastien
545 Bouclet, Hans Breuer, Gustav Broberg, Christopher Brown, Marcus
546 Brubaker, Luca Bruno, Brynn (brynn@inkscapecommunity.com), Nicu
547 Buculei, Bulia Byak, Pierre Caclin, Ian Caldwell, Gail Carmichael, Ed
548 Catmur, Chema Celorio, Jabiertxo Arraiza Cenoz, Johan Ceuppens,
549 Zbigniew Chyla, Alexander Clausen, John Cliff, Kees Cook, Ben Cromwell,
550 Robert Crosbie, Jon Cruz, Aurélie De-Cooman, Kris De Gussem, Milosz
551 Derezynski, Daniel Díaz, Bruno Dilly, Larry Doolittle, Nicolas Dufour,
552 Tim Dwyer, Maxim V. Dziumanenko, Johan Engelen, Miklos Erdelyi, Ulf
553 Erikson, Noé Falzon, Frank Felfe, Andrew Fitzsimon, Edward Flick,
554 Marcin Floryan, Fred, Ben Fowler, Cedric Gemy, Steren Giannini, Olivier
555 Gondouin, Ted Gould, Toine de Greef, Michael Grosberg, Bryce
556 Harrington, Dale Harvey, Aurélio Adnauer Heckert, Carl Hetherington,
557 Jos Hirth, Hannes Hochreiner, Thomas Holder, Joel Holdsworth,
558 Christoffer Holmstedt, Alan Horkan, Karl Ove Hufthammer, Richard
559 Hughes, Nathan Hurst, inductiveload, Thomas Ingham, Jean-Olivier
560 Irisson, Bob Jamison, Ted Janeczko, Marc Jeanmougin, jEsuSdA, Lauris
561 Kaplinski, Lynn Kerby, Niko Kiirala, James Kilfiger, Nikita Kitaev,
562 Jason Kivlighn, Adrian Knoth, Krzysztof Kosiński, Petr Kovar, Benoît
563 Lavorata, Alex Leone, Julien Leray, Raph Levien, Diederik van Lierop,
564 Nicklas Lindgren, Vitaly Lipatov, Ivan Louette, Fernando Lucchesi
565 Bastos Jurema, Pierre-Antoine Marc, Aurel-Aimé Marmion, Colin
566 Marquardt, Craig Marshall, Ivan Masár, Dmitry G. Mastrukov, David
567 Mathog, Matiphas, Michael Meeks, Federico Mena, MenTaLguY, Aubanel
568 Monnier, Vincent Montagne, Tim Mooney, Derek P. Moore, Chris Morgan,
569 Peter Moulder, Jörg Müller, Yukihiro Nakai, Victor Navez, Christian
570 Neumair, Nick, Andreas Nilsson, Mitsuru Oka, Vinícius dos Santos
571 Oliveira, Martin Owens, Alvin Penner, Matthew Petroff, Jon Phillips,
572 Zdenko Podobny, Alexandre Prokoudine, Jean-René Reinhard, Alexey
573 Remizov, Frederic Rodrigo, Hugo Rodrigues, Juarez Rudsatz, Xavier Conde
574 Rueda, Felipe Corrêa da Silva Sanches, Christian Schaller, Marco
575 Scholten, Tom von Schwerdtner, Danilo Šegan, Abhishek Sharma, Shivaken,
576 Michael Sloan, John Smith, Boštjan Špetič, Aaron Spike, Kaushik
577 Sridharan, Ralf Stephan, Dariusz Stojek, Martin Sucha, ~suv, Pat
578 Suwalski, Adib Taraben, Hugh Tebby, Jonas Termeau, David Turner, Andre
579 Twupack, Aleksandar Urošević, Alex Valavanis, Joakim Verona, Lucas
580 Vieites, Daniel Wagenaar, Liam P. White, Sebastian Wüst, Michael
581 Wybrow, Gellule Xg, Daniel Yacob, David Yip, Masatake Yamato, Moritz
582 Eberl, Sebastian Faubel
583 This man page was put together by Bryce Harrington
585 <bryce@bryceharrington.org>.
586
588 The codebase that would become Inkscape began life in 1999 as the
589 program Gill, the GNOME Illustrator application, created by Raph
590 Levien. The stated objective for Gill was to eventually support all of
591 SVG. Raph implemented the PostScript bezier imaging model, including
592 stroking and filling, line cap style, line join style, text, etc.
593 Raph's Gill page is at <http://www.levien.com/svg/>. Work on Gill
594 appears to have slowed or ceased in 2000.
595 The next incarnation of the codebase was to become the highly popular
597 program Sodipodi, led by Lauris Kaplinski. The codebase was turned
598 into a powerful illustration program over the course of several year's
599 work, adding several new features, multi-lingual support, porting to
600 Windows and other operating systems, and eliminating dependencies.
601 Inkscape was formed in 2003 by four active Sodipodi developers, Bryce
603 Harrington, MenTaLguY, Nathan Hurst, and Ted Gould, wanting to take a
604 different direction with the codebase in terms of focus on SVG
605 compliance, interface look-and-feel, and a desire to open development
606 opportunities to more participants. The project progressed rapidly,
607 gaining a number of very active contributors and features.
608 Much work in the early days of the project focused on code
610 stabilization and internationalization. The original renderer
611 inherited from Sodipodi was laced with a number of mathematical corner
612 cases which led to unexpected crashes when the program was pushed
613 beyond routine uses; this renderer was replaced with Livarot which,
614 while not perfect either, was significantly less error prone. The
615 project also adopted a practice of committing code frequently, and
616 encouraging users to run developmental snapshots of the program; this
617 helped identify new bugs swiftly, and ensure it was easy for users to
618 verify the fixes. As a result, Inkscape releases have generally earned
619 a reputation for being robust and reliable.
620 Similarly, efforts were taken to internationalize and localize the
622 interface, which has helped the program gain contributors worldwide.
623 Inkscape has had a beneficial impact on the visual attractiveness of
625 Open Source in general, by providing a tool for creating and sharing
626 icons, splash screens, website art, and so on. In a way, despite being
627 "just an drawing program", Inkscape has played an important role in
628 making Open Source more visually stimulating to larger audiences.
629
631 Copyright (C) 1999–2016 by Authors.
632 Inkscape is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
634 under the terms of the GPL version 2 or later.
6350.92.2 2018-04-11 INKSCAPE(1)