1INKSCAPE(1)                Inkscape Commands Manual                INKSCAPE(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       Inkscape - an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) editing program.
7

SYNOPSIS

9       "inkscape [options] [filename ...]"
10
11       options:
12
13           -?, --help
14               --usage
15           -V, --version
16
17           -f, --file=FILENAME
18
19           -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
33           -P, --export-ps=FILENAME
34           -E, --export-eps=FILENAME
35           -A, --export-pdf=FILENAME
36               --export-pdf-version=VERSION-STRING
37               --export-latex
38
39               --export-ps-level={2,3}
40
41           -T, --export-text-to-path
42               --export-ignore-filters
43
44           -l, --export-plain-svg=FILENAME
45
46           -p, --print=PRINTER
47
48           -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
55           -x, --extension-directory
56
57               --verb-list
58               --verb=VERB-ID
59               --select=OBJECT-ID
60
61               --shell
62
63           -g, --with-gui
64           -z, --without-gui
65
66               --vacuum-defs
67               --no-convert-text-baseline-spacing
68
69               --g-fatal-warnings
70

DESCRIPTION

72       Inkscape is a GUI editor for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format
73       drawing files, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator,
74       CorelDraw, Xara Xtreme, etc. Inkscape features include versatile
75       shapes, bezier paths, freehand drawing, multi-line text, text on path,
76       alpha blending, arbitrary affine transforms, gradient and pattern
77       fills, node editing, many export and import formats including PNG and
78       PDF, grouping, layers, live clones, and a lot more.  The interface is
79       designed to be comfortable and efficient for skilled users, while
80       remaining conformant to GNOME standards so that users familiar with
81       other GNOME applications can learn its interface rapidly.
82
83       SVG is a W3C standard XML format for 2D vector drawing. It allows
84       defining objects in the drawing using points, paths, and primitive
85       shapes.  Colors, fonts, stroke width, and so forth are specified as
86       `style' attributes to these objects.  The intent is that since SVG is a
87       standard, and since its files are text/xml, it will be possible to use
88       SVG files in a sizeable number of programs and for a wide range of
89       uses.
90
91       Inkscape uses SVG as its native document format, and has the goal of
92       becoming the most fully compliant drawing program for SVG files
93       available in the Open Source community.
94

OPTIONS

96       -?, --help
97               Show help message
98
99       -V, --version
100               Show Inkscape version and build date.
101
102       -a x0:y0:x1:y1, --export-area=x0:y0:x1:y1
103               In PNG export, set the exported area in SVG user units
104               (anonymous length units normally used in Inkscape SVG).  The
105               default is to export the entire document page.  The point (0,0)
106               is the lower-left corner.
107
108       -C, --export-area-page
109               In SVG, PNG, PDF, PS, and EPS export, exported area is the
110               page. This is the default for SVG, PNG, PDF, and PS, so you
111               don't need to specify this unless you are using --export-id to
112               export a specific object. In EPS, however, this is not the
113               default; moreover, for EPS, the specification of the format
114               does not allow its bounding box to extend beyond its content.
115               This means that when --export-area-page is used with EPS
116               export, the page bounding box will be trimmed inwards to the
117               bounding box of the content if it is smaller.
118
119       -D, --export-area-drawing
120               In SVG, PNG, PDF, PS, and EPS export, exported area is the
121               drawing (not page), i.e. the bounding box of all objects of the
122               document (or of the exported object if --export-id is used).
123               With this option, the exported image will display all the
124               visible objects of the document without margins or cropping.
125               This is the default export area for EPS. For PNG, it can be
126               used in combination with --export-use-hints.
127
128       --export-area-snap
129               For PNG export, snap the export area outwards to the nearest
130               integer SVG user unit (px) values. If you are using the default
131               export resolution of 96 dpi and your graphics are pixel-snapped
132               to minimize antialiasing, this switch allows you to preserve
133               this alignment even if you are exporting some object's bounding
134               box (with --export-id or --export-area-drawing) which is itself
135               not pixel-aligned.
136
137       -b COLOR, --export-background=COLOR
138               Background color of exported PNG.  This may be any SVG
139               supported color string, for example "#ff007f" or "rgb(255, 0,
140               128)".  If not set, then the page color set in Inkscape in the
141               Document Options dialog will be used (stored in the pagecolor=
142               attribute of sodipodi:namedview).
143
144       -d DPI, --export-dpi=DPI
145               The resolution used for PNG export.  It is also used for
146               fallback rasterization of filtered objects when exporting to
147               PS, EPS, or PDF (unless you specify --export-ignore-filters to
148               suppress rasterization). The default is 96 dpi, which
149               corresponds to 1 SVG user unit (px, also called "user unit")
150               exporting to 1 bitmap pixel.  This value overrides the DPI hint
151               if used with --export-use-hints.
152
153       -e FILENAME, --export-png=FILENAME
154               Specify the filename for PNG export.  If it already exists, the
155               file will be overwritten without asking. Use `-' as filename to
156               write the image data to standard output.
157
158       -f FILENAME, --file=FILENAME
159               Open specified document(s).  Option string may be omitted, i.e.
160               you can list the filenames without -f. Use `-' as filename to
161               read the vector data from standard input.
162
163       -g, --with-gui
164               Try to use the GUI (on Unix, use the X server even if $DISPLAY
165               is not set).
166
167       -h HEIGHT, --export-height=HEIGHT
168               The height of generated bitmap in pixels.  This value overrides
169               the --export-dpi setting (or the DPI hint if used with
170               --export-use-hints).
171
172       -i ID, --export-id=ID
173               For PNG, PS, EPS, PDF and plain SVG export, the id attribute
174               value of the object that you want to export from the document;
175               all other objects are not exported.  By default the exported
176               area is the bounding box of the object; you can override this
177               using --export-area (PNG only) or --export-area-page.
178
179       -j, --export-id-only
180               For PNG and plain SVG, only export the object whose id is given
181               in --export-id. All other objects are hidden and won't show in
182               export even if they overlay the exported object.  Without
183               --export-id, this option is ignored. For PDF export, this is
184               the default, so this option has no effect.
185
186       -l, --export-plain-svg=FILENAME
187               Export document(s) to plain SVG format, without sodipodi: or
188               inkscape: namespaces and without RDF metadata. Use `-' as
189               filename to write the image data to standard output.
190
191       -x, --extension-directory
192               Lists the current extension directory that Inkscape is
193               configured to use and then exits.  This is used for external
194               extension to use the same configuration as the original
195               Inkscape installation.
196
197       --verb-list
198               Lists all the verbs that are available in Inkscape by ID.  This
199               ID can be used in defining keymaps or menus.  It can also be
200               used with the --verb command line option.
201
202       --verb=VERB-ID, --select=OBJECT-ID
203               These two options work together to provide some basic scripting
204               for Inkscape from the command line.  They both can occur as
205               many times as needed on the command line and are executed in
206               order on every document that is specified.
207
208               The --verb command will execute a specific verb as if it was
209               called from a menu or button.  Dialogs will appear if that is
210               part of the verb.  To get a list of the verb IDs available, use
211               the --verb-list command line option.
212
213               The --select command will cause objects that have the ID
214               specified to be selected.  This allows various verbs to act
215               upon them.  To remove all the selections use
216               "--verb=EditDeselect".  The object IDs available are dependent
217               on the document specified to load.
218
219               Note that the --verb command requires a GUI, and thus cannot be
220               used with the --z option.
221
222       -p PRINTER, --print=PRINTER
223               Print document(s) to the specified printer using `lpr -P
224               PRINTER'.  Alternatively, use `| COMMAND' to specify a
225               different command to pipe to, or use `> FILENAME' to write the
226               PostScript output to a file instead of printing.  Remember to
227               do appropriate quoting for your shell, e.g.
228
229                   inkscape --print='| ps2pdf - mydoc.pdf' mydoc.svg
230
231       -t, --export-use-hints
232               Use export filename and DPI hints stored in the exported object
233               (only with --export-id).  These hints are set automatically
234               when you export selection from within Inkscape.  So, for
235               example, if you export a shape with id="path231" as
236               /home/me/shape.png at 300 dpi from document.svg using Inkscape
237               GUI, and save the document, then later you will be able to
238               reexport that shape to the same file with the same resolution
239               simply with
240
241                   inkscape -i path231 -t document.svg
242
243               If you use --export-dpi, --export-width, or --export-height
244               with this option, then the DPI hint will be ignored and the
245               value from the command line will be used.  If you use
246               --export-png with this option, then the filename hint will be
247               ignored and the filename from the command line will be used.
248
249       -w WIDTH, --export-width=WIDTH
250               The width of generated bitmap in pixels.  This value overrides
251               the --export-dpi setting (or the DPI hint if used with
252               --export-use-hints).
253
254       -y VALUE, --export-background-opacity=VALUE
255               Opacity of the background of exported PNG.  This may be a value
256               either between 0.0 and 1.0 (0.0 meaning full transparency, 1.0
257               full opacity) or greater than 1 up to 255 (255 meaning full
258               opacity).  If not set and the -b option is not used, then the
259               page opacity set in Inkscape in the Document Options dialog
260               will be used (stored in the inkscape:pageopacity= attribute of
261               sodipodi:namedview).  If not set but the -b option is used,
262               then the value of 255 (full opacity) will be used.
263
264       -P FILENAME, --export-ps=FILENAME
265               Export document(s) to PostScript format. Note that PostScript
266               does not support transparency, so any transparent objects in
267               the original SVG will be automatically rasterized. Used fonts
268               are subset and embedded. The default export area is page; you
269               can set it to drawing by --export-area-drawing. You can specify
270               --export-id to export a single object (all other are hidden);
271               in that case export area is that object's bounding box, but can
272               be set to page by --export-area-page.  Use `-' as filename to
273               write the image data to standard output.
274
275       -E FILENAME, --export-eps=FILENAME
276               Export document(s) to Encapsulated PostScript format. Note that
277               PostScript does not support transparency, so any transparent
278               objects in the original SVG will be automatically rasterized.
279               Used fonts are subset and embedded. The default export area is
280               drawing; you can set it to page, however see --export-area-page
281               for applicable limitation. You can specify --export-id to
282               export a single object (all other are hidden). Use `-' as
283               filename to write the image data to standard output.
284
285       -A FILENAME, --export-pdf=FILENAME
286               Export document(s) to PDF format. This format preserves the
287               transparency in the original SVG. Used fonts are subset and
288               embedded.  The default export area is page; you can set it to
289               drawing by --export-area-drawing. You can specify --export-id
290               to export a single object (all other are hidden); in that case
291               export area is that object's bounding box, but can be set to
292               page by --export-area-page.  Use `-' as filename to write the
293               image data to standard output.
294
295       --export-pdf-version=PDF-VERSION
296               Select the PDF version of the exported PDF file. This option
297               basically exposes the PDF version selector found in the PDF-
298               export dialog of the GUI. You must provide one of the versions
299               from that combo-box, e.g. "1.4". The default pdf export version
300               is "1.4".
301
302       --export-latex
303               (for PS, EPS, and PDF export) Used for creating images for
304               LaTeX documents, where the image's text is typeset by LaTeX.
305               When exporting to PDF/PS/EPS format, this option splits the
306               output into a PDF/PS/EPS file (e.g. as specified by
307               --export-pdf) and a LaTeX file. Text will not be output in the
308               PDF/PS/EPS file, but instead will appear in the LaTeX file.
309               This LaTeX file includes the PDF/PS/EPS. Inputting
310               (\input{image.tex}) the LaTeX file in your LaTeX document will
311               show the image and all text will be typeset by LaTeX. See the
312               resulting LaTeX file for more information.  Also see GNUPlot's
313               `epslatex' output terminal.
314
315       -T, --export-text-to-path
316               Convert text objects to paths on export, where applicable (for
317               PS, EPS, PDF and SVG export).
318
319       --export-ignore-filters
320               Export filtered objects (e.g. those with blur) as vectors,
321               ignoring the filters (for PS, EPS, and PDF export).  By
322               default, all filtered objects are rasterized at --export-dpi
323               (default 96 dpi), preserving the appearance.
324
325       -I, --query-id
326               Set the ID of the object whose dimensions are queried. If not
327               set, query options will return the dimensions of the drawing
328               (i.e. all document objects), not the page or viewbox
329
330       -X, --query-x
331               Query the X coordinate of the drawing or, if specified, of the
332               object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user
333               units).
334
335       -Y, --query-y
336               Query the Y coordinate of the drawing or, if specified, of the
337               object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user
338               units).
339
340       -W, --query-width
341               Query the width of the drawing or, if specified, of the object
342               with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user units).
343
344       -H, --query-height
345               Query the height of the drawing or, if specified, of the object
346               with --query-id. The returned value is in px (SVG user units).
347
348       -S, --query-all
349               Prints a comma delimited listing of all objects in the SVG
350               document with IDs defined, along with their x, y, width, and
351               height values.
352
353       --shell With this parameter, Inkscape will enter an interactive command
354               line shell mode. In this mode, you type in commands at the
355               prompt and Inkscape executes them, without you having to run a
356               new copy of Inkscape for each command. This feature is mostly
357               useful for scripting and server uses: it adds no new
358               capabilities but allows you to improve the speed and memory
359               requirements of any script that repeatedly calls Inkscape to
360               perform command line tasks (such as export or conversions).
361               Each command in shell mode must be a complete valid Inkscape
362               command line but without the Inkscape program name, for
363               example:
364
365                   file.svg --export-pdf=file.pdf
366
367       --vacuum-defs
368               Remove all unused items from the "<defs>" section of the SVG
369               file.  If this option is invoked in conjunction with
370               --export-plain-svg, only the exported file will be affected.
371               If it is used alone, the specified file will be modified in
372               place.
373
374       --no-convert-text-baseline-spacing
375               Do not automatically fix text baselines in legacy (pre-0.92)
376               files on opening.  Inkscape 0.92 adopts the CSS standard
377               definition for the 'line-height' property, which differs from
378               past versions.  By default, the line height values in files
379               created prior to Inkscape 0.92 will be adjusted on loading to
380               preserve the intended text layout.  This command line option
381               will skip that adjustment.
382
383       -z, --without-gui
384               Do not open the GUI (on Unix, do not use X server); only
385               process the files from console.  This is assumed for -p, -e,
386               -l, and --vacuum-defs options. It cannot be used in conjunction
387               with the --verb option.
388
389       --g-fatal-warnings
390               This standard GTK option forces any warnings, usually harmless,
391               to cause Inkscape to abort (useful for debugging).
392
393       --usage Display a brief usage message.
394

CONFIGURATION

396       The main configuration file is located in
397       ~/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml; it stores a variety of
398       customization settings that you can change in Inkscape (mostly in the
399       Inkscape Preferences dialog).  Also in the subdirectories there, you
400       can place your own:
401
402       $HOME/.config/inkscape/extensions/ - extension effects.
403
404       $HOME/.config/inkscape/icons/ - icons.
405
406       $HOME/.config/inkscape/keys/ - keyboard maps.
407
408       $HOME/.config/inkscape/templates/ - new file templates.
409

DIAGNOSTICS

411       The program returns zero on success or non-zero on failure.
412
413       A variety of error messages and warnings may be printed to STDERR or
414       STDOUT.  If the program behaves erratically with a particular SVG file
415       or crashes, it is useful to look at this output for clues.
416

EXAMPLES

418       While obviously Inkscape is primarily intended as a GUI application, it
419       can be used for doing SVG processing on the command line as well.
420
421       Open an SVG file in the GUI:
422
423           inkscape filename.svg
424
425       Print an SVG file from the command line:
426
427           inkscape filename.svg -p '| lpr'
428
429       Export an SVG file into PNG with the default resolution of 96 dpi (one
430       SVG user unit translates to one bitmap pixel):
431
432           inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png
433
434       Same, but force the PNG file to be 600x400 pixels:
435
436           inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png -w600 -h400
437
438       Same, but export the drawing (bounding box of all objects), not the
439       page:
440
441           inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png --export-area-drawing
442
443       Export to PNG the object with id="text1555", using the output filename
444       and the resolution that were used for that object last time when it was
445       exported from the GUI:
446
447           inkscape filename.svg --export-id=text1555 --export-use-hints
448
449       Same, but use the default 96 dpi resolution, specify the filename, and
450       snap the exported area outwards to the nearest whole SVG user unit
451       values (to preserve pixel-alignment of objects and thus minimize
452       aliasing):
453
454           inkscape filename.svg --export-id=text1555 --export-png=text.png --export-area-snap
455
456       Convert an Inkscape SVG document to plain SVG:
457
458           inkscape filename1.svg --export-plain-svg=filename2.svg
459
460       Convert an SVG document to EPS, converting all texts to paths:
461
462           inkscape filename.svg --export-eps=filename.eps --export-text-to-path
463
464       Query the width of the object with id="text1555":
465
466           inkscape filename.svg --query-width --query-id text1555
467
468       Duplicate the object with id="path1555", rotate the duplicate 90
469       degrees, save SVG, and quit:
470
471           inkscape filename.svg --select=path1555 --verb=EditDuplicate --verb=ObjectRotate90 --verb=FileSave --verb=FileClose
472

ENVIRONMENT

474       DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
475
476       TMPDIR to set the default path of the directory to use for temporary
477       files.  The directory must exist.
478
479       INKSCAPE_PROFILE_DIR to set the path of the directory to use for the
480       user profile.
481

THEMES

483       To load different icons sets instead of the default
484       $PREFIX/share/inkscape/icons/icons.svg file, the directory
485       $HOME/.config/inkscape/icons/ is used.  Icons are loaded by name (e.g.
486       fill_none.svg), or if not found, then from icons.svg.  If the icon is
487       not loaded from either of those locations, it falls back to the default
488       system location.
489
490       The needed icons are loaded from SVG files by searching for the SVG id
491       with the matching icon name.  (For example, to load the "fill_none"
492       icon from a file, the bounding box seen for SVG id "fill_none" is
493       rendered as the icon, whether it comes from fill_none.svg or
494       icons.svg.)
495

OTHER INFO

497       The canonical place to find Inkscape info is at
498       <https://www.inkscape.org/>.  The website has news, documentation,
499       tutorials, examples, mailing list archives, the latest released version
500       of the program, bugs and feature requests databases, forums, and more.
501

SEE ALSO

503       potrace, cairo, rsvg, batik, ghostscript, pstoedit.
504
505       SVG compliance test suite:
506       <https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Test_Suite_Overview>
507
508       SVG validator: <https://validator.w3.org/>
509
510       Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification W3C Recommendation 16
511       August 2011 <https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/>
512
513       Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2 Specification W3C Working Draft 13
514       April 2005 <https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/>
515
516       Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 Specification W3C Candidate
517       Recommendation 15 September 2016 <https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG2/>
518
519       Document Object Model (DOM): Level 2 Core W3C Recommendation 13
520       November 2000 <https://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core/>
521

GUI NOTES

523       To learn Inkscape's GUI operation, read the tutorials in Help >
524       Tutorials.
525
526       Apart from SVG, Inkscape can import (File > Import) most bitmap formats
527       (PNG, BMP, JPG, XPM, GIF, etc.), plain text (requires Perl), PS and EPS
528       (requires Ghostscript), PDF and AI format (AI version 9.0 or newer).
529
530       Inkscape exports 32-bit PNG images (File > Export PNG Image) as well as
531       AI, PS, EPS, PDF, DXF, and several other formats via File > Save as.
532
533       Inkscape can use the pressure and tilt of a graphic tablet pen for
534       width, angle, and force of action of several tools, including the
535       Calligraphic pen.
536
537       Inkscape includes a GUI front-end to the Potrace bitmap tracing engine
538       (<http://potrace.sf.net>) which is embedded into Inkscape.
539
540       Inkscape can use external scripts (stdin-to-stdout filters) that are
541       represented by commands in the Extensions menu. A script can have a GUI
542       dialog for setting various parameters and can get the IDs of the
543       selected objects on which to act via the command line. Inkscape comes
544       with an assortment of effects written in Python.
545

KEYBINDINGS

547       To get a complete list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts, view
548       doc/keys.html, or use the Keys and Mouse command in Help menu.
549

BUGS

551       Many bugs are known; please refer to the website
552       (<https://www.inkscape.org/>) for reviewing the reported ones and to
553       report newly found issues.  See also the Known Issues section in the
554       Release Notes for your version (file `NEWS').
555

AUTHORS

557       This codebase owes its existence to a large number of contributors
558       throughout its various incarnations.  The following list is certainly
559       incomplete, but serves to recognize the many shoulders on which this
560       application sits:
561
562       Maximilian Albert, Joshua A. Andler, Tavmjong Bah, Pierre Barbry-Blot,
563       Jean-François Barraud, Campbell Barton, Bill Baxter, John Beard, John
564       Bintz, Arpad Biro, Nicholas Bishop, Joshua L. Blocher, Hanno Böck,
565       Tomasz Boczkowski, Henrik Bohre, Boldewyn, Daniel Borgmann, Bastien
566       Bouclet, Hans Breuer, Gustav Broberg, Christopher Brown, Marcus
567       Brubaker, Luca Bruno, Brynn (brynn@inkscapecommunity.com), Nicu
568       Buculei, Bulia Byak, Pierre Caclin, Ian Caldwell, Gail Carmichael, Ed
569       Catmur, Chema Celorio, Jabiertxo Arraiza Cenoz, Johan Ceuppens,
570       Zbigniew Chyla, Alexander Clausen, John Cliff, Kees Cook, Ben Cromwell,
571       Robert Crosbie, Jon Cruz, Aurélie De-Cooman, Kris De Gussem, Milosz
572       Derezynski, Daniel Díaz, Bruno Dilly, Larry Doolittle, Nicolas Dufour,
573       Tim Dwyer, Maxim V. Dziumanenko, Johan Engelen, Miklos Erdelyi, Ulf
574       Erikson, Noé Falzon, Frank Felfe, Andrew Fitzsimon, Edward Flick,
575       Marcin Floryan, Fred, Ben Fowler, Cedric Gemy, Steren Giannini, Olivier
576       Gondouin, Ted Gould, Toine de Greef, Michael Grosberg, Bryce
577       Harrington, Dale Harvey, Aurélio Adnauer Heckert, Carl Hetherington,
578       Jos Hirth, Hannes Hochreiner, Thomas Holder, Joel Holdsworth,
579       Christoffer Holmstedt, Alan Horkan, Karl Ove Hufthammer, Richard
580       Hughes, Nathan Hurst, inductiveload, Thomas Ingham, Jean-Olivier
581       Irisson, Bob Jamison, Ted Janeczko, Marc Jeanmougin, jEsuSdA, Lauris
582       Kaplinski, Lynn Kerby, Niko Kiirala, James Kilfiger, Nikita Kitaev,
583       Jason Kivlighn, Adrian Knoth, Krzysztof Kosiński, Petr Kovar, Benoît
584       Lavorata, Alex Leone, Julien Leray, Raph Levien, Diederik van Lierop,
585       Nicklas Lindgren, Vitaly Lipatov, Ivan Louette, Fernando Lucchesi
586       Bastos Jurema, Pierre-Antoine Marc, Aurel-Aimé Marmion, Colin
587       Marquardt, Craig Marshall, Ivan Masár, Dmitry G. Mastrukov, David
588       Mathog, Matiphas, Patrick McDermott, Michael Meeks, Federico Mena,
589       MenTaLguY, Aubanel Monnier, Vincent Montagne, Tim Mooney, Derek P.
590       Moore, Chris Morgan, Peter Moulder, Jörg Müller, Yukihiro Nakai, Victor
591       Navez, Christian Neumair, Nick, Andreas Nilsson, Mitsuru Oka, Vinícius
592       dos Santos Oliveira, Martin Owens, Alvin Penner, Matthew Petroff, Jon
593       Phillips, Zdenko Podobny, Alexandre Prokoudine, Jean-René Reinhard,
594       Alexey Remizov, Frederic Rodrigo, Hugo Rodrigues, Juarez Rudsatz,
595       Xavier Conde Rueda, Felipe Corrêa da Silva Sanches, Christian Schaller,
596       Marco Scholten, Tom von Schwerdtner, Danilo Šegan, Abhishek Sharma,
597       Shivaken, Michael Sloan, John Smith, Boštjan Špetič, Aaron Spike,
598       Kaushik Sridharan, Ralf Stephan, Dariusz Stojek, Martin Sucha, ~suv,
599       Pat Suwalski, Adib Taraben, Hugh Tebby, Jonas Termeau, David Turner,
600       Andre Twupack, Aleksandar Urošević, Alex Valavanis, Joakim Verona,
601       Lucas Vieites, Daniel Wagenaar, Liam P. White, Sebastian Wüst, Michael
602       Wybrow, Gellule Xg, Daniel Yacob, David Yip, Masatake Yamato, Moritz
603       Eberl, Sebastian Faubel
604
605       This man page was put together by Bryce Harrington
606       <bryce@bryceharrington.org>.
607

HISTORY

609       The codebase that would become Inkscape began life in 1999 as the
610       program Gill, the GNOME Illustrator application, created by Raph
611       Levien.  The stated objective for Gill was to eventually support all of
612       SVG.  Raph implemented the PostScript bezier imaging model, including
613       stroking and filling, line cap style, line join style, text, etc.
614       Raph's Gill page is at <http://www.levien.com/svg/>.  Work on Gill
615       appears to have slowed or ceased in 2000.
616
617       The next incarnation of the codebase was to become the highly popular
618       program Sodipodi, led by Lauris Kaplinski.  The codebase was turned
619       into a powerful illustration program over the course of several year's
620       work, adding several new features, multi-lingual support, porting to
621       Windows and other operating systems, and eliminating dependencies.
622
623       Inkscape was formed in 2003 by four active Sodipodi developers, Bryce
624       Harrington, MenTaLguY, Nathan Hurst, and Ted Gould, wanting to take a
625       different direction with the codebase in terms of focus on SVG
626       compliance, interface look-and-feel, and a desire to open development
627       opportunities to more participants.  The project progressed rapidly,
628       gaining a number of very active contributors and features.
629
630       Much work in the early days of the project focused on code
631       stabilization and internationalization.  The original renderer
632       inherited from Sodipodi was laced with a number of mathematical corner
633       cases which led to unexpected crashes when the program was pushed
634       beyond routine uses; this renderer was replaced with Livarot which,
635       while not perfect either, was significantly less error prone.  The
636       project also adopted a practice of committing code frequently, and
637       encouraging users to run developmental snapshots of the program; this
638       helped identify new bugs swiftly, and ensure it was easy for users to
639       verify the fixes.  As a result, Inkscape releases have generally earned
640       a reputation for being robust and reliable.
641
642       Similarly, efforts were taken to internationalize and localize the
643       interface, which has helped the program gain contributors worldwide.
644
645       Inkscape has had a beneficial impact on the visual attractiveness of
646       Open Source in general, by providing a tool for creating and sharing
647       icons, splash screens, website art, and so on.  In a way, despite being
648       "just an drawing program", Inkscape has played an important role in
649       making Open Source more visually stimulating to larger audiences.
650
652       Copyright (C) 1999–2018 by Authors.
653
654       Inkscape is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
655       under the terms of the GPL version 2 or later.
656
657
658
6590.92.4                            2019-03-27                       INKSCAPE(1)
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