X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=NEWS;h=043d2c10ffd78f8b7fb147e179676353d08987e8;hb=7a706632d4991dc502e34db443ff243259b6cb44;hp=2b9cc5c3d30c4433d7e1ee733307602b5e78f02b;hpb=d89df8016758666de7a4c20e60c0de6d15718ab1;p=inkscape.git diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 2b9cc5c3d..043d2c10f 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -1,1483 +1 @@ -Inkscape 0.47 - -Inkscape 0.47 brings a host of important improvements all across the program: - - • Timed autosave: no more lost work - - • Spiro splines: an exciting new way to work with paths, fully supported in - Pen, Pencil, and Node tools - - • Auto smooth nodes: a new type of node that keeps the path as smooth as - possible as you move it or its neighbors - - • New modes in Tweak tool: pushing and jittering whole objects, scaling/ - rotating objects, deleting and duplicating using the "soft brush" - - • Reworked, much more usable snapping system and a Snapping toolbar - - • New path effects, including sketch, hatching, envelope deformation; effects - can be stacked and assigned to groups - - • A huge collection of preset filters in the new Filters menu - - • New cairo-based PS and EPS export: improved quality, more features - supported, fallback rasterization for filters and transparency - - • Spell checker for text objects in a document - - • Many new extensions: restacking, calendar, printing marks, cartesian and - polar grids, interpolating attributes - - • Optimized SVG code options, now with their own Preferences page - - • Many other improvements, usability tweaks, memleak stops, and misc bugfixes - -Refactoring effort - -The focus of the 0.47 release was to clean up legacy code and push forward the -migration to clean object-oriented C++. The goal of this effort was to increase -reliability and maintainability of Inkscape. In the long run, it will mean -fewer bugs and more new features, because it will be easier to develop and find -bugs in Inkscape. - -Migration to lib2geom - -Many parts of the code have been changed to use the 2geom library for -geometrical calculations instead of the old libnr and livarot libraries. - -Preferences - -Instead of global functions directly manipulating an XML document, the -preferences API is now exposed through the Inkscape::Preferences singleton. It -abstracts away the way the preferences are stored in memory. In the future it -may allow for different user settings storage backends (like GConf or the -upcoming dconf on GNOME desktops or .plist files on OS X). Previously, Inkscape -directly manipulated an internal XML document. - -The Preferences directory has been moved on Linux (and Mac OS X) from ~ -/.inkscape to ~/.config/inkscape to better conform to Linux desktop standards. - -Tools - -Node tool - - • In previous versions of Inkscape, no visual feedback was given back to the - user when hovering over paths when using the Node tool. In this update, - hovering over a path with the Node tool now results in a highlighted path - outline being displayed. Note: the duration and color of the new path - outline feature can be configured in the Tools > Node section of the - Inkscape Preferences dialog. - - • The Node tool can now edit clipping paths and masks of objects on canvas, - without releasing them. If the selected object has a clipping path and - mask, the corresponding buttons on the controls bar of the tool will be - enabled; pressing these buttons will display the editable paths or handles - of the clippath or mask. A clipping path is stroked green, a mask is - stroked blue (the same colors as those used for them in Outline mode). - - • Snapping has been improved (more details in Snapping below). - - • When dragging a node handle with Ctrl pressed, it now snaps not only to the - 15 degree increments starting from 0 and to the original handle direction, - but also to the direction of the opposite handle (if it exists) or of the - opposite line segment (if it is a straight line). - - • The behavior of the buttons/shortcuts that make a node smooth or cusp has - been improved: - □ If a node is already a cusp (diamond shaped), pressing Shift+C again on - it will retract both its handles. As this works for any number of - selected nodes, you can always retract all handles in all nodes by - selecting all nodes and pressing Shift+C twice. - □ If a non-smooth node is next to a straight line segment, pressing - Shift+S once makes it half-smooth: it now has one handle aligned with - that line segment. Another press of Shift+S will expand the second - handle as well turning it into a full smooth node. If a node is between - two curve segments, Shift+S will expand both handles as before. - - • Auto smooth nodes: this is a new node type, similar to the one Xara Xtreme - has. An auto node is a smooth node which automatically adjusts (rotates and - stretches) its handles when this node or its neighbors are moved. This - adjustment (same as what you get when you convert node type to Smooth, but - continuous) keeps the curve at this node as smooth as possible. It feels a - bit like Spiro paths (see below); although not as smooth as a Spiro, auto - nodes may often be preferable as they work without applying any path - effect. Whenever you manually adjust the handles of an auto node or drag - the adjacent curve, the node loses its auto state and becomes simply - smooth; for this reason, it is recommended to edit smooth nodes with the - node handles hidden via a toggle button on the Node tool controls bar. Auto - nodes are represented by little circles, as opposed to smooth/symmetric - nodes (squares) and cusp nodes (diamonds). To convert selected node(s) to - auto, press Shift+A or use the corresponding node type button on the - controls bar. - -Tweak tool - -Several new modes are added to the Tweak tool for transforming, duplicating, -and deleting selected objects using the same "soft brush" metaphor that the -path editing and coloring modes use. Using these new modes, it is easy to -"sculpt" scatterings of small objects, such as clone tilings, into complex and -naturalistic textures. - - • Push mode moves those selected objects that are under the brush in the - direction in which you move the brush. This is similar to the Push path - mode, except that the Move mode affects entire objects and not parts of the - paths under the brush. - - • Attract/Repel Objects mode moves those selected objects that are under the - brush towards the cursor (default) or away from cursor (with Shift - pressed). This is similar to the Attract/repel path mode, except that the - Move in/out mode affects entire objects and not parts of the paths under - cursor. - - • Jitter mode moves those selected objects that are under the brush in random - directions and by random amounts, but the overall amount of movement - depends on Force, pen pressure (if you're using a tablet pen), on the - closeness of the object to the center of brush, and on how long you apply - the brush. - - • Scale mode scales those selected objects that are under the brush down (by - default) or up (with Shift pressed). The speed of scaling depends on Force, - pen pressure (if you're using a tablet pen), on the closeness of the object - to the center of brush, and on how long you apply the brush. - - • Rotate mode rotates those selected objects that are under the brush - clockwise (by default) or counterclockwise (with Shift pressed). The speed - of rotation depends on Force, pen pressure (if you're using a tablet pen), - on the closeness of the object to the center of brush, and on how long you - apply the brush. - - • Duplicate/delete mode randomly duplicates those selected objects that are - under the brush (by default) or deletes them (with Shift pressed). The - chance of an object to be duplicated and deleted depends on Force, pen - pressure (if you're using a tablet pen), on the closeness of the object to - the center of brush, and on how long you apply the brush. Like with the - regular Duplicate command, duplicating with Tweak tool places the copies - right over the originals, and you may need to use the Jitter mode to ruffle - them apart. The duplicates created by the tool are automatically added to - selection if the originals objects were in selection (e.g. if you're - tweaking a group of objects, they are duplicated within that group and are - not by themselves selected). - - • Blur mode blurs the selected objects under the brush more (by default) or - less (with Shift pressed). The amount of blur added or removed depends on - Force, pen pressure (if you're using a tablet pen), on the closeness of the - object to the center of brush, and on how long you apply the brush. - -Also, the existing path editing modes of the tool have been rearranged: now -Shrink and Grow are one mode (shrinks by default, grows with Shift), and -Attract and Repel are one mode (attracts by default, repels with Shift). Here -is a complete list of modes and shortcuts of the Tweak tool: - -Shift+m, Shift+0 move mode -Shift+i, Shift+1 attract/repel objects mode -Shift+z, Shift+2 jitter mode -Shift+<, Shift+>, Shift+3 scale mode -Shift+[, Shift+], Shift+4 rotate mode -Shift+d, Shift+5 duplicate/delete mode -Shift+p, Shift+6 push path mode -Shift+s, Shift+7 shrink/grow path mode -Shift+a, Shift+8 attract/repel path mode -Shift+r, Shift+9 roughen mode -Shift+c paint mode -Shift+j color jitter mode -Shift+b blur mode - -In Paint mode, painting with Shift inverts the color you're applying (e.g. when -painting with yellow, Shift will switch the applied color to blue). - -Calligraphy tool - - • The tool's settings can now be set from a preset (see the drop-down list in - the controls bar). Several presets are provided that imitate various - drawing implements and styles. - - • When drawing with Alt pressed, Inkscape subtracts the new path you are - creating from the selected path. With Shift, it unions the new path with - the selected path. This allows you to quickly patch or erase defects in a - stroke you have drawn, without leaving the tool. - - • The behavior of the tool when tracking a guide (drawing with Ctrl) has been - improved: - - □ The initial "jerk" when you start drawing is suppressed. - - □ The undesired flipping of the stroke to the other side of the guide - path, when drawing along closed paths, is fixed. - - □ If you lose connection with your guide path, the tool tries to continue - moving in the same direction as if by inertia, so as to minimize the - tearoff jerk. - -Paint Bucket tool - - • Paint Bucket is now more tightly integrated with potrace. As a result, - memory and CPU usage on each fill operation have been reduced - significantly. - -Eraser Tool - -A new tool, Eraser, has been added to the main toolbox. Its shortcut is Shift+E -. It has two main modes, selectable by toggle buttons on its controls bar: - - • Delete Objects mode: any shape touched by dragging is deleted completely. - This is analogous to "touch selection" in Selector followed by Del. - • Cut mode: dragging subtracts, using a boolean Subtract operation, parts of - paths it touches. On the controls bar, you can adjust the Width of the - trace left by the tool. If nothing is selected, it acts on all objects in - the current layer, whether selected or not; if there's a selection, its - action is limited to selection. This mode is similar to Alt+drag in - Calligraphic tool. - -Pen and Pencil - -New modes - -Apart from the regular Bezier mode, these drawing tools now provide several new -modes: - - • Spiro mode: This mode automatically applies the new Spiro Splines path - effect (see the section on new effects) to any newly drawn path. As - mentioned below, it is not yet possible to preview a spiro before it is - finished. This mode is available in both Pen and Pencil tools. - - • Polyline mode (Pen only): This mode makes it easy to draw many straight - line segments by disallowing any curves, even when you accidentally drag - with the mouse instead of clicking. - - • Paraxial mode (Pen only): create straight line segments that are parallel - to one of the coordinate axes. This works similar to the Polyline mode with - Ctrl. Normally, each next line segment is drawn perpendicular to the - previous one, but the direction of the line segment being drawn can be - toggled by pressing Shift. If you click on the start anchor, the path gets - closed with an L-shaped segment (its direction of which can also be flipped - with Shift). - -Stroke shapes - -As a first step towards this blueprint, it is now possible to automatically -apply predefined vector shapes to path strokes in Pen and Pencil tools. The -choice of shapes in the drop-down list on the controls bar includes: - - • Triangle in and Triangle out: tapering out in both directions - - • Ellipse: smooth elliptic shape stretching along path - - • From clipboard: any path you had previously selected and copied to - clipboard - -To adjust the width of the stroke, open the Path Effect Editor, choose "Pattern -along path" effect, and edit its Width parameter. It is measured in units of -the original size of the applied shape; the triangles and ellipse are all 10px -in size, and the clipboard size can be any size. The default value of Width is -1.00, which means the triangle/elliptic strokes will be 10px wide and the -from-clipboard stroke will be as wide as the copied object was tall. - -Pencil smoothing - -In Pencil tool, the controls bar now provides the Smoothing parameter, -changeable in the range from 1 to 100, which controls how much smoothing is -applied to the freehand lines you draw. Small Smoothing values produce rough -lines with many nodes; large values give smooth lines with few nodes. -Previously, this control was only available in Inkscape Preferences. - -Pencil sketch mode - -The sketch mode is still experimental. In essence, it enables the artist to -draw many strokes, which Inkscape then averages into a single path. It tries to -mimic sketching with a real pencil and paper, taking the 'visual average' of -many strokes and condensing it into one stroke. - -Pick the pencil tool, press Alt, and sketch away; release Alt to finalize the -result. After each stroke (a stroke starts when the mouse button is pressed -down, and ends when it is released), the resulting path will be an average of -the old result and the newly drawn stroke. In Inkscape's Pencil tool -preferences, one can choose to either average between all drawn strokes (so -that all stroke have the same weight), or just the new stroke and the old -result (so that later strokes have greater weight). - -Currently, going back and forth between A and B in one stroke does not give the -expected result; it will result in a long path going back and forth, instead of -the visually expected path going from A to B just once. We are working on this -(difficult!) issue. For best results, draw strokes only from A to B (and not -from B to A). - -Text tool - - • When editing multiline or flowed text, the PgUp and PgDn keys now work to - move the cursor by one screen (i.e. by as many lines as fit into the screen - at current zoom). - - • The usability of the font family drop-down list in the Text tool controls - bar has been improved: it no longer steals focus, all keyboard shortcuts - work as designed (Alt+X to access the family control, Alt+down to open the - drop-down list with font previews, arrows to move in the list, Enter to set - chosen font) and the completion feature works (start typing a family name - and a pop-up list with possible completions appears). - - A remaining problem that may be fixed in a future version is that the first - opening of the drop-down list of family names may be slow (several seconds) - if you have many fonts installed (the delay is Inkscape generating the - previews for all fonts). Subsequent openings of the list are much faster. - -Connector tool - - • Connectors are now drawn to the edges of shapes, rather than to the - bounding box of shapes. - • The routing buffer around shapes is now altered in the correct direction - when the user changes this via the spacing control fon the connector - toolbar. - • A bug has been fixed where the spinboxes on the connector toolbar did not - properly respond to single clicks of their up and down arrows. - -Path effects - -Path Effects stacking - -More than one Path Effect can be assigned to an object. A new UI was created to -control the stack in the Path Effects Editor (Shift+Ctrl+7): the Effect list -shows the stack of effects for the selected object; below, buttons allow you to -move a selected effect in the stack up or down or remove it from stack. - -The stack works from top to bottom, i.e. the topmost listed effect is applied -first, the second one works on the result of the first, and so on until the -bottom effect which produces the final visible result. A new effect that you -choose in the "Apply new effect" list and created by the Add button gets added -to the end of the current stack. - -Path Effects for groups - -Path effects can now be assigned to a group. In most cases, the effect is -applied recursively to the member paths, but for Bend Path and Envelope -Deformation the result that the distortion applies to the group as a whole. - - • You can, as usual, enter the group by double-clicking on it, and edit the - paths there watching the transformed result update live. - - • Path effects can be assigned to groups of groups, applying recursively to - all grouped paths. - - • The Convert Object to Path command (Ctrl+Shift+C), when applied to a group - with effects applied, removes these effects from group and converts all its - member paths to effect-less paths looking exactly as before. - -Misc new features - - • The Paste Path Effect command in Path menu can now assign the path effect - of the clipboard's path to any number of paths, going recursively into - groups if necessary. - - • A new command, Remove Path Effect in Path menu, removes any path effects - from all selected objects, going recursively into groups if necessary. - - • Path effects can now be assigned to the sides of a 3D box (use Ctrl+click - to select individual sides) without breaking its 3D functionality. - - • The Pen and Pencil tools now correctly work with paths with effects: you - can continue such a path or add a new subpath to it by drawing with Shift, - while preserving the effects applied to it. - - • Path parameters of effects can now link to existing shapes or texts. For - example, now it is possible to use a text as the pattern for the Pattern - Along Path effect, or shape a path with the Envelope Deformation where one - of the envelope sides is text! Since the effect links to the text, not - copies it, the result will update live if you edit the text. - - • Lib2geom now has an implementation for EllipticalArc. For Inkscape, this - means that it is now possible to directly copy-paste ellipse shapes to path - parameters (e.g. 'pattern' in Pattern along Path), without the need to - convert the ellipse to path first. - - -New effects - - • Sketch: Simulates hand-drawn lines. A set of parameters lets you tune the - effect. They are all summarized in this picture. - - [300px-SketchExemple] - - • Hatches: Fills the shape with rough, randomized hatches, simulating a quick - hand drawing. It is configurable through numeric parameters as well as - on-screen handles visible in Node tool. - - [300px-Hatches-lpe]. - - • von Koch: This effect creates fractal pictures. A collection of - transformations (rotations, rescalings, etc...) is recursively applied to - the input path. The transforms are derived from a "reference" path (a line - segment) and a "generating" path (basically a collection of segments): the - transforms are those needed to move the reference segment onto each segment - of the generating path (components in the generating path having more than - one segment might be used to define shearing/mirroring transforms). A - famous example is the von Koch's snowflake. - - [300px-VonKochExample] - - Warning: the complexity of the output path grows exponentially fast with - the number of generations. As a guardrail, an editable complexity bound is - provided, above which the effect is disabled. - - • Knot: Creates a knot from a flat self-intersecting curve: at each crossing, - one strand is interrupted to make it look like it's going under the other. - The "sign" of each crossing (first strand interrupted, second interrupted, - or no interruptions) can be set independently by clicking the on-screen - handle which can be dragged from one crossing to the other. - - [300px-KnotExample] - - Warning: as far as possible, the lpe tries to keep the modifications of - crossing signs unchanged under small deformations. For large or topology - changing deformations however, some or all crossings might jump back to - their default orientation. - - • Spiro splines are a novel way of defining curvilinear paths developed by - Raph Levien. It takes some getting used to, but for certain tasks (such as - lettershape design) Spiros have a clear advantage over Bezier curves. - Recently, Spiro support was added to the FontForge font editor; now it is - available in Inkscape too, which means you can use all the convenient - Inkscape path tools (moving and transforming groups of nodes, node - sculpting, etc.) on Spiro paths. - - A Spiro path is defined by a sequence of points, but unlike a regular path - with Bezier curves, all Spiro points lie on the path and there are no - off-path handles. The curvature of the path is defined entirely by the - positions of the points and their types. The path behaves very similar to a - springy rod which is forced to pass through the given points and which uses - the minimum possible curvature to satisfy the requirement. As such, it - feels quite natural and the resulting path is very smooth - not just - superficially smooth (i.e. having no cusps), but smooth at a deeper level, - which you can achieve with Beziers only after a lot of laborious tweaking. - - To create a Spiro path, select any path and assign the "Spiro spline" path - effect to it. There are no parameters. Each node of your path becomes a - point of a Spiro path, depending on the type of node: - - □ Smooth nodes (those with two collinear Bezier handles; use Shift+S to - make a node smooth) become smooth curve points of the Spiro path. Note - that the length or direction of the Bezier handles of the source path - is ignored; the only thing that matters is their collinearity. - - □ Cusp nodes of the source path become corner points of the Spiro path, - like free hinges on the springy rod. Between two corner points, the - path is always a straight line. To make a node cusp, retract its Bezier - handles by Ctrl+click, or press Shift+C and move one of the handles so - they are no longer collinear. - - □ Half-smooth nodes - those with one Bezier handle collinear with a - straight line segment on the other hand - become "left" or "right" - points on the Spiro path which behave exactly the same: they sit - between a straight line and a curve and enforce that these two segments - join smoothly without a cusp. To create such a node, make sure one of - the segments is a line (select its ends and press Shift+L), then - Ctrl+drag the remaining handle to make it snap to the direction of the - straight line segment on the other side, or press Shift+S to lock it to - that direction. - - Note that what matters is the actual collinearity of a node's handles, - regardless of the node type that the node has in the Node tool; for - example, if a node designated as cusp (diamond-shaped) has collinear - handles, it will become a smooth curve point of the Spiro path. - - Some configurations of points do not converge and produce wild loops and - spirals instead of a smooth curve. According to Raph, "The spline solver in - this release is _not_ numerically robust. When you start drawing random - points, you'll quickly run into divergence. However, "sensible" plates - based on real fonts usually converge." Avoid too sharp changes in direction - between points to prevent divergence. Hopefully, the robustness of the - algorithm will be improved in future releases. - - For now, to edit Spiro paths viewing the result in real time, you have to - use the Node tool; it is recommended to turn off the red highlight of the - source path. The Pen tool does not yet allow you to preview a Spiro as you - draw, although you can paste the Spiro effect on the path and see the - result as soon as the path is finalized. - - You can always use the Node tool to continue a Spiro path by duplicating - and dragging away its end nodes. Also, when you have a Spiro path selected, - you can add a new subpath to it with Pen or Pencil if you start drawing - with Shift. - - • Construct Grid: Draws a grid using the first three nodes of a path. The - center node defines the origin. The other two nodes define the direction - and length of the two adjacent sides of the first cell. If a path has more - than three nodes, the other nodes are ignored. One can select the number of - cells in the two orthogonal directions. - - • Envelope Deformation: Allows you to deform an object (or a group of object) - by deforming its sides. Modifications are done by deforming the four path - parameters: Top, Bottom, Left and Right; for each, you can edit it with - Node tool, copy, paste, or link to an existing path in the document. - - • Ruler: Draws ruler marks along the path; you can set distance between the - marks, their length for major and minor marks, the major/minor ratio, and - other parameters. - - • Interpolate Subpaths: Creates a given number of interpolated paths between - the (first) two subpaths of a path (the subpaths after the second subpath - are ignored). The interpolations are spread along an editable trajectory - path. - - [InterpolateSubpathsExample] - - -Notable effect bugfixes and changes - -We try to refrain from changing the behavior of existing path effects, because -it will change appearance in old files when opened in a new version of Inkscape -(but not in any other SVG viewer or editor). However, when an effect is really -broken, we have to fix it: - - • Pattern Along Path: - □ The pattern used to be stretched across discontinuities (separate - subpaths). This has been fixed; now it treats a discontinuous path as a - group of continuous paths and applies the effect separately to each. - □ Successive copies of the pattern can now be fused into continuous paths - (using the new "fuse nearby ends" feature) so that "filling" the result - works as expected. - - • Bend Path: - □ Closed input paths would sometimes result in unclosed output paths. - This has been fixed. - -Import/Export - -PostScript and EPS import - -Inkscape's PS and EPS import now uses Ghostscript instead of pstoedit. If you -need to open files of these types, install Ghostscript and make sure the -directory with the ps2pdf utility from Ghostscript installation is in your -PATH. On importing a file, you will see a preferences dialog, similar to PDF -import; for multipage PS files, this dialog allows you to select which page to -open. - -PDF import - - • A new checkbox on the PDF import dialog, Replace PDF fonts with - closest-named installed fonts (on by default) attempts to replace all font - names in the imported PDF with the most similar names of those fonts - installed on your system. For example, if the PDF uses the font - "TimesNewRomanPSMT" and you have "Times New Roman" installed, that font - will be used, which will likely give you a more correct appearance than the - unknown font "TimesNewRomanPSMT" that will be displayed as the default sans - serif font. This is a temporary fix necessary because Inkscape cannot yet - extract the fonts from the PDF files it imports nor can it embed them into - SVG; when it gets these capabilities, such font name conversion will become - unnecessary because all fonts will be preserved. - - • Importing PDF files now works from the command line. For example, - -inkscape file.pdf --export-plain-svg=file.svg - - will take the first page of the PDF and use the default import options, and - save the result to SVG. If you try to import PDF without an --export - command, it will show the import options dialog as before and open the file - in the UI. - -PDF, PostScript, and EPS export - -The new Cairo-based PS and EPS exporter provides much better support for -various vector features, including clipping paths, patterns, and non-ASCII -characters. Those features that are not supported by the targeted format become -embedded bitmaps that preserve the appearance. In particular: - - • transparency is always rasterized in PS or EPS but not PDF, as PDF supports - vector transparency; - - • filters, such as blur, are by default rasterized in all three formats (PS, - EPS, PDF). This can be turned off by unchecking the "Rasterize filter - effects" option in the UI or adding the --export-ignore-filters option via - the command line. In this case, filtered objects are rendered as vectors - without filters and without rasterization. - - • The resolution for rasterizing the filters can be set in the UI in the - "Resolution for rasterization (dpi)" parameter or on the command line by - --export-dpi parameter (same as used for exporting SVG documents to - bitmaps). The default is 90 dpi. The rendering quality of filters for - rasterization, as well as for bitmap export, is always the best possible - regardless of what you have set in the Filters tab of Preferences (which - only affects on-screen rendering). For example, - -inkscape --export-pdf=out.pdf --export-dpi=300 file.svg - - will export file.svg to out.pdf, rasterizing any filtered objects in it at - 300 dpi. (If there are no filtered objects, the --export-dpi has no - effect.) - -All of PS, EPS, and PDF export formats uniformly support the export area -options (page or drawing) and the new export-id option: - - • You can now export a single object from a complex document (for example, a - single layer) if you specify the ID of that object in the "Limit export to - the object with ID" field in the GUI or via the --export-id=ID option on - the command line. The export will show only that object (all others will - not be exported). The BoundingBox (page size) of the exported PS/EPS/PDF - file will correspond to the bounding box of that object. You can override - this with "Export area is page" (GUI) or --export-area-page (command line) - option which forces the output to have the size of the SVG document's page - (this may not be possible with EPS, see below). - - • The "Export area is page" (GUI) or --export-area-page (command line) option - forces the output to have the size of the SVG document's page. This is the - default for PS and PDF but not for EPS. - - □ Note, the specification of the EPS format does not allow a bounding box - to extend beyond the content. This is enforced by the Cairo graphics - library which means that when --export-area-page is used with EPS - export, the page bounding box will be trimmed inwards (but never - expanded outwards) to the bounding box of the content if it is smaller. - If you want a file which has a %BoundingBox different from the bounding - box of its content, you can use PS or PDF export formats instead of - EPS, or add a white background rectangle with the required size to - source document before exporting to EPS. - - □ The --export-bbox-page command line parameter has been removed; use - --export-area-page instead. - - □ The --export-area-page option was renamed from --export-area-canvas for - consistency with the use of the terms page and canvas in the GUI. - - • The "Export area is drawing" (GUI) or --export-area-drawing (command line) - option forces the output to have the size of the exported objects' bounding - box, regardless of page size. If no --export-id is specified, this means - the bounding box of the entire drawing; with --export-id, this means the - bounding box of the exported object only. This is the default for EPS. Note - that checking "Export area is page" or using --export-area-page overrides - this setting for PS and PDF output. - - • The --export-embed-fonts option is removed. Inkscape now always embeds and - subsets all fonts used in the document when exporting PS, EPS, or PDF. - -UniConvertor-based import and export - -Inkscape can now use UniConvertor to import files of the following types: - - • Corel DRAW versions 7 to X4 document files (CDR) - • Corel DRAW versions 7 to X4 Template files (CDT) - • Corel DRAW Presentation Exchange files (CMX) - • Corel DRAW Compressed Exchange files (CCX) - • sK1 files (SK1) - • Computer Graphics Metafiles (CGM) - • Windows Metafiles (WMF) - • HPGL (AutoCAD) Plot files (PLT) (requires UniConvertor 1.1.4) - -Inkscape can now use UniConvertor to export files of the following types: - - • Windows Metafiles (WMF) - • sK1 files (SK1) - • HPGL (AutoCAD) Plot files (PLT) (requires UniConvertor 1.1.4) - -Text objects are not supported as of UniConvertor 1.1.4. - -On Windows, UniConvertor is included with Inkscape distribution and does not -require separate installation. - -HPGL export - -In addition to the HPGL export via UniConvertor listed above, Inkscape can now -export to HPGL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) via an internal routine that -is geared towards various cutters/plotters. - -JavaFX export - -Inkscape can export drawings to JavaFX format (.fx file extension). - -DXF import and export - - • DXF export for desktop cutting plotters is much faster than in previous - versions. A new option was added to provide support for RoboMaster desktop - cutting software. Also, polylines and polysplines are now supported. - - • DXF import is new. It supports a number of the simpler DXF shapes: line, - Bezier spline, ellipse, circular arc, text. - -PNG export - - • PNG export has been updated to include metadata if present in the source - SVG. This includes the Author, Copyright, Creation Time, Description, and - Title fields. PNG metadata can be viewed using the ImageMagick identify - command. - - • Export filenames that are relative (e.g. ../file.png or simply file.png) - are now resolved relative to the document's location. This applies to the - filenames you type in the Export dialog as well as those stored in export - hints in the document itself (and used by the "Batch export" checkbutton as - well as in command line export with --export-use-hints). However, export - filenames specified directly on the command line are not resolved, which in - effect means they work, as before, from the current working directory from - which you run the export command. - -OCAL (Open Clip Art Library) Export - - • Export to Openclipart.org has been disabled for 0.47 as it had become - non-functional and needs to be re-written. - -Autosave - -The new autosave feature allow for automatic timed backups as work goes on. -Saved versions are put in a designated directory and do not overwrite the -original SVG file nor each other. - -In Inkscape Preferences (Ctrl+Shift+P), Save tab, you can enable this feature -and specify various options: - - • the time interval between backups, in minutes; - - • the directory where you want the backups to be stored; - - • and the maximum number of saved backups (if this number is exceeded, old - backups will start to be deleted). - -Extensions - - • The former Effects menu is renamed to Extensions. This is less confusing - and better reflects the content of the menu: a collection of extensions, - written mostly in Python, which perform various tasks with or without - selection. - -New and improved extensions - - • The new Arrange > Restack extension restacks (changes the z-order of) - selected objects, with options including: left to right, top to bottom (or - vice versa), radial outward or inward, or at an arbitrary angle. You can - also specify what point of an object is used to calculate its position for - restacking. - - • The new Generate from Path > Extrude extension is similar to the old - Extrude effect, which has been renamed Motion. The new effect requires two - paths and draws connection lines or polygons between their nodes. If you - want more dense extrusion, add more nodes to the paths. All the extrusion - polygons are separate (grouped) objects, so they can be easily painted by - the Tweak tool to get nicely shaded ribbons, 3D letters, and the like. - - • The new Generate from Path > Scatter extension spreads copies of pattern - along arbitrary "skeleton" paths. The pattern must be the topmost object in - the selection. Groups of paths, shapes, clones are allowed. - - • The improved Modify Path > Add Nodes extension now allows segments to be - divided into a given number of subsegments. - - • The new Modify Path > Convert to Dashes extension takes the dash pattern of - the stroke and explicitly cuts the curve to duplicate this pattern. This - can be used to allow desktop cutting plotters, which don't understand - dashed stroke style, to cut dashed paths. You can also achieve interesting - effects with smoothly varying dash length if you edit the resulting path - with Node Sculpting technique (Alt+drag with Node tool). - - • The new Render > Add printing marks extension adds printing marks and color - bars required by print bureaus. You can either manually define margins by - which cut marks are created. - - • The new Render > 3D Polyhedron extension draws 2D projections of 3D - polyhedrons and other 3D shapes. You can choose one of a number of - predefined shapes (cube, octahedron, truncated dodecahedron and others) or - load a shape definition from an OBJ file. The shape can be rotated around - any of the three axes by arbitrary amount; you can also define various - style options such as color of the faces and stroke width, and enable - shading with adjustable light source position. - - • The new Render > Alphabet Soup extension is a vector rework of Matt - Chrisholm's script. Alphabet Soup randomly mashes glyph elements together - to make exotic-looking text. - - • The new Render > Cartesian Grid extension plots Cartesian (square) grids - that do not fill the page, but offer three levels of division, logarithmic - scales (with clutter-reduction and arbitrary base) and customizable line - width. All like elements (e.g. x-axis subminor divisions) are put into - subgroups together. A proper border is also drawn, with an independent line - width. - - • The new Render > Polar Grid extension plots a polar coordinate grid, with - options for arbitrary-base logarithmic subdivisions, clutter-reduction - around the origin, circumferential labels and custom line widths. - - • The new Render > Draw from Triangle extension takes a triangle drawn as a - path (only the first three nodes of a path are counted) and allows to draw - many triangle-related geometrical objects such as circumcircles, excentral - triangles, etc. It also lets you specify custom trilinear coordinates and - triangle centre functions, as well as compute basic triangle properties - such as area and semiperimeter. - - • The new Render > Guides Creator extension quickly creates horizontal and - vertical guides for subdividing the canvas. You can choose the divisions - from None, 1/2, 1/3 ... to 1/10. - - • The new Render > Calendar extension draws a calendar for a given year with - localizable month/weekday names, colors, and many other options. - - • The new Render > Foldable Box extension creates foldouts for paper boxes. - - • The new Text > Convert to Braille extension recodes English (or just Latin - letters) text to Braille code. It is not intended to create a real Braille - text for visually impaired people, just an accurate graphical - representation of Braille text to be used in illustrations. - - • The new Modify Path > Interpolate Attribute in a Group extension takes a - group of objects and assigns to its members interpolated values of an - attribute of your choice, such as width, height, opacity, etc. - - • The new Web > JavaScript extensions allow you to set various interactive - JavaScript attributes, such as onclick or onfocus, on SVG elements. - Inkscape does not support them on rendering but you might need them for - other SVG viewers such as Firefox. - -Extension API changes - - • While the "Live preview" checkbox is useful for most effects, for some it - just does not make sense. Now, you can add the attribute needs-live-preview - ="false" in the effect element in the .inx file of the effect to suppress - this checkbox for your effect. - - • Parameters passed to extensions (via the element) now can have a - boolean attribute, gui-hidden, to indicate that the parameter should not be - represented in the GUI. If all parameters are marked as hidden, no GUI is - presented for such extension. - - • All .inx files are now properly formatted XML files with their own - namespace of: http://www.inkscape.org/namespace/inkscape/extension and a - Relax NG schema to define it. More information can be found on the - Extensions page. - -Filters - -The Filter Editor (former Filter Effects) and Remove Filters commands are moved -from the Object menu to the new Filters top-level menu, which also contains a -collection of preset filters. - -Preset filters - -The Filter Editor is powerful, but can be quite cumbersome. You can now apply -complex preset filters to selected objects with a single command by choosing it -from the new Filters top-level menu. Submenus categorize the filters by -function or appearance. To view a sampler of all preset filters, open -filters.svg document from Inkscape's examples (share/examples in the Inkscape -tree). - -Most filters apply immediately after selecting the command; some present a -dialog where you can adjust some of the parameters before applying the filter -(such filters have "..." at the end of the command in the menu). - -By default, if the selected object already has some filter applied, the chosen -filter will be merged with the existing filter for combined effect. However you -can also overlay several filters to an object while keeping them separated: -simply press Ctrl+G after applying any filter and then apply another one; the -filters will then display separately in the Filters Editor. - -You can easily add your own filters to these menus. Simply place any SVG file -with the filters to the filters subdirectory of your config directory (~ -/.config/Inkscape/ on Linux) and the filters will be picked up from it when you -start Inkscape. By default, they will be placed in the Personal submenu under -Effects > Filters. If you want to control this, add the following attributes to -the filter element: - -inkscape:label is the command label -inkscape:menu is the submenu to place the command into -inkscape:menu-tooltip is the tooltip (displayed in the statusbar - as you select the command) - -No Filters rendering mode - -In order to facilitate editing documents that use lots of SVG filter effects, -filter effects can now be disabled for a particular document window by -selecting View > Display mode > No Filters from the menu. This provides an -intermediate step between Normal and Outline view modes. - -The Toggle View command in the Display Mode submenu (Ctrl+keypad 5) toggles -between all 3 modes in a loop: Normal, No filters, Outline. - -Filter quality setting - -In addition to the Blur Quality setting, Inkscape now has a general Filter -Effects Quality setting on the Filters tab of Inkscape Preferences. It affects -all filters and gives you an opportunity to seek optimum balance between speed -and accuracy when rendering filters. - - • Best quality is the quality used when exporting. - • Better quality uses fast methods for transforming images, which - occasionally shows up as jagged edges. Full rendering resolution is used. - • Anything below that also uses low resolution rendering for filters. - -For exporting images, the best quality is used regardless of this setting. - -SVG support - -Optimized CSS properties - - • As a file size optimization, Inkscape does not write into SVG some of the - stroke properties if the object has stroke:none and some of the fill - properties when it has fill:none. The only situation where this might - affect you is if you remove stroke from an object and then turn it back on - - the object will get the default stroke instead of the same it had before. - - Also, in manually-edited SVG where a parent group has no stroke but sets - some stroke properties to be inherited by its descendants, you will need to - set stroke property to other than none on the group, and suppress - inheritance with stroke:none on those children that don't need it. - - Specifically, if stroke:none, the following properties do not get written - to SVG: - -stroke-width -stroke-linecap -stroke-linejoin -stroke-miterlimit -stroke-opacity -stroke-dasharray -stroke-dashoffset - - Note that this does not include marker properties, which means you can - still have markers on a path without visible stroke. - - If fill:none, the following properties do not get written to SVG: - -fill-opacity -fill-rule - - • The opacity property is not written if it has the default value of 1 (this - property is not inherited, so the change should have no side effects). - - • The marker-start, marker-mid, and marker-end properties are not written if - the marker property is already present with the same value. - -Optimized path data - -In this version, the size of the path data written in the d= attribute of path -elements is reduced by about 10%. Inkscape generates the shortest possible path -strings by avoiding repeated operators and using relative coordinates (when it -helps). - -This is controlled by the options on the SVG output page of Inkscape -Preferences dialog. Also, you can change the following attributes in group id= -"svgoutput" in your preferences.xml file: - - • allowrelativecoordinates (default 1) to switch relative coordinates on (1) - or off (0) - • forcerepeatcommands (default 0) to force repeating operators (1) or allow - use of the more compact representation without repeated operators (0) - - -Horizontal and vertical path segments - -If an SVG contains paths with shorthands for horizontal and vertical path -segments ('H' or 'V'), then Inkscape will try to maintain those shorthands if -possible, so the saved file will also contain them. - -