X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=NEWS;h=78607eb38a9371fac44c6208dc03d95dea527c8c;hb=1e4dabbc21acf56f4112758094880d6ac73159d3;hp=5c4070c5bd090277e5a6b85cfd385df2ab6fbb32;hpb=6b15695578f07a3f72c4c9475c1a261a3021472a;p=inkscape.git diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 5c4070c5b..78607eb38 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -1,439 +1,726 @@ - Release Notes - Inkscape 0.43 - -In brief - - The focus of this release is on the exciting new features sponsored by - Google via their Summer of Code program. However, we have quite a bunch of - other stuff too. Here are the highlights: - - * Connectors: A new Connector tool implements creation, editing, and - autorouting (object-avoiding) of connector lines between objects. - Indispensable for diagramming. (A Google SoC project.) - * Inkboard collaborative editing: You can now connect to other Inkscape - users over the Net and edit a shared document together, watching - others' changes and making yours! (A Google SoC project.) - * Pressure and tilt sensitivity: the Calligraphy tool can now use a - tablet pen with pressure/tilt support to vary the width and angle of - the calligraphic stroke. - * Better node editing: You can freely drag/bend/stretch a Bezier curve - by any point (not only by a node), as well as add a new node at any - point on the curve. - * New extensions for envelope distortion, whirling, and adding nodes. - * Improved precision, expanded limits, many usability improvements and - bugfixes. - - Tavmjong Bah has updated his online book, A Guide to Inkscape - (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php), to cover - the Inkscape 0.43 features. This guide is not included with the Inkscape - release. Users are encouraged to read the guide in addition to these - release notes and the help included with Inkscape. - -Connectors - - * Inkscape now includes preliminary support for connectors. Connectors - are lines drawn between objects, that stay connected to the objects as - these objects are manipulated. Any object may have a "connector-avoid" - property, which, when set, causes connectors to automatically route - around the object. - - * The Connector tool (Ctrl+F2 or the o key) is a new way of creating and - rerouting connectors, as well as marking objects "avoided" for the - purpose of routing connectors. - - * A new connector can be drawn by clicking and dragging from any - point on the canvas. The connector is finalized when the mouse is - released. Connectors can also be created with two clicks, rather - than click-and-drag, if this is preferred. In this case, click once - on an empty point on the canvas to begin drawing the connector, - then move the mouse to the new connector's target point and then - click again to finalize the connector. Single clicking on a canvas - object selects/deselects that object, just as in other tools. - - * Connection point handles are shown while the mouse cursor is - hovering over a non-connector object in the connector tool. - Currently they are shown only at the center of objects. When - creating a connector, if the connector is started or ended over a - connection point then the connector will be attached to that - object. From then on the connector will be automatically rerouted - whenever the attached object is moved. - - * Connectors attached to objects are currently drawn to the bounding - box of those objects. It is planned that they will be drawn instead - to the edges of objects. - - * A selected connector will show two endpoint handles. By clicking - and dragging these, the connector can be rerouted and - attached/detached from objects. - - * The Make connectors avoid selected objects button marks all objects - in the selection as "avoided", causing all current and future - connectors to automatically avoid these objects. - - * The Make connectors ignore selected objects button marks all - objects in the selection as "ignored", causing all current and - future connectors to completely ignore these objects. This is the - default for all canvas items, i.e., no objects are automatically - routed around by default. - -Inkboard - - A first release of the Inkboard collaborative editing system (also known - as a "white board") is present in this version of Inkscape. - - * Inkboard must be enabled at compile time by passing --enable-inkboard - to the configure script: Inkboard has known bugs, and may present - security issues. - - * Inkboard uses the XMPP (http://www.xmpp.org/) protocol (used by Jabber - (http://www.jabber.org/)) to link together Inkscape clients in a - shared document session. Therefore, if you have a Jabber account, you - can use Inkboard. (There are some exceptions, which are listed below - in the "Known issues" section.) Inkboard uses the Loudmouth - (http://loudmouth.imendio.org/) library for Jabber connectivity; - versions 0.17.2 and above of the Loudmouth library are known to work. - - * Inkboard sessions may occur between two users or a group of users in a - chatroom setting. - - Inkboard usage - - * You must first connect to a Jabber server before sharing a document. - To do this, go to Whiteboard -> Connect to Jabber server. You will be - prompted to enter a server name, your username, and password. You may - specify a specific port to connect on, and whether or not you would - like to connect via SSL. - - * After connecting, you may establish a session with another user or a - chatroom. To connect to another user, go to Whiteboard -> Share with - user. Inkboard can import your Jabber contact list, and will present a - list of online contacts to you. You may select any contact in the - contact list, or enter a Jabber ID to connect to. - - * Similarly, you can establish a connection with a chatroom by going to - Whiteboard -> Share with chatroom. - - * If you are contacted by another user, Inkscape will present a dialog - telling you that you have received an invitation. The dialog contains - the Jabber ID of the user contacting you, and offers you three - choices: decline the invitation, accept the invitation, or accept the - invitation in a new window. - - * Inkboard can record a session's contents for playback at a later time. - - * If you are establishing a session, click the Write session file - checkbox in the share with user dialog to enable session - recording. You will need to provide the name of a file to which - the session contents can be written. - * If you are accepting a session invitation, click the Write - session file checkbox in the invitation dialog to enable session - recording. You will need to provide the name of a file to which - the session contents can be written. - * To play back a session, go to Whiteboard -> Open session file. - - * The Whiteboard -> Dump XML tracker menu item is intended for debugging - purposes only. - -Pressure and tilt sensitivity - - Support for extended input devices has been added. - - * The Calligraphy tool now has optional pressure and tilt support from - an input device such as a tablet. Pressure can be used to alter the - width of the pen and tilt can be used to alter the angle of the pen's - nib. - - * A standard input device dialog has been added (in File menu). Input - device settings are saved to and loaded from the preferences. + +Inkscape 0.45: overview + + This release brings the exciting new features developed by the Google + Summer of Code 2006 participants, as well as tons of other + improvements across the board. + +SVG filters: Gaussian blur + + Thanks to Google's Summer of Code program, Inkscape now has basic + support for [44]SVG filters. The only filter enabled so far is + Gaussian blur. + + With it, you can softly and naturally blur any Inkscape objects: + paths, shapes, groups, text], images. Clones inherit blurring from + their original, but they can also be blurred independently from the + original (you can create blurred clones with Tile Clones, too). Both + the fill and stroke of an object are blurred together, creating + semitransparent margins that smoothly blend into the background. + + Gaussian blur enables a wide range of photorealistic effects: + arbitrarily shaped shades and lights, depth of field, drop shadows, + glows, etc. Also, blurred objects can be used as masks for other + objects to achieve the "feathered mask" effect. + * To blur selected objects, open the Fill and Stroke dialog + (Ctrl+Shift+F) and use the Blur slider. The blur value is a + percentage, with 100% corresponding to a blurring radius of 1/8 of + the object's bounding box' perimeter (that is, for a square, a + blur of 100% will have the radius equal to half a side). + + * The Tile Clones dialog also supports blurring. On the Blur & + opacity tab, you can set the blur percentage per row or per column + of your tiling, as well as randomize blurring and make it + alternate (all the same options as for Opacity). + + * The quality of on-screen blur display is controlled by the Blur + quality option on the new Filters tab of Inkscape Preferences + (Ctrl+Shift+P). The available options range from best + quality/slowest display to worst quality/fastest display, the + default being in the middle of the range. Any setting except the + "best quality" may introduce some rendering artifacts, especially + when blurring thin strokes; on the other hand, the "best quality" + setting may make Inkscape extremely slow at high zooms. These + settings only affect the screen display of blurred objects; bitmap + export always uses the best quality. + + Here are a few tips on using blur: + * Masks and clipping are applied after blur. That is, if you clip an + object and then blur it (or blur it first and then clip - it makes + no difference), the clipped edges will remain crisp. Often, this + is what you want. If, however, you want to blur the clipped/masked + edges too (possibly with a different radius), you can use + grouping: group the clipped object with some other object (which + you can then delete from the group) and blur the group. + + * A simple drop shadow is now very easy to do: just copy the object, + paint the copy black, blur it, shift away a bit and lower it to + the bottom. However, such a shadow does not update when you edit + the foreground object. If your object is already black (or, more + generally, if you want the shadow to be the same color as the + object), you can clone instead of copy to make the shadow + auto-updating. But what if your foreground object is not black but + you need a black shadow? Here's a recipe: unset the object's fill + (it becomes black); create two clones of it; put one clone on top + and paint any color you want; put the other clone at bottom, blur + it and shift sideways. Now you can edit the unset-fill original + (use Alt+click to select it) and everything will update. + + * If an object has a fill that you don't want to blur (e.g. pattern, + or if it's a bitmap), but you just want to feather its edges, use + a blurred transparency mask. For this, copy the object; paint it + white; blur it as needed; scale the blurred copy down so its blur + margins are entirely within the original object; select both the + original and the blurred mask; do Object > Mask > Set. + + * Transforming a blurred object transforms its blur, too. This + applies to a non-uniform scaling as well, so by squeezing a + blurred object you make its blur squeezed as well. So, the easiest + way to blur a path horizontally more than vertically is this: + stretch it upwards without blur, then apply blur and squeeze it + back into the original shape. + + * You can combine blurring with gradients. For example, an ellipse + with elliptic opacity gradient will look much softer and more + natural when blurred. An object with a horizontal linear opacity + gradient, when blurred, will look like it is more blurred on its + transparent side than on its opaque side. + + * A clone of a blurred object inherits the blur of the original. + Therefore, such a clone can be blurred more, but you can't + "unblur" it to make the clone sharper than its original (unless, + of course, you unlink it). The Fill and Stroke dialog shows you + the amount of the blur applied to this particular object; however, + if the object is a clone of an already blurred original, the + dialog does not reflect that. + + * Note that Firefox 2.0 does not support SVG filters, so your files + will be displayed in Firefox 2.0 without blur. However, support + has been added in the current development version ("trunk") and + will be included in Firefox 3.0. The Opera web browser, as well as + librsvg (used by Wikipedia) and Batik, support filters correctly. + + +Undo history + + * Inkscape now features a History Dialog accessible through + Ctrl+Shift+H or Edit->Undo History. All changes to the document + since it was opened are recorded here. + + In the dialog, changes are listed from the oldest (top) to + the newest (bottom). + + The type of each change is indicated by an icon and a short + description. + + For readability, consecutive changes of the same type are + placed in a collapsable branch showing a triangle marker and + the number of the hidden actions in the branch. + + By clicking on an event event in the list, you can easily + move through the undo history, i.e. undo or redo any number + of actions with one click. + + * The Undo and Redo commands in the Edit menu display the + descriptions of the commands to be undone and redone, + correspondingly. (These are the same descriptions that you see in + the History dialog.) + + +Rendering improvements + + * Interruptible display: Previously, Inkscape could not do anything + until it finishes the current screen redraw. Now the redraw is + made interruptible, so that Inkscape responds to mouse and + keyboard input and can abort the current redraw and start over if + you do some screen-changing operation. As a result, Inkscape now + feels much snappier and more interactive. This interruptibility is + fine-tuned for some interactive operations (such as node dragging) + so that a balance is achieved between responsiveness and + completeness of display. + + * Radial gradients are rendered faster by at least 10%. + + * Screen render is faster by 2-3%, up to 5% for complex drawings + with transparency. + + * Display is more responsive when working at high zoom levels when + using a tablet. + + * Rendering (compositing) quality has been improved. This is most + visible with (partially) transparent gradients, banding is a lot + less pronounced now. Speed has also been improved in some cases. + + +Tools + Node tool - * Clicking on a selected path selects the two nodes closest to the click - point. Shift+click adds or removes these two nodes to the node - selection (when only one path is selected; otherwise Shift+click works - as in Selector). - - * Double click or Ctrl+Alt+click anywhere on the selected path (even if - it is under other objects) creates a new node at the click point, - without changing the shape of the path. (Previously, you could only - add a node in the middle of a segment by using a toolbar button.) - - * You can now edit the selected path (even if it's under other objects) - by dragging any curve point, not only node(s) as before. In many cases - it's a much more convenient way to reshape paths than anything - available before. When you drag a curve close enough to one of the - nodes, only that node's handle(s) are affected; if you drag a point - midway between two nodes, both nodes' handles are adjusted. - - * When mouse is over a draggable path, the cursor is changed to - include a hand. - - * As in Selector, if you press Shift before starting to drag, you always - get a node selection rubberband rectangle (even if you start on a path - but not a node!). - - * After duplicating (Shift+D) an endnode, the selected node is always - the new endnode, so you can move it at once. - - * Selected nodes are displayed a little larger than non-selected ones. - -Extensions - - * Add Nodes: Adds nodes to the selected paths. Each segment of the - selected path is subdivided into ceil(Length/Max) equal length - segments. Lengths are measured in SVG User Units calculated from the - path data and does not take into account any transforms. - - * Whirl: Twists the selected paths around the specified center point. + * You can grow or shrink node selection by hovering the mouse + pointer over a node and using mousewheel (up = grow, down = + shrink) or the keys PageUp (grow) and PageDown (shrink). Growing + adds the closest unselected node to the selection; shrinking + deselects the farthest selected node. There are two modes that + differ by how the closest/farthest nodes are chosen: + + * + + Spatial selection (Mousewheel, PageUp/PageDown): distances to + nodes are measured directly, regardless of which subpath a + node belongs to. + + * + + Linear selection (Ctrl+Mousewheel, + Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PageDown): node distances are measured along + the path, and only the nodes belonging to the same subpath as + the hovered node are considered (i.e. other subpaths are + never selected). + + This technique is convenient for quickly selecting an area in a + complex path starting from a center - for example, for node + sculpting. + + +Dropper + + * Instead of the confusing toggle button, now the Controls bar for + the Dropper tool has two checkboxes, "Pick alpha" and "Set alpha", + which work as follows. Suppose you have an object selected and, + using Dropper, click on an object which has red (#FF0000) fill and + 0.5 opacity (half-transparent). + + If the "Pick alpha" checkbox is off, the selected object will + get the fill color #800000 (i.e. faded-out red) and fill + opacity will be at 1.0 (opaque). + + If the "Pick alpha" checkbox is on but "Set alpha" is off, + the selected object will get the fill color #FF0000 (red) and + fill opacity will be at 1.0. + + If both "Pick alpha" and "Set alpha" are on, the selected + object will get the fill color #FF0000 (red) and fill opacity + will be at 0.5 (half-transparent). + + If you Shift+click instead of click, the same changes will be + made to stroke color and stroke opacity, correspondingly. Note + that in no situation can Dropper change the master opacity of + the selected object(s), although it can pick it just as it does + any other kind of opacity. + + +Calligraphy + + * A new numeric parameter, Caps, controls the amount of protruding + at the ends of calligraphic strokes. This parameter can range from + 0 (flat caps, default behavior in previous versions) through 1 + (approximately half-circle caps) and up to 5 (long elliptic caps). + Rounded caps much improve the look of low-fixation strokes, + simulating a rounded pen. - * Summer's Night: Linearly distorts a path into the destination - quadrilateral. The destination quadrilateral is specified by a four - node path (closed or not). To use, draw and position a four node path. - Select the four node path first and then add to selection the path you - wish to distort. The original position of the four nodes is considered - to be clockwise around the bounding box of the path to distort - beginning in the upper left corner. - - * The Wavy extension is renamed to Function Plotter and got many fixes - and improvements. Importantly, now you don't have to provide an - analytic formula for the derivative; instead, check the "Calculate the - first derivative numerically" checkbox and it will itself calculate - the angle at each node. In the function/derivative formulas, you can - use functions from the math (http://docs.python.org/lib/module-math.html) - and random (http://docs.python.org/lib/module-random.html) Python - modules. As before, you need to have a rectangle selected before calling - this extension. - - * Development continues on SVGSlice but it has not yet been fully - integrated into Inkscape. Please visit Digital Unleashed - (http://www.digitalunleashed.com/giving.php) for details and downloads. - -More new functionality - - * A separate project, the Open Clip Art Library Browser provides an easy - way to browse local and remote clipart collections and insert clipart - into Inkscape. Please visit - http://www.python.org/pypi/clipartbrowser/0.41 for details and - downloads. (A Google SoC project.) + * The "Drag" parameter has been renamed to Wiggle with a value + inversion (i.e. low drag corresponds to high wiggle, and vice + versa). Increase this parameter (default is 0) to make the pen + waver and wiggle in curly patterns. - * A separate utility has been developed to convert between DXF and SVG - formats. Please visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf-svg-convert - for details and downloads. (A Google SoC project.) - - * Improved support for viewBox: If the root element of your - document has width/height attributes set in percentage units and - there's a viewBox on that element, then: - - * The canvas size is set to the value of the viewBox attribute. - * Changing the canvas size in Document Preferences sets the - viewBox, without touching the width/height values. - - This does not affect regular documents created in Inkscape, but - makes it easier to edit other SVG files that use viewBox. - - * The new command line parameter, --export-area-snap, used with bitmap - export to snap the export area outwards to the nearest integer SVG - user unit (px) values. If you are using the default export resolution - of 90dpi and your graphics are pixel-snapped to minimize antialiasing, - this switch allows you to preserve this alignment even if you are - exporting an area (for example, with --export-id or - --export-area-drawing) which is itself not pixel-aligned. - - * When saving as Postscript, you now have the option to convert or not - convert texts to paths (previously only available for EPS export). - -Interface and usability - - * The Icon Preview dialog has been improved. A toggle has been added to - switch between previewing the entire document or just the current - selection. A larger 128x128 size has been added to the defaults. The - sizes are now read from the preferences file and can be customized. - - * Rectangles and ellipses now use different handle shapes, so it's much - easier to see which handle does what. The two square handles change - the size of the object, while the two round handles adjust the - rounding corners (in rectangles) and arc/segment ends (in ellipses). - - * The controls for the Rectangle tool now include W and H fields for - setting the width/height of selected rectangle(s) numerically. - - * In the controls of Rectangle and Ellipse tools, the "Not rounded" and - "Make whole" buttons are now grayed out when the selected object - cannot use the corresponding function (i.e. when a rectangle is - already not rounded and the ellipse is already whole, which are the - defaults). - - * When editing text with the Text tool, the keypad + and - keys type the - corresponding characters if NumLock is on (otherwise they zoom in and - out as before). (Still does not work on Windows.) - - * In the Text tool, Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down now move one paragraph up or - down correspondingly. - - * The Calligraphic tool, in addition to the Ctrl+F6 shortcut, has a new - one-letter shortcut, `c'. - - * The Pen, Pencil, and Calligraphy tools finally have mouse cursors of - their own. - - * The canvas width/height fields in Document Preferences are never - grayed out. Instead, the menu of the canvas sizes scrolls itself to - "Custom" or to an appropriate standard size as you edit width/height. - - * Rectangle editing handles now snap to grid/guides (snapping for other - shapes' handles is expected to come in subsequent releases). - - * The pattern move handle is restricted to horizontal/vertical when Ctrl - is pressed. - - * In the Selector, dragging the rotation center handle snaps to the - edges and central axes of the selection's bounding box. - - * In the Pen tool, while you are drawing a path, the statusbar displays - the distance and angle of the current mouse point from the last - created node of the path. This makes it easy to create a path from the - given lengths and angles of linear segments. When you are dragging to - create a curve handle, the statusbar also displays the length and the - angle of the handle. - - * A new preference option, Compass-like angle display (in the Steps - tab), allows you to have absolute angles specified in a compass - notation (0 at north, 0 to 360 range, increasing clockwise) instead of - the default trigonometric notation (0 at east, -180 to 180 range, - increasing counterclockwise). This affects the statusbar angle display - for path segments and the handles in Pen and Node tools. - * The Pen and Pencil tools now display helpful statusbar hints when the - mouse is over one of the end anchors of the selected path. +Outline mode - * The precision of most editable length fields is increased from 0.01 to - 0.001. + * A new menu command (View > Display Mode > Toggle) and a new + keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+) switch the display mode from + Normal to Outline and back. - * The minimum zoom is extended from 4% to 1%. - - * Work has begun on menu sensitivity and configurability, but has been - disabled in the release. + * The window title displays "(outline)" next to the file name when + that editing window is in Outline mode. -Packaging, documentation, examples + * An object with mask and/or clipping path, when viewed in Outline + mode, now displays both the object itself and its clipping path + and mask as objects, using different outline colors. By default, + clippaths use green outlines, and masks use blue. + + * Images in Outline mode are displayed as red (by default) frames + with two diagonals. + + * An object with no fill and no stroke, invisible and not selectable + by mouse clicking in normal mode, can now be picked by a mouse + click in the Outline mode using its visible outline. + + * The bug whereby stroked shapes didn't change stroke width when + switching to Outline mode or back is fixed. + + * All outline colors are changeable by editing the "wireframecolors" + group inside "options" in the preferences file + (~/.inkscape/preferences.xml). The "onlight" and "ondark" + attributes set the colors of the regular object outlines on light + and dark backgrounds (default black and white correspondingly); + the "images", "clips", and "masks" attributes set the colors of + images, clipping paths, and masks (defaults are red, green, and + blue correspondingly). Each attribute is a decimal integer + corresponding to the hex RRGGBBAA of the color. + + * To cater for specialized uses, such as preparing input for + personal media cutters, Inkscape now has an option to start in the + Outline mode upon launch. To enable this, add the following line + to your preferences.xml file: + + + + placing it after the opening tag. + + +PDF export + + * A new Cairo-based PDF exporter has been added to Inkscape. + Inkscape 0.45 can export shapes, strokes, transparency, gradients, + patterns, text, and images correctly to Cairo. While clipping + paths and masks are known to be faulty or missing. Cairo will + write a PDF with vector graphics when possible and fall back to + raster graphics when needed. What can be exported as vectors and + how much of the image will be rasterized when the fallback kicks + in depends on your version of Cairo. Cairo version 1.2 with the + pdf backend compiled in is the minimum requirement for any + Cairo-based PDF exports. + + * [removed? - mental] The native PDF exporter introduced in Inkscape + 0.44 is improved along with the new Cairo-based PDF exporter. + Changes since Inkscape 0.44 include: New features: bitmap images + can be embedded, pdf files can be exported from commandline. + Changed behaviour: the pointless text to path question is gone. + Fixed bugs: save failure is now detected, miter limits are now >= + 1, pdfs with transparent gradient are now embeddable, eccentric + elliptic gradients fixed, dash style inheritance fixed, + transparency inheritance fixed. + + +PS/EPS export + + * There's a new option to embed the fonts used in the document in + the PS or EPS exported file. As of now, this works for Type 1 + fonts only, not TrueType. The option is available when performing + the export from the GUI as well as from the command line via the + --export-embed-fonts option. + + +EMF export + + * Inkscape has a limited support for exporting EMF (Enhanced Meta + File) format. This works only on Windows, and only exports strokes + and fills with constant colours. No text, no images, no gradients, + no transparency. + + +Command line + + * The new --export-pdf command line parameter allows exporting an + SVG image to PDF from command line. + + +Keyboard profiles + + The previous release allowed sets of keybinding to be created for + Inkscape in the style of other applications. Two more sets of + keybindings have been added. + * Adobe Illustrator + * Macromedia Freehand + + Of course not every feature in these other programs has a direct match + to features in Inkscape so if you can please do help us out by + reporting any problems you may have or improvements you would like to + request. + + Additionally, a keybinding that focuses on tablet-based illustration + and drawing work has been added: + * right-handed-illustration.xml + + This keybinding places all commonly-used commands under the left hand, + so that the user's hands rarely leave the keyboard or the + tablet/stylus. + + (To enable a profile, copy it into default.xml in the same directory, + overwriting the old file. To restore the default Inkscape set, copy + inkscape.xml into default.xml.) + + More of Inkscape's keys are implemented as actions and are therefore + available for remapping via keyboard profiles. New actions include + EditSelectNext and EditSelectPrev for selecting next/previous object + or node (by default, they are bound to Tab/Shift+Tab; as a result of + becoming global actions, these keys now work in all tools and not only + in Selector and Node tool as before). + +Extension effects + + * 3 new parameter types have been added to the extension effect UI: + tabs, enumerations and optiongroups (radiobuttons). Examples are + available of how to use these parameters in the definition of + extensions: the new function plotter uses tabs; enumerations are + used by the 'Pattern along path' extension; and a small developer + example is given to illustrate the use of optiongroups (identical + to enumerations). + + * A new extension, Render > Lorem ipsum creates the traditional + Latin-like random text for design mock-ups. The number of + paragraphs, the number of sentences per paragraph and the possible + fluctuation of the number of sentences (for uneven paragraphs) can + be adjusted. If no flowed text element is selected, a new one in a + new layer is created, matching the size of the canvas. + + * Pattern along path: A new powerful extension (in "Generate from + path" submenu) allows you to bend, repeat and/or stretch a pattern + object (which can be a path or a group) along a "skeleton" path. + This makes it easy to create a variety of patterned and shaped + strokes. This obsoletes the old "Kochify" extension which is + removed. + + * Color effects: A new group of extensions in the Color submenu of + the Effects menu allows you to adjust all colors of a selection at + once. These commands affect both fill and stroke colors, including + gradients (but not bitmaps). The commands include a full set of + HSL adjustments (increasing/decreasing hue, saturation, or + lightness by 5%), Brighter and Darker (adjust brightness by up or + down by 10%), Desaturate, Grayscale, Negative, commands for + removing or swapping the Red, Green, Blue channels, as well as a + Custom command where you can set your own formulas for modifying + the color channels. These extensions are a temporary solution; in + a future version, similar functionality will be added to Inkscape + core. + + Note: undoing color changes on gradients exposes a bug where an + object seems to "disappear"; this is however only a display + issue (caused by the order in which gradients and their users + are restored on undo) not causing any loss of information. + Also, on large documents and large selections with gradients, + Python's XPath code may get quite slow. Despite these + shortcomings, we decided to add this extension, because it's + genuinely useful functionality which was so far missing in + Inkscape. + + * The Function Plotter has been extended, providing greater + flexibility in x- and y-range definition. + + * g2png: The new group-to-PNG Python extension (g2png) is an easy + way to export any group or layer to individual PNG files. It was + first created for use in the [58]Inkscape User Manual (also + available in SVN's user_manual module) but is also interesting for + many other uses. If e.g. you have to draw a set of icons, you can + draw them in the same document, thus making copying, duplicating, + cloning etc. easier. Then just create a group for each icon, and + with the extension, each group ends up in its own PNG file. + + * [color markers to match stroke - acspike] + + * The "Blur Edge" extension is renamed into Inset/Outset Halo to + avoid confusion with the real Gaussian blur that we now support, + as well as to better describe what this extension actually does: + From the selected path, it creates a group of inset and outset + paths that form a stepped "halo" around the object. + + * The Extract One Image extension automatically appends filename + extension to the created bitmap file. + + * In an extension's INX file, you can specify to hide that extension from the Effects menu. + However, such a "hidden" extension can still be assigned a + keyboard shortcut (by using its id as an "action" in your + ~/.inkscape/keys/default.xml). + + +SVG output + + For specialized uses, several aspects of Inkscape's SVG output can now + be customized via editing the preferences.xml file (there's no UI for + these options). A inside + can have the following attributes: + * usenamedcolors (default is 0). If nonzero, Inkscape uses symbolic + color names (such as "white" or "lime") and three-digit color + designations (such as $dfe) where appropriate; otherwise, it + always uses six-digit colors (such as $d0f0e0). Note that in 0.44, + the default was to use named colors, which created problems for + some extension effects. + + * numericprecision (default is 8). This is the number of significant + digits written for each number into SVG. You can lower this number + to get slightly more compact SVG at the expense of precision. + + * minimumexponent (default is -8). In transform= attributes, any + number whose absolute value is less than 10 to the power of + minimumexponent (i.e. less than 10^-8 by default) is written as 0. + + * indent (default is 2) controls the number of spaces that each + level of nesting in SVG is shifted. Set this to 0 to disable + indentation. + + * inlineattrs (default is 0). If nonzero, attributes are placed on + the same line as their tags; otherwise they are separated by + newlines. + + +Bitmap tracing + + * A new color quantization algorithm for multiscan traces works + faster (especially for large numbers of colors) and gives more + adequate results with less colors used. This improves tracing + results both for full-color photographs and for limited-color + drawings. + * The Trace Bitmap dialog now provides access to three more tracing + parameters: + + Suppress speckles: If set, spots or speckles larger than the + given size are suppressed in the trace. + + Smooth corners: This parameter controls how much smoothing is + applied to corners in the traced path. + + Optimize paths: If set, trace paths are optimized by joining + adjacent Bezier segments with the given tolerance. + * All controls in the Trace Bitmap dialog are reorganized to be + easier to find. The dialog is redesigned to use two main tabs: + Mode (where you select the tracing mode, such as brightness cutoff + or color multiscan) and Options (where you set various tracing + options, such as corner smoothing). The preview is placed + horizontally to the right of the tabs. Most labels and tooltips + are rewritten for clarity. The trace preview image is made twice + larger. + + +Even more improvements + + * A 'Save a copy'-function has been added to the file menu, similar + to the 'Save a copy' functionality of e.g. Adobe Illustrator. With + this function, you can save your document under a new filename, + but Inkscape will 'forget' it has done this: later saves will be + to the old filename. The default shortcut assigned to this + function is: Shift+Ctrl+Alt+S. + + * Text and flowed text objects behave more consistently. Now you can + put a flowed text on path or (re)flow it into a shape just as you + would do with a regular (unflowed) text. Previously, the need to + convert a flowed text to text before these operations was a + stumble for many users. + + * [new Help commands] + + * Exported PNG images have the correct resolution set in the + headers. + + * [sculpt profiles - bbyak] + + * [new toolbar: squeezable, expansion menu, right-click menus - + joncruz] + + * [union of a single object - acspike] + + * We removed the "hacked" filename entry field that we had added to + the Open and Save dialogs because starting from version 2.10, GTK+ + has finally restored this field in their standard file dialog. The + standard field at the top of the dialog supports type-ahead find + and performs the default dialog action (open or save) by pressing + Enter, which means you can now do a quick Ctrl+O, Ctrl+V, Enter + sequence to open the file whose path is in your clipboard (this + closes a long-standing usability bug). Those who use older + versions of GTK are advised either to upgrade to 2.10 or use + Ctrl+L to open a pop-up filename box. (Our Windows builds are + shipped with GTK+ 2.10.) + + * The Create Bitmap function (Alt+B in the default keymap) is made + more useful. Unless you have specific resolution or minimum size + set for this command in preferences.xml (), it will take the resolution hint from the + object whose bitmap copy you are creating (in other words, it will + use the resolution that you specified for that object when + exporting it via the Export Bitmap dialog), or the default 90 dpi + if that object was not yet exported. Also, a 90 dpi bitmap (with + its pixels exactly 1 px in size) will be snapped to the pixel + grid. This makes it easy to use Create Bitmap for quick + rasterization preview of an object or document. (Note: if you have + used a previous version of Inkscape, your preferences.xml may + contain minsize="250"; delete this for objects' resolution hints + to work.) + + * Using extended input (i.e. tablet pressure and tilt) can now be + disabled via Preferences (Misc tab). This is intended to be a + last-resort option for those platform/hardware combinations that + are not properly supported by GTK. With extended input disabled, + you can still use your tablet as a mouse. + + * Simplify Path now had two modes when working with a group of + paths: the default mode, which treats all of the paths as one + large object to simplify, or the new mode, which acts the same as + using Simplify on each path in a group separately. In + preferences.xml, set options.simplifyindividualpaths to 1 to get + the new mode. + + * For long Simplify operations (more than 20 paths at a time), + Inkscape provides user feedback via the status bar as to how many + paths have been simplified. This change also prevents Inkscape + from appearing to have locked up during the operation. + + * New templates added for video formats (PAL, NTSC and HDTV 1080) as + well as DVD cover templates that were not installed in the + previous version. This will help video and DVD authoring with + Inkscape. The business card 85×54 template is now installed as + well. + + * The opacity of objects is now displayed as percentage, from 0 to + 100, both in the Fill & Stroke dialog (with one fractional digit) + and in the statusbar style indicator (with no fractional digits), + instead of from 0 to 1.0 as before. This makes opacity values + easier to read, type, and say. + + * "Other" license type was added to the metadata/license dialog so + that people know that they are entering a URI to an "other" + license. + + * Doxygen DoxyFile is updated. + + * Thanks to patches submitted by users of our community, Inkscape + can now be built on SGI IRIX 6.5.28, gcc 3.4.0 systems and on + Tru64 systems. + + +Examples + + * With all the recent additions - clipping, masking, and especially + blur - Inkscape is now able to produce extremely photorealistic + art. In the share/examples folder in Inkscape distribution, you + will find two brand new, stunningly realistic images of shiny + cars: car.svgz by Konstantin Rotkevich and gallardo.svgz by + Michael Grosberg. + + * Inkscape 0.45 does not yet have gradient meshes. But with the + addition of Gaussian Blur, this feature suddenly got within reach. + A new example file, gradient-mesh-experimental.svgz, explains the + approach Inkscape will likely take to implement this feature in a + fully SVG-compatible way. + + * Although Inkscape does not support animation yet, you can add any + animation scripts and attributes to your SVG file manually in a + text editor - and the file will still be editable in Inkscape. + Tavmjong Bah used this technique to create animated-clock.svg + which, when loaded in an SVG viewer supporting animation (such as + Firefox, Opera, or Batik), demonstrates the intricate moving + clockwork of a watch - and shows real time to boot! If loaded in + Inkscape, the image is static, but instead you can freely edit any + of the objects. - * The windows installer has now a modular structure that allows the - selection of separate features such as examples, tutorials, or - translations. All options are supported for a silent installation. - * Windows packages now contain the release notes (NEWS file), authors - and translators lists, the README file, the GPL and the LGPL license - files. - * The Inkscape man page is updated with additional examples. - * The About dialog now more closely resembles the stock Gtk About - dialog. A full list of authors and translators, as well as the license - are now viewable. Translations - * The MacOS X package now includes interface translations and reads the - user language setting, as specified in System Preferences, to use the - corresponding translation language. - * Many interface and tutorial translations have been updated. - -Important bugfixes - - * A systematic error when scaling objects with stroke via the Selector - controls panel (W and H fields) is fixed. - * In stroke dash patterns in CSS, comma separators were erroneously - replaced by spaces upon writing the document. For now, Inkscape will - still be capable of reading both space-separated and comma-separated - lists (for compatibility with old files), but it now always writes - correct comma-separated lists on output. - * Due to a bug, Inkscape tended to replace relative paths to embedded - images by absolute, which made them fail after moving a document to - another computer; this is fixed. - * The precision of most boolean operations and offsets is improved, - especially noticeably for small paths. - * In text on path, in some cases letters were distributed unevenly along - a curve; this is now fixed. - * Searching by text in the Find dialog (Ctrl+F) was broken, now fixed. - * Some of the stock markers were missing in the marker menus in the Fill - & Stroke dialog. - * The bounding box of a stroke with markers now includes the markers. - -Internal progress - - * Source documentation: the big goal is to have a brief description for - classes and most functions in every source file; this now holds for - more than 100 files of the 1350 files in the source code. The doxygen - index file now shows many useful links to external documentation and a - categorization of main directory files which should be useful for - beginners in particular. - * Removed trailing fractional zeros in SVG for cleaner and more compact - markup. - * C++ Encapsulation: the View class hierarchy has been reimplemented in - C++, after separating the widget classes from each class. The number - of dependencies on the central file desktop.h (about 100) was reduced - by half. - -Known issues - - Windows 95/98/ME support - - * Due to issues in GTK 2.8 beyond our control this version of Inkscape - will not work on Windows 95/98/ME. Please do not send us crash reports - from those platforms. We hope to be able to resume support for these - platforms in the future, but no specific committments can be made at - this point. - - Problems on Linux under KDE - - * SuSE, Fedora Core 4: Inkscape and other GTK programs are known to - crash if the KDE Baghira theme and the package gtk_qt_engine are - installed. If you experience Inkscape crashes on KDE, please try to - install a different theme from Baghira, or uninstall the gtk_qt_engine - package from your system. - * Kubuntu: For similar reasons, Inkscape can crash on Kubuntu Breezy - when, at the same time, the gtk2-engines-smooth package is installed. - Removing it resolves the problem. Both problems also affect older - versions of Inkscape. - - Pressure and tilt sensitivity - - * Pressure and tilt sensitivity do not currently work on MacOS X, due to - a limitation of the MacOS X version of X11. - * There are known issues with the current version of the X.org server - not releasing events on extended devices that use pressure - sensitivity. What that translates to is you can start a stroke, but - when you lift your pen, the stroke won't end (and will just continue - when you put your pen back on the tablet). This seem to be linked to - the usage of /dev/psaux for the mouse instead of /dev/input/mouseXX, - see http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/mouse1) - * The current version of GTK for Windows has a bug that affects tilt - sensitivity. - - Inkboard - - * Imported bitmaps are not transmitted to other users in a whiteboard - session. - * At present, Inkboard relies on Loudmouth - (http://loudmouth.imendio.org/) to provide Jabber connectivity, - which means that it is limited to Linux builds of Inkscape. - Inkboard is currently being redesigned to use a cross-platform - Jabber client; this redesign will be present in a future release. - * Inkboard cannot yet connect to Google Talk clients. This will be - remedied in a future release. (The reason is because it expects the - "server" portion of a Jabber ID to be the same as the server that it - contacts, which is not the case for the Google Talk network.) - * Inkboard's handling of concurrent modifications is still very rough. - Future releases will make this more robust. - - See http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=93438&atid=604306 for a - full list of known issues. If you find a bug not listed here, then please - report the bug: see instructions at http://inkscape.org/report_bugs.php - (the Report Bugs link from http://inkscape.org/). - -Previous releases - - * ReleaseNotes042 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes042) - * ReleaseNotes041 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes041) - * ReleaseNotes040 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes040) - * ReleaseNotes039 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes039) - * ReleaseNotes038 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes038) - * ReleaseNotes037 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes037) - * ReleaseNotes036 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes036) - * ReleaseNotes035 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes035) + * Remarkable improvements are in the Danish, Finnish, Nepalese and + the Vietnamese translations of the user interface. They all jumped + from 0 to over 90 percent in a very short timespan. + + * All people which are familiar with pig latin are now able to use + Inkscape's user interface in that language. Isthay isway oughtbray + otay usway ybay away ewnay anslatortray. + + * default lituanian template was not installed before, which is now + fixed. + + * Updated British English, Catalan, Bulgarian and Thai translations. + + +Tutorials and Templates + + * New tutorial "Easter Eggs" by Steve Karg. + + * Added Catalan default template and elements tutorial. + + * Russian header and footer templates are added. + + +Bugfixes + + * When deleting a node, neighboring smooth nodes are converted to + cusp. + + * Releasing the mouse button while dragging nodes using a tablet + will now always release the nodes. Before this, a race condition + could occur where dragging could continue after the mouse button + was released. + + * An object's mask and clipping path are now preserved after + Simplify, Object/Stroke to path, or boolean operations. + + * Ungrouping a group containing clipped/masked objects might + sometime break the clip/mask (move it away); fixed. + + * User-supplied templates in ~/.inkscape/templates can now be SVGZ + files in addition to SVG. + + * Previously, Inkscape didn't check if there's enough free memory + for its pixel buffers and could crash without warning due to + insufficient memory e.g. upon zooming in. This problem became much + worse after implementing Gaussian blur, because rendering blurred + objects at high zooms may require a pixel buffer much bigger than + the visible canvas. Now this situation is handled more gracefully: + if a display operation requires more memory than available, or + more than 100Mb (which corresponds to a 5000x5000 pixel buffer), + it is skipped. This may result in blurred objects "disappearing" + at high zooms. This is purely a display issue, however, it never + corrupts data; just zoom out (or reduce blur radius) and the + disappeared object will show up OK. + + * When resizing objects, scaling numbers in the statusbar are no + longer overwritten by other text when pressing special keys (alt, + shift, ctrl). + + * To work around problems some users have had with pressure + sensitive tablets ([66]bug), the pressure sensitivity can be + disabled from the misc tab of Inkscape preferences dialogue. The + tablet can then be used, though with reduced functionality. + + * The layer widget in the statusbar used to lose its current layer + after an effect run; this is fixed. + + * When using different display resolutions or a dual screen setup, + dialogs could be displayed off-screen; this is fixed: now Inkscape + checks whether the saved position of the dialog is offscreen, if + so it will move the dialog to the center of the screen. Note that + this not solve all problems. If the dialog is still not visible, + go to the [67]bugreport where a procedure is given to make the + dialog visible (editting preferences.xml). + + * Performing a boolean union without selecting an object no longer + crashes Inkscape. + + * Grid and guidelines no longer vanish when changing their color. + + * Group transformation is now correctly applied when ungrouping and + undo'ing the ungroup. + + * Text dialog no longer discards the style of the selected text. + + +Known problems + + +Problem with Dialogs on Top on Microsoft Windows (win32) + + [Describe minimizing of document window problem, and solution: + right-click taskbar button and press "Restore"] + +OSX 10.3.9: cannot open files + + This bug is due to a missing symbol (_statvfs) in the system library + /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib on 10.3.9. The dependency is introduced by + one of the gnome-vf2 modules. It is not something we can easily fix + other than by not linking with gnome-vfs2, which we will do for or + upcoming 0.45 release if no other solution becomes apparent. + [mjwybrow] + +Problems with some Debian libgc-6.7 packages + + * Inkscape will hang or crash when linked with the first Debian + packaged version of the Boehm garbage collection library. This + problem was fixed in version 1:6.7-2 of the package. If you have + libgc 6.7 on your Debian-based system, make sure that you are + using that version of the package or later. + + +Beware of defective themes on Linux + + * Inkscape and other Gtk programs can crash on any Linux, when the + gtk2-engines-smooth / libsmooth package is installed. We have + filed a bug against libsmooth which is now in gtk-engine and part + of gnome. Removing the package resolves the problem. Update: this + bug appears to be fixed in newer versions of gtk-engines. If you + are affected by this problem please update to a newer version of + gtk-engines. If problems persist then please inform the + gtk-engines maintainers of the problem. + + * A similar crash happens if the KDE Baghira theme or the package + gtk_qt_engine are installed. If you experience Inkscape crashes on + KDE, please try to install a different theme from Baghira, or + uninstall the gtk_qt_engine package from your system. Both + problems also affect older versions of Inkscape. + +