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Inkscape 0.91

(not released yet - AnnouncePlanning091)

Release highlights

Released on «YYYY-MM-DD».

  • Cairo rendering for display and PNG export
  • OpenMP multithreading for all filters
  • C++ code conversion
  • Major improvements in the Text tool, typography extensions
  • Measure tool
  • Type design features
  • Symbol library and support for Visio stencils
  • Cross platform WMF and EMF import and export
  • Improved support for Corel DRAW documents, Visio importer
  • Support for real world document and page size units, e.g. millimeters
  • Numerous usability improvements
  • Native Windows 64-bit build Partha
  • Native Mac OS X build? (Valerio Aimale?) Mailing List discussion
  • See Notable bug fixes

Rendering and performance

Inkscape 0.91 includes a new renderer based on the Cairo library. This work was
done mainly during Google Summer of Code 2010 and 2011 projects.

  • Improved performance. The new renderer is significantly faster on most
    drawings. Renderings of the most complex objects are automatically cached
    to improve responsiveness during editing.
  • OpenMP multithreading for filters. Filters use all available processor
    cores for computation. This results in substantial speedups when editing
    drawings containing large filtered objects on multi-core systems.
  • Substantial memory savings. Inkscape now uses less memory when opening
    complex drawings, in some cases using only 25% of the memory used by
    Inkscape 0.48. Larger files can now be opened.
  • Responsiveness improvements. The rendering of the SVG drawing is now
    cached. This results in massive improvements in responsiveness of path
    highlights, object selection / deselection, and path editing in delayed
    update mode.
  • Rendering bug fixes. Most of the rendering glitches in our bug tracker are
    no longer present in Inkscape 0.91. The following things now render
    correctly:
      □ Pattern fills (no more gaps between tiles, regardless of
        transformation)
      □ Stroke of transformed objects in patterns
      □ Patterns containing clipped objects
      □ Nested clipping paths
      □ Masked and clipped objects with large masks / clipping paths in Outline
        view
      □ Paths with wide strokes and long miters
      □ Fonts

Color display mode

A grayscale display color mode has been added, that shows a preview of your
drawing in grayscale. Shift+numpad5 toggles the color display mode between
normal and grayscale.

Tools

Node tool

The tool control bar for the Node Tool features a new dropdown to insert new
nodes on the selected segments extreme values. For example, (as demonstrated in
the image below) it is possible to add a new node at the highest point in a
curve using Insert Node at Max Y

Add nodes at max.gif

Measurement tool

The Measurement tool is a new feature for the artist to measure the elements in
their drawing. To use the measurement tool, simply choose the tool, click
anywhere on the drawing and drag the ruler out. The measurement tool will
live-update with measurements of length and angles as you pass over objects in
your drawing.

Ruler.png

Text tool

  • Text size default unit is now points (pt) and is customizable
    (px,pt,pc,mm,cm,in,em)
  • Text toolbar shows full list of font style variants for that font
  • Files with text in em units read correctly
  • Font substitution warning dialog

Gradients

  • Gradient toolbar enhanced to select and modify gradient stops, invert,
    repeat, and link gradients
  • On-canvas gradient editing fixes: double clicking to create stops, correct
    focus on select
  • Gradients sortable by color, name and usage in Fill/Stroke
  • Gradients can be renamed in Fill/Stroke

Dialogs, etc.

Arrange (was rows and columns)

- NEW: renamed to 'Arrange' - NEW: polar arrangement (separate tab) <http://
issuu.com/ddeclara/docs/inkscape_radial_arrangement>

Align and Distribute

  • The new updated Inkscape features a new set of buttons in the Align and
    Distribute Dialog called Exchange position of selected objects. It adds the
    ability to exchange the positions of the objects that the artist has
    selected.
      □ In the following example, three objects were selected, and their
        positions were exchaged with each other (using this new feature)
        according to their selection order.

Swap-objects.gif

  • 
      □ There are also two other new buttons in the dialog that allow the
        artist to exchange the selected objects based on the stacking (z-index)
        order, or just exchange them clockwise based on the object's position
        on the page.

  • Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+Keypad numbers) for align operations

Document Properties

Optionally disable antialiasing (bug #170356, interface partially implemented)

Find/Select

  • It is now easier to select items which are not at the top of the Z-order:
    use Alt+mouse wheel scroll to cycle through all items that are stacked on
    top of each other at the location of the mouse pointer (use Shift+Alt+mouse
    wheel scroll to add to the existing selection). At present, groups are not
    honoured, i.e., only individual items within groups are considered.
  • New Find/Replace dialog can operate on text or any attribute
  • "Select Same" is a new feature that allows an artist to select objects that
    have the same properties as the currently selected object. For example, you
    could select an object that has a fill of blue. Then, using the new feature
    select all other objects in the drawing with a fill set to that same shade
    of blue.

Selectsame.gif

The new feature is a menu choice under Edit ▶︎ Select Same or as a Context menu
if you right click on a selected object. Also there are other choices available
to select same, including: matching both Fill and Stroke, matching just stroke,
matching stroke style, or matching on object type.

Fill and Stroke

  • The Gradient view in the fill and stroke dialog now displays a list of all
    the gradients in the document. The list displays the gradient, the gradient
    name, and number of uses of that gradient in the document.

Gradient-fill-stroke.png

  • More compact Markers selectors

Layers

  • Drag and drop to reorder layers and create sublayers
  • Show/Hide All layers options in context menu

Symbols

Inkscape has a new Symbols dialog. The dialog displays symbols from a symbol
library. Inkscape 0.91 includes five example libraries: logic symbols, AIGA/DOT
transportation symbols, map symbols, flow chart shapes and word balloons. The
dialog will also create a pseudo-library of all existing symbols in the current
Inkscape drawing. (A symbol is defined by an SVG <symbol> element.) Symbols can
be dragged from the dialog onto the Inkscape canvas.

Any document with symbols can serve as a source for a symbol library. Simply
copy it to the symbols directory in your configuration directory (typically
share/inkscape). If proper care is taken, symbols can be provided with default
fill and stroke colors that later can be overridden by the user.

Visio Stencil files (.vss) can also be used by dropping them in the same
symbols directory. Results may not be as satisfactory as using SVG symbol
libraries.

See the Symbols Dialog Wiki page for more details.

Text and Font

  • NEW: lists fonts used in the current document at the top
  • NEW: select all text objects with same font as current selection
  • NEW (to be verified): support list with fallback fonts (CSS2)

Transform

  • Rotation of objects clockwise or counterclockwise

Markers

  • Markers now take objects color

Trace Bitmap

  • Trace bitmap preview updates live and is resizeable

Live Path Effects

An object's Live Path Effects are now forked upon object duplication.

PowerStroke

Here a list of the current state. Note that this is very much work in progress
and anything can change. I think this is the most efficient place of keeping
track how the powerstroke LPE works.

  • Stroke knots are purple diamonds
  • When first applied, 3 stroke knots are added: start, end, and somewhere in
    the middle along the path
  • Add nodes: Ctrl+click purple knot
  • Delete nodes: Ctrl+Alt+click purple knot
  • "sort points" reorders the stroke knots according to where they lie along
    the path (where they are closest to the path), instead of keeping them in
    original order.
  • Start and end caps can be specified. The SVG cap types are available, as
    well as an extra type, "Zero width", that is identical to adding a width
    control knot at the start/end of the path with zero width.
  • Join type can be specified. In addition to the SVG join types, there are
    two new types:
      □ Extrapolated: this extrapolates the contour of the stroked path to
        obtain a more natural looking miter join.
      □ Extrapolated arc: Mathematical explanation.
      □ Spiro: rounds the join using a spiro curve (the rounded type rounds the
        curve using an elliptical arc).

example screenshot

Clone Original

The Clone original LPE ignores the path data of the path it has been applied
to; instead, it copies the original-d path data, i.e. the path data before LPE
calculation, from the path linked to by the Linked path parameter.

The Clone original LPE is made to be used in conjunction with powerstroke.
Powerstroke creates a path with a variable stroke, but this path can then not
be filled (because the fill is used as the stroke). To fill a powerstroked
path, one must create a second path (dummy path), apply the Clone original LPE
and link it to the powerstroked path. Because this second path clones the
original path data before the Powerstroke LPE, it can be used to fill the
powerstroked path.

To quickly create a dummy path and apply this effect, one can select the path
to 'clone' and click the menu item Edit ▶︎ Clone ▶︎ Clone original path (LPE).

Like for normal clones, pressing Shift+D, when the selected path has the Clone
original LPE applied, selects the path referred to by the LPE.

Another very useful ability of the Clone original LPE is to create a clone with
a different style than its referred path. To facilitate this, the LPE dialog
will add the Clone original LPE when a clone is selected and the "+" button is
pressed.

Filters

The new Custom predefined filters allow users to create predefined filters with
custom parameters. See SpecCustomPredefinedFilters.

Trace Pixel Art (libdepixelize)

A new library developed for Inkscape to automatically vectorize raster images
specialized in Pixel Art was integrated in the form of the "Trace Pixel Art"
dialog (menu item Path ▶︎ Trace Pixel Art...). Good and old general "Trace
Bitmap" is still there. Check the supplementary material of the algorithm
authors to see a preview of how the algorithm behaves.

Other User Interface

General

  • Canvas background color can be set without exporting it (background
    transparency is only used for export but not the canvas).


Guides

  • Guides visibility can be toggled by clicking the ruler
  • Guides can now have labels, and the colour of individual guides can also be
    set by the user. To label or colour a guide, double click on the guideline
    to bring up the guide properties dialog.

Labelled-guides.png


Menu/Access

  • The interface elements are accessible through the keyboard with ALT+key in
    many more dialogs
  • "Text and Font", "Fill and Stroke", and "Check Spelling" dialogs are added
    to the text object context menu (right click)
  • Menu items renamed:
      □ Edit ▶︎ Preferences
      □ Edit ▶︎ Input Devices
      □ File ▶︎ Cleanup Document
  • Checkboxes to indicated status of View ▶︎ Grid/Guides/Snap/Color Management
  • Group/Ungroup from the context menu

Preferences

  • New keyboard shortcut editor
  • Prefs ▶︎ Interface -- New option for dockbar and switcher style (icons,
    text, icons & text) (bug #1098416)
  • Prefs ▶︎ Interface ▶︎ Windows -- optionally don't save & restore documents
    viewport (bug #928205)
  • Prefs ▶︎ Behavior ▶︎ Steps -- unit selector for steps (move, scale, inset/
    outset) (bug #170293)
  • Prefs ▶︎ Behavior ▶︎ Steps -- option for relative snapping of guideline
    angles (rev 10307)
  • Prefs ▶︎ Behavior ▶︎ Clones -- optionally relink linked offsets on
    duplication (bug #686193)
  • Prefs ▶︎ Input/Output ▶︎ SVG output -- NEW: optionally enforce relative or
    absolute coordinates (bug #1002230)

Dialogs

  • Dialog status and position is remembered between sessions
  • Most dialogs now dockable (including "Object properties", "Object
    attributes", "Text and Font", "Check spelling", "Export PNG image", "XML
    editor", "Find/Replace", and "Tiled clones")
  • New preference to allow Windows users to choose between native and Gtk Open
    /Save dialog
  • Preferences dialog cleanup
  • Document Metadata dialog merged into Document Properties


Simple calculations in spinboxes

In most spinboxes (a spinbox is an entry field with up and down "spinbuttons"
next to it) you can now write simple calculations. Some examples:

  • 2 * 3
  • 50 + 100, or
  • ((12 + 34) * (5 + 5) - 2) / 2

Moreover, you can use units in entering values, like 2 + 2 cm. The result will
be converted to the selected unit for the particular entry.

Configurable Control Handles

New preferences have been added to allow for the size of the on-canvas controls
to be increased or decreased. The "Input Devices" section has been updated to
control this.

Translations

  • The Keyboard and mouse reference (inkscape-docs project) and the labels of
    color palettes are now translatable.
  • New UI translation in Latvian.
  • New tutorial translations in Galician and Greek.
  • New man pages in Chinese (zh_TW) Greek (el), Japanese (ja) and Slovak (sk),
    and updated French translation. [Galician (gl) and Polish (pl) in progress]
  • Man pages now use PO files for translation (inkscape-docs project).
  • The tutorial generation system now fully supports RTL languages.

File format support

  • New Flash XML Graphics (FXG) export format.
  • New Synfig Animation Studio (SIF) export format.
  • New HTML5 Canvas export format
  • New Visio (VSD) import format, based on libvisio.
  • New internal CorelDraw (CDR) import format, based on libcdr.
  • XAML export improvements (including a new Silverlight compatible mode).
  • Compressed SVG and media export extension improvements. New options:
      □ set an image directory in the zip file
      □ add a text file that lists the fonts used in the SVG document.
  • New preference to allow users to always link, embed or ask when importing
    bitmaps.
  • New preferences that allow the checking of SVG on input and/or export for
    invalid or not useful elements, attributes, and properties. Options control
    whether such items generate warnings (when Inkscape is run from the command
    line) or in removing such items.
  • The --export-text-to-path option now works with Plain SVG export.

EMF/WMF

EMF and WMF input and output filters have been completely rewritten and are now
cross-platform. It is now possible to copy and paste EMF files between Windows
applications running in Wine and a native Linux version of Inkscape.

Gimp XCF

  • The Save Background option allows users to choose if the page background is
    saved with each GIMP layer.
  • The exported layers now use the label attribute or, if not set, the id
    attribute
  • New Resolution option
  • New Help tab
  • Some bugs and warnings fixed

PDF

  • Bleed/margin: Added an option to specify an extra margin by which the
    bounding box to be exported is expanded. This may be helpful to export a
    PDF with a small white margin around the drawing, or for exporting a bleed
    region a few mm outside the area of the page.

PDF/EPS/PS + LaTeX

  • Added the possibility of scaling the image. The calc package must be
    included in the preamble. Then the image can be scaled by defining \
    svgscale instead of \svgwidth.
  • The font shape is now also exported. \textit{} for italic text, \textbf{}
    for bold text, and \textsl{} (slanted) for oblique text. It is important to
    note that Arial has an oblique font shape, not italic. Thus, the result in
    LaTeX will be slanted, instead of italic. It is better to use another font
    in Inkscape when you want true italics.

Extensions

Units: Breaking change

Due to the implementation of proper document units, the functions
inkex.unittouu and inkex.uutounit had to be modified and moved to the
inkex.Effect class.

Unit conversion calls should be replaced with inkex.Effect.unittouu and
inkex.Effect.uutounit calls (usually self.unittouu and self.uutounit).

New

  • The new guillotine extension is used for exporting PNG slices from a
    drawing. The slice rectangles are defined by adding horizontal and vertical
    guides within the canvas boundary, the canvas boundary serves as the
    outside of the sliced area.
  • The new G-code tools extension converts paths to G-code (using circular
    interpolation), makes offset paths and engraves sharp corners using cone
    cutters.
  • New QR code generator.
  • New isometric grid generator.
  • New bitmap crop extension.
  • New Extract text extension. Outputs a document’s text elements in a chosen
    order.
  • New Merge text extension.
  • New HSL adjust extension.
  • New Replace font extension.
  • New N-Up layout extension.
  • New Voronoï diagram extension (creates Voronoï diagrams and Delaunay
    triangulations based on the selected objects' barycenter).
  • New Interpolate Attribute in a group extension.
  • New Typography extensions menu.

Improvements

  • Number nodes. New parameters allowing users to choose the starting dot
    number and the numbering step between two nodes.
  • Color Markers to Match Stroke extension improvements. The markers can now
    inherit the fill and stroke colors and alpha channels from the object, or
    be customized with color selectors in a separate tab.
  • Optional sliders added on float and int extension parameters (full and
    minimal modes).
  • Extension parameters values (except attributes!) can now be contextualized
    for translation (with msgctxt).
  • New sub-menus in the Render menu, grouping the bar-codes, grids and layout
    extensions.

SVG Support

Rendering of the following properties is now supported (without UI except via
XML editor):

  • clip-rule
  • color-interpolation-filters: Non-Inkscape filters that specify linearRGB
    color interpolation will render properly. Filters created inside Inkscape
    will still use sRGB color interpolation by default.
  • text-decoration: Underline, strike-through, over line.
  • text-decoration-line, text-decoration-style: Preliminary support (CSS 3).
  • paint-order: Allows stroke to be painted under fill; useful for text.

Snapping

  • The snapping preferences and the snap toolbar have been reworked (in the
    underlying code and in the GUI) to should make the snapping preferences
    easier to understand, maintain, and find and fix any remaining snapping
    bugs
  • Inkscape now also snaps perpendicularly and tangentialy to paths, when
    creating paths in the pen tool, when dragging nodes, or when manipulating
    guides. Newly created guides (dragged off the ruler) will snap
    perpendicularly or tangentialy to any curve that is being snapped to. Two
    checkboxes have been added to the document properties dialog (on the
    snapping tab). Please note that snapping perpendicularly or tangetialy will
    not work in the selector tool when transforming an object or a selection of
    objects.
  • Intersections of paths and guides can now be snapped to too
  • Snapping has been implemented fully for transforming selections of multiple
    nodes in the node tool
  • Snapping to text anchors and baselines has been implemented properly
  • If one has chosen for only snapping the snap source closest to the mouse
    pointer, then the tab key can be used to cycle to the next closest snap
    source

Notable bug fixes

Notable bug fixes since last bug fix release (0.48.4):

  • Images are no longer recompressed when embedding or exporting them. [1]
  • Relative image paths are no longer stored as absolute (regression
    introduced with 0.47).
  • Many rendering glitches were fixed.
  • The rendering of the stroke on transformed objects now matches the SVG
    specification.
  • Values entered in the numeric input boxes for the selector tool (X, Y,
    width, height) are much more accurately applied.

Known issues

  • On MS Windows when the desktop colordepth is set to 16-bit, Inkscape is
    unusable because of exploding memory usage. Please set the colordepth to
    32-bit.
  • The Cairo library used in the new renderer does not implement downscaling,
    which causes large bitmaps to be pixelated on export. [2] The issue can be
    fixed with an out-of-tree patch to Cairo. [3]


For information on prior releases, please see:
    http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Inkscape
