Inkscape

April 15, 2007 in Tools, Vector by Vyoma | 8 comments

Inkscape LogoYou can say that I have been quite a fan of Inkscape.

You can see that I was able to create a lot of illustrations for the blog posts here at KalaaLog and at Splat. The giveaway cliparts at Splat are made using Inkscape. I was able to make several avatars and logos for online ventures by my friends. The logo for Udantak is conceptualized, and authored using Inkscape. Even the logo for Splat and KalaaLog is made using Inkscape.

There are several reasons for me to choose Inkscape as a vector graphics software for the artworks I have been doing recently.

  • Price
  • Usability
  • Compatibility


Price

As you know, I am not a full time artist. And since I do not spend as much time and effort as a fulltime artist would on these works, I do not see the nececssity for spending fortune on proprietary softwares like Adobe Illustrators and Corel DRAW. I am not commenting on them as I have not used them, but for now I am quite satisfied by the capabilities of Inkscape.

Usability

User Interface (UI) of Inkscape is good and is a standard like those other open source softwares of other genres (GIMP, Scribus). Thus, in terms of navigation and other activities, the learning curve is not steep. Of course, there will be a need for understanding of vector graphic tools, but that would be the case with any other vector graphic software.

Compatibility

The native file format of Inkscape is SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics. SVG is based on XML specification. Even though EPS is widely used for exchange of vector graphics, SVG is catching up as a standard. Inkscape though, does not yet have good EPS import feature – but it may be expected soon.

Head over to Inkscape download page, and grab yourself a copy of it. It is still in version 0.45 as of now, but it is a stable version. It has a lot of features, that is worth exploring.