Talk:Inkscape

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Inkscape article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

Archives

Archive 1

Contents 1 The white & grey checker patterns 2 Mention to it being free software 3 Hard to Use? 4 Title image 5 On freeness 6 Versions/Milestones/Releases

[edit] The white & grey checker patterns

I've noticed that a lot of images on wikipedia feature objects with checkered backgrounds. These backgrounds seem to be recognized by Wikipedia (or are scripted through their filetype, .SVG) and are displayed as transparent when viewed on a page, so that only the object is visible. Is there a name for the process of doing this? I know it can be done with Inkscape since the program deals with scalable vector images, and I would like to know how I can do it.--Surfaced 23:47, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

The Checkered background indicates a transparency in that part of the image. This is not just on Wikipedia - packages like Paint Shop Pro and GIMP do the same. SVGs (I know ones created with Inkscape are) are generally created with a transparent background by default unless there is something non-transparent in the way.

I hope this helps - if not ask someone who actually knows what they are talking about. --Dave the Rave (DTR)talk 20:09, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mention to it being free software

The issue I'll mention for this article appears in most/all the articles about free software, and is the following: how (whether) to mention that they are free software in the intro. I think that a piece of software being FS is highly notable, with the strong polarization existing nowadays between free and proprietary camps. Don't know about other readers, but when I start reading an article about a program, the first thing I check is whether it is free software or not. So, I think the inclusion of the datum in the intro is justified. The question is exactly how.

Right now, the intro starts: "Inkscape is a vector graphics editor application released under the GNU General Public License.". This sounds forced and weird to me. It is much more natural to say: "Inkscape is a free software vector graphics editor application". However, some might say that it gives too much prominence to the "free software" part, so a compromise could be the one featured some edits ago: make the last sentence in the intro be: "Released under the GNU General Public License, Inkscape is free software".

I'd like to reach a consensus on that, so that all FS articles could be formatted as agreed here, and settle a long standing issue. — isilanes (talk|contribs) 15:52, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

There was a BIG argument a while back, it's in the archive.--Dave the Rave (DTR)talk 16:08, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I should know, as I made noticeable (in size, maybe not in quality) contributions to it. However, IIRC, the discussion was open source vs free software, and consensus was not clear, anyway. — isilanes (talk|contribs) 18:18, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

IMHO, the intro should read: "Inkscape is a free vector graphics editor application." Readers who are hip to the FS movement will know what it means, people who don't know but want more info will follow the link, and those who don't know or care will still realize that the software is available gratis. Feezo (Talk) 16:31, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

DTR's mini-essay Here's what we know for sure: Inkscape is free-of-charge; Inkscape is open-source (as described on inkscape.org); Inkscape is released under the GNU General Public License According to the article, this is "a widely used free software license". So, I think the first line should be: Inkscape is open source, free software that is available free-of-charge. Hopefully, this keeps everybody happy without omitting anything important. Or, most likely, this will start up another argument. Hooray. --Dave the Rave (DTR)talk 18:05, 16 July 2007 (UTC) And yes, "Inkscape is a free software vector graphics editor application" is ugly, but so are the big lists in the middle of the article. --Dave the Rave (DTR)talk 18:07, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I guess you are being sarcastic. Now, seriously, I think Feezo's proposition above is fine: "Inkscape is a free vector graphics editor application." — isilanes (talk|contribs) 18:18, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I was being sarcastic. I do think Feezo's is better in that it is more concise and is easier to read. I'll change it to Feezo's suggestion, and if anybody objects they can do so here. --Dave the Rave (DTR)talk 15:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hard to Use?

I have found that the Inkscpae on my computer is very difficult to use. The only way I can get a picture to show up is if I save the picture as a word document or something like that, then open it in Inkscape. Maybe there should be something on the article that helps people use the program. "Nothing else matters" 15:11, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

There's no difficulty opening images in Inkscape. It's hard to say what you're doing wrong, as you don't say what you're doing. In any case, it's not really appropriate to cover such things in the article, and there's a guide book in the external links. --Zundark 15:47, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

If all you need is help, WP:RD/C. --Kjoonlee 17:39, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I have to agree that this is hard to use and/or buggy. As an example, when I go to type text, it defaults to Baskerville (probably because of something that I did), but when I actually draw the box, it changes to Bitstream Vera Sans. When I go to change the text, the menu doesn't drop down unless I click on the arrow, move the pointer off the arrow, move it back and click again. When I select text, if I change the size and it goes out of bounds, that portion gets deselected. Also, the text size changes whenever you change the size number, not when you hit enter, so deleting both numbers sets it back to the default Vera Sans at 12 pts.

It is a chore to use. Not that I expected otherwise from something versioned 0.45.whatever... superluser_tc 2007 December 05, 05:49 (UTC)

The text handling was revamped in a Google Summer of Code project this year, and is supposedly much better now (though I haven't tried it - it will be in 0.46, whenever that comes out). Anyway, discussions about the failings of Inkscape (and questions about how to use it) are not really appropriate here, and would be better on the Inkscape mailing lists, or on InkscapeForum.com. --Zundark (talk) 09:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Fair enough. I only used that as an example of how "Nothing else matters" was correct. It's difficult to add such subjective comments to the article, but I felt that it needed some corroboration. superluser_tc 2007 December 05, 19:55 (UTC)

I don't agree. I'm not an Inkscape neither a CG guru, but I think it's very easy and intuitive. Although it helps, if you have used another vector editing application earlier. --Zslevi (talk) 16:10, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

"Hard to use" is entirely subjective which means it will always fail to be a Neutral Point of View (NPOV) but if people comment on the talk pages perhaps some facts can be distilled from within the opinions and mentioned in the article if citations from reviews (or planned improvements by the developers) reflect those opinions. Disagreeing doesn't make it any less true that some people will inevitably find Inkscape is not as easy or as intuitive as they would like it to be. If you have used another vector editing application then you could say it was consistent with existing conventions or familiar but that still wouldn't make it intuitive. Even though we might like to praise Inkscape it is far better to stick to the facts and encourage readers to try it let them decide how successful the developers have been in meeting their usability goals. -- Horkana (talk) 00:14, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Title image

I do not think this makes a good main image for this page. While it is a rather incredible use of vector graphics, and should certainly be noted, this is a highly complex illustration. Needless to say, I think most people use Inkscape to draw simple shapes and such (since most people do not know the SVG programming language) and something more like this or this (but with the current version, of course) would be more suited for such a purpose. -Henry W. Schmitt (talk) 20:55, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Most people didn't use Deluxe Paint to hand-draw pictures of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen either, but it doesn't make it an inappropriate sample image. Inkscape is a professional-level SVG package; there's no requirement that the average reader be able to reproduce the contents of a sample work for it to be suitable. Chris Cunningham (talk) 21:08, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Chris. Other Wikipedia articles on software use advanced examples of use to illustrate the article. Alex McKee (talk) 17:13, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

The image is appropriate if the artist actually used Inkscape to create it. [...less-than-polite commentary retracted by original author....]

Inkscape is a nice tool, but it is [not] "professional-level." It needs [more features]. 192.55.12.36 (talk) 13:54, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

The yellow car (by Konstantin Rotkevich) appears to have been made entirely in Inkscape. The XML would look quite different if it had merely been imported from some other app and then resaved in Inkscape.

If you could give some concrete examples of features that Inkscape is lacking, we could perhaps mention them in the article. The article ought to give some idea of what Inkscape can't do (that it might be expected to do), as well as what it can do. --Zundark (talk) 08:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia probably is not the right forum for posting feature requests. I made up a list of about thirty features and categories of features that I think would appear in a more professional tool. I'll try to find time to polish it up and send it to the developers by other means. 192.55.12.36 (talk) 17:11, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] On freeness

Leaving the license to last and using unambiguous text to link to it is pretty standard on WP free software articles now. I'm changing this back to how it was in June. Chris Cunningham (talk) 21:15, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Versions/Milestones/Releases

Can we put Inkscapes release history into a table similar to:

Colour	Meaning
Red	Old release; not supported
Yellow	Old release; still supported
Green	Current release
Blue	Future release

Version	Code name	Testing name	Release date	Supported until	Features and Changes
4.10	Warty Warthog	Sounder	2004-10-20[1]	2006-04-30[2]	Initial release; ShipIt
5.04	Hoary Hedgehog	Array	2005-04-08[3]	2006-10-31[4]	Update Manager; Upgrade Notifier; readahead; grepmap; laptop suspend, hibernate and standby; dynamic frequency scaling; Ubuntu hardware database; Kickstart; installation from USB devices; UTF-8 by default; APT authentication
5.10	Breezy Badger	Colony	2005-10-13[5][6]	2007-04-13[7]	Usplash (graphical boot sequence); "Add/Remove..." application tool; easy language selector; logical volume management support; full Hewlett-Packard printer support; OEM installer support; Launchpad integration
6.06 LTS	Dapper Drake	Flight	2006-06-01[8][9]	2009-06 (desktops)	Long Term Support (LTS) release; Live CD and Install CD merged onto one disc; Ubiquity graphical installer on Live CD; Usplash on shutdowns; Network Manager for easy switching of multiple wired and wireless connections; 'Humanlooks' theme implemented using Tango guidelines, based on Clearlooks and featuring orange colours instead of brown; LAMP installation option; installation to USB devices; GDebi graphical installer for package files [10]
				2011-06 (servers)
6.10	Edgy Eft	Knot	2006-10-26[11][12]	2008-04	Ubuntu 'Human' theme heavily modified; Upstart init daemon; automated crash reports (Apport); Tomboy notetaking application; F-spot photo manager; EasyUbuntu merges into Ubuntu via meta-package installs and features
7.04	Feisty Fawn	Herd	2007-04-19[13]	2008-10	Migration assistant; Kernel-based Virtual Machine support; easy codec and restricted drivers installation; Compiz desktop effects; Wi-Fi Protected Access support; PowerPC support dropped; Sudoku and chess games added; disk usage analyser (baobab) added; GNOME Control Center; Zeroconf for many devices
7.10	Gutsy Gibbon	Tribe	2007-10-18[14][15]	2009-04	Compiz Fusion by default;[16] AppArmor security framework;[17] fast desktop search;[18] fast user switching;[18] some plug-ins for Mozilla Firefox now handled by APT (Ubufox);[19] graphical configuration tool for X.org;[19] a revamped printing system with PDF printing by default;[19] full NTFS support (read/write) via NTFS-3G
8.04 LTS	Hardy Heron[20]	Alpha	2008-04-24[21]	2011-04 (desktops)	Long Term Support (LTS) release;[22][23]; Better Tango compliance[24]; compiz usability improvements; tracker integration;[25]; Brasero disk burner, Transmission BitTorrent client and Vinagre VNC client by default[26]; PulseAudio by default[27]
				2013-04 (servers)
8.10	Intrepid Ibex[28]	Alpha	2008-10-30	2010-04	Complete interface redesign; improvements to mobile computing and desktop scalability; increased flexibility for Internet connectivity[29]

Altonbr (talk) 03:53, 25 February 2008 (UTC)