Inkscape 0.46

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• Quick specs
• Price: Free
• Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98
• Date added: April 01, 2008
• Total Downloads: 73,156
• Downloads last week: 350
• See full specifications

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CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

A free, open-source, vectorized image-creator? You mean, like Adobe Illustrator, but smaller and at no cost? Could it be?

Indeed, Inkscape isn't the only one of its kind out there, although it seems like it at times, and it's definitely a solid assault on the Adobe juggernaut. Many of the now-essential tools found in the competition have made their way into Inkscape, including paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. The app also supports Creative Commons metadata, node editing, layers, bitmap tracing, and direct XML editing. It does all this, and more, without hassles or an enormous footprint.

Other nice touches in the app include updating old industry standards--taking the CTRL Plus hot key for zooming in, and simplifying it so that all you need to hit is the Plus key, for instance. A small thing, but it shows the amount of effort being put into Inkscape. The latest version of the app addresses complaints about the lack of a shape library, for those of us who don't want to have to draw our own stars or triangles.

Overall, Inkscape isn't perfect, and it lacks a certain polish that those more familiar with big-name apps will probably expect. However, most of what it does, it does well. And since it's free, it's worth taking a chance on.

Publisher's description

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, and direct XML editing. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inkscape's main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development process, and by making sure Inkcape is easy to learn, to use, and to extend. Version 0.45 pre1 includes unspecified updates.

Version 0.46 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

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