Browsing through Sourceforge we were looking for something to replace Adobe Illustrator. Well maybe we have found it … InkScape provides a number of drawing tools similar to Illustrator and best of all it is free.
If you are use to using Illustrator you will notice that some of the tools are different which will require another learning curve to forget your normal habits and adapt to new ways of doing things.
But this package does provide enough ways to draw controlled images with a variety of tools that it is definitely worth it.
The major drawback is export options at this time. If you are use to jumping between Illustrator and Photoshop or a desktop publishing package you will need to be able to use one of the 10 or so formats available to export your work.
Since PostScript is one of the options your images should still be able to be used however we have not pumped any files through a prepress processor to check how they will print.
The most important tools are all there.
You can draw freehand and bezier curved lines.
There are a few presets like drawing 3d box shapes or spirals … the developers must like spirals heh.
Rotation of objects can be done through a dialog box or by double clicking with the arrow select tool.
Blends and fills are available including directional fills.
There are a variety of ways to create clipping paths.
All in all this is a pretty nice tool that we are just getting use to playing with.
If it continues to perform as our first trials have shown then it will be a likely replacement for illustrator.
Inkscape is a project with a few years work behind it so you can depend that it will continue as long as a project of this type is needed.
We hope to do a few howtos with this software in the future and you should go download your own copy.
Linkscape is available for Windows, Mac and linux variants.
