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The Road to Inkscape: MenTaLguY's story |
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In his blog developer MenTaLguY writes about how
he got involved with the Open Source vector graphics editor Inkscape.
"Some years back (late 2002, I think), someone pointed me to John Alison's then-new webcomic,
done in the vector stylings. Its combination of slice-of-life
narratives with dry wit and the macabre struck a chord in me, and I
became a regular reader.
It was about the same time that I began to get serious about starting my own webcomic,
and seeing what John A. was doing with Scary-go-Round made me want to
go ahead and try doing my own comic as vector graphics (the existing
artwork at that time—the “Year of Doubt” cover—had actually been done
in partly in Photoshop and the remainder in The Gimp.)
Problem:
To do this, I needed a vector graphics application for Linux. After
some hunting around, I found Sodipodi, which was more or less
sufficient for my needs. So I started using Sodipodi and started
contributing patches.
(Less than a year later, I would begin my campeign for a fork.)
I
do not believe that the fork would not have succeded without any one of
the four founders. I wonder if Bryce, Ted, or Nathan have similar
stories about particular occurences that got them involved with
Sodipodi and thereby set them on the road to Inkscape?" |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 January 2006 )
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That Which Would Become Inkscape: Bryce's story |
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I had been leading a project called WorldForge
for several years. I hadn't founded that project but had fallen into
the project coordinator role pretty early on. Unfortunately, I can't
report that we delivered very much, but I certainly learned a lot. I
learned that there is a balance to be struck between creatively cool
ideas and delivering something that people can actually use. I learned
that success is more than just being right. I learned about the
importance of communities and just plain getting along with people. I
learned a LOT more...
Anyway, one day I was working on creating a map for
some RPG game idea we'd had. I'd done a lot of game world mapping using
a CAD program called Campaign Cartographer, and I'd wondered if there
was anything equivalent in the Open Source world. As I've written about recently,
I had learned that for an open source game development project, relying
on proprietary tools was bad. So in searching around, I came across
this SVG file format. A bit more searching and I found 'Sodipodi', the
only open source editor around for that.
I downloaded Sodipodi and tried it out. It crashed. It
crashed more. It crashed HARD. But SVG was TOO COOL. I joined the
mailing list. I just hung out silently for a long time. My first post was about getting it a bit better tested and more robust.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 December 2005 )
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Read more...
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December 28, 2005 A new stable release of the Gimp is now available (Version 2.2.10). This is a bug-fix release in the stable 2.2 series.
Please see the NEWS file for a detailed list of changes. The source code can be retrieved from ftp.gimp.org and its mirrors. Binary packages for the various supported platforms will become available soon.
A new development snapshot has been released
(Version 2.3.6). This is where the developers create all the shiny new
stuff that will one day be releases as GIMP 2.4. See the NEWS file on
developer.gimp.org for a list of changes and to view some new screenshots.
Version 2.2.0 of GAP, the Gimp Animation Package is available for download at ftp.gimp.org. GAP provides a number of plug-ins that extend GIMP with capabilities to edit and create animations. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 January 2006 )
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 December 22, 2005 Blender has had another long development cycle resulting in a release
(Version 2.4) packed with rewrites, new features and improvements.
The major
additions this release are the Character Animation rewrite, the added
Fluid Dynamics system, improved editing and rendering of Particle Based
Hair, and the Modifier Stack. Go to blender.org to see screenshots and to download this incredible new release. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 January 2006 )
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November 21, 2005 Inkscape 0.43 is now available thanks to the work of many developers and
the sponsorship of Google's Summer of Code program which sponsored four
students to work on features for Inkscape.
The main new features in this
release are:
Connectors: Objects can be connected using auto-routing lines.
Inkboard Collaborative Editing: You can connect to other Inkscape
users over a network and edit a shared document.
Pressure and Tilt Sensitivity: The calligraphy tool may now use a
tablet pen with pressure and tilt support.
Better Node Editing: You can now drag, bend, and stretch a Bezier
curve by any point and not only by a node.
New Extensions: There are now extensions for envelope distortion,
whirling, and adding nodes.
SVG Compliance: There is now additional support for the viewBox
element improving SVG compatibility.
Download the latest Inkscape then "A Guide
to Inkscape", a new online book has been updated to cover the 0.43 features.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 January 2006 )
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The Open Clip Art Library |
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October 10, 2005 Release 0.18 of Open Clip Art Library, containing over 6900 SVG files created by
over 500 artists, is now available for download and use.
Some of the highlights from this release:
New top level categories ’science’, ‘electronics’
New subsections ‘religion’, ‘astronomy’, ‘network’, and more
Flags collection has been fleshed out / improved a bit more
New signs/symbols and lots of new vehicles, office, sports, music, and toys clipart
Please download it directly here or find one of the other packages on their download page. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 January 2006 )
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 Krita is a (pixel-based) painting and image editing application for KOffice. Krita
is part of KOffice since 1.4. Krita contains both ease-of-use and fun features
like guided painting (never before has it been so easy to airbrush a straight
line!) and high-end features like support for 16 bit images, CMYK and even
OpenEXR HDR images.
Download a klik image of Krita then read the Krita Manual (in PDF format).
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 January 2006 )
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Read more...
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Karbon14 is a vector-based drawing application for KOffice. It allows
artists to create complex drawings without losing image quality when zooming in
on, or resizing the drawing. You can use Karbon to add finishing
touches to diagrams created using Kivio or charts created using KChart.
Graphic design ideas can be quickly and easily transformed into high
quality illustrations with Karbon.
Karbon14 version 0.2 is part of the KOffice package. Download the latest release of KOffice version 1.4.2 to start make amazing SVG images with Karbon14.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 January 2006 )
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