The incoming version of Inkscape is a brilliantly engineered masterpiece designed to punch Adobe Illustrator in the face.

The scale of Inkscape 1.5 is hard to put into words.

  • A full port from GTK 3 to GTK 4
  • A new rendering engine
  • The Unified Font Browser becoming default,
  • Document Tabs being introduced,
  • Many long-standing issues finally being addressed,
  • New and changed dependencies across multiple target platforms.
  • UI/UX improvements

GTK 4 unlocks several possibilities, but it also exacts its own costs. This transition is definitely being felt in the amount and complexity of the work the developers have had to undertake.

Inkscape developers have been pouring their nights and weekends into 1.5 but they are currently feeling overwhelmed.

If you’re a C++ developer, particularly with graphics experience, Inkscape could use your help in pushing 1.5 forward.

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/work_items

Adobe has unlimited ressources. Inkscape relies on us

🙏🙏🙏

  • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    4 hours ago

    Every time I had to use inkscape I had the urge to throw my computer into the trash compactor

    I really hope they can improve the usability. But I’m probably also not their target audience when I need to use it once a year

  • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net
    14·
    1 day ago

    I dont do much graphical stuff in general but inkscape (and gimp) has been nice to use when I have needed it.

  • Koarnine@pawb.social
    11·
    1 day ago

    I love love love Inkscape, use it on a daily basis. This is so exciting, is there a way to donate perhaps?

    • mcv@lemmy.zip
      3·
      4 hours ago

      I recently started using it for RPG maps. I tried using Krita at first, but it can’t snap to a hex grid properly. I got very frustrated working on digital maps until I discovered Inkscape. It has a very different approach where you create individual hex polygons and clone them, but they snap perfectly and the workflow is far more convenient.

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
    25·
    1 day ago

    If you’re a C++ developer, particularly with graphics experience, Inkscape could use your help in pushing 1.5 forward. https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/work_items Adobe has unlimited resources. Inkscape relies on us

    I definitely don’t fit that criteria, but, we could always stand to pitch a few bucks towards our favorite open source projects to help them thrive! Even in these trying times, we could all skip 1 or 2 takeout coffees for this! :)

    Edit: This header picture tho… adventurer has like 6 swords sticking up through him? This isn’t slop, right? :( I’m looking really closely but I can’t tell anymore.

    • ztpq@slrpnk.net
      7·
      1 day ago

      Yeah the monster’s horns don’t make any sense either and the arms are off too.

      I’m gonna guess OP just took an existing image without looking too closely. It happens, unfortunately a lot nowadays with how the internet is being flooded.

      • mcv@lemmy.zip
        1·
        4 hours ago

        The image looks familiar, but I have no idea from what. It’s reminds me of Dragonbane, but I can’t find this image there.

  • Kangae_Hishiryo@scribe.disroot.org
    191·
    2 days ago

    I’m not programmer but I’m music producer. I could create one song for them so they can make a video looking to reach more people. Also I can create some SFX for them, like for the UI, the splash screen, etc.

    But I also feel insecure whether they’ll welcome this or if I’ll only add burden to them.

    Any advice? I really want to start contributing to FOSS projects but at the same time I don’t really feel prepared.

  • neversaydie@programming.dev
    106·
    2 days ago

    Unfortunately I’m neither good with C++ nor with graphics, but Inkscape is a great piece of software, all the best to them

  • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
    134·
    13 hours ago

    I love the idea of inkscape but can’t get into it due to a continent sized papercut:

    I can’t put my cursor on part of the image then scroll to zoom in or out, not even holding a button while scrolling.

    The only zoom it lets me do is drag a box on the screen (which is useless for fine details, or annoying when I only want to zoom in a few %), or zoom in/out by a large fixed amount then need to pan to find where I wanted to focus on in the first place.

    I sure hope the new version fixes that.

    Otherwise, I’m holding out for graphite

    Edit: WTF? I disabled my computer’s magnifier and I finally have a normal zoom in/out in inkscape.

    Why did they set the shortcut to the default shortcut for magnifier?

    And how do I change inkscape’s shortcut?

    • Nindelofocho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      1 day ago

      That is weird ive always zoomed with i think ctrl+scrollwheel its almost my main way of navigation: zoom out from cursor move cursor where I want to zoom and then scroll back in

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
      8·
      1 day ago

      Not sure I understood your problem well and I don’t have Inkscape in front of me right now, but I am pretty sure Ctrl+scrollwheel does zoom?!

    • Slashme@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 day ago

      I primarily zoom in incscape in two ways:

      1. Using the mouse - it zooms to mouse position, so control-scroll is brilliant - even for navigating: scroll out until you see where you want to go, put the mouse there and scroll in.

      2. Using the keyboard (this is incredibly powerful):

      • 3: Fit selected object in the window
      • 4: Fit all objects in the window
      • 5: Fit the page in the window
      • 6: Fit page width.
      • 1 and 2: I seldom use these, but they’re for 50% zoom and 100% zoom.
        • and -: They zoom in and out.

      So often, I’ll click on an object, then press 3 to fit in in the window, and then hit - a few times to see the context better. Perfect.

  • Hanrahan@slrpnk.netEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    im no developer but am a casual Inkscape user, love it. What’s the best way to chip in a few $ to help?

    • lordziv@lemmy.nz
      3·
      1 day ago

      A lot of Open Source projects like this will usually have a sponsor button on their GitHub repo where you can choose an amount to give but I think you might need a GitHub account first :)

  • CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    73·
    1 day ago

    I realize this is a FOSS post, but does anyone also use Affinity?

    It’s been my go-to for vectors and layouts. Not sure if there are other things that Inkscape does better.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
        2·
        6 hours ago

        Oooof I feel you so much on this. Getting rug-pulled by Substance Painter/Designer “jOiNiNg TeH aDoBe FaMiLy” right after I dropped like $200 bucks on it was enough to make me drop learning it and figure out every other way to do it instead.

        Blender has caught up quite well, for the stuff I do.

        I never want to invest time and money into some black box software just waiting to betray me like ever again.

    • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      Affinity only works (easily) on Windows and Mac, from what I know it’s difficult to get running on Linux.

      Affinity was also bought out by a large investment company, so while it may be the better option now, it’s virtually guaranteed to become just as enshittified as Adobe if they become popular. Only FLOSS protects us long-term.

      • CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        3·
        1 day ago

        Yeah, I know it’s owned by Canva.

        They’ve added a bunch of AI stuff that’s behind their subscription, but for at least the last year, the program has been getting regularly improved with the promise of an iPad app soon™.

        It will for sure turn to shit in the future, but is pretty good in its current state.

        • PokerChips@programming.dev
          7·
          1 day ago

          I would assume that budding artists would have better time spent learning the techniques of a lasting open source tool like inkscape rather than a proprietary tool that will eventually disappoint you and waste your time.

  • sxwpb@lemmy.world
    10·
    2 days ago

    I think Inkscape’s UI could def also gain some good improvements even just with little technical know-how! I’ve been trying to make a UI style for it from scratch purely through GTK’s CSS layer (no touching internal code or recompiling at all) and I’m pretty impressed of what’s possible. (see here)

    If anyone is even just familiar with CSS, you could certainly make good contributions to the UI layer. Or help out in my repo i posted above, I need to port the style to Inkscape 1.5 / GTK4 (aswell as cover some missing stuff e.g. right-to-left) but I don’t find a lot of time to do it.

    • marf@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 day ago

      I’m pretty decent with css but have never contributed before. I’d love to get involved in something. Where does a person start?

      • sxwpb@lemmy.world
        1·
        21 hours ago

        some starting resources would be

        And a good way to just get to know Inkscape’s widgets structure would be to just open it with the GTK Inspector(which the official app already includes btw), and see how the structure looks like, and poke around with the CSS.

        On linux(flatpak version) i can do this simply like so: flatpak run --env=GTK_DEBUG=interactive org.inkscape.Inkscape

  • antianarchist@sopuli.xyz
    4·
    2 days ago

    Thanks for the info! Unfortunately I cannot help with the C++ part, but maybe I can improve something with the ci/cd/cs pipeline. Also I hope 1.5 is going to run smooth on linux with GTK4