0 Comments Art Review: Inkscape

Program - Inkscape (Credit list)
Tested version - v0.92.3

Price - Free, open source
Systems - Windows XP/Vista/7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.7, Linux
Official website - https://inkscape.org/en/

Raster or Vector - Vector

Ease Of Use - Limited for some users, primarily problem-free if you are not using Windows. If you get lucky as a Windows user and do not get all the problems mentioned below, then you are greeted with a typical vector style program.

In Inkscape's Help menu are various internal tutorials. Online there is a manual, more tutorials, forums, and videos. There are many Inkscape users so finding resources and examples are plentiful. I wish you well though in finding help responses more than "install a Linux distro", or "write a bug fix yourself" useless responses.

I find though many things that are defaults in other programs for example drawing lines connected to others, takes effort to setup in Inkscape. Even then are still not the same, in the example Inkscape will snap any line that gets close to another (such as drawing nearby), so it only works partially as intended.

In my image above the top two are from CorelDRAW, and below the blue line are from Inkscape (after much tinkering/searching finally found in Snap options). The first column examples are dragging the top edge of a line to another line (the M) to align them without a gap or overflow. The 2nd is starting a new line from a previous line.

Again nothing complicated, just mundane examples someone drawing with the freehand tool does constantly. Other issues are not so easy to accomplish, or simply not possible to do.

All software is subjective to hardware installed, so with that in mind here is my current workhorse PC (A updated HP Z200 Workstation) specs I used for testing with all updated drivers...

CPU - Intel Core i5 CPU 660 @ 3.33GHz (2 Cores, 4 Threads)
Memory - 12 GB DDR3 total
Graphics - EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti SC (Superclocked GM107) 1 GB (DDR5 memory)
Space - 2.5 TB hard drive disk space
System - Windows 8.1 Pro

 
Program Speed - Loading Inkscape is slow, even the "fixed" 0.92.3 version and can take 15 seconds or more to fully load (or show any indication it is doing so, as it does not use a splash/loading screen). In previous versions once Inkscape was loaded and closed, reloading it later was much quicker. Although, now since the "fix" it takes Inkscape just as long to reload.

Once loaded Inkscape preforms some tasks well, and others are slow (see below). Using the freehand "brush" tool (F6) is nice and fluid, as several others are - including the text tool (F8), and rectangle tool (F4) for panels.

Noticeable Lag - When moving around the page itself (1st image), or using zoom (2nd image) screen tearing is very apparent, and I even managed to capture part of it with screenshots above. That is with Task Manger reporting 2% CPU and 13% memory usage on my PC.

Opening a new page with Inkscape (currently open), is now a issue in 0.92.3. It takes about 5 seconds and freezes for several seconds like in the screenshot above, before the new page is open.

While I typically only mention the Paint bucket fill tool in this section, which is slow in Inkscape too, it seems a mute point to mention.

Bugs/Crashes - I have to add this section as Inkscape is rather unstable on Windows and ranges from annoying bugs to crashing and loosing your artwork. Some of the bugs can be remedied by Undoing the last few actions (CTRL + Z), then you have to zoom in/out and/or move the page around to make Inkscape redraw the page properly again.

Inkscape acknowledged the problems with the recent 0.92.3 stability/bugfix release, but I do not see any noticeable improvement from it.

Below are the more common problems I was able to screenshot while writing this review... If you encounter any bugs I show, then Inkscape does not like your system either, and it does not get any better.

Problems occur without warning depending on how well it plays with your system. It seems to vary for some, but it never has gotten better for me on any PC or Windows versions I've had in the past 6+ years - the same bugs/issues/crashes occur.

Although on a Linux system Inkscape was nearly problem-free (even one Windows PC it had problems with). When I was a Linux user (I tried many distro's and settled on Debian) for a few years before switching back to Windows, Inkscape did great and I do not remember any problems, but now without Linux it can be unusable.

The first bug is the extremely long start-up time to load Inkscape, as mentioned above. Another common problem is using the Freehand tool (pencil icon), is drawing any sort of line a random perfect circle is added to the end of the line (or at anytime as well). The circles range from tiny ones that almost hide in line work, all the way up to a page filling size.

A less common bug is converting portions of hand drawn lines to pixel perfect straight lines. There are a few of those in the above image too, and Smoothing (simplifying) even set to 1 (the lowest, off is not a option) still causes the bugs. Both issues happen no matter the tool Snapping options.

Another common bug is one I just call the infinite perfect lines - as they extend to the ends of Inkscape even when zoomed out. This seems to occur when there are a few freehand lines together, and at random. Typically the lines are vertical, but horizontal ones appear occasionally.

Disappearing lines or the entire drawing missing is another bug, and can lead to crashes. Sometimes portions of the drawing disappear (See image 1), or the entire drawing disappears (image 2). Zooming out, the problem is typically from the infinite perfect line bug (image 3). While this is happening no art is selectable, even by a large page-filling selection rectangle.

However, other times there is no obvious cause for the problem as seen in 0.92.3 even when zoomed out.

A show stopper variation is the BSOD, black screen of death for Inkscape. A bug that causes the artwork to disappear into a solid black display and will freeze Inkscape completely. Window's Task Manager has to be used to close Inkscape, as it will not recover and will cause Windows to become unstable even.

Well that's enough of them...

Page Options - Nothing is selectable when you start a New page document, it just starts a default blank page automatically.

Options are found in the main menu File -> Document properties (shortcut SHIFT + CTRL +D). Maximum size is 104166.66667" x 104166.66667", with maximum resolution of 100000.00 DPI (When exporting a PNG image).

* When changing the Document properties window options it changes the page instantly, there is no Ok or Cancel buttons. I relearned that while setting the page maximums, but it still set the maximums rather quickly for such huge sizes.

Under the various tabs are many options that can be adjusted including the Color and all the various modes and profiles including RGB, CMYK, and others (2nd image).

Adjustable page crop, bleed, registration, etc. marks are setup separately. To access them they are tucked away in the main menu Extensions -> Render -> Layout -> Printing marks.

File Formats -

• Import/Open - SVG (Scalable vector graphic), SVGZ (Compressed SVG), PDF (Portable Document Format), AI (Adobe Illustrator 9.0 and above), EMF (Enhanced Metafiles), WMF (Windows Metafiles), WPG (WordPerfect), VSD /VDX /VSDM /VSDX (Microsoft Visio), CDR /CDT /CCX /CMX (CorelDRAW), GGR (GIMP Gradient), AI.SVG (Adobe Illustrator SVG), AI (Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and below), CCX /CDR /CDT (CorelDRAW UC), CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile), CMX (CorelDRAW UC), DHW (ACECAD Digimemo), DXF (AutoCAD), HPGL /PLT (HP Graphics Language), SK1 (sK1 vector), XAML (Microsoft XAML), WMF /APM (WMF), EMF, ANI, BMP (Bitmap), GIF, ICNS, ICO, JP2 /JPC /JPX /J2K /JPF (JPEG 2000), JPEG /JPE /JPG (JPEG), PNG (Cairo), PNM /PBM /PGM /PPM (PNM), QTIF /QIF (QTIF), TGA /TARGA (TarGA), TIFF /TIF (TIFF), XBM, XPM
• Export/Save - SVG (Inkscape), SVG (Scalable vector graphic), SVGZ (Compressed Inkscape SVG), SVGZ (Compressed SVG), PDF (Portable Document Format), PNG (Cairo), PS (PostScript), EPS (Enscapsulated PostScript), EMF (Enhanced Metafiles), WMF (Windows Metafiles), POV (PovRay), FX (JavaFX), ODG (OpenDocument drawing), TEX (LaTeX), DXF (AudtoCAD DXF R14), GPL (GIMP Palette), HPGL (HP Graphics Language), HTML (HTML 5 canvas), ZIP (ZessyInk), PLT (AutoCAD), SVG (Optimized SVG), SK1 (sK1 vector), FXG (Flash XML), XAML (Microsoft XAML), ZIP (Compressed Inkscape SVG), SIF (Synfig Animation), TAR (Layers as separate SVG)

Plug-in Support - Yes, although called Extensions. See the official Extension list page.

Customizable Shortcuts/Menus/Icons - Yes keyboard shortcuts, menus are not, and docked windows can be turned on/off (from their tool usage). Combining windows is really limited and height is not adjustable. Most windows are sent to a side panel button at best, as new tool windows hide the others completely or are a floating window.

Layer Options - The main options are Visibility, Lock layer, Create new layer, Delete current layer, Raise layer to top, Raise layer, Lower layer, Lower layer to bottom, 16 Blending modes, and Opacity amount.

Right-clicking a layer shows the context menu options, see above image.

Color Selection - A Swatch (palette) along the bottom window is the primarily color method. If you double-click the Fill or Stroke color (bottom left in the 1st image), it will open the Fill and Stroke window (SHIFT + CTRL + F) if it is not already. An additional Swatches window can be switched on as well.

The Fill and Stroke window is the more common color display one would expect (2nd and 3rd image). Both tabs Fill and Stoke offer the same options for the varying color type. Besides the sliders and numerical input a color wheel is available too (3rd image).

Brush Options - The Freehand tool (F6) is best avoided for the bugs listed above. The Bezier tool (SHIFT + F6) is simply laying out vector nodes to create a shape, but seems the most bug/problem-free method. The last remaining tool is Draw Calligraphy/Brush tool (CTRL + F6) and what I will cover. In the image above I did some squiggly lines with all three tools in order, and includes their mouse tool.

The Draw Calligraphy/Brush tool setup with the results that worked best for me (image above). Even then as you can see in the large line above there are multiple problem areas (the bigger one as I am zoomed in), and the more obvious ones need to be manually fixed. The 2nd line that looks much smaller is the same brush size, my typical 8px. The tool alters the Brush to draw a approximate sized 8px line at any zoomed level too... I have yet found a way to disable this "option".

Common Necessities - Other tools that are primarily tools, and is surprising lacking in some software making it necessary to include them briefly.

Paint Fill - (fill bounded areas) Tool works great at applying quick color to outlines. Options include 8 Fill by options, Threshold amount, Grow/Shrink by amount (and amount type), Close gaps, and Reset.
Eraser - Slow and lags depending on the amount of objects, but does work surprisingly well. Includes Mode (Delete object touched or Cut-out), Width, Mass, and option to Break apart cut items.
Image Zoom - Multiple onscreen buttons, shortcut controls, and menu controls - Zoom to page, Selection, Drawing, 1:1, and more. It includes zoom in/out on the mouse scroll wheel when you hold CTRL. Zoom range 1% to 25600%
View Rotate - None - however unless you are using raster effects, vector art can be rotated by layer/image selection without degrading the quality. This is done by selecting the artwork with the Select arrow (F1) and dragging out a selection on everything. Once selected click a object, and the selection allows everything to be rotated - click the corner rotate arrow to rotate.
Selection Tools - Just the Select arrow (F1) tool.

Text/Font Options - A look at the text tool shows the advanced text options a vector program user expects. It also though shows a problem I will cover below. The font list has a nice preview list and is searchable. The Styles (Bold /Italic /etc) and not faked by the program (like in raster programs) so unless your font family has the styles they are not available.

The other options include Show style of outermost text element, Size, Spacing between baselines (leading) and size Display type, Set on selection, Align Left /Center /Right, Justify, Superscript, Subscript, Spacing between letters, Spacing between words (tracking), Kerning, Vertical shift, Character rotation, Horizontal text, Vertical text (Left to Right /Right to Left), Glyph orientation (Auto / Upright /Sideways), Left to Right text, and Right to Left text.

The Text and Font window allows you to change entire text selections, with a font list selector and preview. A closer look at one font that has 6 individual font styles in the family while Inkscape only shows four of them (left image). The right image shows all 6 fonts in the family in my fonts folder, and a overlay of the font from another program where they are available (CorelDRAW) as-is.

This problem is repeated in many other fonts I have, which seems to apply to many commercial fonts. It limits another that has 4 fonts to just 2 selectable from the font family - so it is just not any that have more than 4 styles. If you use free, or single style fonts, this may not be an issue; however, be forewarned that Inkscape's text tool is problematic with fonts.

Inkscape offers a Glyph window to display the various glyph's (characters) in a font. While it sounds useful, it does not display the glyphs with a preview, but a generic font. That means for example in my image above the various lettering glyphs used in that particular comic font are not shown, but are shown with standard characters in their place...

Drawing Aids - A full set of basic vector options (hard to draw in vector without the basic tools), Measurement tool, various shape tools (Rectangle and square, Circles /Ellipses /Arcs, and Polygon and Stars (with corner amount)), Create 3D boxes, Page ruler with guides, and adjustable Grid. There are likely some hidden in the Extensions (plug-ins) and more that can be added too.

Pros -

• Free, open source
• A working fill bucket tool - some vector programs offer useless/limited ones.
• Lots of supported file formats, including ones preferred for commercial usage.
• Extensions (plug-ins) and many others online.
• Basic tools that offer a surprising amount of ability - depending on artistic style, and how they are applied.

Cons -

• Some tool and/or program stability problems in Windows.
• Graphic/memory issues that causes lag or even crashes, evident when working with many items.
• Limited docked windows and options.
• Missing elements found in other vector programs, or needed for basic editing. For example the layer view does not show individual items/elements, or anywhere else, making some tasks overly complicated.
• Text issues with font families (not showing or using all fonts available).

Recommended Use - For basic vector art and manual comic/manga panel creation.