Creating graphics on a computer affordably can prove a difficult task, especially for images besides rasters. Some people need to create images which can be expanded on massive scales; they need a vector editing application. Adobe Illustrator CS4, the leading vector editor for Mac and Windows, costs £567… a pretty high price tag, you must agree!
Expensive software like Illustrator appears to make editing vectors simply unaffordable. Fortunately, this is untrue! Inkscape is a free, open-source and cross-platform vector editor. Whilst it will no doubt lack behind Illustrator in certain aspects, in my opinion it suffices the requirements of any non-professional graphic designer. Inkscape, for example, cannot utilise gradient meshes or have multiple strokes, or fills, for one object. Yet, it has much better support for the SVG format (utilised by Wikipedia) and beats Illustrator on several minor usability issues (Inkscape, for example, allows anchor points to be edited with a keyboard). Key features, such as the ability to trace bitmaps, are also included.
Inkscape’s interface, like that of most graphics programs, is quite complex but I find myself being able to adopt to its much quicker than I adapted from PSP to Photoshop.
There are a few issues with Inkscape. The version for OS X requires X11 to be upgraded and several work-arounds to be implemented prior to it functioning and the upgrade to OS X 10.5.2 prevented Inkscape from working without further updates to X11. It appears to function much better under Linux and Windows.
Inkscape serves the needs of any home user and is such a substantial saving, of both disk space (being about 100MB big) and money, it can make Illustrator nearly useless for such customers. Its support for SVGs is also useful, as Firefox can open some SVGs meaning the recipient of a file Inkscape produces often does not need Inkscape to view the file as a vector.
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10 Responses to “Create and edit vector graphics for free”
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[...] Inkscape can be run on Windows 2000/2003/XP, Mac OSX, and Linux. Skilled users of Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw may find more advanced features missing, but I found in testing— as a casual Illustrator user— that all the features I regularly rely on for vector editing were present and easy to use. Common functions like shape and text tools, drawing, linked images, clones, layering, path markers, etc. are well marked and easy to apply. Inkscape maintains a gallery at Deviant Art to show off work submitted by users, worth checking out if you’d like a quick peek at the capabilities of Inkscape. For more free image editing goodness, check out GIMP. Inkscape is open-source, with installation packages available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. Inkscape [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Via | gHacks [...]
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[...] Cross-Platform: Inkscape is an open source vector editing program. If you are looking for a free alternative to the Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape has a host of features that make it worth taking for a spin. Inkscape can be run on Windows 2000/2003/XP, Mac OSX, and Linux. Skilled users of Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw may find more advanced features missing, but I found in testing— as a casual Illustrator user— that all the features I regularly rely on for vector editing were present and easy to use. Common functions like shape and text tools, drawing, linked images, clones, layering, path markers, etc. are well marked and easy to apply. Inkscape maintains a gallery at Deviant Art to show off work submitted by users, worth checking out if you’d like a quick peek at the capabilities of Inkscape. For more free image editing goodness, check out GIMP. Inkscape is open-source, with installation packages available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. Inkscape [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Ghacks Compartelo en: Artículos interesantes en Rlsgeek.comPTeq, test de embarazo USBCantante [...]
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[...] Inkscape can be run on Windows 2000/2003/XP, Mac OSX, and Linux. Skilled users of Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw may find more advanced features missing, but I found in testing— as a casual Illustrator user— that all the features I regularly rely on for vector editing were present and easy to use. Common functions like shape and text tools, drawing, linked images, clones, layering, path markers, etc. are well marked and easy to apply. Inkscape maintains a gallery at Deviant Art to show off work submitted by users, worth checking out if you’d like a quick peek at the capabilities of Inkscape. For more free image editing goodness, check out GIMP. Inkscape is open-source, with installation packages available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. Inkscape [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Manipulate vector graphics Filed under: Linux, OSX — 0ddn1x @ 2008-12-23 23:09:26 +0000 http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/20/create-and-edit-vector-graphics-for-free/ [...]
Thanks for the tips!
I tried it, good software
there are also Xara Xtreme
it is easy to use compared to Inkscape but the windows version is not free (30 days trial), otherwise the linux version is open-source (www.xaraxtreme.org)
Vectorization is definitely better in Inkscape over Illustrator CS2, but i just wish the Windows version of Inkscape performed as fast or without graphical errors (particularly redraw errors) not present in the native Linux version.
Thanks for the recommendation of Xara Xtreme, Hlinker. i completely forgot they were working on a Linux version.
you might be interested in other similar free vector editors as well http://www.justskins.com/design/free-vector-garphics-editor/1369