Vector Graphics Editor Inkscape 1.2 is now available
Inkscape is an open source cross-platform vector graphics editor. Inkscape 1.2, released on May 16, 2022, is the first major release of 2022. It includes a large number of changes, including multi-page support, batch exports, performance improvements and more.
Inkscape 1.2
Inkscape 1.2 is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS devices. The program is free and open source. Windows users may run into SmartScreen warnings when they run the installer; this is a false positive, likely because the executable file is new.
One of the main new features of Inkscape is support for multiple pages. Inkscape users may activate the "new page" icon after selecting the Page Tool in the interface to add pages to the current document.
Each page may have different dimensions; the selected dimension is applied automatically to the new page when the button is activated.
The application's interface has seen several improvements. Context menus display only items that are available at the time. Items that are not available are no longer grayed out, but removed to help users find actions quicker.
The color palette and the Swatches dialog has been overhauled as well in the release. A preview line for the selected color palette is shown now when you switch palettes in the interface. It is now possible to display up to 5 palette rows in the interface.
Tools can be hidden from the toolbar under Edit > Preferences > Interface > Toolbars. Another change allows users to change the width of the toolbar.
Here are other changes in the new Inkscape release:
- Extract images, a command to save images, supports multiple images in Inkscape 1.2.
- Dithering is used when exporting raster images and displaying gradients on canvas; this is done to reduce gradient banding. Inkscape users may turn Dithering off under Preferences > Rendering > Use dithering.
- Extensions installed via the Extensions Manager do not require a restart of Inkscape anymore.
- Panning and Zooming performance improvements, as well as general performance improvements on Mac devices.
- Page shadows look more realistic.
- Default color of pages is white, and the default desk color is light gray. This has been done to make the differentiation between what is on and outside of a page easier.
- Snap bar was replaced with a popover-dialog.
- Two new on-canvas snapping modes added. The new modes make "aligning and distributing objects a very easy drag-and-drop operation".
- Size of guide handles is adjustable.
- The tools pen, pencil, text and tweak tool use the last used style by default.
- Mass value of the Eraser tool has been increased.
- Default font unit for Text is pt.
- Lasso selection has two new features: node deselection and inverted node selection.
- The layers and objects dialog has been merged.
- New Tiling Live Path effect.
- Option to import SVG images from Open Clipart, Wikimedia Commons and other online sources added.
You can check out the entire release notes here.
Closing Words
Inkscape 1.2 adds a massive list of features and improvements to the graphics editor.
Now You: which image editors do you use?
Good release, the problem is we will not see another update this year and it still misses some important features to be used in a professional field, but it is pretty decent and capable.
I use inkscape because Affinity Designer is mediocre at vector work, which it is suppose to be the job of Designer, but it is not good at pixels and not good at vector. It was mediocre 5 years ago, and it is still mediocre and they still don’t fix bugs that have been there from release.
But I got Affinity software even if it sucks because it is cheap, but the past two years that has been almost no updates
I still like Coreldraw more but they pushed the price way too much for freelancers, they want you to get the subscription so much, they just made the perpetual really expensive. So even if it is the best at vector, it’s too expensive for individuals.
So Inkscape is the solution to the many downsides of Affinity Designer, it still doesn’t have vector mesh or shape builders, and shape builder wouldn’t be needed if booleans were decent but nah, they are buggy and not accurate, snapping is sometimes pretty weird because of the way you can zoom a trillion percentage, and the worst, when you export images you can see the tiny white line around objects, they don’t do what Adobe or Coreldraw do on export so you will have to create a background object to fix that up.
But you bring up issues, and they either say how they are aware but never seem to really fix the issues or you get attacked by someone from Affinity, like happened to me once no twitter when I was told by the PR of Affinity 5 years ago (don’t even remember his name) when I was told “just use Adobe Photoshop if you like it, Affinity Photo is not meant to be a replacement” only because I said that they should work with other companies like Pixologic to bring plugins for 3D artists that are done only for Photoshop and Affinity not having any plugin API so they had to build it themselves and add it to the program.
So believe me, the only reason for using Affinity is the price, It is pretty terrible, so it is cool there is a free vector program capable of fixing some of those frustrations with Affinity Designer. Of course, Inkscape still misses some stuff like CMYK and it is also way too slow compared to other vector programs but for drawing it is better than dealing with Designer in many cases.
This release seems okay, not like it will fix all the missing features and issues but I am sure snapping will be better and let’s hope Zooming and Panning really improved on this release.
I use Inkscape frequently to work with logos and wiring diagrams for my company’s published documentation, and none of my coworkers can explain the difference between bitmap and vector files – that means it all falls to me! I do very little creating, mostly just editing and converting. But it’s still a crucial piece in my workflow.
Always been a solid program that can fill most of the average persons needs and a lot more. Pro designers and such should be looking at Corel or Adobe though. This newest version has added a ton to an already great and free app.