General What is Inkscape? Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format. What is “vector graphics”?
So, as a long-time user of Adobe Illustrator, I struggled for a while til I found an open source alternative for me (since I no longer have access to Illustrator as a standalone app, and refuse to pay Adobe's extortionary prices to rent CC). I finally downloaded Inkscape after learning that it can open my many existing AI files, only to find out that it only supports OSX up to Snow Leopard!
I'm running Mavericks, just like the rest of the Mac world! So, I can't be alone in my frustration with what is, by accounts, a strong app that I can't run because they stopped development about 2.5 years ago!
Has anyone heard any rumors regarding future support for Inkscape? Have you heard of any great alternatives to it that do support OSX 10.9? Please, join the conversation. So, as a long-time user of Adobe Illustrator, I struggled for a while til I found an open source alternative for me (since I no longer have access to Illustrator as a standalone app, and refuse to pay Adobe's extortionary prices to rent CC). I finally downloaded Inkscape after learning that it can open my many existing AI files, only to find out that it only supports OSX up to Snow Leopard! I'm running Mavericks, just like the rest of the Mac world! So, I can't be alone in my frustration with what is, by accounts, a strong app that I can't run because they stopped development about 2.5 years ago!
Has anyone heard any rumors regarding future support for Inkscape? Have you heard of any great alternatives to it that do support OSX 10.9?
Please, join the conversation. Click to expand.It's not just you, I was confused by this too. Apparently X11 is the old version, wrapped in XQuartz for Mountain Lion & Mavericks. Don't worry about where it is as long as you've installed it. It's in my Utilities folder too. I did what you just did too, searching for it etc. The thing is, you've got it.
Now, when you want Inkscape, just click on Inkscape and the schizoid XQuartx/X11 will open first, then open Inkscape. The only quirk I've had trouble with is that the main top menu bar remains X11 and the menu bars for Inkscape are on each floating Inkscape window you have open. I guess it's like Windows, I dunno, I haven't used Windows in ages. So last week I kept clicking on the wrong menu bar for various things, not a big deal really.
Reading comprehension fail. How many Applications folders do you have? As for Xterm, I may have run across it last week, I don't remember. Oh gosh, only a week and my memory is dribbling away. I also installed GIMP around the same time so I'm trying to separate what happened when, with what. Oh yeah, I read some of the notes and some referred to XQuartz and some to X11, so I believe I ended up downloading the same thing twice and then having to get rid of it. After I had XQuartz and Inkscape, I had to restart my iMac for something, can't remember exactly.
But if you have the two, it wouldn't hurt to restart or log out and then try to open Inkscape again. If it's loading X11 then good, that's correct. So first X11 shows up in the main menu correct? Then Inkscape DOES open? IF so, that's all correct. If this isn't happening, what are you seeing?
It's not just you, I was confused by this too. Apparently X11 is the old version, wrapped in XQuartz for Mountain Lion & Mavericks. Don't worry about where it is as long as you've installed it. It's in my Utilities folder too. I did what you just did too, searching for it etc. The thing is, you've got it. Now, when you want Inkscape, just click on Inkscape and the schizoid XQuartx/X11 will open first, then open Inkscape.
The only quirk I've had trouble with is that the main top menu bar remains X11 and the menu bars for Inkscape are on each floating Inkscape window you have open. I guess it's like Windows, I dunno, I haven't used Windows in ages. So last week I kept clicking on the wrong menu bar for various things, not a big deal really.
Reading comprehension fail. How many Applications folders do you have? As for Xterm, I may have run across it last week, I don't remember. Oh gosh, only a week and my memory is dribbling away. I also installed GIMP around the same time so I'm trying to separate what happened when, with what. Oh yeah, I read some of the notes and some referred to XQuartz and some to X11, so I believe I ended up downloading the same thing twice and then having to get rid of it.
After I had XQuartz and Inkscape, I had to restart my iMac for something, can't remember exactly. But if you have the two, it wouldn't hurt to restart or log out and then try to open Inkscape again. If it's loading X11 then good, that's correct.
So first X11 shows up in the main menu correct? Then Inkscape DOES open? IF so, that's all correct. If this isn't happening, what are you seeing?
Click to expand.You have to be a bit more patient. There is a delay. Try clicking on the icon in the Dock once. I did try opening AI files last week and they opened -although I'm not entirely certain all the layers were there. It was just a test and I didn't try to work with them. I just tried again now on a really complex AI file with tons of layers, a window opened with options -which I didn't mess with, I just hit OK and the file opened.
As far as I can tell, there was only one layer and the fonts were changed.:/ I do not have a great understanding of AI or Inkscape as yet, you sound like you do have more experience with AI than I, so hopefully you can optimize your files with that window. I've been working with an old AI file in Illustrator CS2 on a Snow Leopard partition, but I used Inkscape in Mountain Lion last week to create custom ligatures and font glyphs.
Then using them in the AI document in SL. That all worked out fine. You have to be a bit more patient. There is a delay. Try clicking on the icon in the Dock once.
I did try opening AI files last week and they opened -although I'm not entirely certain all the layers were there. It was just a test and I didn't try to work with them. I just tried again now on a really complex AI file with tons of layers, a window opened with options -which I didn't mess with, I just hit OK and the file opened. As far as I can tell, there was only one layer and the fonts were changed.:/ I do not have a great understanding of AI or Inkscape as yet, you sound like you do have more experience with AI than I, so hopefully you can optimize your files with that window. I've been working with an old AI file in Illustrator CS2 on a Snow Leopard partition, but I used Inkscape in Mountain Lion last week to create custom ligatures and font glyphs. Then using them in the AI document in SL. That all worked out fine.
Click to expand.I ran into this yesterday, not any of my own (old CS2) AI files but some newer versions. Unable to open them at first with Inkscape. Later I managed to open two but they both appeared blank. I've found where the Layers icon is and that showed nothing too. What I did was open them in a SL partition with CS2 and saved them as SVGs. They then opened in Inkscape/Mavericks and I was able to work with them yesterday afternoon. This morning I clicked on the AI files with Inkscape and they opened and are workable.
I'm not sure what the inconsistency is. I've found an assortment of very helpful Inkscape tuts and a 'crash course' posted by Chris Hilbig -and am REALLY beginning to appreciate the things possible with Inkscape. But looks like I'll still need to keep CS2 and Snow Leopard for file insurance. Earlier I stated that I'd opened a multi layer AI file in Inkscape but couldn't find the layers. Well, since then, it shows one layer -none of the sub layers. Everything was clickable and editable within the image file though.
I guess I just don't understand the layers management with Inkscape yet. The program (to me) is definitely a keeper despite the quirks.
So, as a long-time user of Adobe Illustrator, I struggled for a while til I found an open source alternative for me (since I no longer have access to Illustrator as a standalone app, and refuse to pay Adobe's extortionary prices to rent CC). I finally downloaded Inkscape after learning that it can open my many existing AI files, only to find out that it only supports OSX up to Snow Leopard!
I'm running Mavericks, just like the rest of the Mac world! So, I can't be alone in my frustration with what is, by accounts, a strong app that I can't run because they stopped development about 2.5 years ago! Has anyone heard any rumors regarding future support for Inkscape? Have you heard of any great alternatives to it that do support OSX 10.9? Please, join the conversation.
I'm sorry for commenting here, but issues were disabled, apparently:( in fact, I was tracking issue #21 (Migrate Launchpad to GitHub) with much interest, and having it disappear into thin air leaves me both concerned about the decisions that went into disabling issues in this repo (which weren't documented anywhere as far as I could tell - a good place would be CONTRIBUTING.md), and sad that the discussion in that thread (and others) won't be documented for future reference. Pinging those who Github tells me were involved in #21, based on the notification I got of it having undergone changes (which I can't see what they were since the link now 404's):,. Any clarification would be appreciated. Yes, I am very surprised too for the 'take down' of remove all the issues and move again all to launchpad. It is clear that github was doing a good job showing the commits, and having the issues, even getting contributions useful for inkscape but Martin Owens just decide in a dictatorial way remove all the issues, close it and stay again in launchpad.
I disagree a lot this change, it is not the expected in a open source community and I am for sure that github will help more tracking issues and getting contributions than the actual launchpad tracker where I have bugs reported with more than 3 years without resolve. Thanks for nothing. Shakaran, don't be irate at Martin - I was the one that directed to have the github issues closed after he asked what to do, so please direct ire my way.
It is a fact that the Inkscape project is considering a transition to github or gitlab. However, the consensus we have built is for transitioning to github or gitlab only for source code and CI; there is not a strong consensus for migrating the issue tracking here. I know that there are many people accustomed to github bug tracking, and that prefer it over launchpad (for quite legitimate reasons), but understand that by this point we've built up a large base of bug reviewers and bug fixers who are knowledgeable and comfortable with launchpad, that are reticent to move (also for quite legitimate reasons). Since the principle value we all gain from a bug tracking system is to get our bug reports resolved, it makes the most sense to heavily weigh the preferences of people who are resolving the bug reports, and make doubly sure it is satisfying their needs, even if it might not be ideal for everyone filing bugs. Keep also in mind that by this point we've accumulated thousands of bug reports, and transitioning to a new system also presents a bit of a logistical challenge, all by itself. That's not a reason not to change, but it is a reason to be extra deliberate in our choice.
Your remark about bugs being open 3 years is unfortunately a fact, and it bothers me too; many of the bugs are non-trivial, and the number of volunteers we have working on bugs compared with the number of users filing bugs is quite low, so sadly many bugs go for a long, long time without being looked at. We really value the help of people putting in time looking at them, and especially those folks working to get them resolved. My guess is that the github issues system was either enabled by default when the project was set up here, or else it was turned on for experimental purposes. Whatever the case, fact is no one that can resolve bugs will be looking here, so having the tracker open is a disservice to users like you who want to help Inkscape by reporting problems you're finding, only to later find no one is going to act on it. When I heard people were filing bugs here I requested it be turned off ASAP so others don't fall into the trap too. It's entirely possible we might consider using github issues in the future (although from what I've gathered I think it's extremely unlikely), but there hasn't been a decision to use it, so having it turned on was a bit of an accident.
I apologize that the decision process was not done transparently enough, and hope my above dissertation explains the thinking that was going on. I appreciate the detailed and level-headed write-up. I am just concerned that you guys are worrying about the current universe of bug-fixers and patch-senders who are used to launchpad, and ignoring the much larger universe of potential bug-fixers that would get involved if development used a platform that is more friendly to beginners (which I offer that either github or gitlab are, compared to launchpad). This very issue is a case in point: I've been an Inkscape user and a FOSS contributor for several years, but even when I went out of the way to provide a patch to a project that clearly wasn't being actively maintained in the platform I used (github), what I faced was logistical hoops which, were I to attempt to overcome, would whittle away energy that otherwise would go to addressing the task itself. Consider how many more people don't even try after seeing the trajectory of PRs like this, or the, or the sparse contents of the master branch, particularly. Just my two cents here to insist about what said because I think it's critical for Inkscape future.
Even if your current bug fixers are used to launchpad right now I am pretty sure new bug fixers are unlikely to come due to the launchpad software itself which make contributions/reviewing hard and painfull. Ok github is closed source and that's a big downside but if you have used the tool in the past you know it's worth it. Maybe I am wrong but I would bet for a big increase in contributions/contributors if you move the code/issues/PR to github.
So it might be a smart move for the current bug fixers to move to github so they will potentially be able to interact with a much bigger contributors pool. Having said that I really hope Inkscape future will be plenty of wonderfull release and will increase its already pretty big userbase. Because the software and its community deserve it!
Inkscape Thread Inkscape-user Fwd Looking For Natives
Let's just have one battle at a time. If we can get contributors using the Inkscape codebase (without issues) on GitHub, this will be a huge improvement. This is how Apple does it with the Swift project, see Of course, GitHub's ease of use and its many members will start attracting pull requests from people that hadn't contributed before, and wouldn't have if they needed to use Launchpad. When many more contributors are coming in that way then obviously that would be a good time to consider migrating the issues. FYI: I am turning tasks and wiki back on now. Will turn tasks off after I retrieve the notes from issues #21.
I am keeping my notes in Wiki now and I'll leave that enabled. Please don't turn it off. Specifically, that is where I keep my instructions for syncing GitHub to upstream bzr. Just did a pull now to get all the new great stuff in there! Thank you for your support. Right now here are remaining tasks:. Create the best possible README.md for when we switch over to GitHub for hosting code.
Can go here. Can use pull requests here to update this file. It should reflect our cutover plan (allow pull requests on GitHub but note that issues should go through LaunchPad). It should be an awesome page, and very consistent with the homepage. Open a discussion in the mailing list to evaluate the cutover plan at and garner support for cutover and set a cutover date.
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