This week I was able to design a web site layout while switching back and forth between Inkscape 0.44 on Windows 2000 and Inkscape 0.43 on Ubuntu.
Inkscape is the cross-platform vector editing application mentioned in an earlier post, which uses the XML-based SVG as its native format.
First of all, the SVG compiled by the Open-Source application is backward-compatible, so I can actually open the same work on older builds of Inkscape.
Import filters
Inkscape does a very good job at importing SVG’s exported by Illustrator. Colors are preserved, although Inkscape is not yet equipped to handle Pantone references, and it sometimes changes the CMYK values without changin the colour.
Export filters
At the time of writing, export filters are still approximate. The size of fonts and linked Bitmaps comes out oddly when an SVG created by Inkscape is imported in Illustrator or Corel Draw!. PDF’s do come much better, although Illustrator has trouble understanding their page orientation and scale settings.
I have personally favoured using Inkscape because despite all its importing and exporting flaws, it beats the mainstream applications with the following:
- Alpha transparency: in Illustrator, alpha transparency is nonexistent. It is impossible to change the transparence of a colour to reveal what is behind it. Corel Draw! offers a powerful filter settings that allows a plethora of transparency effects and gradients, but it remains embedded within it native format and hardly works when exporting. Inkscape beats both by allowing to use the alpha transparency featured in the SVG format, and it also exports it in PDF, which is another format supporting alpha transparency.
- Layers: Here, Illustrator is the one left behind, because both Corel Draw! and Inkscape allow to use layers, that can be hidden or locked.
Eighteen month after having written this entry, I definitely give a five star to th
