To balance out my intense hatred of the GIMP’s god awful interface, here’s a little review of Inkscape, the open source, multi-platform, vector graphics program.

The question a graphics professional would probably ask (read: not me) is Does this do everything Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand do? The answer is a complete and obvious no. There are a many basic features missing (for instance, being able to make strokes inside and outside of a path rather than directly on it), and effects and blends are not ready in this version. Most of these features are missing not because the developers are uninterested but because the program is based on the open SVG standard, which I believe was originally developed for web graphics and has failed to keep up with developer’s needs. They stick by it because it’s an open xml standard, which means you can do cool things like literally changing or tweaking an image just by opening it in a text editor, but on the whole the SVG standard isn’t quite robust enough for real professional work.

However, that doesn’t mean this isn’t a really impressive and cool piece of software. The interface is definitely not perfect (it’s obsessed with dialog boxes), but this is nothing like the GIMP. This is an interface that makes basic sense, and all that’s required is putting in the small amount of time needed to get acclimated. In fact, because it lacks the 8 billion features of Illustrator, I actually find it easier to do basic things in Inkscape simply because I’m not lost staring at Illustrator’s 500 different tools and options. There are a few simple tutorials included, and while they’re nothing to set the world on fire, the program easily passed the "oooh" test. In other words, you can start playing with the shape tools after reading one tutorial and achieve something cool enough that you go "ooooh, that’s cool!"

The export options are overly limited, but they’re improving with each version. That’s another thing. This is version 0.44. Now I’m not one who puts too much stock in terms like beta (afterall, Firefox and most google programs claim to be in beta or in versions below 1.0 for years). But the developers are really putting a lot of work into this program and every version contains clear and obvious improvements in performance and features. If the difference between version 0.43 and 0.44 is indicative of anything, this could be a really impressive and polished program by the time it reaches 1.0.

Summary: 

This is really cool little program and it’s available for pretty much every major operating system. I don’t have a ton of use for it because I’m artistically inept, but it was good enough for me to make the goofy little masthead at the top of this site, so if you have some free time, perhaps download a copy for your OS of choice and give it a try. I recommend the shapes tutorial because the stuff with Stars and Spirals is really fun.