Inkscape. Draw Freely.

======================

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to

Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the W3C standard scalable

vector graphics format (SVG). Some supported SVG features include

basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms,

gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports Creative Commons

meta-data, node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path,

and SVG XML editing. It also imports several formats like EPS, Postscript,

JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based

formats.

Inkscape's main motivation is to provide the Open Source community

with a fully W3C compliant XML, SVG, and CSS2 drawing tool. Additional

planned work includes conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to C++/Gtkmm,

emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added through

an extension mechanism, and the establishment of a friendly, open,

community-oriented development processes.

Inkscape uses the standard procedure for compilation and installation:

./configure

make

make install

If a "./configure" file is not present, you can create it by running

the "./autogen.sh" command, which calls in turn a number of other

programs such as automake and autoconf. See INSTALL for more

details.

Required Dependencies

=====================

The Inkscape core depends on several other libraries that you will need

install, if they're not already present on your system. The most

typical libraries you may need to install are:

* Boehm-GC

* libsigc++

* glibmm

* gtkmm

Please see http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?CompilingInkscape for the

most current dependencies, including links to the source tarballs.

Extension Dependencies

======================

Inkscape also has a number of extensions for implementing various

features such as support for non-SVG file formats, etc. In theory, all

extensions are optional, however in practice you will want to have these

installed and working. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of

variability in how you can get these functioning properly. Here are

some recommendations:

First, make sure you have Perl and Python. If you're on Windows you

should also install Cygwin.

Next, you'll need to ensure the dependencies for each extension is

present. Depending on which extensions you need, the dependencies are

going to vary, but here are some you may need to install:

* XML::Parser

* XML::XQL

If you install dependencies to non-standard locations, such as

installing XML::Parser someplace in your home directory, you may need to

take some extra steps to indicate where those dependencies are to be

found. For instance, with Perl modules, set the PERLLIB or PERL5LIB

variable (see `man perlrun`)