Inkscape Reviews

Inkscape is free and open source compared to some programs in that they charge more than they give. Every effect, every tool can be used effectively for 2D vector based graphic design.

The trace bitmap tool is essential for rescaling and fixing the resolution of customer's old designs; it does have its limitations, but nothing an hour of time cant fix.

In terms of printing quality, it comes face to face with adobe and other programs when it comes down to color. I do constantly fight the RGB default and have to ask someone with adobe access to convert my PDF's to CMYK. I see it often used in conjunction with Scribus for this very purpose but Scribus' user interface is jarring and difficult to process.

The other biggest issue I have with Inkscape is its inability to process spot colors which are essential in printing white ink on darker media.

I would also like to see more implementation in geometric design, with more alignment accessibility and open to more axis' than simply X and Y. I would rather not pay for autodesk to rely on 3D rendering.

free to use software for beginners who cannot afford the priced alternatives and its just as good.

Functions are hard to use for new users. Prone to latency. limited features.

This is by far one of the best designing tools in the market, and even better this happens to be open source.

Inkscape offers a set of tools meant to design freely, effortlessly and with a lower learning curve than other alternatives. Drawing or even editing vectors is very nice, and everything works smooth without overcharging any computer resource.

I wish it has native Ilustrator files support, but there is not. Anyway, you can solve very easy this by changing the Ilustrator files to PDF. Then there is not a big deal about this.

It is Completely free.
The user-interface works phenomenal.
Designing is super straightforward.

The layers management and some other fancy features from paid alternatives are missing.

As a free software, this program is great for anyone looking to do graphic design work but especially for beginners. I started using Inkscape as a way to design vector files for use with my Cricut machine. The Cricut Design Space software had a lot of limitations and was very slow for working with text, so I turned to Inkscape for almost all of my project designs. I can then easily save my vector files in .svg format to upload into Cricut Design Space for making my projects.

Inkscape will occasionally crash and close while I'm using it, so be sure to save often. As a free software, this is a mild annoyance but not a deal breaker.

It is very easy to use. It has a very friendly interface. It's really feature-packed. It has some out-of-the-box features equivalent to those in Adobe Illustrator but for free! It's open-source and get updated regularly. I love you can even work with PDF files natively. Also, I rely on the "trace bitmap" feature a lot: it's great to reuse royalty-free bitmaps on a quick design or just for inspiration. Inkscape is amazing and free!

I WISH it supported the Adobe Illustrator format (ai) but it's too much to ask as that is a proprietary file format. Also, some fundamental actions are complicated to implement: for example, setting default document properties shouldn't require to save a file in a specific folder or exporting your artwork as a .jpeg file shouldn't require an extension; those actions should be more straight forward.

I love that I can create my own SVG files and I get to keep them unlike other software programs I use. I can import other designs and manipulate as I go. I can create custom files and the sky is the limit

I have trouble getting the offset to work. I am sure it is user error but I struggle with it most of the times I use it. Also, sometimes when I clip I just get a blank white box instead of what I am trying to clip. I find it struggles when using text editior to pick text while scrolling through all the options.

Inkscape is strong programming to draw delightful drawings, for example, vector pictures. The fundamental benefit is that it is free. Picture control should likewise be possible somewhat. At first, it isn't extremely natural in the event that you are utilized to other application programming projects, for example, AutoCAD, yet there are numerous instructional exercises to acquaint with it.

Crashes at some point (yet consistently a make a backup document).Less help on 3D Illustrations. Have to be more creative.

One of the features I like the most about Inkscape, apart from the fact that it is an open source (free) software, is its ability to convert bitmap images to vectors, which can be done in a variety of ways depending on the desired result (brightness cutoff, edge detection, color quantization, etc.). The Bezier tool is also very intuitive to use, even more so than in other applications such as GIMP, which doesn't support paths and SVG as well as Inkscape. Using the Bezier, you can either draw an approximate path to be modified later or add precise curves along the way to minimize the work to be done after the path is created. Some tools, like Spray, Eraser and Gradient, provide some handy shortcuts to create absolutely interesting effects without much effort. For instance, Spray can take another object as a selection, the Eraser automatically redraws the modified paths without the erased part and the Gradient tool can take as an argument the average color in a selection. Most of the commonly used tools are present by default, but you can choose to move or remove many of them. Amongst those tools, there are many snapping behaviors available that can be turned on and off quickly along with many more windows that can pop up or be reduced on demand. It takes some time to get used to the way windows can be rearranged, but it provides greater flexibility down the road.

Inkscape is filled with so many options that the default interface can look like a mess on small resolution screens: hopefully, it is possible to remove less used buttons by customizing the interface. Sometimes, when working with images that render a very high amount of details by applying filters, the software becomes slow and may unexpectedly crash. Unfortunately, it is a hard problem to avoid, the only available choice being to use as few filters as possible until the very end. Without using extensions, it is also hard to position guides according to your needs: you have to do manual calculations to make sure you can properly align guides between them. There are many ways to snap objects together, but it's still tricky to try to center a vertex from one object to the center point between two other points from only a portion of a second object: again, manual calculations need to be involved. On smaller screens of less than 17 inches, many long menus when selecting cover up to the bottom of the screen, making it impossible to read the description for each tool that appears in the bottom part of the main window that stays beneath the menu, leading to forceful experimentation in order to guess what each option does.

- The amount of stuff you can do with this Open Source software is outstanding and the quality is superb, you can create all the graphics necessary for your websites, motion graphics, banners, games and animations.
- Also is possible to export to a variety of file formats supported by adobe, save images with transparency and even create DXF files for CNC and G code machine cuts, even use your plotter straight out of the software with a plug in.

- May have a bit of a steep learning curve since it is open source but there is ton of documentation and videos in youtube to overcome this challenge.
- With heavy graphics the program can crash if you do not save your work on layers so you can turn off finished work and work on layers, but can be overcomed with constant saving.
- It can be confusing when you select graphics because it’s highlighted only with a dotted box.
- Some tools don't work in a logical manner.
- It does not support CMYK colors.

Inkscape is quite intuitive to use for those who have used vector graphics software earlier. It can open / import a variety of formats and can export to a variety of formats too. It starts up quickly and can convert a raster image to vector quite quickly. It handles graphics and text quite well and is an excellent tool for page layout.

What I want most from Inkscape is to have multiple pages in a single document. Currently Inkscape has just one page per file so creating a multiple page document can be quite frustrating, as each page has to be in a separate file. Having worked with other commercial software that allows multiple page creation within a single document, I found Inkscape's restriction to one page per document less than satisfying.