Flux d'actualités

Inkscape launches version 1.4, with powerful new accessible and customizable features

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 18:44:43 +0000

After months of waiting, we are finally ready to unbox the latest version of Inkscape... meet 1.4, the Geek edition, where accessibility and customization reign.

Inkscape project developers, most of them volunteer contributors from countries around the world, have been plugging away behind the scenes on new features, improving current ones, bug fixes and setting the stage for the arrival of GTK 4.

Let’s dig into some of the new and improved features that enable more customization and better accessibility in Inkscape in a cool, geeky sort of way. Inkscape Power Users, this one’s for you!

Filter Gallery Dialog

The Inkscape 1.4 Filter Gallery dialog is your new entry point into the world of filters. Head to the Filters menu to find it and your favorites more easily, with previews by category or by typing key words in the search bar. This includes those custom filters you’ve added – look for them in the Personal category. Accessibility features here include the ability to change the size of the preview of thumbnails.

The Filter Gallery with previews and search

Modular Grids

For those of you seeking the ultimate in symmetry and accuracy, you’ll find the new grid selector buttons a quicker, more visual way of identifying your grid of choice. For the new modular grids, you can adjust plenty of grid parameters separately, from height and width to horizontal and vertical gaps – including adjustments at the grid module (rectangle) level. Enable this option by heading to document properties.

Example of a modular grid

Swatches Dialog

Inkscape’s Swatches dialog has a fresh new face. It now includes a drop-down menu with previews of color palettes. You can display them with their colors’ names as a list or a grid. For Power Users, you can now increase the tile size, too. Search for your custom swatches, or those of your customers, too. Import palettes from the dialog, including those from Adobe Color Book that use CIELAB colours, while support for those with CMYK is still limited for now. Transitioning from CMYK to RGB has been improved.

Refactored 'Swatches' dialog with search field

SVG Font Editor

For those of you who have a thing for fonts, Inkscape 1.4 is your new go-to for customization. You’ll find an easier route to buttons for sorting glyphs and removing pairs. Powerful customization at it’s finest in Inkscape!

Unified Font Browser

Inkscape is testing out a unified font browser preview. Activate this feature in Preferences and restart. After that, you will access visual previews for fonts with settings such as adding your own sample text. Check for particular font characteristics by searching fonts by collection type. Click on the one you want and watch it be applied to your text.

Adjusting the dialog by its various options

Customizable Handles

With Inkscape 1.4, you’ll now see that the on-canvas handles are customizable by size, colour, stroke width, outline and opacity. This will be updated live in Inkscape when the CSS file has been saved.

The new default handles

Shape Builder

You can now tackle quick edits on raster (pixel) images within Inkscape using the Shape Builder tool. Load an image and select sections that you want to isolate. Choose them with Shape Builder to clip them. Note that to edit them, you’ll need to release the clip and then unlink the clone. This tool is useful for a quick fix, isolating part or parts of an image quickly.

Using the Shape Builder Tool to quickly split a raster graphic into multiple parts

Object Properties Dialog

As of Inkscape 1.4, the Objective Attributes and Object Properties dialogs have been rolled up into one. This one-stop-shop is where you can change the different properties of objects, including rotations and corners.

The refactored 'Object Properties' dialog

Import & Export Updates

If you use Inkscape to develop and publish documents, you’ll be happy to know that you can now add links from one page to another within a PDF document–think table of contents.

Additionally, Inkscape 1.4 can now open Affinity Designer files, adding more versatility to the program.

Icon Sets

Welcome, Dash, the latest icon set to be accessible within Inkscape. For those of you who like customizing, you’ll appreciate this additional set of 500 plus icons to explore. These include cursors, both scalable and symbolic versions, that work on light and dark themes.

That concludes our brief wander through some of the top features included in Inkscape 1.4. For more information, the Inkscape 1.4 Release Notes are up to date to with information on all the changes included in this edition.

New icon set in use in the Inkscape interface

Get Inkscape 1.4 for Linux, Windows or macOS!

If you have questions for us, head to our web site and find our online community, where you can also find ways to get involved in the project.

In the meantime,
Draw Freely.

Inkscape Summit 2024

Thu, 16 May 2024 17:35:59 +0000

We had a great Inkscape Summit in Rennes, France. Our three-day meeting was hosted by long-time Inkscaper's Elisa and Cédric in their school of design Activ.design

Five Inkscaper's travelled to the event (Marc, Mikekov, Adam Belis, S-Rafael, and Tav). Two more were present via video (Martin and René). Jonathon dropped in occasionally. And our hosts hung out with us when they weren't too busy preparing for LGM (Libre Graphics Meeting). In previous years we called these events "Hackfests", but have decided in order to be more inclusive to non-programmers and encourage greater partipation these events will be known as "Inkscape Summits".

These important events give the contributors of Inkscape a place where they can get some work done. Rafael [pictured left] is seen here working on some graphic user interface code at the event space. Mike, Adam, and Rafael spent a lot of time discussing and implementing UX designs. Marc did lots of merges, especially forward porting. We had great discussions on the future of Inkscape, including a plan for an improved Live Path Effects system (more of a Live Object system), better testing, etc..

During breaks and after the day, the contributors will go out for a meal and socialise. Rafael, Adam, Mikekov, Tav and Marc [pictured right] sit at a restaurant near the event space for lunch and get to know each other better.

All of these activities are funded by the Inkscape project, who provides travel and event expenses and run by one of the team. This is all funded by our kind donors who help the project cover the costs to run these important events. So a big thank you to all of you, you know who you are!

After the Inkscape Summit event, everyone was able to participate in the Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) which happened directly afterwards. We will often try and organise our own physical meetings along side another conference or event. Tav [pictured left] is seen talking to other LGM attendees who will be contributors to other Free Software projects such as Blender, Krita, Penpot, etc. While smaller than in the past, there were still lots of great talks including talks on color, type, animation, and chocolate.

Meeting with the wider community of Free Software contributors helps us stay up to date with what's happening in the wider industry as well as meeting with some pretty cool people who help run a lot of the software which our users also depend upon. Big thanks for the organisers of LGM for running the event this year, which is the first in person event since Covid.

See you all next time!

Congratulations to Inkonic on winning Inkscape 1.4 About Screen Contest

Mon, 06 May 2024 14:20:47 +0000

We have a winner! Congratulations to the winning entry by artist Inkonic for their artwork "Inkscape's Path–Artist's Blossom".

The theme this year was "Growth" and Inkonic's winning artwork depicted this wonderfully with branches and leaves growing directly out of the work of artists' hands using artists' tools ― literally drawing themselves and their worlds into existence and making them grow. Congratulations to Inkonic ― and thank you for helping Inkscape continue to grow!

We would also like to thank all of the artists who submitted artwork for the contest. Our deepest gratitude to you for showing myriad ways Inkscape can be used to create incredible artworks. These examples are invaluable to helping the project grow and thrive by inspiring and educating artists.

We encourage everyone to take a moment and download any of the artworks you find interesting and explore the objects, nodes, effects, layers, and groups that make up these complex artworks. And if you want to help out the Inkscape Project even more, you can review these artworks by testing the Inkscape 1.4 beta release that will feature this winning artwork here.

Finally, we'd like to extend a big thank you to all of the community members ― more than 250 of you! ― who cast votes in the initial round and selected the top finalists as well as the 23 Inkscape contributors served as the final round of judges for the 1.4 About Screen Contest.

If you’re interested in getting started with or better at using Inkscape check out this month’s challenge.

Thanks to all of you for helping Inkscape continue to grow.

Draw freely.

1.4 About Screen Contest

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:24:34 +0000

Announcing the About Screen Contest for Inkscape 1.4! Calling all artists! Each new version of Inkscape, we run a fun contest inviting all seasoned Inkscape artists and newcomers to participate in the "About Screen" contest. The About Screen is the image that you see when you click on Help → About in Inkscape to find more information about the version of the program installed on your device.

This release the topic is "GROWTH". This could be interpreted in many ways! Trees, hair, and grass grow. Children grow. How have you grown as an artist this year? How has the Inkscape project grown? How have the benefits of free software "grown" in your mind?

We are so excited to see what great art is submitted this year and excited to have artists be a part of it!

Keep in mind that the About Screen Contest is about much more than the About Screen. Submitted contest artwork is not only shared with the entire inkscape community, but is often featured in other places to help the project!

Entering the contest as an artist and/or voting for your favorites is a great way to help the Inkscape project continue to thrive! Each and every submission also helps us test the newest version of Inkscape.

Learn more about the contest here

Draw Freely.

It’s time to celebrate the success of GSOC 2023 and recruit for 2024 with Inkscape

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 21:09:24 +0000

Inkscape’s involvement in Google’s Summer of Code (GSoC) program is one of the ways the project helps to advance both learning and new and improved features in the program. We’re excited to be taking part in GSoC once more in 2024!

For more information on the timeline and details for applying to collaborate with Inkscape this year, head to our project page on Google's Summer of Code website.

If you’re curious to know more about what some of Inkscape’s GSoC students accomplished in 2023, keep reading!

Customize the appearance of your Canvas Controls

GSoC 2023 Inkscape student Sanidhya Singh was a sophomore undergraduate student in Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee), India.

Sanidhya spent the summer working on developing a customizable appearance for canvas controls under the mentorship of Inkscape core developer Marc Jeanmougin.

What are these canvas controls, you ask? If you’ve drawn a shape using the Pen tool and tried to later edit it using the Node Tool, you might have noticed the circular (or square) handles Inkscape provides to manipulate and transform the shape. These are called "canvas controls" or more commonly "node handles". The style of these controls has been the same since at least Inkscape 0.48, and was in need of a refresh – one that would enable the user to have more flexibility in changing the style. Sanidhya stripped out the old handle styling part and replaced it with an easily editable CSS file, so that users can now change styles by just editing the file. This also enabled better default colors for the controls which will hopefully land in Inkscape 1.4.

Preparing behind the scenes for GTK4 Migration

GSoC 2023 student Vaibhav Malik is from New Delhi, India. Once again, he joined Inkscape devs who have been putting a lot of work into the GTK4 migration. GTK is the user interface toolkit Inkscape uses to draw things like text boxes, buttons, etc. on the screen. Inkscape currently uses GTK3 which is version 3 of the toolkit. The migration to the latest version of the toolkit - GTK4, is what Vaibhav worked on under the mentorship of Inkscape core developer Tavmjong Bah (Tav).

Vaibhav's changes are mostly under-the-hood changes so that Inkscape works as expected with GTK4. One noticeable user-facing change is the addition of popovers for smaller screens. Below a particular window size, Inkscape will automatically adjust the items in the toolbar so that they're still usable on a smaller screen!

You can read more about Vaibhav’s work.

Collaborating with Inkscape developers is a learning experience and helps our free and open source program to advance for all Inkscape users.

Reach out, ask questions and get involved with our global team of volunteer contributors!

Draw Freely.

Creators: Don't Fall for Inkscape Impersonator

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 15:41:35 +0000

The project has received multiple requests for confirmation from creators, asking us whether we have been reaching out to them about collaborations / partnerships. They have been approached by someone who used the name “Inkscape PhotoEditor,” which does not exist. This is not us. Any official invitations to collaborate from the project will be listed prominently on our website (i.e. here).

Inkscape 1.3.2 solves data loss bug in previous release

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:52:37 +0000

The Inkscape Developer Team released version 1.3.2 on November 26, 2023, to solve an important data loss bug in 1.3.1. If you installed 1.3.1, we recommend you update Inkscape as soon as possible. If you’re a Windows user, please uninstall the older version first.

This version enables stars, polygons, spirals and 3D boxes to save correctly.

If you experienced data loss with these shapes after saving them in an Inkscape SVG file, there is a way to recover your file. You can do this by manually editing the affected shapes if they are not showing up properly, using the following steps:

1. Check your files for missing elements by using a web browser or another program (because the missing elements will still be visible in Inkscape, but nowhere else).

2. To fix all the shapes at once, select all the elements in all the layers (using Ctrl + Alt + A, and make sure to unlock them first!) and then move them to the right (or left) and back again by pressing the arrow keys.

3. Any symbols or patterns containing these shapes need to be turned into normal objects to enable Inkscape to replace the missing data.

Unfortunately, any files saved as plain or optimized SVGs are not recoverable.

Also new in 1.3.2, Inkscape users working in traditional Chinese interface will appreciate the updated translation.

Download 1.3.2 for all platforms on Inkscape’s web site. You’ll also find the Release Notes there, too.

Should you want to report a bug, we would be happy to receive your contribution. Or if you have a question about version 1.3.2, drop into our online chat and our mostly volunteer contributor team will help you find the answer.

In the meantime, Draw Freely.

Get Inkscape 1.3.2 for Linux, Windows or macOS!

Big, small release – Inkscape 1.3.1 is out!

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 17:23:54 +0000

The latest point release, Inkscape 1.3.1, has grown into one of the biggest bug fix packages we've ever shared with the community. Update to benefit from more than 70 bug fixes, 16 improved user interface translations, and even two small, new features!

Here's a quick overview of what's in this new release:

more than 30 crash/freeze fixes, many of which affected PDF import and Live Path Effects
a new feature to disable snapping to grid lines, while still snapping to grid intersections
a new feature to split text into its letters (characters), while keeping the kerning (letter distances) intact
the Shape Builder tool now creates an appropriate number of nodes
activating a layer in the Layers dialog no longer requires you to double-click to enter the layer on the canvas to be able to work in it
no more auto-expanding layers in the Layers dialog when only activating them, and improved behavior on deleting and moving layers
right-clicking now applies the change to the selected object, not to whatever group it is in
the Page tool's size field no longer refuses to be edited
improved handle visibility with dark desk colors
multiple improvements for converting text objects to a path
PDF files that could not be opened with Inkscape 1.3 can now be opened / imported again
the English terms for Live Path Effects can now be searched for even if you use Inkscape in another language, so you can better follow tutorials
on macOS, and many current Linux distributions, gradient dithering is now available
there exists a workaround that users can apply when they are experiencing missing user interface fonts on macOS ('tofu')
3 fixes for extension bugs
16 improved user interface translations
some small updates for the included tutorials and the man page
and almost 40 more bug fixes!

We wish to thank Inkscape users and contributors for their support in identifying and flagging these critical issues for us through sending bug reports for our volunteer developers to examine and solve. This collaboration is vital for us to ensure that Inkscape releases are working properly. We also want to thank those who donated to Inkscape, making this large number of fixes possible through the paid Bug Accelerator Program.

Should you experience an issue while using Inkscape, please consider sending us a bug report. We've put together a step-by-step video to help you post it on Gitlab.

If you'd like to contribute to the project, consider joining our project's global community! You'll find the list of ways to connect with us here.

For more detailed information on what was fixed in version 1.3.1 (and for the macOS font workaround), you can read the release notes.

Built with the power of a team of mostly volunteers, this open source vector graphics editor represents the work of many hearts and hands from around the world, ensuring that Inkscape remains available free for everyone to download and enjoy.

Get Inkscape 1.3.1 for Linux, Windows or macOS!

Draw Freely.

Inkscape launches version 1.3 with a focus on organizing work efficiently

Sun, 23 Jul 2023 18:00:00 +0000

With version 1.3 of Inkscape, you’ll find improved performance, several new features, and a solid set of improvements to a few existing ones.

This version is squarely focused on helping users get organized and work more efficiently with our free and open source vector-editing software.

In fact, our project developers, most of them volunteer contributors from around the world, have been working hard behind the scenes on the code base to improve the performance of the software. Some of the heavy rendering tasks have been separated internally, to help with performance when zooming, panning and transforming objects. By default, Inkscape will now leverage the power of all your computer's cores when it renders objects, but you can also choose to limit its powers in the preferences.

As always, there are a few new features in this release, which have been tested by users during the beta release.
Many thanks to everyone who lent a hand with this important step in the process!

Among our favorites are several that focus on helping you get things organized and work more efficiently when using Inkscape.

Shape Builder tool

Combining paths by clicking and dragging to create new paths with the Shape Builder tool

Inkscape’s new Shape Builder tool helps get the job done quickly and efficiently. You’ll enjoy the overview of all shapes and the ability to select multiple overlapping shapes – click, or click and drag them. Your objects will retain their original color, too. Shortcuts for this tool include Shift for quickly switching between adding and subtracting parts. There is one caveat for the tool at this time, as it is still pretty new. When you use it with curved shapes, you can end up with paths with a large number of nodes. If you don't need to be really precise, use Ctrl+L or the 'Simplify' LPE to simplify the result. This is on the list to be addressed in a future version of Inkscape.

Document Resources Dialog

The Document Resources dialog shows statistics about your document

If you like to efficiently organize your Inkscape documents, this is the tool for you. There are times when being able to quickly see an overview of elements is key – when sharing a file for commercial printing, for instance. It’s a checklist of resources contained in your document, including patterns, filters, colors, fonts, symbols, markers, and much more.

Font collections

Creating a font collection and filtering by collection

Still on an organizing path, this new button helps those who wrestle with many fonts to categorize them by collections – and easily and quickly identify which font(s) to grab for which contract or client or custom project. Or you can organize them by style – cursive, funny, serif, sans-serif... There’s a new icon to help you find those collections.

Patterns

Adjusting pattern parameters in the Pattern Editor

Not only do you have access to a funky and practical library of patterns within Inkscape, there’s a new pattern editor that enables you to adjust a pattern. In addition to being very useful, it’s also fun to explore... have fun playing with shape, size, and rotation with these repeats. Change colors for your version of a pattern and adapt the offset, too.

For your inner organizer, the patterns are now categorized into collections here, so they’re easier to find a second time.

Inkscape 1.3 has plenty to offer in terms of improvements to the features you know and love already. We’ve put together a short list of ones to check out first:

Layers and Objects dialog

Setting opacity and blend mode in the Layers and Objects dialog

The search box is back! Create and filter by name. The improved Objects dialog allows you to once more use the slider to adjust the opacity or blending mode of a layer, and drag multiple objects to hide or lock them in a single swipe; done. You’ll also enjoy the shortcuts for navigating and tweaking – the arrow keys, space bar and shift key all have roles.

Persistent snap bar

For those of you who use snapping, you’ll be able to once again quickly adjust the snap settings. For those of you who haven’t played with this feature, now’s the time to test it out.

Page margins and bleed

Setting page margins

When you’re prepping your document for print (in RGB, of course), you now have more control over margins and bleed. You’ll spot the new round handles in the middle of the page borders. Simply click and drag them to set your margins. When it comes to the red boundary for the bleed margin, you can edit it from the tool controls bar, in a fly-out menu that allows you to customize your document.

Lasso selection for nodes

Being a node ranger just got easier! You’ll appreciate being able to hold the Alt key and draw to select nodes that are hard to select with rectangle selection.

Selecting nodes by drawing around them

Live Path Effects (LPE) dialog redesign

Redesigned LPE dialog for quick and easy access

If you ever wanted to get a better handle on your LPE situation, this revamped dialog delivers just that. See an overview of your stack unfolded and enjoy a quicker way to add a new LPE to your work all while making it easier to see which one you’ve got selected.

PDF import rewritten

Informative and feature-rich PDF import dialog

Inkscape’s PDF importer has undergone an overhaul. You’ll find a new dialog with an overview of what Inkscape will do with each font it finds in your PDF, and more.

Node deletion logic changed

Inkscape guessing the desired result when deleting nodes (mostly smooth results)

Deleting nodes now doesn’t always behave the same, as Inkscape tries to detect whether you want the result to be a straight line connecting the nodes, or whether you want the result to be a round and smooth curve.

Pinned colors in palette

We’re working hard to help you find the colors you need to succeed. Choose and pin the most important colors from a palette and keep them at your fingertips. Then unpin the ones you don’t need. Customize the size of the color swatches, too. This is practical when you’ve got a project with a specific color palette to respect. Additionally, the new shortcut F hides all canvas overlays and anything outside the page, so you can check your results and see what’s going to be printed.

Scrolling through the palette, with pinned colors on the left

Paste on page

Now you can copy and paste an object from one page to another one and it’ll land in the same position. This is terrific when building templates and presentations or clones for animation using Inkscape.

Filter editor overhaul

The Filters dialog automatically changes layout on resizing

This dialog has seen much love and is now easier to use. You’ll appreciate the pop-up menu when applying a filter to your selection and searching for certain effects, like blur.
For more information, the Inkscape 1.3 Release Notes are up to date to help you understand all the changes included.

Get Inkscape 1.3 for Linux, Windows or macOS!

If you have questions for us, head to our web site and find our online community, where you can also find ways to get involved in the project.

In the meantime, Draw Freely.

What was it like at Wilberweek? (GIMP Hackfest)

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 16:42:29 +0000

Article by: C.Rogers

Wilberweek 2023

A week with The GIMP project at Blender HQ, Amsterdam

I was really excited to have the opportunity to meet some of the GIMP developers in-person after many conversations with them over IRC in the past, and Wilberweek presented not only a great opportunity to do just that, but also to visit the Headquarters of another of my favourite FOSS projects, the unstoppable freedom-centric software juggernaut that is the Blender project.

On arrival - Pizza at the De Pizzabakkers NDSM

A quick train trip from the airport and a free ferry ride across the bay, I was able to catch up with the GIMP crew at a pizza place right near the dock. The pizza was excellent as was the conversation. The chef also baked us a Wilber shaped pizza bread, which we then, naturally, worshiped like a god for the rest of the trip.

On board Nieuwe Maen, with the GIMP project

After the spirited dining experience, we retired to our place of residence for the week - The good ship Nieuwe Maen (New Moon). We had ample space for our laptops in the deckhouse cabin, which featured three large tables and plenty of seating and outlets for late night hackfest activities, and on-board dining. Adjacent to this space is a full kitchen with large refrigerator, which I set up my hackfest coffee machine and served coffee to those who partake in the pleasures of the wicked bean.

Although the bunkbeds were somewhat lacking in overhead space (sitting up in bed was impossible), the bedding was quite comfortable, and the gentle rocking of the boat I found to be particularly soothing.

The boat also featured two toilets, and a surprisingly spacious shower, which our host informed us was "made for couples". During the tour.

Amsterdam via bike

The next day we explored the area, mostly on foot, and collected our bikes, which were rented for us by the GIMP project.

Amsterdam NDSM is like no other place I've been. It's an ecclectic mix of old industrial building and equipment turned into hidden galleries, and sometimes complete building centers built inside huge warehouses. From the outside, there's absolutely no indication that these exist, so if you're ever near the Amsterdam NDSM area, I highly recommend doing a bit of your own exploring. It's really wild! We concluded the day with a visit to a local brewery on the docks, for drinks and dinner, all funded by the GIMP project.

Wilberweek Hackfest - Blender HQ

A bikeride through the city's robust biketrail intrastructure takes you through numerous little public parks, along rivers, and through the sparse traffic, made sparser by the fact that most people are happy to use bikes in place of cars. The weather was absolutely perfect, with cloudless blue skies and a cool breeze made navigating the winding bike-trails a very pleasant experience, despite google maps having no clue how to use them to get to the destination.

Upon arriving at Blender HQ, we were greeted by Ton Roosendahl (and his dog/studio mascot Bowie) who is now famous world-wide for bringing FOSS to the forefront of 3D animated productions. We were heartily welcomed, and treated like royalty, given full access to the building's many departments and a choice of 4 conference spaces in which to work during the week's hackfest activities.

Lunch was provided daily by Blender's in-house caterer, and coffee was available via a truly fabulous combination coffee grinder and espresso maker, which of course, put my Inkscape hackfest Nespresso-pod machine to absolute shame, but meant that I didn't have to haul the thing via bike each day. Ton made a point to say that water bottles were not allowed out of the kitchen area, as it was a perfect opportunity to come down, socialize and refill your glasses. Indeed, on some days I preferred to get some work done in the lounge area accompanying the kitchen, to talk with various Blender folks. It's a very social working environment, but at the same time no one had any issues ending a conversation to go get back to work - it seemed to me the perfect combination of personal work ethics, and the natural social tendencies that drive creativity, and make work what you want to be doing, rather than merely an endless list of things that must be done.

I've never really been in a place quite like Blender HQ, and found myself quite envious of the casual self-driven working environment. They also had some excellent swag in the form of enameled pins, which I was more than happy to nab for my hat band. Ton's dog Bowie was, of course, quite happy to oversee all the goings on and is an obvious favorite around the studio.

Wilberweek Hackfest - What did we do as a group?

One of the great things about the location of course is that All three projects, GIMP, Blender and Inkscape had the opportunity to liaise and talk about cross-project integrations, and the possibility of creating a completely FOSS workflow, using these three softwares in produciton. Our main focus being maintaining consistency through color profiles, which is an ongoing task in all three projects. Numerous meetings took place over the course of the week (most of which were over my head, being a designer rather than a developer), though I did get a chance to share parts of my workflow, and voice preferences for how things might be best done from a user perspective.

Ton also gave us a presentation on how he turned Blender into a thriving FOSS business, which is seen as a shining beacon to those of us who long for a woqrld where free software frees us in our work as well as contribution play. Ton extolled the virtues of a product-oriented mindset with users and vital functionality at the forefront of his FOSS business, as well as a FOSS-only mindset for the majority of the software used in Blender's own production. Though he admits that Blender's VSE is not quite up to speed with products like Davinci Resolve, which is the only non-FOSS software the institute allows the use of.

I had expected far more occasional use of proprietary software than is actually present at Blender, and found it refreshing, being a rather hard-line FOSS enthusiast myself. I, for example use Blender's VSE for all my video production work, and find it to be at least good enough that I don't feel the need to switch to non-free software to get my production work done. I tend to do a lot of neat things too.

The group concluded each day with a trip to one of the local pubs / restaurants, and then continued our various hacking activities on the boat on into the night.

Wilberweek Hackfest - What did I do?

Mostly, I wanted to split my time between GIMP and Inkscape to make some progress on things I felt benefited both, since both GIMP and Inkscape were kindly footing the tab for my attendance.

It was fun to spitball some ideas about more graphics for the GIMP project, including some sessions regarding my previously submitted logo redesign for the GIMP logo, which the GIMP project members then took and developed some of their own versions. I've included mine here, as I believe they are still working on theirs.

I also wanted to do something similar to the Inkscape business card I designed some years ago for the Inkscape project, which features the hotkeys I use most in my production work. This has proven to be quite a popular bit of swag at conferences, and the graphic itself has been shared around the various Inkscape forums extensively as a way to welcome new members.

I used this opportunity to develop out an idea I had to turn the card into a mini-laptop with even more hotkeys than previously possible. GIMP's many many tools were the perfect opportunity to try out this idea, and I completed two designs, one for those who like silvery metallic laptops, and those who prefer the older thinkpad-style design aesthetic of classic utilitarian laptops.

Of course, given the nautical motif of our stay on the New Moon, I threw together a custom GIMP-themed pirate flag. In the end, we decided not to fly it on an actual flag after some discussion of whether such a thing was even allowed on a seafaring ship. Basically, we collectively chickened out on that one. Instead, I just used Blender and some wind simulation to fly the Jolly Wilber. Arrrrr!

Apart from the swag, I'm also working on developing Social media suptertemplates, which will allow the export to the many variously sized social media graphics (and internal Inkscape graphics), for new releases, since we have an upcoming 1.3 release that needs a bunch of new graphics from our talented About Screen contest winners, and entrants. The purpose of this supertemplate is to make updating the graphics, and pushing out social media releases to be fast and easy rather than the burdensome chore that it currently is. This uses Inkscape's advanced clone functionality to generate all the sizes necessary by just replacing some key graphics and text once, and then watching the changes magically propogate to all the sizes, named appropriately for batch export all at once, without the need for any external scripts. This will dramatically lower the bar for contributors who wish to perform this task, as it can all be done in Inkscape's normal UI.

Goodbye Amsterdam!

After some fond farewells to Ton and the Blender crew, and a final self-guided bike tour of the city, we returned the bikes, cleaned up the boat, and set off towards our various parts of the world. I feel this experience has brought us all closer together, and being able to put faces and voices together with those on IRC, is really invaluable to our respective projects. I look forward to seeing all our friends in the GIMP project again some day. Maybe together we can get LGM going again in some capacity. It would be great to meet more often!

Thank you GIMP and Blender!

I'd like to conclude with a hearty thankyou to Jehan and the GIMP team for setting this up, and making sure everything went smoothly, and to Ton, and the Blender folks for providing an excellent venue, food, and marvelous conversations and inspiration for our ongoing FOSS endeavors. I hope to be able to attend GIMP events in the future. It was a truly marvelous and ultimately unforgettable week, which I will enjoy in both memory and photos into the future.