Features of Inkscape
Object creation
- Drawing:
- Pencil tool (freehand drawing with simple paths)
- Pen tool (creating Bézier curves and straight lines) with the following modes:
- Bézier
- Spiro Spline
- B-Spline
- Straight lines
- Perpendicular lines
- Calligraphy tool (freehand drawing using filled paths representing calligraphic strokes)
- Shape tools:
- Rectangles (includes squares, may have rounded corners)
- Ellipses (includes circles, arcs, segments)
- Stars/polygons (can be rounded and/or randomized),
- Spirals
- Text tool (multi-line text, full on-canvas editing)
- Embedded bitmaps (with a command to create and embed bitmaps of selected objects)
- Clones and symbols ("live" linked copies of objects), including a tool to create patterns and arrangements of clones
- Import from online image libraries
Object manipulation
- Transformations (moving, scaling, rotating, skewing) - both interactively and by specifying exact numeric values
- Layers and Objects (lock, hide individual objects, rearrange them and organize hierarchically)
- Z-order operations (raising and lowering)
- Grouping objects
- Alignment and Distribution commands
- Guide lines and grids (rectangular, axonometric/isometric, modular)
- Fine-grained snap controls
Fill and stroke
- Color selector (RGB, HSL, HSV, HSLuv, CMYK, Color wheel, CMS)
- Predefined and custom color palettes (over 20 included)
- Color picker tool
- Copy/paste style
- A gradient editor capable of multi-stop (radial or linear) gradients
- Mesh gradient
- Pattern fills (bitmap/vectors, more than 130 included)
- Dashed strokes: more than 30 predefined and custom dash patterns
- Swatches
- Path markers: ending, middle and/or beginning marks, e.g. arrowheads; with editable position, rotation, color and size, more than 30 included
Operations on paths
- Node editing: moving nodes and Bezier handles, node alignment and distribution, etc.
- Converting to path (for text objects or shapes), including converting stroke to path
- Boolean operations
- Shape builder
- Live Path Effects - non-destructive path modification:
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- Path simplification, with variable threshold
- Path insetting and outsetting, including dynamic and linked offset objects
- Bitmap tracing (both color and monochrome paths)
Text support
- Uses any installed outline fonts, including right-to-left scripts
- Variable font support
- Kerning, letter spacing, line spacing adjustments
- Multi-line text
- Text on path
- Text in a shape
- Text with fixed width
- SVG font editor
Rendering
- Fully anti-aliased display
- Alpha transparency support for display and PNG export
- Complete "as you drag" rendering of objects during interactive transformations
File formats
- Perfectly compliant SVG format file generation and editing
- Live watching and editing the document tree in the XML editor
- PNG, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, sk1, PDF, AI, EPS and PostScript export formats and more
- Command line options for export and conversions
Customizable User Interface
- Inkscape allows you to customize almost every aspect of its user interface:
- Scaling of interface font, palette, on-canvas controls and icons
- Changing color and style of canvas controls, desk, and page (including its borders)
- Separate themes for interface, icons and code (including dark mode)
- Dialog layouts and menus
- Keyboard and mouse shortcuts
- Flexible dialog docking system (right / left, tabs, stacked, side-by-side)
- All interface elements can be hidden individually, or even completely for 'Zen' mode
View Your Art
- Zoom from 1 to 25600 %
- Move the canvas with the mouse or keyboard
- Rotate and mirror / flip the canvas
- Icon preview
- Various view modes:
- Normal
- Outline
- Outline overlay
- Enhance thin lines (for plotting/cutting)
- No filters
- X-Ray
- Split mode
- Print preview
- Color managed
- Greyscale
Extension System
- Extensions extend Inkscape's functionality by
- Providing even more export and import file formats
- Modifying selected objects
- Adding entirely new elements to the drawing
- Providing information about the drawing
- Communicating with devices like plotters and CNC machines
- Extensions Gallery with more than 150 extensions included
- Hundreds of third-party extensions available for installation
- Built-in, community-filled extension store
- Python-based extensions system with well-documented API
Filters and Blend Modes
- Filters change the look of objects
- Filter Gallery with more than 250 filters included
- Filter editor to modify and create filters
- Share and find community-created filters on inkscape.org
- 16 Blend modes allow for object's colors to be influenced by the colors of other objects
Templates
- More than 90 templates included, ranging from card and paper sizes, to booklets, to social media, typography, video, icon and screen formats
- Custom default template
- Custom templates, including procedural templates
- Share and find community-created templates on inkscape.org
A Supportive, Committed Community
Inkscape isn't just a computer program, but so much more:
- an international community of volunteer and paid contributors, artists, scientists and hobbyists who support each other
- a place for learning and teaching various skills, ranging from drawing and using the software to all the tasks involved in making the software
- a large group of friends and colleagues, working in teams, who meet online and in person
- an organization under the umbrella of the Software Freedom Conservancy, committed to the ideals of the free software movement, respecting your privacy and your rights as a user
