Inkscape Limitations
25/10/05 13:17 Filed in: Graphics
Well, at first I was simply amazed by what Inkscape .42 could do
for vector graphics. Flowing text inside vector
outlines, easy to use gradients, great text kerning,
and runs in Windows, MacOSX and Linux!
But then I wanted to make a PDF of the work I'd done and wham, bang lotsa problems. I had to export to postscript for the PDF but Inkscape does not export gradients or alpha channels. Also the touted "Perfectly compliant SVG format file" seems to have problems opening in Batik and other SVG viewers, seemingly because of text flow issues. Even without the gradients the A4 PS export always ended up being too big in the PDF output and so became cropped.
Supposedly I can export the PDF using Scribus (linux only Desktop Publishing Software) but I have yet to try that. I guess I will have to find a Knoppix CDROM to give it a try.
All I could finally do was try exporting PNGs and making PDF's of those... which sorta worked but the PDF file size was way to big.
So, it is nice for editing SVG directly and saving nice PNG's, maybe for making icons, logos, widgets... but otherwise I was loosing too much time to show the work to clients.
But then I wanted to make a PDF of the work I'd done and wham, bang lotsa problems. I had to export to postscript for the PDF but Inkscape does not export gradients or alpha channels. Also the touted "Perfectly compliant SVG format file" seems to have problems opening in Batik and other SVG viewers, seemingly because of text flow issues. Even without the gradients the A4 PS export always ended up being too big in the PDF output and so became cropped.
Supposedly I can export the PDF using Scribus (linux only Desktop Publishing Software) but I have yet to try that. I guess I will have to find a Knoppix CDROM to give it a try.
All I could finally do was try exporting PNGs and making PDF's of those... which sorta worked but the PDF file size was way to big.
So, it is nice for editing SVG directly and saving nice PNG's, maybe for making icons, logos, widgets... but otherwise I was loosing too much time to show the work to clients.