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October 17, 2008

Cool Tools: Inkscape


Open-Source software has reached a new level of excellence in the past few years. No longer do consumers have to pay for over-priced software, instead they’ve got a number of free alternative which carry nearly all the same features. Inscape is some incredibly useful open-source software for creatives.

Inscape is a vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, or CorelDraw. Instead of bitmap images, Inkscape stores its graphics in a vector format. Don’t let that scare you though, Inkscape can also import and display bitmap images. The software supports many advanced and the interface is nicely streamlined. It’s a nice little vector graphics package for the non-professional user.

A great benefit of the software being open-sourced is that there's a thriving user and developer community. If you’re having trouble with something, chances are someone has already had that same problem and developed a solution.

There are some areas in which Inkscape fails: there are a limited number of tools, there are limited exporting options, and text options are limited, even for an amateur. If you’re not an expert of graphic programs and you’re looking for a simple solution that won’t cost you a lot of dough, Inkscape is the solution you’ve been looking for.

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