INKSCAPE(1)

NAME
Inkscape - a 2D Scalable Vector Graphics editing program.

SYNOPSIS
"inkscape [options] [filename ...]"

options:

    -?, --help
    -a, --export-area=x0:y0:x1:y1
    -b, --export-background=COLOR
    -d, --export-dpi=DPI
    -e, --export-png=FILENAME
    -f, --file=FILENAME
    -h, --export-height=HEIGHT
    -i, --bitmap-icons
    -p, --print=FILENAME
    -s, --slideshow
    -w, --export-width=WIDTH
    -x, --with-gui
    -z, --without-gui
        --export-svg=FILENAME
        --usage

DESCRIPTION
Inkscape is a GUI editor for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format drawing files, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc. Supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, node editing, svg-to-png export, grouping, and more. . The interface is designed to be comfortable and efficient for skilled users, while remaining conformant to GNOME standards so that users familiar with other GNOME applications can learn it's interface rapidly.

SVG is a W3C standard XML format for 2D vector drawing, that allows defining objects in the drawing using points, paths, and primitive shapes. Colors, fonts, line thicknesses, and so forth are specified as 'style' attributes to these objects. The intent is that since SVG is a standard, and since its files are text/xml instead of binary, it is be possible to use SVG files in a sizeable number of programs and for a wide range of uses.

Inkscape uses SVG as its native document format, and has the goal of becoming the most fully compliant drawing program for SVG files available in the Open Source community.

OPTIONS

-?, --help
    Show help message

-a x0:y0:x1:y1, --export-area=x0:y0:x1:y1
    Exported area in millimeters (default is full document, 0,0 is lower-left corner)

-b COLOR, --export-background=COLOR
    Background color of exported bitmap (any SVG supported color string)

-d DPI, --export-dpi=DPI
    The resolution used for converting SVG into bitmap (default 72.0)

-e FILENAME, --export-png=FILENAME
    Export document to png file

-f FILENAME, --file=FILENAME
    Open specified document(s) (option string may be excluded)

-h HEIGHT, --export-height=HEIGHT
    The height of generated bitmap in pixels (overwrites dpi)

-i, --bitmap-icons
    Prefer bitmap (xpm) icons to SVG ones

-p FILENAME, --print=FILENAME
    Print document(s) to specified output file (use '| program' for pipe)

-s, --slideshow
    Show given files one-by-one, switch to next on any key/mouse event

-w WIDTH, --export-width=WIDTH
    The width of generated bitmap in pixels (overwrites dpi)

-x, --with-gui
    Try to use X server even if $DISPLAY is not set)

-z, --without-gui
    Do not open GUI and do not use X server (only process files from console). Useful for printing SVG documents.

--export-svg=FILENAME
    Export document to plain SVG file (no "xmlns:sodipodi" namespace)

--usage
    Display brief usage message

KEYBINDINGS
See keybindings.txt for a listing of keybindings.

DIAGNOSTICS
The program returns zero on success or non-zero on failure.

A variety of error messages and warnings are printed to STDERR or STDOUT. If the program behaves erratically with a particular SVG file or crashes, it is sometimes useful to look at this output for clues. For example, it may indicate if a given SVG file contains elements or attributes that are not yet supported by the codebase.

EXAMPLES
While obviously Inkscape is primarily intended as a GUI application, it can be used for doing SVG processing on the commandline as well. (Note though that other SVG tools and libraries such as librsvg may be better suited for production SVG processing.)

Printing an SVG file directly:

    inkscape filename.svg -p | lpr

Converting SVG file to a png:

    inkscape --export-png=filename.png --export-height=400 --export-width=600

Convert an SVG document using items in the sodipodi namespace to plain SVG:

    inkscape filename1.svg e --export-svg=filename2.svg

ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.

TMPDIR to set the default path of the directory to use for temporary files. The directory must exist.

FILES
$HOME/.inkscapelite/preferences.xml - The user's preference settings.

$HOME/.inkscapelite/extensions.xml - The filter programs to be used in the application.

OTHER INFO
The canonical place to find Inkscape info is at http://www.inkscape.org/. The website includes links to other relevant documentation, tutorials, user manual, examples, mailing list archives, the latest released version of the program, and more.

SEE ALSO
gimp(1), autotrace, frontline, ill2svg, rsvg(1), xfig(1), sodipodi, karbon14, dia(1X), batik.

NOTES
Ctrl & Shift modify dragging behaviour in some modes

Shift click/rubberband usually toggles selection

Snapping to guidelines/grid work only for certain modes

To break line (or add node) select its endpoints

It should import png, bmp, jpg, xpm & gif bitmaps and svg vector images.

Open can handle only svg graphics

BUGS
When importing svg generated with ill2svg, all paths are usually grouped. Ungroup these manually.

Many bugs are known; please refer to the website for reviewing the reported ones and to report newly found issues.

AUTHORS
This codebase owes its existance to a large number of contributors throughout its various incarnations. The following list is certainly incomplete, but serves to recognize the many shoulders on which this application sits:

John Bintz, Hans Breuer, Bulia Byak, Chema Celorio, Zbigniew Chyla, Kees Cook, Robert Crosbie, Jon Cruz, Danilo Egan, Frank Felfe, Ted Gould, Bryce Harrington, Nathan Hurst, Thomas Ingham, Bob Jamison, Lauris Kaplinski, Lynn Kerby, Petr Kovar, Raph Levien, Vitaly Lipatov, Dmitry G. Mastrukov, Michael Meeks, Frederico Mena, MenTaLguY, Yukihiro Nakai, Christian Neumair, Mitsuru Oka, Christian Schaller, Tom von Schwerdtner, Daniel Yacob, Masatake Yamato

This man page was put together by Bryce Harrington <brycehar@bryceharrington.com>

HISTORY
The codebase that would become Inkscape began life in 1999 as the program 'GILL', the GNOME Illustrator application, created by Raph Levien. The stated objective for Gill was to eventually support all of SVG. Raph implemented the PostScript bezier imaging model, including stroking and filling, line cap style, line join style, text, etc. Raph's Gill page is at http://www.levien.com/svg/. Work on Gill appears to have slowed or ceased in 2000, perhaps in part due to frustrations dealing with implementing DOM and SVG.

The next incarnation of the codebase was to become the highly popular program Sodipodi, led by Lauris Kaplinkski. The codebase was turned into a very usable illustration program over the course of several year's work, adding several new features, multi-lingual support, porting to Windows and other operating systems, and eliminating dependencies.

Inkscape was formed in 2003 by a number of active Sodipodi developers wanting to take a different direction with the codebase in terms of focus on SVG-compliance, interface look-and-feel, and a desire to open development opportunities to more participants. In a way, this direction marks a return to the codebase's Gill roots.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 by Authors.

Inkscape is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL.