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Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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This is a very hand alternative to Illustrator and even Photoshop depending on what you need to do. Considering it is free, it is definitely worth a try.

Overall Rating

4 out of 5 stars

3

Had to jump into design comparable to illustrator to send to graphics company for one of our station events. Didn’t have time for regular approval process and knew what we wanted locally for the graphic to look like. Inkscape was easy to learn, great quick keys and very intuitive for me to create a vector based on the photoshop file we had already created. I know vectors are preferred for logos and images for printing and now we have a way to create them and modify them without the expense of illustrator.

Overall Rating

5 out of 5 stars

4

When I switched to Linux I was worried about finding a replacement for my beloved Illustrator. Inkscape has filled that gap nicely.

Overall Rating

5 out of 5 stars

5

I used InkScape primarily to modify a few SVG files and bring back over to DIA for editing in a larger document. Works well enough, but the interface leaves a bit to be desired. If you are working with vector images, Inkscape is great for those of you on a budget.

Overall Rating

4 out of 5 stars

6

Inkscape is my go-to svg editor. You can easily create paths from text and modify in pretty much any way you can think of. You can warp a path into perspective, wrap on another path, move boundaries in/out, clip using another path, etc.

Overall Rating

5 out of 5 stars

7

i used this for editing some vector design for my company. it is not very user friendly but it you can spend time with it, you will be alright,

Overall Rating

4 out of 5 stars

8

Great product, watch a tutorial first

Inkscape is a great product if you’re looking for cheaper alternatives to Illustrator. I found the learning curve to be a bit steep, but after watching some YouTube videos it started coming together.

Overall Rating

5 out of 5 stars

9

Inkscape is to SVG what Word is to HTML

Inkscape is great for the price (free) but look elsewhere if you have serious projects because even though it is quite capable, it does not make nice compact SVGs. Much like Word can make HTML pages, a professional would never use it because of all the extraneous tags it leaves in the code. Inkscape does the same thing with SVG. Even if you save the file as plain SVG, there will still be inkscape specific tags left in the underlying code.

What are the pros?

  • Open source
  • Lots of tutorials
  • Very mature product
  • Quite capable
  • Makes some things (like attaching a script to an element) very easy

What are the cons?

  • Lots of unnecessary junk left in the SVG.
  • Copying and pasting an element in the viewbox, then moving that element does not change the XY coordinates. Instead, a transform is used. This also bloats the code and makes it more difficult to read.
  • Specifying the number of significant digits is an all or nothing deal. If you have an element that needs 5 digits of precision, every value will have 5 digits of precision. This can create many green squiggles in Visual studio as it whines about invalid property values like a stroke-width of 1.98753 (which, seriously! might as well make that 2)

Overall Rating

3 out of 5 stars