Changes from NEWS:
The focus of this release is on the exciting new features sponsored by
Google via their Summer of Code program. However, we have quite a bunch of
other stuff too. Here are the highlights:
* Connectors: A new Connector tool implements creation, editing, and
autorouting (object-avoiding) of connector lines between objects.
Indispensable for diagramming. (A Google SoC project.)
* Inkboard collaborative editing: You can now connect to other Inkscape
users over the Net and edit a shared document together, watching
others' changes and making yours! (A Google SoC project.)
* Pressure and tilt sensitivity: the Calligraphy tool can now use a
tablet pen with pressure/tilt support to vary the width and angle of
the calligraphic stroke.
* Better node editing: You can freely drag/bend/stretch a Bezier curve
by any point (not only by a node), as well as add a new node at any
point on the curve.
* New extensions for envelope distortion, whirling, and adding nodes.
* Improved precision, expanded limits, many usability improvements and
bugfixes.
* Flowed text: text objects that automatically reflow in any shape (not
only rectangle).
* Text selection: finally you can shift+arrow or drag over part of a
text and apply any style to the selected span.
* Gradient tool: a completely redesigned and much easier to use gradient
interface, with gradient handles displayed right on canvas.
* Effects are now usable from within Inkscape on all platforms; this
version ships with a collection of effects including path
interpolation, randomization, and various fractal algorithms.
* Color swatches: a standard facility in most graphic software, now in
Inkscape too.
* Colored clones: clones can now be painted differently from their
original.
* Tile tracing: the Tile Clones dialog can trace the existing image with
the tiling, producing a multitude of exciting effects.
* Grid arrange, baseline align, unclumping: new powerful ways to arrange
objects.
* Better PS/EPS export: gradient support, better text handling, a
command line option for batch export.
* Command line SVG analysis: use Inkscape from the command line to query
coordinates and dimensions of objects in an SVG file.
* Better SVG/CSS compliance: notably, internal CSS stylesheets are now
supported (read-only).
* OS X support: In addition to Linux and Windows, Inkscape 0.42 is
available as a fully self-contained dmg package for Mac OS X.
from the announcement:
The primary focus of 0.41 has been bug fixing.
[...]
A couple new features also found their way in. First, the black and
white tracing functionality introduced in 0.40 has been improved to also
allow conversion of color and grayscale images. Second, is the addition
of a new clone tiler facility which creates patterns, tesselations, and
other sorts of geometric tiling arrangements.
User requests and comments also stimulated a number of improvements to
units handling, extensions, the Invert Selection command, layers
selector, icon theming, and several new translations.
has:
This release has been slow in coming, but it was worth the wait: Inkscape
0.40 brings a huge amount of new features, usability enhancements,
documentation, and bugfixes. The three most important new features are:
* Layers are almost complete in this version; this fills a major gap in
functionality, making Inkscape usable for complex artwork.
* The Potrace bitmap tracer is incorporated into Inkscape - now
vectorizing bitmaps is easy and interactive. A matching command,
"Create bitmap copy", converts from any object to bitmap.
* The text-on-path implementation is complete and very flexible. Both
the text and the path remain fully editable and transformable.
...
* Bugfixes: too many to mention (in total, 228 bugs closed in the
tracker since 0.39), including several important SVG compatibility
fixes.
More information at http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes040
This package now depends on boehm-gc. And it uses libsigc++2
and gtkmm24 instead of libsigc++ and gtkmm.
Many new templates added. And a new library added: libgimpgrad.
Patches removed. (The landscape printing support was added to 0.40.)
