This is a good tutorial. It highlights the strengths of Inkscape, as a vector illustrator.
However, it also does something that is perhaps being overlooked: It highlights Inkscape’s **weakness** as a diagramming program.
In a good diagramming program, you don’t have to manually position text within shapes; Rather, text is automatically centered. Nor do you have to manually position text on lines.
In a good diagramming program, connector tools work. And in a good diagramming program, drop-shadows are usually just a checkbox away, if not a default.
In a good diagramming program, you don’t have to manually create arrows off to the side, and manually position them on the tips of your lines. Of course, Inkscape *has* arrows that appear on lines, but there are a number of problems with them: their size is a function of the size of the line-width tool, and it’s hard to pick the arrows that you want 98% of the time, from the ton of “arrow points” that are sort of funny looking, that are options. We have circles, triangles, scissors, even legs and torsos as arrow points, but there is neither white-filled nor white-filled with center line interior triangle, staples of mechanical drafting, architectural drafting, and a norm of diagrams pretty much everywhere!
Inkscape is (IS!) my *favorite* Free Liber / Open Source Software program, *in the world.* And I am typing this to you through Firefox on Ubuntu right now- I use a LOT of Free Software. In fact, Inkscape is (IS) my *favorite* software in the world, *period.* It’s just an incredible vector illustrator. Bryce Harrington can relay to you my passion for this program.
But, it’s not a good diagramming tool. (And I am skeptical that it *should* be– a vector illustrator is a very different creature, than a diagramming tool.)
In my ideal future, the Inkscape codebase would divide into multiple programs. One as a vector illustrator, one as a diagramming tool, one as an EMACS-like thing, for visual programming, one as a … (Tons of tools, all different, all visual, all based on Inkscape pattern.)
@Michael:
No i did not write this tutorial, i merely linked to it, you may want to leave a comment at the bottom of the author’s tutorial, he has a comments area also
@Lion Kimbro:
as i said to Michael, i did not write this, i suggest you leave your comments on his comments also.
Did you create that tutorial? Who ever it was, that was great! Thanks for linking it, I enjoyed reading it.
This is a good tutorial. It highlights the strengths of Inkscape, as a vector illustrator.
However, it also does something that is perhaps being overlooked: It highlights Inkscape’s **weakness** as a diagramming program.
In a good diagramming program, you don’t have to manually position text within shapes; Rather, text is automatically centered. Nor do you have to manually position text on lines.
In a good diagramming program, connector tools work. And in a good diagramming program, drop-shadows are usually just a checkbox away, if not a default.
In a good diagramming program, you don’t have to manually create arrows off to the side, and manually position them on the tips of your lines. Of course, Inkscape *has* arrows that appear on lines, but there are a number of problems with them: their size is a function of the size of the line-width tool, and it’s hard to pick the arrows that you want 98% of the time, from the ton of “arrow points” that are sort of funny looking, that are options. We have circles, triangles, scissors, even legs and torsos as arrow points, but there is neither white-filled nor white-filled with center line interior triangle, staples of mechanical drafting, architectural drafting, and a norm of diagrams pretty much everywhere!
Inkscape is (IS!) my *favorite* Free Liber / Open Source Software program, *in the world.* And I am typing this to you through Firefox on Ubuntu right now- I use a LOT of Free Software. In fact, Inkscape is (IS) my *favorite* software in the world, *period.* It’s just an incredible vector illustrator. Bryce Harrington can relay to you my passion for this program.
But, it’s not a good diagramming tool. (And I am skeptical that it *should* be– a vector illustrator is a very different creature, than a diagramming tool.)
In my ideal future, the Inkscape codebase would divide into multiple programs. One as a vector illustrator, one as a diagramming tool, one as an EMACS-like thing, for visual programming, one as a … (Tons of tools, all different, all visual, all based on Inkscape pattern.)
@Michael:
No i did not write this tutorial, i merely linked to it, you may want to leave a comment at the bottom of the author’s tutorial, he has a comments area also
@Lion Kimbro:
as i said to Michael, i did not write this, i suggest you leave your comments on his comments also.
thanks for reading the inkscapetutorials blog!