For some software, major version numbers are handed out all willy-nilly. For instance, as of today, the Google Chrome web browser sits at version 81, while Mozilla Firefox is at 75. Meanwhile, the Linux kernel is at version 5.x after 29 years! Ultimately, version numbers are determined by the developers and have different levels of meaning -- there are no definitive rules.

Of course, there is one version number that is universally regarded as one of the most important -- 1.0. It is this number that typically (but not always) tells the world that software has left pre-release status and is ready for prime-time. Well, today, Inkscape 1.0 is released for Linux, Windows and macOS. Hilariously, this number is being designated more than 16 years after the initial release of the vector graphics editor! Despite its sub-one version for more than a decade-and-a-half, the open source software has become a trusted and essential tool for people all over the world.

Probably the biggest new thing in the Inkscape 1.0 release is the port to the latest GTK3 UI toolkit. This means that Inkscape will not only look better overall, but it will also work on HiDPI/4K screens.

But there are numerous other new features included in this release that should please even the most aspiring graphic designers, freestyle drawing users, and other artists who work with SVG graphics.

Among these, there’s theme support to let users choose between dark or light themes to match their desktops, a new searchable Live Path Effects selection dialog, new Split-view and Xray modes, as well as canvas rotation and mirroring.

The open source vector editor is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS, and one of the biggest announcement concerns Apple’s platform.

Beginning with version 1.0, InkScape is offered as a native macOS application, which means you should notice better performance and increased reliability.

With over 16 years of heavy development, the open-source graphics editor Inkscape has finally hit a milestone with the release of version 1.0. Inkscape 1.0 packs high performance, new features and toolset, HiDPI support, and a native macOS application.

Back in 2003, Inkscape released its initial version and then reached 1.0 by rolling out the release candidate last month. However, the last three years of Inkscape development have been mostly about improving the stability of the open-source graphics editor.

Two big bits of software news for artists to share today as two major bits of FOSS software have big new versions up with Inkscape and Krita. Both examples of how great FOSS software can be, regardless of your use for designing game art or anything else.

After what feels like forever, vector graphics editor Inkscape finally hit the big 1.0 release yesterday! Such a huge release too moving over to GTK+3 for the interface bringing HiDPI improvements, better performance especially when editing node-heavy objects, a reorganized tool box with a more logical order to it, the canvas is more flexible for freestyle drawing, the UI is more customizable than ever, new PNG export options and the list goes on.

Even though I’m not an expert, it is safe to say that Inkscape is one of the best vector graphics editors.

Not just limited to the reason that it is free and open-source software – but it is indeed a useful application for digital artists creating something on it.

The last release (version 0.92) was about 3 years ago. And, now, finally, Inkscape announced its 1.0 release – with a bunch of new features, additions, and improvements.

The 16-year-old Inkscape project has released version 1.0 of the free and open-source vector graphics editor, after three years in development. Inkscape 1.0 is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Inkscape 1.0 is packed with new features and is now available in 20 languages with numerous performance improvements that should make it run noticeably more smoothly.

Inkscape offers designers, artists, and scientists a free alternative to Adobe Illustrator.

Congratulations to all Inkscape developers! They successfully released the long awaited version 1.0 on yesterday, 5 May 2020. This is our beloved free/libre open source software for vector graphic designing best known as replacement to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. By this article I send my gratitude to all geniuses who made Inkscape since it was named Sodipodi up to today and beyond for it is truly meaningful to me as I create all my artworks using it. Thank you for all your hard work! For all dear UbuntuBuzz.com readers here are the official information and more about it collected in one place. Let's download Inkscape!

Inkscape the free vector graphics editor releases version 1.0 updates after three years of development. This huge release brings translation updates, code framework updates, and new features to help you to create more stunning vector graphics – for free.

The latest Inkscape 1.0 also brings the “preview” build for macOS and promises smoother and higher performance in Linux and Windows.

This release brings a huge list of changes that you can read here. Here’s a summary of the changes which I can pull up from the changelog for your reference.

The developers of the open source cross-platform vector graphics editor Inkscape have released Inkscape 1.0 to the public this week. The new version is a milestone release that introduces numerous changes including HiDPI support, performance improvements, a native Mac OS application, and improved tools and features.

Inkscape is a vector graphics editor that uses the SVG format by default; the application supports other formats that it can import and export, and it can be extended by installing add-ons. One of the main advantages of vector graphics is that the format is resolution independent (opposed to raster graphics which depend on the resolution).

Open-source, cross-platform vector drawing package Inkscape has reached its version 1.0 milestone after many years of development.

Inkscape can be seen as an alternative to commercial products such as Adobe Illustrator or Serif Affinity Designer – though unlike Inkscape, neither of those run on Linux. The native format of Inkscape is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), the web standard.

We took a look at the release candidate last month. The release has been three years in the making, and comes more than 16 years after the first tentative release in 2003. A member of the development team, Marc Jeanmougin, told us that the long development time was because "it's just volunteer work", combined with technical challenges related to the migration from GNOME's GTK+ library 2 to GTK 3.

Many improvements, including HiDPI support, come as part of this transition. The team has also worked on performance, especially on complex SVG objects that have a large number of nodes.

Inkscape 1.0 is most significant for Mac users. Previous releases for macOS required a compatibility component called XQuartz, which enables applications designed for the X windowing system to run on macOS Quartz, part of Apple's Core Graphics framework. This is no longer required and Inkscape 1.0 is now a native macOS application – though it is not all good news. The announcement noted: "This latest version is labelled as 'preview', which means that additional improvements are scheduled for the next versions."

After almost 17 years in the making, Inkscape 1.0 is out. Let's be fair: this is one of those cases when the humble version number doesn't nearly represent what's actually in the box. The software was perfectly usable right at the point of forking from Sodipodi back in 2003, I'm speaking as the eyewitness here. The v1.0 release should've happened years ago but the team took a very conservative approach.

Personally, I stopped using Inkscape 0.92.x and switched to what later became v1.0 a year ago or so. So far, it's been a good run. I still have personal beefs with some UI solutions but I realize it's partially due to using a toolkit that is OK for generic desktop applications and not exactly stellar for specialized software.

My personal impression, if you are interested, is that the current team is highly motivated to push this project in the direction of making it a better tool for illustrators. But user impressions are one thing and what developers actually do think is often a whole different thing. So this is an interview time.

I guess there's just one disclaimer left to tell. Answers to my questions arrived after final GSoC slots had been announced, so at least one of the questions might not make as much sense to you as you'd probably expect to. Oh, and all the illustrations below are close-up parts of the about screen for Inkscape 1.0, made by Bayu Rizaldhan Rayes.

First of all, congratulations! This is a huge milestone. As a large project with a massive user base, I bet that you often feel overwhelmed because people expect so much of you. Some want Inkscape to become an animation tool, others want more CAD features (with constraints, no less), and the list goes on. But Inkscape started out with a mission to become THE editor of SVG files. I mean, even the version numbering scheme used to reflect the coverage of the W3C specification, like v0.50 for 50% coverage etc. (this never happened, I think). Now, the homepage doesn't even mention the word "SVG". So how do you actually market Inkscape these days?

Bryce Harrington: After we'd released a few versions of Inkscape, one of our users posted a drawing of a glowingly photorealistic car — it's the one you've probably seen on the Wikipedia page for Inkscape. Seeing how our users were employing Inkscape made many of us realize the scope for Inkscape was incredibly broad.

Along with that, users appeared who hadn't heard of SVG prior to Inkscape. SVG was just a file format, one of several possible ones they cared about. These users viewed Inkscape not as an "SVG editor" but something that solved even more general drawing needs.