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Or, you could RTFM.

Treasure trove of tutorials: http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php

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Best series of video tutorials that I've found belongs to the guy who did one of the videos I linked to above.

If you're new to Inkscape, start here and just keep watching.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... D85E494E80

They're all short, and usually very clear. (Because the videos are a couple of years old there are some slight differences with the new release, but nothing too hard to figure out.)

While trying to export a simple image to PNG I noticed that the complex export dialog box --

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... Export-PNG

-- was doing some funky things. If I changed the width or height in any location, the DPI would change. If I changed the DPI, the other dimensions would all change. Then, once exported, hovering my mouse over the file caused Windows to report the original file size no matter what changes I made to the dialog box.

To get clear file-size info all the way through, set the file size of your canvas to the max dimension(s) you want the resulting PNG to be under File / Document Properties. (The export dialog seems to take its initial information from that setting.)

If you get funky file-size info when looking at a file in your OS, try saving the image, closing Inkscape, then opening the project again. Worked for me.

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It's worth noting that you've picked up Inkscape at something of a transitional stage. Version 0.91 has only recently been released, so there's a wealth of documentation online that refers to older versions and does not necessarily apply to the new release. Gradients are one area that has been changed significantly with 0.91, for example.

As for the default Save folder... on 0.91 if you go to Edit > Preferences there are two things that are relevant. The first is the Input/Output page, which has a checkbox labelled as 'Use current directory for "Save As ..."' - check out the tooltip for more details. The other control is in the "Autosave" panel within the Input/Output section, which determines where Inkscape's auto-saved documents are stored. I'm not aware of any other places to explicitly set the "default" save folder.

For me, at least, when I start Inkscape with no loaded document and choose "Save As..." it goes to the directory I last saved in.

Ayawisgi wrote:

tylerdurden wrote:Or, you could RTFM.

Splendid. Nothing I like more than an insufferable drive-by troll playing to type.

Simply following the lead of the whiny dimwit, who hasn't' the guts to earnestly ask for help; but instead has pissy-fit about how the documentation doesn't meet his sense of entitlement.

The issues that opened the topic are clearly outlined in the manual. Not that you actually looked there.

Nor have you read the Forum Rules:

There is an ancient and hallowed tradition: if you get a reply that reads “RTFM”, the person who sent it thinks you should have Read The F***ing Manual. He or she is almost certainly right. Go read it.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1836


You get what you pay for...

I suggest you STFU, take some initiative and write something better if you don't like what's offered by the many folks who give without any compensation.

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Ayawisgi wrote:...the single most glaring problem I've come across is that -- as often happens with open-source software -- most of the help files/tutorials are written by people who (obviously) know the program...

Ayawisgi wrote:...I understand that not only is open-source software always in development...

I think it's worth clarifying that "open-source" just refers to the license under which it's released. More specifically, Inkscape is released under the GNU Public License, and is actually "Free" software, rather than "Open Source" - though the distinction is probably immaterial to this discussion.

The key point is that it's just a license. It's not a development model. It's not a sales tactic or marketing ploy. Open Source software can be developed in an open manner, and given away. Or it can be developed by a closed group and sold at a price. Or any other combination of development and deployment model you may choose, so long as it meets the license requirements.

Being released under an Open Source license doesn't mean that software necessarily has bad documentation or obvious design flaws, any more than a closed license means good documentation and perfect design. I could point to good and bad software in both categories - and for what it's worth I think that Inkscape does pretty well on the documentation front, even compared with some commercial software.

As Brynn pointed out, this is a user forum - a "support group" if you like. Ploughing in here proclaiming that the software is no good immediately antagonises the very people who might be able to help you. So please, stay calm and ask sensible questions and you'll find a great many people here who are happy to help you for no other reason than that they want to do their bit to contribute to the world of Inkscape, even if they're not able to write tutorials or modifying the code.




Regarding your specific problems and complaints:

As I mentioned, gradients have changed with 0.91. You claim that "I understand that ... open-source software [is] always in development... it's the stuff that doesn't seem to have been fully documented/explained at any point that is killing me". Gradients most definitely have been fully documented/explained for 0.48, if only in Part 5 of my own series of Inkscape tutorials: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11981

Unfortunately the changes in 0.91 make some of that article obsolete, as the Gradient Editor dialog has been removed and replaced with on-canvas editing. That's why I didn't point you to this resource earlier. But much of what I've written in there still applies.

With regard to Save As... you say "...it still wouldn't be much work to actually display that setting under the I/O preferences, making it visible. That way it could both be checked and changed as needed." But it's not quite as simple as that, is it? If it's exposed in the UI there, what should happen the next time you use Save As... and navigate to a different folder? Should the one you "set" in the preferences be replaced with the new one? Then we'll have complaints that the preferences are changing on their own. Perhaps it should be left alone and used next time (it is a default, after all). Then there will be complaints that users have to keep changing the preferences every time they switch to a different project, or that the file selector has "forgotten" the path they chose last time. I'm not saying that there's no justification for exposing the "default" path, but rather that exposing a UI or preference addition is rarely as straightforward as you imply.



By all means come here for help when you get stuck. If you think the terminology in a dialog should be changed, or there needs to be a preference exposing the default path, then go ahead and (politely) file a bug on Launchpad. That's one of the ways in which you can actively help to contribute to making the software better for users in the future. But don't come to a community of volunteers with a sense of entitlement over the software that you haven't paid for and haven't (yet) contributed to, insulting those of us that have spent many hours writing tutorials, recording videos and trying to help other users as best we can. It's not the best way to make an entrance.

I appreciate the well-considered replies.

I can't argue against your point of view from inside this forum or as long-time Inkscape users.

Unfortunately, all of the suggestions you've made either presume that I did not already try to find the answers myself, or that the only solution to failed aspects of Inkscape is to fix them myself. I'm all for group hugs and a sense of community, but the fact is -- and it is a fact -- that there are serious barriers to entry for Inkscape, and they would be scathingly obvious to anyone who did even a little bit of usability testing.

This attitude, that it's free therefore no one should complain, permeates open-source software. The makers are doing us all a favor, the volunteer helpers are doing us all a favor, so no one is responsible and everyone should just be grateful. It permeates LINUX and is why LINUX has never established itself in the way that it should have. If you don't get how a distro works, or you're frustrated after a sincere effort to learn on your own, you're an entitled brat.

I like Inkscape. I mistook this forum for having some connection to the developers because of its prominence. Apologies.

Having used inkscape for quite some time now I cannot say there are no "serious barriers".
The whole program is trying to be close to the svg specifications, and even the industry standard on vectorgraphics in general is far from clear artistic aspects. (Namely the Bézier splines in use.)
On an other side, not getting the knowledge and experience by pressing the download button will always be present.
Fine, the interface would get dumbed down more. What next? Then another barrier would appear immediately.
Not saying it is good or bad, but that is how things are going.


Contrary free-warranty free, take blender.
Crowd-funded, and ways more effective than maya or 3dsmax.

Ayawisgi wrote:I'm all for group hugs and a sense of community, but the fact is -- and it is a fact -- that there are serious barriers to entry for Inkscape, and they would be scathingly obvious to anyone who did even a little bit of usability testing.

I won't deny that there are some usability issues in Inkscape, but I wouldn't describe them as "serious barriers to entry" - otherwise I doubt many of us would be here (we were all noobs once). The majority of "usability issues" that we see from noobs at this forum probably boil down to people not understanding the difference between vector and bitmap graphics, and therefore making incorrect assumptions about how the program operates. And the persistent "Export Bitmap" confusion that thankfully has been reduced with 0.91 by renaming the option to "Export PNG image" (see! the developers do make usability improvements!).

One clear problem is that "usability testing" doesn't necessarily help. It might fix the odd typo here, or dialog layout there, but there's also a danger that, in making an application "noob friendly" it becomes less useful for more advanced users. And where is this "usability testing" coming from? Is it being provided for free by a group of volunteers? If so, what gives their view of usability any more weight than yours or mine? Perhaps a professional testing company could be sought... but with what money?

I'll also point out that Windows 8 almost certainly went through "usability testing", and look how that turned out!

Ayawisgi wrote:This attitude, that it's free therefore no one should complain, permeates open-source software.

Theres a difference between "complaints" and "constructive criticisms". As I pointed out, you can register your usability concerns as issues on Launchpad - some of them are likely to be easy to address, or prove ideal issues for new developers to deal with whilst they become accustomed to the codebase. I've registered UI issues there myself in the 0.48 series, which have now been addressed in version 0.91 (see! the developers do make usability improvements!).

By all means complain if you want to. Take to Twitter. Post to a blog. Proclaim your complaints from the tallest towers. But with no "head of Inkscape" to moan to it's likely that your complaints will fall on deaf ears. Take the time to learn how the Inkscape community works, where the developers reside, and how to file bug reports, and you're more likely to get somewhere.

Ayawisgi wrote:The makers are doing us all a favor, the volunteer helpers are doing us all a favor, so no one is responsible and everyone should just be grateful.

That's somewhat misrepresenting the situation. Yes, you should be grateful that the developers have created this software and are giving it away for free. Yes, you should be grateful that some of us users are trying to help other users, for free. That doesn't mean that "no one is responsible". I'm sure the developers feel incredibly responsible for the code that they produce - to the extent that they've made facilities available for users to feed back feature requests and bug reports to them so that the code can be improved in future. I personally feel hugely responsible for the tutorials that I've written over the past three years; the few times that I've noticed any confusion caused by them, I've done my utmost to help out those users and to clarify anything that needed it in the next months article.

But we're not responsible in the same sense that people on a charged-by-the-minute helpline for an expensive piece of software are "responsible". That sort of responsibility requires paid-for employees that can be told what to do by the boss.


So don't read "we're all volunteers" as a lack of commitment or responsibility, but rather as a statement of fact. Another fact is that there are well established ways to report issues - including usability issues - to the developers. Use them. Politely respond to questions and feeback from the developers. Wait patiently. If you're lucky a future release of Inkscape will include your improvements and you can feel happy that your bug reports have helped out some future noob who will never have to face the same issues as you.

In the meantime feel free to ask questions here in a reasonable manner, and you'll get useful responses. The usability of Inkscape isn't perfect, but there are people here willing to help as best we can. Now, group hug everyone?