in a previous post,i asked whether or not inkscape would run on windows vista and it was suggested that i download the 0.46 (developmental) version.i was also advised that there are some bugs in the new version. i am planning to open a cafepress store soon,so my question now is...will these "bugs" affect my ability to use inkscape for my cafepress design work. i've never used inkscape before and don't know much about it,so any help that any of you could give me would be greatly appreciated...thanks

I think you can use it, Im using it for all my vector work. As far as stability (crashing) is concerned I don't think there's much difference between the official 0.45 and development 0.46 (0.46 may even be more stable). You do have to keep in mind to save often so you don't lose work just in case you do stumble upon a crash bug, but saving often is good practice for any kind of computer work . Crashes do occur more often when working on very complicated drawings with many objects, but I doubt you'll complicate things for Cafepress eh?

The biggest issue on Win version is printing (doesn't work), but you don't need it for CafePress. Some extensions don't work and thats what I miss the most (Envelope and Perspective), but they do work on Linux so if you ever need it you can ask someone through this forum to run them for you.

All you need to do to get the drawing ready for CafePress is export under 300dpi into a .png file. Go for it!

You can always use both 0.45 and 0.46. I've done this in the past when experiancing stability issues with certain features - I don't think switching between versions was destructive to the file (i.e. effects defined in one are removed in the other), but you might like to maintain a backup just in case.

If 0.45 doesn't work well in Vista (I thought it did with the exception of rendering menus) you could try installing it into a virtual machine as a fallback plan.

I have been using 0.45 on my Window Vista machine for not quite a week now and so far I haven't experience many mishaps. Except for the menus not rendering properly ie. when moused over the names turn to white.

So it sounds like I can download version 0.46 and run it to import PDF files then save the file, close 0.46 and open the file in 0.45? At least to get a PDF file opened and use the vectors in it?

StevenD wrote:So it sounds like I can download version 0.46 and run it to import PDF files then save the file, close 0.46 and open the file in 0.45? At least to get a PDF file opened and use the vectors in it?

You mean open in 0.46 and save to SVG? Absolutely. That should work flawlessly... at least, as well as you can expect when converting between vector formats.

Thanks. Yes that is what I meant by save. Save the SVG file. Great I'm going to give it a try.

yes you can install different versions in different folders so you can use both but if you open it in 0.46 I don't see why you shouldn't go on working on it there

Well you know anytime someone uses the term "buggy" that causes caution to come into play. So I was just thinking of playing it safe. But yes you are right which is probably what I will do barring any major crashes. I poked around in version 0.46 (Inkscape 0.45+0.46pre2+devel, built Feb 21 2008) last night before turning and like what I see. Only had it crash on me once so we shall see. I was surprised to see the nifty 3D tool. And I like the splash screen.

I got to tell you this just because. I did some actual production work as a test using Inkscape 0.45. It is some round button states that I'm using for some Acrobat PDF buttons. I did the different states and exported each one to a png file then used them for the buttons. I have Illustrator CS3 at work available to me but I don't work with it and didn't want to mess with the learning curve. Doing them in Inkscape with the help of some of the tutorials I did was great looking buttons.