I am trying to install the current final version of Inkscape under Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit. Inkscape.org/en/download says 0.48.4 is latest, stating 7z version can be downloaded from partha.com. I rather the 7z version but this site lists only 1 Inkscape file: 'Inkscape-0.48.4-64bit.exe' I download that. After install the colours of the menu area all mid-grey, making recognition of menu itms very difficult and clearly wrong. I uninstalled/reinstalled a number of times from fresh downloads but no different. I then searched for Inkscape from a different site and downloaded 'InkscapePortable_0.48.4-1.paf.exe from cnet. After installation, colours are correct and menu items are clear.

While trying to unravel what is wrong, I saw a post on Oct. 21 stating this 'partha' version is deliberately 'dark grey'. At least I now know the reason I find the menus unreadable.

Can anyone tell me where preferably the 'installable' 7z version is, failing that an installer 64bit version with the same correct menu colours that are in the unwanted portable version ?

Partha compiles all his versions of software on his site with his signature dark theme. There is no 'official' 64bit Inkscape yet. The dark theme is only unusable if your monitor calibration is really way off or if you are using a monochrome display. There is also no clearly wrong or right color for the theme - Inkscape just does not have customizable themes in precompiled versions yet.

druban wrote:Partha compiles all his versions of software on his site with his signature dark theme. There is no 'official' 64bit Inkscape yet. The dark theme is only unusable if your monitor calibration is really way off or if you are using a monochrome display. There is also no clearly wrong or right color for the theme - Inkscape just does not have customizable themes in precompiled versions yet.

Thankyou for that info. As the dark grey menu is too indistinct on my monitor (the colours of the portable one are very clear) can you give a link to the latest stable 32bit version with 'normal' colours ? I used Inkscape with the same monitor almost 3 years ago and the colours were fine apart from one small element. At that ime, I do remember the offline install 7z version was hidden away somewhere but it did exist. Is there a stable 32bit 7z version now ?

You`re aware that all of these coloured words/letters are links, right?

*EDIT - Well, not here, but on that page you`ve mentioned

Answering my own question - found a 32bit EXE version on the sourceforge link below which I first missed with the page focus on the partha link for Windows and not seeing a 2nd Windows section further down.

I did completely miss that they were links so thanks for pointing that out, but from that 21 Oct post, I read partha always uses dark grey menus, so I guess not much point deinstalling the 32bit sourceforge and downloading what will probably turn out another illegible version on my current Dell M992 monitor.

It would be nice to know when a 64bit Windows version in clearer menu colours of the 32bit version will be made available, as I do remember it slowing to a crawl with complex multi-layered drawings, which may have been due to limited memory of 32bit systems.

paul481 wrote:...it slowing to a crawl with complex multi-layered drawings, which may have been due to limited memory of 32bit systems.

Or due to svg's rendering concept and file structure,
and even questionable implementation at cases with garbage collectors.

http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=90.0

paul481 wrote:It would be nice to know when a 64bit Windows version in clearer menu colours of the 32bit version will be made available, as I do remember it slowing to a crawl with complex multi-layered drawings, which may have been due to limited memory of 32bit systems.

I agree completely mostly because Partha does not compile Inkscape very often (this might actually be his first time). I get my 32bit Inkscape development builds from here.
64 bit only gives you more memory. AFAIK that's the only advantage. If you are not using a lot of filters and you are not using a lot of large imported bitmaps then very likely the switch to 64 will not improve things for you. However if you are not doing either of these things then you should not be getting a slowdown unless you have a very complex drawing. By very complex I mean node counts in the ten thousands. 64 bit's not going to help that.

I am embarrased at my initial posts at finding a 64bit Inkscape with a menu colour problem.

I am building a new miniPC system all in a hurry preparating for a move abroad.

I last installed Inkscape near 3 years ago, so until now had not looked for downloads. When I went to the Downloads page, as my new system is 64bit Windows 7, the only reference I saw to 64bit Windows was the Partha site so it seemed obvious where I should do my download, and at the time I had to visit a public library for the download, as my 3g home connection has a low-cap. After finding the menus unreadable, I looked at the Download page a second time, but being accustomed to the convention of url links coded in blue with text in other colours being just to draw attention, I clearly didnt think to hover my mouse over the 7z in brown, so googled for Inkscape downloads, hence my installing a 32bit Inkscape from cnet.

Regarding the first responder suggesting my monitor was monochrome or colours not correct, my Dell M992 is a bit old but displays most material without problem, and as I had installed many of my usual Apps, Audacity, Libre Office etc and their menu colours were perfectly legible, I naturally assumed it was a problem with the 64bit Windows Inkscape.

As I am still preparing for the move abroad, I have not had much time to look further into the monitor colours, but briefly note when I watch movies they look ok. I can see all of the colours shown in the (not scrolled) Inkscape pallette at the bottom of its screen. On the greyscale to the left, I can discern all shades of grey, except for the black, and adjacent shade, which merge into one. Even if my colour calibration is not good, I think programs should be designed with menus easily legible on a wide range of displays, as is the 32bit Inkscape.

In order to respond to the last responder, I have today retrieved some of my old .svg's to check speed and supply info on the .svg's that brought Inkscape to a crawl on my old miniPC.

The .svg's are all of floorplans with NO bitmaps, and I think no Filters. The floorplan itself is monochrome, replicated into 4 Layers, with different furniture objects in different flat colours, on each Layer, so I can compare different furniture layouts. . I do remember having to count many Nodes after Importing a monochrome photo of Street Plan and having great difficulty converting to vector graphics so I could position my floorplan.svg of building into a .svg of its wider surroundings. I found the Conversion to Vector produced so many superflous Nodes it was too time consuming to edit down. I forget just now how to count Nodes, but each .svg file is about 650 KB. Is that 'big' for Inkscape ? (If someone has a suggestion on how to modify conversion of a streetplan photo to vector, so there is a better tradeoff between accuracy and spurious detail, once I have settled in new location I would like to have another go)

Thankfully the .SVGs I tried in the new miniPC load almost instantaneously. My old miniPC was a Revo R3610, with Atom 330 1.6GHz (4 threads), nVidia 9400 GPU, 2GB RAM, Sata HDD, Windows 7, Inkscape 0.48.
The new miniPC is a Intel NUC D54250WYK, with i5-54250u 1.3GHz + Integrated HD5000 GPU, 8GB DDR3L, mSATA Sandisk X110 256GB. Clearly a huge leap in specification. I forget how many seconds the same file took to load/display in old miniPC, at least 5 seconds. I had wondered if Inkscape can use multithread CPUs, if it was relevant, if it was limited 2GB RAM bearing in mind the 9400 GPU shares main RAM. As file only 650KB I didnt think the HDD was a factor even though I had only kept the recommended 15% free space Windows is supposed to need.

If Partha can compile a 64bit Windows Inkscape, as 64bit Windows is the norm for new PCs this last few years, I am wondering why a 64bit Windows Inkscape in the usual colours hasnt' been made available before now ? Hopefully if Partha reads this he may make a 'standard' one available.

So, back to the original question - is there a "normal" colour 64 bit version, or likely to be? Per druban's post it seems not right now. I don't mind the dark theme that much but still...

druban wrote:[...]The dark theme is only unusable if your monitor calibration is really way off or if you are using a monochrome display.[...]

If only that were true! Unfortunately, I'm red/green colour-blind and find the dark theme a real show-stopper. I found a YouTube video (Ph4Hxo2NUU4) that takes 'vanilla' Inkscape 0.48 over to the dark theme. From this, it looks like there are a shedload of files that need to be obtained and placed in the correct subfolders of the Inkscape program folder, and it makes me suspect that it should be possible to change the theme of 64-bit Inkscape to the standard 32-bit version. Has anyone done this and made the standard theme available for 64-bit users?

The current 64-bit version just applies a dark skin. It's not too hard to fix--you just have to do it manually. If you don't mind the default theme, you can just rename the file C:\Program Files\Inkscape\etc\gtk-2.0\gtkrc to something else. That will disable all themes.

It gets a bit more complicated if you want to apply a different theme. Fortunately, all the files but one are there for the default Windows theme. So all you need to do the renaming thing above, and then create a new C:\Program Files\Inkscape\etc\gtk-2.0\gtkrc file with the following contents:



If you want more themes, follow the directions here for 64-bit GIMP. Then copy the appropriate gtkrc file from whichever theme you want to try into C:\Program Files\Inkscape\etc\gtk-2.0