Hello everyone!

I need some help switching over. I have been using Illustrator for a few years now. I love working with vectors. I just recently started my own graphic design business and I mainly use Illustrator. I have looked at Inkscape a few times before, but now it has become a struggle to afford adobe's prices :/

My first question, is there any way to make it look and feel more like Illustrator to help me get use to it? I can't even figure out how to change the size of the canvas. To be honestly, I don't like the GUI at all. I feel like I am using a windows XP program, but I can get passed that as long as I can figure out where all of the features are that I use in Illustrator. I would like to be able to theme it to look as close to illustrator as possible, but I have found no themes for it so far.

2nd, are there any good conversion guides for people switching from illustrator? Preferably on youtube?

3rd, is Inkscape good for professional use? I have heard that it has great quality, and some people have said they even prefer it. Are there may professionals who use it for their work?

I would love to use inkscape because I love the idea of opensource programs. If I can get everything sorted out with gimp, krita, and Illustrator. I will be switching over to linux and just going nuts with it (my graphic design programs are the only thing keeping me from switch to linux)

Any advice or help is very much appreciated!

1 - I don't think so, but I've never seen Illustrator window myself. However, you can change Inkscape's key binding to whatever you like, so that might help.

2 - I've seen a couple of guides, but these are probably dated. http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... rator.html
and hhmm, there used to be a wiki article but I can't seem to find - could be was deleted, it was pretty old.

3 - I'll bet if you searched this forum for "professionals" you'll find a good deal of discussion! I'm not a professional (barely even a hobby artist), but from what I understand from reading discussions in this forum, it depends on particularly what your focus is. For example, the lack of native CMYK support breaks the deal for many. CMYK support can be had, but not natively, and not necessary easily. But look for the other discussions for more details.

I'm also planning to switch to some kind of Linux system (from Windows), so I totally understand how you're feeling. And after what I've learned so far, this will be a much worse transition than I imagined

brynn wrote:1 - I don't think so, but I've never seen Illustrator window myself. However, you can change Inkscape's key binding to whatever you like, so that might help.

2 - I've seen a couple of guides, but these are probably dated. http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... rator.html
and hhmm, there used to be a wiki article but I can't seem to find - could be was deleted, it was pretty old.

3 - I'll bet if you searched this forum for "professionals" you'll find a good deal of discussion! I'm not a professional (barely even a hobby artist), but from what I understand from reading discussions in this forum, it depends on particularly what your focus is. For example, the lack of native CMYK support breaks the deal for many. CMYK support can be had, but not natively, and not necessary easily. But look for the other discussions for more details.

I'm also planning to switch to some kind of Linux system (from Windows), so I totally understand how you're feeling. And after what I've learned so far, this will be a much worse transition than I imagined

I think I know the wiki of which you speak. It was linked to me on reddit It tells the differences between each and such. It seems to only have a few differences. I personally need CMYK because as a graphic designer I do printable items like business cards. So is CMYK not possible at all or is it just weird? I didn't even see the professionals section >.< derp.

Switching to linux can be an issue sometimes. For me the graphic design aspect is the biggest issue. I have like 3 video games that are windows only, but I can just keep windows for those lol. Why is the transition hard for you if I may ask?

Let me tell you this: neither Gimp, nor Inkscape try to be an adobe clone.
In fact both programs have strengths that surpass their adobe counterpart.

Once you learn Inkscape, you will see that its much better in some ways, compared to Illustrator, but also has a few weaknesses.
When it comes to workflow, for example, Inkscape is superior to illustrator, imo.
What Inkscape is missing, is that its not so much made with a user base in mind, because its not a professional product aimed at designers.

The lack of CMYK support is a problem.
Here is a link to a thread i made about Nick Saporito's youtube video on that topic:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21170.

You should especially look into what Alexandre Prokoudine has to say about ICC profiles as an alternative to Nick's workflow in the comment section !
I have never tried it, so i cant comment on it.

Inkscape biggest issue (imo) is that it doesnt handle lots of nodes very well.
So for very complex patterns or brush effects, you have to find alternative solutions.
Lazur recently developed a technique how to handle any pattern, and you can use filters for artistic brushstrokes.

Espermaschine wrote:Let me tell you this: neither Gimp, nor Inkscape try to be an adobe clone.
In fact both programs have strengths that surpass their adobe counterpart.

Once you learn Inkscape, you will see that its much better in some ways, compared to Illustrator, but also has a few weaknesses.
When it comes to workflow, for example, Inkscape is superior to illustrator, imo.
What Inkscape is missing, is that its not so much made with a user base in mind, because its not a professional product aimed at designers.

The lack of CMYK support is a problem.
Here is a link to a thread i made about Nick Saporito's youtube video on that topic:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21170.

You should especially look into what Alexandre Prokoudine has to say about ICC profiles as an alternative to Nick's workflow in the comment section !
I have never tried it, so i cant comment on it.

Inkscape biggest issue (imo) is that it doesnt handle lots of nodes very well.
So for very complex patterns or brush effects, you have to find alternative solutions.
Lazur recently developed a technique how to handle any pattern, and you can use filters for artistic brushstrokes.

Hearing these things makes me almost want to no even mess with it. I need something that works that can produce what my client needs. If it can't handle a lot of nodes, and can't do CMYK, then I can't use it to be honest. But I don't have the money to spend on the adobe stuff anymore -_-

I think you should give it a try before jumping to conclusions.
Its not that hard to learn.
I had an easy time learning Illustrator, because there are a lot of similarities to Inkscape.

When i say a lot of nodes, i mean really a lot. With most designs it doesnt occur, but a damask pattern, for example, gave my computer a hard time.
Obviously a good computer makes a difference (i think my machine is a bit old).

I agree the lack of CMYK seems to make it a bit complicated.

Espermaschine wrote:I think you should give it a try before jumping to conclusions.
Its not that hard to learn.
I had an easy time learning Illustrator, because there are a lot of similarities to Inkscape.

When i say a lot of nodes, i mean really a lot. With most designs it doesnt occur, but a damask pattern, for example, gave my computer a hard time.
Obviously a good computer makes a difference (i think my machine is a bit old).

I agree the lack of CMYK seems to make it a bit complicated.

I hopped into the official chat room and someone talked me through how to set cmyk... it has full cmyk capabilities xD so you can design and save cmyk files.

Zethnos wrote:I hopped into the official chat room and someone talked me through how to set cmyk... it has full cmyk capabilities xD so you can design and save cmyk files.

So what did he/she tell you ?

Espermaschine wrote:

Zethnos wrote:I hopped into the official chat room and someone talked me through how to set cmyk... it has full cmyk capabilities xD so you can design and save cmyk files.

So what did he/she tell you ?

File > doc properties > color > color profile. Then convert the svg file to pdf through scribus or something like that to get a cmyk pdf, but just picking a cmyk color profile will save the svg as a color managed svg which can be read properly to show cmyk. I'll need to read it again later.

Inkscape is not a professional illustration tool... Inkscape is a native SVG editor that can handle probably 95% of the professional tasks routinely done with professional vector illustration tools.

Combined with Scribus, I'd up the number to 99%. IIRC, Preflight and CMYK are achieved with the combination. Not sure about automatic color seps, and actions can probably be handled with macros.

I concur with Espermachine, try it in parallel with AI and see if you hit a roadblock. Things will be very different at times: some much easier, some the reverse. Chime back here at the roadblocks and bumps, there is usually a way (or many ways) to do what you want.

This member is a professional using AI and CC, but is including Inkscape in their toolbox. Check out his blog series on open alternatives to ACC
http://www.segtsy.com/?cat=84

It sounds like what Alexandre Prokoudine proposed (using ICC profiles).

I also provided the link for a tutorial on using these:
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entr ... to-scribus

There's also an extension under development, for CMYK. But I don't know the status. http://jonata.org/inkscape/outputpro/ and some discussion about it here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5943&start=25#p45043

Zethnos wrote:

Espermaschine wrote:Inkscape biggest issue (imo) is that it doesnt handle lots of nodes very well.

Hearing these things makes me almost want to no even mess with it. I need something that works that can produce what my client needs. If it can't handle a lot of nodes, and can't do CMYK, then I can't use it to be honest. But I don't have the money to spend on the adobe stuff anymore -_-

We are talking about 10000+ nodes in one path. That is just ridiculous to handle as vectors anyway.
Use filtering for producing that fractal-like paths.

You use filters? Filter editor is plain horrible in inkscape, yes. But has a full support of the svg specs, illustrator is no game in that.


For creating that complex graphics, check this topic.

Lazur URH wrote:We are talking about 10000+ nodes in one path. That is just ridiculous to handle as vectors anyway.

Not entirely true. I experimented with a Pap grunge brush, and although one pattern had "only" around 40-120 nodes, i pretty quickly got problems with lagging.

That is two different thing.

Editing one path with a transformation matrix, tweaking a few nodes, or
distorting each and every node of it, generating a completely new geometry,
which can effectively double the number of nodes in seconds with a wrong move.
120 nodes seems to be fair to me for working with pattern along path lpe on such few objects.

"Total number of nodes rendered on screen." -Rough guessing, that would be around 5000 nodes on that image?
Shouldn't get so sluggish.
But also depends on your actions.
Editing the core path -takes more calculations, hence more calculation time
vs adding a transformation matrix
-grouping the "strokes" and moving/rotating/scaling the group.

^
I dont know.
But its not a problem in Illustrator.

EDIT:
That image consists of 2200 nodes.

See for yourself:
*removed*

Doesn't seem to lag here, not even when combined with an overblown spiro-path lpe.

Things could be much worse.

Or even beyond.

Hmm, maybe its my machine, then. Or the antivirus perhaps ?
When i try to select all nodes with the node tool, Inkscape is unresponsive for about 10sec and close to crashing.

Same here, no noticeable lag in Esper's image, Lazur's are laggy - about one and four seconds respectively.

But I have a fairly new gaming machine.

I have an Intel Core2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2,93Ghz, 4 GB RAM.
Cant say i ever have problems except in Inkscape, although i cant play StarCraft2 with this box

That must be it then. I'm on an i5 (roughly 3 years old machine).