#Inkscape vs gimp how to#
#Inkscape vs gimp software#

In another viewer, that same exact image might look like this. And that worked, but only because - as you can see in the first image above - this web page also displays the transparent areas of that image as white. Once I stopped thinking about nodes and paths I realized there was a quick and dirty solution, which was to fill the circle with white, blocking the line behind it. Do not think like you think the program wants you to think. And that’s probably the most important lesson I can pass on about Inkscape. The shapes don’t weld themselves together and they certainly don’t create new nodes where they cross. When you overlap two shapes and join them, that simply means those shapes can then be selected and moved as one. Worse, when I finally did manage to bash a few helpful keywords together, they brought me this little nugget of buried information: “You can’t branch a node.” Wait - what?!?Īs it turns out, a lot of what Inkscape seems to be suggesting with words and features is not what it’s actually doing.

#Inkscape vs gimp how to#

Or at least I think you will be wrong, because I couldn’t figure out how to perform that simple edit after several hours of dedicated research. Also like GIMP, Inkscape is incredibly obtuse and difficult to learn, even if you’re otherwise comfortable with all things computer.įor example, suppose you want to combine two simple shapes as follows, using Inkscape:Īfter reading up on the program, following tutorials and learning about the power of nodes and paths, and playing with snazzy features like combine and union, to say nothing of delete segment, you might think the proper solution would be to overlap the two shapes, join them at nodes, then remove the line across the middle of the circle:Īnd you would be one hundred percent wrong. Like GIMP, Inkscape is open-source freeware and incredibly powerful. I have a few covers to design in the coming months - or years, at my current pace - and I plan on doing so, at least in part, using a vector graphics program called Inkscape. Put together a snazzy logo in a vector program and you can scale that logo down to a business card or up to a billboard with no loss of detail. That’s not true for vector graphics, which are defined by mathematical relationships.

#Inkscape vs gimp software#

While photo-editing software can be incredibly powerful in its own right, because raster graphics are based on pixels, resizing raster graphics can also get you into serious trouble. GIMP is commonly and accurately categorized as photo-editing software, but also belongs on the raster side of the graphics software divide. What I have learned over the past year or so is that all graphics software breaks down along two main lines: vector graphics and raster graphics. I got great help from Joleene Naylor on the first cover, and managed to flounder my way to solo completion with the second, but along the way I noticed some recurrent problems, particularly with regard to text, curves and anti-aliasing. The first (and so far, only) two book covers I designed were done with GIMP.