Dopo oltre un anno di intensivo sviluppo e refactoring, è finalmente disponibile Inkscape 0.47.
Questa nuova versione dell’editor libero di grafica vettoriale SVG porta con sé un miglioramento delle performance ed una enorme quantità di nuove caratteristiche, tra cui: auto-salvataggio a intervalli regolari, tracciati Spiro, nodi curvilinei e scolpitura, lo strumento gomma, nuove funzionalità per lo strumento ritocco, una barra di controllo per l’aggancio e una modalità di aggancio totalmente nuova, nuovi effetti su tracciato (tra cui la distorsione a busta), una enorme collezione di filtri preimpostati, nuove funzionalità di esportazione PS e EPS basate su cairo, il controllo ortografico, nuove estensioni aggiuntive, l’ottimizzazione del codice SVG generato e molto altro

ancora. Da menzionare inoltre il grande impegno che ha portato alla correzione di centinaia di bug segnalati durante tutto il periodo di sviluppo.
Per ulteriori informazioni e curiosità sulle nuove caratteristiche e su tutte le novità introdotte con questa nuova versione,
potete consultare le note di rilascio, sfogliare la galleria degli screenshot o semplicemente scaricare il nuovo Inkscape per il
vostro sistema.

Note di rilascio:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes047

After over a year of intensive development and refactoring, Inkscape 0.47 is out. This version of the SVG-based vector graphics editor brings improved performance and tons of new features, some of which are as follows: Timed autosave, Spiro splines, Auto-smooth nodes, Eraser tool, New modes in Tweak tool, Snapping toolbar & greater snapping abilities, New Live Path Effects (including Envelope), A huge collection of preset filters, New cairo-based PS and EPS export, Spell checker, Many new extensions, Optimized SVG code options, and much more. Additionally, it would be wrong to not mention the hundreds of bug fixes as well. Check out the full release notes for more information about what has changed, enjoy the screenshots, or just jump right to install it.

Release Notes:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes047

Ieri, 25 Novembre 2009, dopo oltre un anno di intensivo sviluppo e refactoring, Luca Bruno ha annunciato sulla mail-list http://lists.linux.it/listinfo/annunci ke è finalmente disponibile Inkscape 0.47.
Questa nuova versione dell’editor libero di grafica vettoriale SVG porta con sé un miglioramento delle performance ed una enorme quantità dinuove caratteristiche, tra cui: auto-salvataggio a intervalli regolari, tracciati Spiro, nodi curvilinei e scolpitura, lo strumento gomma, nuove funzionalità per lo strumento ritocco, una barra di controllo per l’aggancio e una modalità di aggancio totalmente nuova, nuovi effetti su tracciato (tra cui la distorsione a busta), una enorme collezione di filtri preimpostati, nuove funzionalità di esportazione PS e EPS basate su cairo, il controllo ortografico, nuove estensioni aggiuntive, l’ottimizzazione del codice SVG generato e molto altro ancora.
Da menzionare inoltre il grande impegno che ha portato alla correzione di centinaia di bug segnalati durante tutto il periodo di sviluppo.
Per ulteriori informazioni e curiosità sulle nuove caratteristiche e su tutte le novità introdotte con questa nuova versione, potete consultare le note di rilascio, sfogliare la galleria degli screenshot o semplicemente scaricare il nuovo Inkscape per il vostro sistema Linux, Windows o Mac OS X.

Note di rilascio: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes047

Download: http://inkscape.org/download/

== Informazioni su Inkscape ==

Inkscape è un programma open source per il disegno, simile a Illustrator, Freehand e CorelDraw, che si basa sul formato standard W3C “Scalable Vector Graphics” (SVG). Tra le caratteristiche supportate da SVG vi sono le forme base, i tracciati, i testi, i segnali, i cloni, le trasparenze, le trasformazioni, i filtri, i gradienti e i gruppi. Inkscape supporta inoltre i meta-dati Creative Commons, la manipolazione dei nodi, i livelli, le operazioni complesse sui livelli, i testi su tracciato e la modifica dell’XML SVG. Può importare da diversi formati come EPS, PostScript, JPEG, PNG, BMP e TIFF e esportare in PNG, PS, PDF ed in altri formati vettoriali.

Lo scopo principale di Inkscape è quello di fornire alla comunità Open Source uno strumento di disegno che rispetti pienamente gli standard W3C XML, SVG e CSS2. Inoltre il piano di sviluppo prevede una conversione del codice da C/Gtk a C++/Gtkmm, maggiore importanza all’aggiunta di funzioni tramite il meccanismo delle estensioni e la creazione di un processo di sviluppo aperto, collaborativo e orientato alla comunità.

As BlenderNation reported yesterday, a new milestone in Blender history has been reached, with the release of Blender 2.5, with plenty of changes here and there, following a rewrite of its interface system and improvements to present features. Now, if I understand correctly, this Alpha 0 release is the first in a series that will lead up to a stable Blender 2.6 sometime next year, so 2.5 may not be ready for production use until then.

It’s amazing, really. Looking at the screenshots and everything that’s changed, there is little in Blender that resembles what I saw in version 1.8, all the way back in 2000. To be fair, there was a graphics card compatibility issue that lasted until version 2.22, I think, so my first reaction to Blender’s interface was something along the lines of “What the hell is this?!”. The buttons would appear and disappear whenever the mouse cursor was moved over or away from them, and there was some distortion here and there, with random background colors thrown in for good measure. Most I managed to do was add a Donut (or Torus) object, after which I quickly got rid of that weird application and went on to try a series of freeware ones in my attempt to become a master of animation. What high hopes I had!

But that was nearly ten years ago and I feel old a long time ago, a whole year before I found Blender’s then-homepage, Blender.nl, or became a part of its small community (all thanks to the defunct InsideCG, which happened to have a Blender forum). At that point, Blender was already at version 2.12, a community of diverse individuals and a Community Journal, or CJ –usually written or co-written by BlenderNation’s Bart Veldhuizen, who hosted the Blender Knowledge Base at that time–, that I would always look forward to, just to see a selection of only the best works created with that little freeware program that was mostly overlooked by the world of animation.

I recall joining a feature-length movie project at the beginning of the following year (2002). It was going to be called Countdown to Extinction (CTE, for short), and was helmed by now-photographer James Hayden, aided by young animator Jacob Kafka and a whole bunch of blenderheads from around the world, who have now moved on to bigger, better things. I joined in as a texture artist. To be honest, I couldn’t make textures to save my life, but I wanted to be part of something and I was hoping to learn along the way.

Unfortunately, the project came at what was then considered a bad time in Blender’s history. The developer company, Not a Number, tried as best it could to stay afloat, even making commercial releases of Blender –to which some objected–, but ultimately declared itself bankrupt. So, most of the movie crew jumped ship and only a few of us still had an interest. As not even the first scene was completed, the project and its homepage were put to rest, as Blender’s future seemed uncertain and there was an air of negativity around the community sites.

Then, things took a turn for the better when the surviving Blender community managed to raise a hundred thousand euros, to give to the Not a Number investment companies –which shared the rights to Blender– and allow for the release of Blender’s source under an open source license, thanks to an agreement conceived by NaN founder Ton Roosendaal, who now leads the Blender Foundation (and Blender’s development). There’s a list of all those who donated, somewhere on Blender’s homepage. Sadly, I’m not in it, as I had little money and could only encourage others to donate (not to mention that I was a kid and my parents wouldn’t have let me).

Anyway, the rest is history in the making. Things did turn out for the better, with all the development, the constant increase in Blender users and it becoming more popular as an application suitable for commercial use.

Coming back to the present, I think I’ll wait a while to try this new version. I don’t use Blender as much as I’d like, and the release log says that a few things are missing, many bugs need to be fixed and stability is probably not quite there yet.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll play a bit with Inkscape. The new version. 0.47, was also released on the same day, after more than a year of me waiting development, with some long release notes that I couldn’t bother to read in their entirety and a few pretty screenshots to complement them. I hope this program’s development can pick up the pace, so I won’t ever be forced to use Illustrator or FreeHand other programs, if I decide to do commercial vector work. Inkscape’s interface quickly won me over when I first used it for college more than three years ago, and I’ve already seen it used at some printing places I’ve been to. I want to see that more often.

So, those are the news. Now … if you’ll excuse me, reader(s), Inkscape awaits.

   A apărut într-un sfârşit şi versiunea finală de Inkscape, schimbările majore fiind următoarele:

* Timed autosave: no more lost work
* Spiro splines: an exciting new way to work with paths, fully supported in Pen, Pencil, and Node tools
* Auto smooth nodes: a new type of node that keeps the path as smooth as possible as you move it or its neighbors
* New modes in Tweak tool: pushing and jittering whole objects, scaling/rotating objects, deleting and duplicating using the "soft brush"
* Reworked, much more usable snapping system and a Snapping toolbar
* New path effects, including sketch, hatching, envelope deformation; effects can be stacked and assigned to groups
* A huge collection of preset filters in the new Filters menu
* New cairo-based PS and EPS export: improved quality, more features supported, fallback rasterization for filters and transparency
* Spell checker for text objects in a document
* Many new extensions: restacking, calendar, printing marks, cartesian and polar grids, interpolating attributes
* Optimized SVG code options, now with their own Preferences page
* Many other improvements, usability tweaks, memleak stops, and misc bugfixes .

Después de un largo año de desarrollo el equipo de Inkscape ha publicado una nueva versión estable, la 0.47. Viene con una lista impresionante de novedades y cientos de correcciones de bugs. Se pueden destacar: la nueva herramienta de borrado (ya era hora! ), el auto-guardado, nuevos efectos, 200 filtros SVG, un corrector ortográfico y una nueva función de exportar en formato PS y EPS basada sobre Cairo.

Sin duda un gran programa para hacer dibujos vectoriales que no tiene nada que envidiar de programas como Corel Draw.

+ Releases Notes

Descarga | Inkscape 0.47

Du minns säkert vektorritprogrammet Inkscape från De bästa gratisprogrammen (9). Nu har programmet kommit i en ännu vassare version. Kolla in den fotorealistiska målningen ovan (nej det är inte ett foto), så ser du vad det programmet går för. Illustrator får passa sig för Inkscape 0.47.

Gillar du att göra tredimensionella bilder, ska du veta att Blender 2.5 är ute för test. Det programmet har fått rätt mycket skäll för sitt användargränssnitt, men det ska ha förbättrats avsevärt.

Båda programmen har öppen källkod, är gratis och finns till Ubuntu, andra linux-varianter, Mac och Windows.

• http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.273156/har-ar-inkscape-047
• http://blogg.idg.se/openforce/entry.jsp?messid=13277
• http://opensource.idg.se/2.1014/1.273100/nu-kan-du-testa-framtidens-3d-program

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Inkscape, vektorritprogram, fri mjukvara, öppen källkod, gratisprogram, de bästa gratisprogrammen

Buen día, hace tiempo que no he escrito nada para el blog. La verdad es que no me había conseguido con nada que me motivara a escribir una entrada, pero esta noticia sí que lo merece. Ayer 24 de noviembre han publicado la versión 0.47 de inkscape, el editor vertorial por excelencia en el mundo del software libre y que no tiene nada que envidiarle a otros editores vectoriales privativos. Por motivos obvios no creo que lo tengamos muy rápido en Debian por esta razón he realizado este mini tutorial para hacer un archivo .deb y así poder administrar nuestros paquetes del sistema de una manera mas limpia. Me he basado en los pasos de la guía del nuevo desarrollador de Debian así que esto no es ningún secreto y se puede consultar online. Bueno sin mas que hablar aquí les dejo mi “chuleta”:

1. Antes que nada debemos tener instalados algunos paquetes y/o librerias para que la compilación de nuestro paquete no tenga inconvenientes:

apt-get install dh-make build-essential fakeroot autotools-dev autoconf automake1.7 libgc-dev liblcms-dev libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libxslt-dev libgsl0-dev libboost-dev libpopt-dev

2. Podemos instalar estos paquetes opicionales:

apt-get install libpoppler-dev imagemagick

3. Bajamos las fuentes de inkscape

wget -c http://ufpr.dl.sourceforge.net/project/inkscape/inkscape/0.47/inkscape-0.47.tar.gz

4. Descomprimimos el archivo (Se recomienda tener un directorio de trabajo, por ejemplo un directorio que se llame “debs”):

   tar -xvf inkscape-0.47.tar.gz

5. Entramos al directorio en donde se descomprimieron las fuentes:

cd inkscape-0.47.tar.gz

6. En este paso le asignamos el nombre de la persona que esta creando el paquete:

dh_make -e nombre@servidordecorreo.com -f ../inkscape-0.47.tar.gz

7. Creamos el paquete .deb:

8. dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

   Nota: Si en este paso nos falta alguna librería de desarrollo o algún paquete debemos instalarlo con “apt-get”, si no sabemos el nombre exacto de la librería la buscamos con “aptitude search” e instalamos la que tenga en su nombre “-dev” al final.

9. Bajamos un directorio y encontramos nuestro paquete .deb listo para instalar:

cd ..

dpkg -i inkscape_0.47-1_i386.deb

Estos fueron los pasos que seguí para instalar el inkscape 0.47 en mi pc, espero les sea de utilidad a alguno de ustedes! Saludos.

LA version 0.47 de inkscape est sortie, et c’est une bonne nouvelle,
le seul hic, c’est qu’elle ne fonctionne pas avec les versions de mac inférieur à la 10.5
Pour télécharger inkscape c’est par là -> http://inkscape.org/download/?lang=fr

Inkscape 0.47, the best free vector graphics editorthat I know of, is released. This one was more than a year in the making, and as you’d expect, has a lot of improvements and new features, many of which I don’t comprehend:

• Timed autosave;
• Spiro splines;
• Auto-smooth nodes;
• Eraser tool;
• New modes in the Tweak tool;
• Snapping options toolbar & greater snapping abilities;
• New live path effects (including Envelope);
• More than 200 preset SVG filters
• New Cairo-based PS and EPS export;
• Spell checker;
• Many new extensions;
• Optimized SVG code options;
• Hundreds of bug fixes; and
• More!

Download Links

• Inkscape

Azi am vrut să văd în ce măsură se poate desena caricatură în Inkscape.

Prima încercare

Primul desen preluat apoi în Corel şi colorat.

Am încercat apoi să fac variante de expresie.

Variante de expresie.

Al doilea desen făcut în Inkscape şi detalii.

Al doilea desen şi cu detalii.

Un elefant roz în Inkscape (prima imagine) şi corectat puţin în Corel (a doua imagine.)

Elefantul roz.

Şi în cele din urmă setările pe care le-am folosit.

Setările mele pentru "Cartoon Brush".

Cam asta e, deocamdată.

Ah, şi pentru tot eram la capitolul desen am făcut şi un test de schiţare.

Schiţă de cutie cu haşuri.

Hace poco descargué Blender, un software para modelado y animación en 3D. Aunque a primera vista el programa parece caótico y poco amigable, una vez uno se acostumbra, la rapidez a la que puede llegar es increíble. Lo he tenido desde que lo descargué, pero recién he empezado a usarlo. Debo decir que no se absolutamente nada de modelado 3D.

Mi primer creación en Blender

Ésto es lo más elaborado que he hecho, jugando un poco con los materiales, las luces y las reflexiones y todo eso que seguramente los conocedores manejarán a su antojo. Me inspiré en el logo de Inkscape, con el que también hice las líneas siguiendo las aristas del objeto. Sólo jugando.

Adobe Acrobat is a great tool for creating PDF files, combining contents from multiple sources into a single PDF, creating forms, and generally sharing information. The problem is the price: $300 for the Standard version, $450 for the Pro version, and $700 for Pro Extended.

I have a 3-pronged attack for getting most of Acrobat’s functionality for free. I’m not claiming that my solution is an exact replacement for Acrobat, but it does allow you to create and merge PDFs, and rearrange and add/delete pages from them.

Part 1: the right programs

The easiest part of my strategy is to choose the right programs, specifically ones with PDF save/export built in. OpenOffice.org, my MS Office replacement, can save files to PDF right out of the box (if the program came in a box). I’ve never done it, but apparently you can also use OpenOffice.org to create PDF forms. Inkscape is my vector graphics editor, and Scribus is my desktop publishing application, and both can open and save PDFs. Celtx is maybe a little more obscure, but it’s an excellent program for writing screenplays (and much more), and it also supports saving to PDF. All of these programs can be downloaded and used for free.

The benefit of using a program with built-in PDF save functionality is that you can manipulate the content right in the program (move pages, add comment boxes, etc.), and then save it to PDF when you want to lock it down. If you want to make any additional changes, just go ahead and then save to a new PDF.

Part 2: PDFCreator

Not all programs allow you to save directly to PDF, even though the list is definitely growing. Even Microsoft Office now supports saving to PDF, but it will cost you $150 for the cheapest version. To add PDF functionality to any program with print functionality, install the free PDFCreator print driver. Once installed, a new printer will be added to your list called PDFCreator. To save any document to PDF, just print to this PDFCreator printer and the program will launch and allow you to create and view your new PDF.

The benefits of using PDFCreator are similar to Part 1: you can use the programs you’re using already to edit files, and then just print to PDF when you want to lock it down. PDFCreator also allows encryption of PDFs,digitally sign them, save to other formats such as JPG and EPS, and even merge multiple files into one PDF.

Part 3: PDFill PDF Tools

Say you already have some PDFs that you want to alter in some way. In comes PDFill PDF Tools. These utilities allow you to do a ton of things with PDFs: merge, split, reorder, encrypt, decrypt, rotate, crop, reformat, add header/footer, add watermark, convert images and postscript files to PDFs, convert PDFs to images, manipulate form fields, view PDF information, scan to PDF, and create transparent images.

Conclusion

With these three strategies, you can get most of the functionality of Adobe Acrobat Standard, and save $300. Sure, it’s not all contained in one interface, but in my mind, that can be more of a feature, since you can work directly in the programs you’re using anyway.

Download Links

• OpenOffice.org
• Inkscape
• Scribus
• Celtx
• PDFCreator
• PDFill PDF Tools

I found this website that describes the different picture attributes such as Hue, contrast etc.
http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berdan/Composition_and_the_Elements_of_Visual_Design.htm

This ia excerpt from wkipidea regarding the Gestalt Law wich addresses the placement of objects etc.

The fundamental principle of gestalt perception is the law of prägnanz (German for pithiness) which says that we tend to order our experience in a manner that is regular, orderly, symmetric, and simple. Gestalt psychologists attempt to discover refinements of the law of prägnanz, and this involves writing down laws which hypothetically allow us to predict the interpretation of sensation, what are often called “gestalt laws”.^[1] These include:

• Law of Closure — The mind may experience elements it does not perceive through sensation, in order to complete a regular figure (that is, to increase regularity).
• Law of Similarity — The mind groups similar elements into collective entities or totalities. This similarity might depend on relationships of form, color, size, or brightness.
• Law of Proximity — Spatial or temporal proximity of elements may induce the mind to perceive a collective or totality.
• Law of Symmetry (Figure ground relationships)— Symmetrical images are perceived collectively, even in spite of distance.
• Law of Continuity — The mind continues visual, auditory, and kinetic patterns.
• Law of Common Fate — Elements with the same moving direction are perceived as a collective or unit.

  Donald Norman states “appearance doesn’t matter functionality does.”  He describes 3 aspects of visual design which are;

Visceral – graphic artists are concerned with appearances.
Behavioural  – Pleasure and effectiveness of use
Reflective – Rationalization and intelluctaliztion of the product

The grid – I must admit that I was getting frustrated trying to use Inkscape.  But after getting the hang of it I found it very useful and valuable.  I should have taken this course before the previous one that I designed a website  for, it would have benefited from Inkscape.

Doodle 277 - Boba Fett

doodle 277 inkscape vector

I was trying to figure out what to draw today and I looked over at my Boba bobble-head and the decision was made for me.  I decided not to use any lines or gradient coloring and to rely on simple shapes.  I think it came out pretty good, but I fiddled with it for about an hour more then I should have in The Gimp.  Darn compulsive anal-retentiveness.

Niondeplatsen i vår omröstning om bästa gratisprogrammen tog det vektorbaserade ritprogrammet Inkscape. Det kan väl sägas vara den fria världens motsvarighet till program som Illustrator.

Inkscape ingår inte i en standardinstallation av Ubuntu, men brukar höra till de program jag lägger till först. Det finns i Ubuntus förråd och kan installeras med Program > Programcentral för Ubuntu.

Programmet finns också för Mac och Windows och hittas på http://www.inkscape.org

Jag knåpade faktiskt ihop en Inkscape-skola för en tid sedan och de olika avsnitten finns här:

Vektorprogram gör det roligt att rita
Inkscape-skolan: De första stapplande stegen
Inkscape-skolan: Snygga kurvor
Inkscape-skolan: Fem myror…
Inkscape-skolan: Gruppera!
Inkscape-skolan: Sätt färg på bilderna
Inkscape-skolan: Vrid och vänd
Inkscape-skolan: Bitmapbilder
Inkscape-skolan: Latmansbilder
Inkscape-skolan: Läs och hitta förebilder

Passar på att saxa en bild ur den skolan, som visar en del av programmet och något av verktygen i aktion

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Inkscape, vektorritprogram, fri mjukvara, öppen källkod, gratisprogram, de bästa gratisprogrammen

Doodle 276 - Junkyard Troll

doodle 276 inkscape sketch

Continuing my unintentional string of digital stuff this week, I drew this little guy on Inkscape and then colored and textured in The Gimp.

~by request, the one-year anniversary sale (50% off!) has been extended until Dec. 2~ 

Happy here making candles, stamping Christmas cards, holiday shopping, and other fun stuff.  Hope you all are doing well~

I’ve posted about a few good graphics editors, GIMP, and Paint.NET. Both are designed to edit raster (bitmap) images. Today I’m going to focus on a great free vector image editor: Inkscape. While raster images are made up of colored squares (pixels), vector images are descriptions of the actual lines and shapes. Raster images are excellent at displaying photographs and similar graphics, while vector images are for logos, schematics, etc.; anything you might want to scale or zoom in on. For more info on the difference between the 2 image types, check out Wikipedia’s entries on raster and vector graphics. For now, though, it’s suffice to say both types of image are useful in their own way, and therefore it’s good to have the ability to edit both kinds.

Inkscape is the best free alternative to the likes of Adobe Illustrator ($600) and Corel Draw ($350) that I can think of. While the official Web site humbly states that “Inkscape does not have all the features of the leading vector editors,” it is quite feature-complete, with many features that I can’t even begin to use. The developers do pride themselves in the features Inkscape does offer (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.), and attention to the user interface. To see some examples of work created using Inkscape, check out the Open Clip Art Library.

From an interoperability perspective, Inkscape cannot save Illustrator’s *.ai files, but it can open them, and it can save to the now-standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, which Illustrator and many other applications can both open and save. Inkscape can also load and save OpenDocument *.odg files, like those created in OpenOffice.org Draw. Add to that the ability to open and natively save PDF files, and you’re looking at a winner.

As someone with practically zero artistic ability, I found it difficult to fully test this program. I was able to create basic shapes, and after a little experimentation, I could lay down some gradients. See the lame screen shot at the top of this post as proof. The star-shaped icon is well beyond my abilities; I downloaded the SVG from the Tango Icon Gallery (many, if not all, of those icons were likely created in Inkscape).

One thing I’m not too sure about is during my experimentation yesterday, the application completely froze several times. I wasn’t doing anything too taxing (again, with the screen shot above as evidence). The only way to close the program was CTRL+ALT+DEL. There didn’t seem to be a problem today, but I’m not used to programs completely locking up on my machine. While Inkscape is in constant development, there hasn’t been an official stable release in over a year and a half for Windows. It looks like the latest stable release is right around the corner, so here’s hoping any actual stability issues have been addressed.

Download Links

• Inkscape

Last three days (12th – 14th of November 2009) our Centre invited teachers and students from around Mumbai to share our work with the public (Vigyan Vividha). During this program the team members of gnowledge.org lab demonstrated several free software applications that can be used for science and mathematics education.  We did demonstrations of several of them to hundreds of visitors. Though we showed several applications, our focus was on the following selected applications.

• Phoenix (Computer Interfaced Science Experiments)
• Step (An interactive physics simulator, part of KDE-EDU package)
• GeoGebra (A dynamic Geometry and Algebra Platform)
• KTurtle (A simple turtle graphics program using LOGO for children)
• Inkscape (An advanced vector (SVG) graphics editor)
• Stellarium (A planetarium for your computer)

Many of them are well known, except Step.  I want to therefore say few words about it.  This program will have a great role to play for physics education. An excellent platform for learning as well as teaching.  If you are a physics teacher or an educator, consider using Step.  Though the program needs several finishing touches (sometimes eats up resources while simulating complex systems), the author (Vladimir Kuznetsov) is ambitious and did a fantastic job.  Once this program is improved, it will be a classic tool for education in the high school and college level physics.

Geogebra also gives the same experience for mathematics.

These are all free software for education.  I encourage teachers to use them in the classroom, and students who own a PC must install GNU/Linux on their PCs and enjoy these applications among several others.

Bonjour
voici une astuce qui vient compléter celle-ci (http://imppao.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/astuce-inkscape-changer-lepaisseur-du-trait).
Cette dernière méthode est la plus facile et plus souple

Le fichier .svg ici

The last few weeks I have been busy designing a logo for a company. Once the logo was finalized I had to design a business card and letterhead. I have been successful and now am avaiting the feedback from my client once he has the cards and letterhead printed.

It has been an interesting adventure. It has been many years since I designed a logo and visiting card. I have been design book jackets for more that ten years now. Hence the idea of giving a company an identity through the logo was an experience. In the course of my work I had to learn a new software called Inkscape. It is an open source software for vector graphics. It is similar to Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw which I have worked with before. Some of the tools were unfamiliar. So I had to browse through many tutorials on the internet.

The other thing I had to learn was the different formats that a file has to be saved in. It is important to know the purpose and media that is the final output. For example. PDF and EPS formats are good for the print media. The logo I have designed has to be used on the website as well. So I had to find out how to save it as PNG or JPEG. PNG is better because you can have a transparent background. I am still trying my hand at it. Especially on how to create PNG from a vector based graphic.

I have also been asked to provide graphics for the website of the company. Now I am learning another software, open source once again, called GIMP. Yesterday I spent the whole day trying to create a reflecting button!! Somehow I am stuck on a major step of creating new layers. I seem to be missing an essential step. I am sure I will figure it out once I give a rest to my mind and eyes.

However, the bottom line is nothing can be created with a software unless one has the design in the head first. I have decided to start sketching again. Eventually I will be learning how to create websites from scratch and designing them as well. Wish me luck friends…

Samuel (Sam) Tsui, click here to visit his facebook. He is a talented singer and artist.