The low aggregate rating for this app (1.5 stars at the time I write this) is largely the result of a the history of negative reviews that are no longer pertinent. First, Inkscape hasn't needed XQuartz since version 1.0 was released in 2019. My experience is that recent versions aren't especially buggy, slow, or prone to crashing. If you're a user of the commercial alternatives, and can afford them, then you're unlikely to need or want this. I owned them in the past, but can't justify the cost anymore, so I use this. It's free, although you should consider making a donation, and functional. It has a steep learning curve, which might intimidate new users, but that is true of any similar app.
The screenshot above should serve as a warning. A tiny space for the actual document and rows and rows of mostly useless icons taking up a huge amount of space. This is software designed by a committee. Absolutely horrible UI!
I love when new vector apps appear, in particular when considering how little Adobe does to maintain Illustrator. In short, Inkscape has some fresh ideas and an interesting array of unusual filters. Unfortunately, on a maxed-out 16' MBP running Catalina, the app is literally unusable, as it needs forever to do even the most basic of tasks. Would love to see this app optimised for the Metal API.
This software still appears to require the effectively abandoned XQuartz - the worst implementation of any X11 window manager in the known galaxy. No thanks.
I have a MacBook Air and I haven't been able to open Inkspace. I've had to use ink space on my PC which is old and very slow. When I convert an image to svg file I have to put it my design space in Cricut so I can use it.
Functionality is good but requiring Macports make this unusable for many people.
Also XQuartz shell is very cranky.
Mac users need native version ASAP!
I've been waiting for the promised Inkscape Mac native version for years, ever since Adobe bought & killed Freehand because Illustrator couldn't compete with it.
Inkscape was always awkward on a Mac because it used X11 & Windoze key commands & the clunky Windoze interface.
But now Inkscape .91 runs almost like a native Mac app--once I made two changes:
1. I altered the XQuartz (X11) keyboard commands to use the Command key instead of the Control key. This means I can use Inkscape without constantly stumbling around the keyboard. I makes my workflow much smoother & more efficient. You can learn to to do this here: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070206110939423
2. I upgraded the butt-ugly Inkscape Windoze GUI theme to a snazzy dark grey GTK theme & tool set, which makes it look & almost like native Mac software. There are several sites that show you how to do this. Just Google "Inkscape Mac GTK themes & toolsets".
Making the above changes took about half an hour & now Inkscape .91 runs beautifully on my Mac. It's very stable & really does almost everything Illustrator does, only it's WAY better because it's Open Source & totally FREE.
A NATIVE version that does not require X11 is coming and the developers need our input! The quite stable "experimental" builds are here:
https://code.launchpad.net/~suv-lp/inkscape/osxmenu
I'm an Illustrator user and now I'm happily learning Inkscape. Quite frankly, while nothing can compete against free, this app is really outdoing itself, and with a bit of creativity the possibilities are endless. While some things are more easily done in Illustrator, others are definitely easier in Inkscape.
Oh, and did I mention that this is without a doubt the best native SVG editor out there...
I downloaded Inkscape about 12 months ago so maybe it has improved since then but I ended up deleting it off my iMac because it lagged out when I tried to open any eps file that was larger than 700 pixels.
I wrote to the developers and they confirmed that it cannot handle "large" files without lag issues and as all I wanted to do was edit some purchased eps files then, it was useless to me.
As I say, maybe they have improved on this but its quite important to be able to work with vector files that are large because isn't that the point of vector (?) that they can be re-sized to large files without losing quality?
This is good as a free app, but it always be a bit hard to use for me. I have tried a few other apps in Mac OSX including iDraw, logo designer and iVinci, and finally found that iVinci is my most favorite, I can always finish my ideas as quickly as possible. The new version support gradient mesh and colored trace, it's really an App with great potentials.
I just waited a long time for it to create the main window... and it did, but presented a WINDOWS window!!! Like watching an old PC from the nineties, LOL!!! Ridiculous! ... so I just QUITTED and DELETED IT
It may work quite well but I refuse to use such as PC like dinosaur.
This seems like a capable application on it's own. Typical of programs of this sort, the depth of features and advanced methods of illustration professionals makes the tool seem overly complex to casual users like me. This feels like a pro tool and possibly an alternative to Adobe Illustrator. If you are not a pro, I would suggest you look at Sketch, which is much more intuitive for non-pro users.
Something that will be very important to many would-be users is that this tool is not a native Mac app. It does not look or operate like a native app. It requires X11, which is a *NIX window system.
If you are comfortable with apps like Gimp, I think you would be happy with this too. Otherwise, you may want to try some of the Similar Software suggestions above.
I really wanted to like Inkscape. But, when I surfed to http://inkscape.org/ I saw the classic open source homepage that does NOT ENTICE ME to use it.
The biggest problem I have with open source software is that no one gives a crap about MARKETING.
I've decided that Inkscape is a legitimate product. The thing I haven't decided does it offer any quality or production advantages over Illustrator CS4? The little reading I've done said kerning was manual (no Optical auto kerning) and that saving to common raster formats (JPEG, PNG-8) required a helping app.
Starting from scratch, Inkscape may be a very good choice. But is it true that if I have the Illy CS4 license and know it middling well (although it seems clunky & awkward), then there's no sufficient reason to switch?
HELP...the Snow Leopard has killed Inkscape. i have loved Inkscape and iwas free. it did everything i needed it to do. Watching You Tube tutorials and self-teaching, and 10 hours later, Inkscape was super. It will not work with Mac Snow Leopard. I have download every new pre-release and nothing seems to correctly. Fonts are messed up, I can't cut and paste and when I save some something and pull it up in "Sure Cuts A Lot, it is an utter mess. If Inkscape can fix this problem, I will be in love again. If you have a PC, then go for it!!!! It is a great program....jut watch a lo of You Tube Tutorials to help you get started,
Updating to the latest XQuartz is a good idea for Inkscape.
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki
I've had problems copying and pasting in Inkscape. It turns out that this is due to the X11 pasteboard integration. If you copy an object in Inkscape and paste it again, it will turn into a nasty raster image. The way to fix this is to turn off the pasteboard integration in the X11 preferences.
I would also like to see this fantastic app running natively on Mac OS X, from what I have researched, progress is being made, but like alot of things in the Open Source Community it's going to take alot of time due to Mac OS X being still treated like a minority operating system compared to Windows, and most developers preferring to develop for their beloved Linux, yet they fail to realise that a huge amount of creative agency's and freelance digital artists/designers use Mac OS X. I hope work can be speeded up on the OS X native port of GTK+ as I would love to see this and GIMP running natively, if I had a shred of knowledge about programming I would help out, but sadly I don't, I'm just an artist :P, so come on software engineers! theres alot of creative people with no knowledge of programming out here needing you to get this working as soon as possible! and to stop treating our favourite platform like a second class citizen!
This application is advanced enough to be effective yet simple enough for the average human. The only problem is that it doesn't run well with X-11 and I have the latest update.
When you scroll the app. lags so badly that some times I get lost in the "white zone". In other words if you scroll as if it was a native Mac application it will go hay wire! Then again GIMP for Mac works wonderful except the HUD's (other than the main project window) don't fit in the screen on a desktop monitor or a laptop. This is something I have come to expect with open source totally free software. I wonder if Adobe is paying the developers to but innocent bugs in the deal?! They obviously have the money for selling a 1GB App. for $400.00 dollars.
After spending an obscene amount of cash over the years for Photoshop and illustrator for the PC, I wanted to find an efficient and cost-effective drawing application for my new Macbook that would allow me to create quality comics and manga pages.
Enter Inkscape. This impressive freeware graphic tool is quick to learn and easy to use with results comparable to the two above mentioned applications. Whether using a mouse or a graphic tablet (which this app will allow you to control the tip pressure), the lines are fluid and clean. The calligraphy tool is outstanding, allowing you to easily product beautiful handwritten text, or with light tweaking, comic book quality characters.
With Inkscape you to draw in layers, use perspectives, import images, export, add brushes and use other features you would find in those other "expensive" programs. For the kids, there's a star stamp and spiral button for decorating drawings or photos.
Aside from getting use the tricky gradient and text features, Inkscape is a perfect powerful application for those who wish to draw and edit with professional results on a shoestring budget.
Loads of features, and pleasant to look at. But, decidedly un-Mac-like.
Would this be able to be 'native' to the Mac? Without the palaver of X-11? or MacPort?
A NeoOffice to OOo, if you will.
Could Celtx be a model? Using HTML, XML, RDF and TXT?
It's time or money, right? But, any time that I contributed, would be time well wasted.
FWIW, is this a Linux app, the same way IE is a Win app? They just happen to run on the Mac? Poorly.
I use this for producing research posters, and even our group logo. Very easy to use and intuitive! The best free vector graphic program there is, and it's available on windows and various linux too, so collaboration is nice and easy.
Great Application! I would like to commend the Developers for continual support and for the "Tiger" platform and making new features available to us still using this platform.( GIMP has stopped developing for Tiger) So a big thanks.
'I have found Pattern along Path' from 'Generation from Path' does not work when working through the Inkscape tutorial after trying on Power PC and Intel Mac.
This is an incredible program. Very intuitive in terms of mouse usage, copy paste functions, etc.
So far quite stable, creates beautiful scalable drawings.
I'd argue that it's already better for me than its major competitor for simple diagrams and figs.
As a follow-up check, I re-installed 0.44x and it ran fine - so, either we've got an Intel-only build tagged as universal, or the system requirements are wrong, or 0.45-1 as posted has a bug (at least for Panther.)
This is just an update saying that, according to the site, there is a unstable build of Inkscape native for OS X. It is not publicly available. To all of those who are interested in Inkscape, but are frustrated by the requirement of having X11, there IS a Native version in the future.
Inkscape did not run when I put it in another folder in the Applications folder; it'd just make X11 run, then close itself. But it worked fine when I put it right in the Applications folder.
(are all X11-dependent apps like that?)
For non-tech Mac users who may be mystified by the X11 requirement: X11 is a windowing environment which allows OS X to run a multitude of GUI applications available for Unix-based systems (of which OS X is one), including such excellent open-source apps as Inkscape, OpenOffice, GIMP, and others. See FreeSMUG for more examples and information.
X11 is an Optional Install on 10.4 (Tiger) Install Discs; see How to install X11 on OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
It would be nice to have some notes about what this update entails.
The Release Notes (linked above) have not been updated since 0.43 was issued - and there have been three (incremental) updates to 0.43 since that time.
Developer(s) please address.
Excellent. There's always room for improvement, and X11 always has some drawbacks for the hardened OS X user, but overall I can't complain. This is stunning stuff... and hey - it's free!
I have no idea what X11 is and nor do I care but this software requires me to install it, apparently. (Why this is not listed under "Requirements" I don't know.) I say apparently because I have gone to the trouble of installing "X11SDK.pkg" from my Tiger install disc but Inkscape still still asks for it. No doubt I'm doing something wrong, something that any programmer could tell me, but that's not my point: I don't think the developer has made clear the technical knowledge or basis for the use of this software. Ideally it should all happen in the background: this is, after all, a Macintosh application!
I'm sorry to be somewhat negative because I'm sure the developer is dedicated and talented but perhaps Inkscape isn't quite ready to be unleashed amongst ignorant people like me.
RELEASE NOTES -
Many OS X users have reported being unable to open SVG files using the open dialog in Inkscape 0.43. It has been fixed in an updated package, Inkscape-0.43-2.dmg
