Check out this free SVG Program (Scalable Vector Graphics) http://www.inkscape.org/ It is in it's very early stages, but man is this program awesome. It will at some point and time be comparable to Illustrator and Freehand without the high cost. Dan

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Inkscape isindeed a cool program and best of all its crossplatorm (also runs in linux). It's on of the best free vector programs I have seen till now. So for everyone that ones to try vector drawing but doesn't want to give out lots of money this could be the thing.

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If Inkscape were at the 1.0 release level, I could easily forget a reviewer's responsibility and gush about it like an adolescent in love. Fortunately, it is only at version 0.42.2, and has enough gaps in functionality that I can view it more sensibly. A Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) program, Inkscape faces a pack of competitors, including Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Macromedia FreeHand, OpenOffice.org Draw, and Xara X. Yet, even at its current early stage, Inkscape has already distinguished itself from the crowd. By focusing its development on the basic interface, objects and paths, and text objects, Inkscape already shows an awareness of interface and usability issues that makes it one of the most promising desktop free software projects of the last few years. As the version number emphasizes, Inkscape is still very much a work in progress. Looking at similar products, it is no trouble to assemble a wish list for future features. Connector lines that automatically snap between two objects would make diagramming easier. So would 3D objects and charting tools. Despite the attention already paid to text, spell checking, hyphenation, and column tools are also needed. And, even though SVG is a format intended largely for on-line use, features that would allow print designers to work in Inkscape, such as crop marks and the ability to produce color separations, would round off the feature set and make Inkscape the professional tool that it is straining to become.


Text converted to path can be
reshaped as desired by moving
dozens of path nodes.
This list is not a criticism so much as an indication of how far Inkscape has to go. Inkscape's basic tools are in place, and some professional work can be done in them. Still, choosing to work in Inkscape just now would be largely an act of faith in the future.

But that faith is unlikely to be misplaced. Inkscape is developing rapidly, and the news that it has taken advantage of Google's Summer of Code to employ four additional developers suggests that the current, rapid rate of development will continue, and may even increase. If the results of that future development match what is already done, Inkscape will not only fill a missing niche in the free software desktop, but raise the standards for interface design and ease of use while doing so

 

 

 

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