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http://www.inkscape.org/
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Inkscape is an open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to
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Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the W3C standard scalable
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vector graphics format (SVG). Some supported SVG features include
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basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms,
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gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports Creative Commons
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meta-data, node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path,
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and SVG XML editing. It also imports several formats like EPS, Postscript,
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JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based
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Inkscape's main motivation is to provide the Open Source community
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with a fully W3C compliant XML, SVG, and CSS2 drawing tool. Additional
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planned work includes conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to C++/Gtkmm,
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emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added through
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an extension mechanism, and the establishment of a friendly, open,
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community-oriented development processes.
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Inkscape uses the standard procedure for compilation and installation:
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If a "./configure" file is not present, you can create it by running
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the "./autogen.sh" command, which calls in turn a number of other
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programs such as automake and autoconf. See INSTALL for more
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The Inkscape core depends on several other libraries that you will need
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install, if they're not already present on your system. The most
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typical libraries you may need to install are:
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Please see http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?CompilingInkscape for the
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most current dependencies, including links to the source tarballs.
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Extension Dependencies
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======================
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Inkscape also has a number of extensions for implementing various
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features such as support for non-SVG file formats, etc. In theory, all
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extensions are optional, however in practice you will want to have these
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installed and working. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of
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variability in how you can get these functioning properly. Here are
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First, make sure you have Perl and Python. If you're on Windows you
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should also install Cygwin.
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Next, you'll need to ensure the dependencies for each extension is
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present. Depending on which extensions you need, the dependencies are
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going to vary, but here are some you may need to install:
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If you install dependencies to non-standard locations, such as
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installing XML::Parser someplace in your home directory, you may need to
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take some extra steps to indicate where those dependencies are to be
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found. For instance, with Perl modules, set the PERLLIB or PERL5LIB
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variable (see `man perlrun`)