Now for one of my favorites that I actually use. Inkscape is a vector based application that is similar in use to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X, but of course since it is Open Source, it is free to use.

Now this is not your run-of-the-mill graphics application; this application can import JPG, PNG, GIF, and others, but can only export PNG bitmaps. Also, there are no real bitmap operations, so if you want to deal with pixels, then first create your graphic in Inkscape as a series of scalable shapes, and then use GIMP to perform the bitmap operations, like shading, etc.

One nice feature of Inkscape that I really like a lot is the ability to import the bitmap and then perform and autotrace on the image to help, or in many cases completely create a line drawing based on the imported image. So I can scan an X-ray, MRI, or other image, and then create a line drawing from that image and actually measure the ratio of various things inside the image. This is often a difficult job to do by hand especially when you’re dealing with the human parts since they are rarely smooth.

If you are a graphics artist, there is a clip art collection that is licensed as public domain, so they can be used as you please in commercial and non-commercial projects.

The galleries provide some interesting applications of Inkscape that are not Open Source or public domain. But the sides expressed here can be a useful guide, and a start for other projects. This is the idea behind the community aspect of the use of this software. Feed each other and none of us will go hungry.

If all this sounds intriguing, then check out the Web site here.

[tags]microface, open source, graphics, vector, inkscape[/tags]