Inkscape is an illustration editor which has everything needed to
create professional-quality computer art. You can use it to make
diagrams and illustrations, technical drawings, web graphics, clip art,
icons and logos. A collection of hands-on tutorials show you how to
combine lines, shapes and text of different types and styles to build
up a picture.
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A selection of powerful vector graphics editing tools comes as
standard. There is excellent support for paths, gradients, layers,
alpha transparency and text flow control. An extensive library of
filters allow you to apply realistic effects and extensions allow you
to work with bitmaps, barcodes and printing marks, amongst other things.
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Most of the common vector formats are supported, including PDF, Adobe
Illustrator and AutoCAD files, and it has unrivalled support for the
SVG web graphics standard.
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Between the suggested packages:
* dia: to export Dia shapes;
* libsvg-perl: to import .txt files (txt2svg extension);
* libxml-xql-perl: to use the shadow effect;
* python-uniconvertor: enables several import/export extensions;
* pstoedit: to work with eps files;
* ruby: there are several extensions written in ruby;
