trunk/pages/index.html

title: Skencil, a vector drawing program

<h2>Latest news</h2>

<p>
<!--
 <b>:</b> <a href="news.html#newsIDx"></a><br />
-->
 <b>2004-11-11:</b> <a href="news.html#newsID9"
        >Screenshots updated; BuildImage 1.0</a>
        <br />
 <b>2004-09-28:</b> <a href="news.html#newsID8"
        >New Add-ons: skLaTeX, Calendar, 
        Equal-area proj, PolygloText, Autoshapes</a>
        <br />

 <b>2004-03-04:</b> <a href="news.html#newsID7">Skencil RPMs for Red Hat 7.3 - 9
  and Fedora Core 1 available</a><br />
</p>

<p><a href="news.html">More news...</a></p>

<h2>Introduction to Skencil</h2>

<p>Skencil is a Free Software interactive vector drawing
appliction. Known to run on
<a href="platforms.html">GNU/Linux and other
UNIX-compatible systems</a>, it is a flexible and
powerful tool for illustrations, diagrams and other
purposes.</p>

<p>A somewhat unique (for a drawing program) feature of
Skencil is that it is implemented almost completely in a
very high-level, interpreted language,
<a href="links.html">Python</a>. Python is powerful,
object-oriented and yet easy to use.</p>
<hr />


<p>Just a few highlights about Skencil's features</p>

<ul>
  <li>B&eacute;zier Curves</li>

  <li>Transformed text and images</li>

  <li>B&eacute;zier curves, rectangles and ellipses can
  be used as guides</li>

  <li>Gradient fills</li>

  <li>Blend groups</li>

  <li>Writes EPS files</li>

  <li><a href="features.html#N2">Text along a
  path</a></li>

  <li><a href="features.html">many more...</a></li>
</ul>


<h2>Status</h2>

<p>The current stable release is 0.6.16. Skencil is quite
usable already, even for production use, in my opinion.
The low version number is mainly due to lack of some
important features such as good text support.</p>

<p>The 0.6.x series will likely see minor improvements
over time, but no major changes to the core. There may be
more improvements in the import and export filters,
though.</p>

<p>Real development takes place in the unstable 0.7.x
<a href="devel.html">developer series</a>. Among the
major goals of this series is a port to GTK+, better text
support and a multi document interface.</p>

<p>The 0.7.x series of Skencil also supports more operating systems
(including Microsoft Windows) because GTK+ is ported to many platforms.</p>


<h2>Features</h2>
<p>In addition to the standard features (rectangles, ellipses, curves, text
etc.) that you expect from a vector drawing program, Skencil also has some
more advanced features like possibility to bend text along a path. See the
<a href="features.html">features page</a> for a comprehensive list of
features.</p>

<h2>Requirements</h2>

<p>Apart from the sources of Skencil, you need some
additional software. See the
<a href="download.html">download page</a> for details
on what software and where you can get it.</p>

<p>For Skencil to work properly with transformed text,
you also need an X-server capable of scaling and
transforming fonts. (XFree86 does support this.
Otherwise, you need X11R6 as far as I know).</p>

<p>Skencil currently supports only TrueColor visuals with
depths of 15, 16, 24 or 32 bits and 8-bit PseudoColor
visuals.</p>

<h2><a name="N2" id="N2">Contact &amp; Mailing
list</a></h2>

<p>There's a mailing list for all Skencil-related topics.
You can subscribe to it via the web-interface at
<a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sketch-list">
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sketch-list</a>
or by sending a mail with the word subscribe in the
subject to
<a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe">
[email protected]</a>.</p>

<p>You can also
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">contact
me directly</a>, although I'd prefer to discuss things on
the mailing list.</p>

<p>If you want to report bugs, please have a look at the
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=100828&amp;group_id=828&amp;func=browse">
bug tracker</a> first.</p>

<p>New versions are announced on the mailing list, on the
SourceForge
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/sketch">Skencil
page</a> and on
<a href="http://freshmeat.net/">freshmeat</a>.</p>

<h2>License</h2>

<p>Skencil itself is published under the terms of the
<a href="LGPL">GNU Library General Public License
(LGPL)</a>. Some of the code distributed with Skencil is
not directly part of Skencil and is distributed under a
Python-style license.</p>

<p>I've put it under the LGPL, because many parts of
Skencil can be used as a library (and are used by Skencil
that way), and the LGPL is less restrictive than the
normal GNU General Public License when it comes to
distributing an LGPL'ed library with software covered by
a different license.</p>
1	jpaalasm	606	title: Skencil, a vector drawing program
2
3			<h2>Latest news</h2>
4
5			<p>
6			<!--
7			<b>:</b> <a href="news.html#newsIDx"></a><br />
8			-->
9	bernhard	625	<b>2004-11-11:</b> <a href="news.html#newsID9"
10			>Screenshots updated; BuildImage 1.0</a>
11			<br />
12	bernhard	618	<b>2004-09-28:</b> <a href="news.html#newsID8"
13			>New Add-ons: skLaTeX, Calendar,
14			Equal-area proj, PolygloText, Autoshapes</a>
15	bernhard	625	<br />
16	jpaalasm	606
17			<b>2004-03-04:</b> <a href="news.html#newsID7">Skencil RPMs for Red Hat 7.3 - 9
18			and Fedora Core 1 available</a><br />
19			</p>
20
21			<p><a href="news.html">More news...</a></p>
22
23			<h2>Introduction to Skencil</h2>
24
25			<p>Skencil is a Free Software interactive vector drawing
26			appliction. Known to run on
27			<a href="platforms.html">GNU/Linux and other
28			UNIX-compatible systems</a>, it is a flexible and
29			powerful tool for illustrations, diagrams and other
30			purposes.</p>
31
32			<p>A somewhat unique (for a drawing program) feature of
33			Skencil is that it is implemented almost completely in a
34			very high-level, interpreted language,
35			<a href="links.html">Python</a>. Python is powerful,
36			object-oriented and yet easy to use.</p>
37			<hr />
38
39
40			<p>Just a few highlights about Skencil's features</p>
41
42			<ul>
43			<li>Bézier Curves</li>
44
45			<li>Transformed text and images</li>
46
47			<li>Bézier curves, rectangles and ellipses can
48			be used as guides</li>
49
50			<li>Gradient fills</li>
51
52			<li>Blend groups</li>
53
54			<li>Writes EPS files</li>
55
56			<li><a href="features.html#N2">Text along a
57			path</a></li>
58
59			<li><a href="features.html">many more...</a></li>
60			</ul>
61
62
63			<h2>Status</h2>
64
65			<p>The current stable release is 0.6.16. Skencil is quite
66			usable already, even for production use, in my opinion.
67			The low version number is mainly due to lack of some
68			important features such as good text support.</p>
69
70			<p>The 0.6.x series will likely see minor improvements
71			over time, but no major changes to the core. There may be
72			more improvements in the import and export filters,
73			though.</p>
74
75			<p>Real development takes place in the unstable 0.7.x
76			<a href="devel.html">developer series</a>. Among the
77			major goals of this series is a port to GTK+, better text
78			support and a multi document interface.</p>
79
80			<p>The 0.7.x series of Skencil also supports more operating systems
81			(including Microsoft Windows) because GTK+ is ported to many platforms.</p>
82
83
84			<h2>Features</h2>
85			<p>In addition to the standard features (rectangles, ellipses, curves, text
86			etc.) that you expect from a vector drawing program, Skencil also has some
87			more advanced features like possibility to bend text along a path. See the
88			<a href="features.html">features page</a> for a comprehensive list of
89			features.</p>
90
91			<h2>Requirements</h2>
92
93			<p>Apart from the sources of Skencil, you need some
94			additional software. See the
95			<a href="download.html">download page</a> for details
96			on what software and where you can get it.</p>
97
98			<p>For Skencil to work properly with transformed text,
99			you also need an X-server capable of scaling and
100			transforming fonts. (XFree86 does support this.
101			Otherwise, you need X11R6 as far as I know).</p>
102
103			<p>Skencil currently supports only TrueColor visuals with
104			depths of 15, 16, 24 or 32 bits and 8-bit PseudoColor
105			visuals.</p>
106
107			<h2><a name="N2" id="N2">Contact & Mailing
108			list</a></h2>
109
110			<p>There's a mailing list for all Skencil-related topics.
111			You can subscribe to it via the web-interface at
112			<a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sketch-list">
113			http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sketch-list</a>
114			or by sending a mail with the word subscribe in the
115			subject to
116			<a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe">
117			[email protected]</a>.</p>
118
119			<p>You can also
120			<a href="mailto:[email protected]">contact
121			me directly</a>, although I'd prefer to discuss things on
122			the mailing list.</p>
123
124			<p>If you want to report bugs, please have a look at the
125			<a href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=100828&group_id=828&func=browse">
126			bug tracker</a> first.</p>
127
128			<p>New versions are announced on the mailing list, on the
129			SourceForge
130			<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/sketch">Skencil
131			page</a> and on
132			<a href="http://freshmeat.net/">freshmeat</a>.</p>
133
134			<h2>License</h2>
135
136			<p>Skencil itself is published under the terms of the
137			<a href="LGPL">GNU Library General Public License
138			(LGPL)</a>. Some of the code distributed with Skencil is
139			not directly part of Skencil and is distributed under a
140			Python-style license.</p>
141
142			<p>I've put it under the LGPL, because many parts of
143			Skencil can be used as a library (and are used by Skencil
144			that way), and the LGPL is less restrictive than the
145			normal GNU General Public License when it comes to
146			distributing an LGPL'ed library with software covered by
147			a different license.</p>
Name	Value
svn:eol-style	native
svn:executable	*
svn:keywords	Author Date Id Revision