Open Source Scalable Vector Graphics Editor

I do a lot of reading, I'm interested in a lot of different subjects, and many of them are very technical. I sometimes think I missed my calling, there's a possibility I should have become an engineer. With my employment situation as it is, I don't have a lot of money to be spending on new software, so I've been looking at open-source software, and an article I ran across about doing UML using XML/XSL and SVG graphics piqued my interest in SVG.

SVG is an acronym for Scalable Vector Graphics, a standard put forth by the W3C. Its actually a subset of XML, and is supported by most browsers to some degree. Its supposedly simple, but utilizing it in your blog doesn't support that claim. My experimentation would seem to indicate that some parts work, while others don't.

In looking for editors for SVG, I did happen to run across an application called Inkscape. For an open-source package, its amazingly complete and professional and is akin to one of Adobe's programs. Although I haven't been able to use straight svg files from it in my blog, or even use any of it as inline code (that renders properly), it does allow the export of bitmapped graphics to PNG files. Those definitely work on blogger.

If you look at my header you can see one of the exports, with a nice color fade, rounded corners, and transparency. Here's another example I did this morning:



I recommend Inkscape, especially if you like to draw or just can't find the right graphic that says what you want. If you don't feel like wading through all the pages of the Inkscape.com site, you can get to the downloads directly from here.

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