Week highlights: further progress with new PDF exporter in Inkscape, Scribus team is closing up on v1.7.0, new version of libwacom, new features in FreeCAD.
Inkscape
I already discussed this topic in a recent weekly recap, but now there’s a video from Martin where he lists features supported by the new CMYK-capable PDF exporter in Inkscape.
In short, it’s almost everything you expect: shapes, fills (including regular and mesh gradients), strokes, markers, masks and clipping paths, blending modes, symbols, page bleeds, margins, page labels. Images seem to present a bit of an challenge, so support is partial for now.
Scribus
On Dec 11, the Scribus team sent an announcement to translators on Transifex that v1.7.0 and v1.6.3 are going to be released in a couple of weeks. That makes it a new year release or so.
The v1.7 branch is coming with significant UI changes, partly thanks to switching to Qt Advanced Docking System, partly thanks to an overall revamp of the interface by a couple of new contributors. There are more changes than that, though: style-based TOC and indexing, new whitespace review mode, better basepoint manipulation.
libwacom 2.14
The new version of libwacom introduces various fixes and support for new devices:
- Joshua Goins added support for XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro, ZP-Pen Artist 24 Pro.
- Mahdi Hasan add tablet data file for XP Pen Deco Fun L.
- Peter Hutterer added support for styli from vendors other than Wacom and a XP-Pen ACK05 Remote data file. He also added support for Huion KeyDial K20 and improved support for KD100.
For a complete list of changes, please see the changelog.
You won’t be using libwacom directly, but it’s what e.g. GNOME’s configuration dialog for graphic tablets depends on to get information about device capabilities.
FreeCAD
Main changes to introduce core datums have landed. There’s now UI for inserting them in the Structure toolbar.
Werner Mayer is cleaning up implementation details, and Pierre-Louis Boyer is polishing up the UX. In particular, he added back the XY, XZ, and YZ labels on planes for the LCS when you insert a new sketch. The initial restyling was missing that. This pull request, however, is being reviewed at the moment.
BIM is getting more features to. Yorik van Havre implemented support for 2D objects in NativeIFC (think linework, texts, dimensions etc.). The Views Manager now includes 2D views, and the BIM annotation toolbar got a new “Create 2D Drawing” tool.
Artworks
Dragons Dancing In The Blue Sky by Horti B:
Tobu. Golem spirit bu Amayon, painted with Krita:
Festival by Andrey Ivasenko, painted with Krita:
The Forgotten Spire by Abdul Wahab, made with Blender and Photoshop:
Kurzschwardzenbuglen Nature Sanctuary by Yaroslavus_Artem, painted with Krita:
Sunset y Gurkirat Singkh, painted with Krita:
Fun
Kris Wilk used FreeCAD to design a gingerbread house that doesn’t need proverbial (and literal) nails:
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://librearts.org/2024/12/week-recap-15-dec-2024/