Inkscape

What hackers pick instead

• SVG Path EditorFree tool for editing individual SVG path commands while keeping clean integer coordinates. No critical caveats were recorded.8recommend
• VectorPeaPeople recommend VectorPea as a free vector editor with a familiar interface and a low-barrier alternative to other tools.5recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 135 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Designer does work better in some aspects than Inkscape, as some downstream software I use extensively doesn't like exported SVGs from Inkscape for some reason, but I like Inkscape's open-ness.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026”

2. 1.0 and after, and it's been truly a dream. I now use it to make all my figures for my research publications and presentations.

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

3. unless you explicitly export as plain 1.1 compatible SVG you will likely get an SVG with some cherry picked SVG2 features

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “We pwned X, Vercel, Cursor, and Discord through a supply-chain attack”

4. Inkscape is basically the only good editor on Linux and it easily runs out of memory and crashes for complex images

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “An SVG is all you need”

5. The advantage is that it produces sane output paths that I can edit easily for final manual touches in Inkscape.

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “SVG Path Editor”

6. It messes up all my formatting and uses its own weird formatting, with line breaks between attributes.

   Mixed · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

7. They're mostly /fine/ but it's one of the weaker software categories in FOSS-alternatives IMO.

   Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it”

8. Krita and Inkscape are both serious and competent apps with their own principles and features

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “ArtCraft Apps – open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust”

9. Inkscape lets me adjust kern of each letter because the curve can cause letters to touch.

   Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Shop Sans is a typeface for curved text paths”

10. Krita and Inkscape have successfully replaced Photoshop and Illustrator for me.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too”

11. Between Inkscape and Photopea I haven’t touched an Adobe graphics app in years.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month”

12. open the SVG file in Inkscape and render as PNG/JPG at any resolution you want

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Turtletoy”

13. FreeCAD is becoming like Blender and Inkspace - incredibly robust and capable

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)”

14. a feature that worked fine before that got broken years ago and stayed broken

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

15. I’ve moved to Darktable, Inkscape and libreoffice here mostly for my needs.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Apple has decided to compete for creativity app users”

16. there are no better tools if you want to have granular control over the SVG

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

17. I use Inkscape very often for graphics work and it works great for me.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

18. Nowadays I use Krita, ffmpeg, Blender, Zim Desktop Wiki, and Inkscape

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe”

19. almost inevitably creates really messy SVGs with a lot of transforms

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

20. I use Inkscape on Mac almost every day and lately hit very few bugs.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

21. I still find Inkscape and svg + pdf_tex to be the easiest pattern.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Show HN: TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX”

22. why Inkscape feels qualitatively better than many open source apps

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software”

23. Inkscape is really good for products with no budget for designers.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

24. if you open an SVG in (for example) Inkscape and make a minimal change and save, the resulting file has little to do with the original

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Show HN: TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX”

25. Right now I have a workflow breaking bug in Inkscape which was fixed last year on main but hasn't made it to a release yet.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “LÖVE: 2D Game Framework for Lua”

26. takes so long just to show the main UI that the developers didn't think anything of adding a splash screen

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Microsoft please get your tab to autocomplete shit together”

27. None of the Inkscape devs are invested in Freehand's keyboard shortcuts and working techniques

    Criticizes · Jan 2026

28. I'm sick of Gimp, Krita, and Inkscape being the best Linux and open source have to offer.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “ArtCraft Apps – open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust”

29. the calligraphy pen there seems to be even worse than before and worse than even in 1.4.4

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

30. It's kinda disappointing to see this bad of a regression to just linger there for years.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

31. I was resigned in my fate to just deal with the awkwardness of GIMP and Inkscape

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Adobe Creative Suite Cleanroom Port to Rust”

32. The canvas itself has performance regressions, especially prominent on Windows.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

33. Surprisingly, it feels even slower and more unstable than a decade ago.

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron”

34. The main reason for me to consider non-free software for graphic design is not that Gimp, Inkscape, etc. are not good enough

    Mixed · Nov 2025

35. I'm not a big inkscape user or a big fan but last time I used it that was absolutely not a word that approached my mind

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

36. I think I have donated more for Inkscape, Gimp, Firefox, and Libre Office than I ever spent on proprietary software.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Nobody pays for FOSS, we can force them to”

37. Just design the flat projection in something like Inkscape, interactively, and then import and extrude.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “OpenSCAD the Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller”

38. Draw your free-hand shape in Inkscape, export to SVG, import it in FreeCAD and go from there.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Parametric CAD in Rust”

39. I do the same thing. I create one SVG vector, and then dump them all out with a script.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”

40. It's "small" features like this that make software really nice and pleasant to use.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Inkscape 1.4.4”