Illustration creation

Features that are mostly relevant to artists and illustrators.

In addition to all the standard drawing tools that

Inkscape offers (those that add and edit primitives, such as lines, curves and geometric shapes), it offers a high degree of control of the parameters. For example, if you add a dotted line, you can get quite specific about whether or not the dots have rounded ends and how you want them to be spaced. Every tool goes into exacting detail like this. Generally, as soon as you click on an object to edit it, you are offered a multitude of options. It also has other utility-type tools that are often useful to artists, such as bitmap tracing and facilities to combine or simplify objects. As with all the programs, if using it for drawing, you might have to look things up the first time you do something.

Krita is primarily known as a bitmap painting program for artists, but it has a full set of vector drawing facilities. To begin working with vectors rather than pixels, you only have to create a vector layer and switch to it. Inkscape has more facilities as a vector drawing program, but they are often hidden behind a complex and inconsistent user interface. In addition, if there is a gap in the vector drawing facilities of Krita, there’s always a chance that you can accomplish an effect with the bitmap tools.

LibreOffice Draw offers basic drawing facilities with a clean user interface and a lot of starting shapes, such as star and octagon, although it doesn’t go into as much detail with the parameters as the other apps. For example, there’s no control over the amount of smoothing applied to freehand drawing. On the flip side, you may prefer the simple approach for diagrams.

Ipe has some of the feel of a CAD program. For example, you can draw a circle in three ways: by specifying the centre and the radius, by specifying the diameter or by specifying three points. If you’re methodically creating a diagram type of illustration, you may well appreciate the precision that these facilities offer.

Xfig has the basic features for working with simple graphics primitives, but they are sometimes marred by the archaic interface and parameters that are not updated on screen until you finalise your choices.

When you edit an existing vector path in Inkscape, a new toolbar opens, offering even more detailed options, such as smoothing curves or converting lines to curves.