Text handling
A picture paints a thousand words, but words can enhance a drawing.
LibreOffice Draw inherits many of the features of the word processing module of LibreOffice, to the extent that you could use it for some basic DTP work. Importantly, the features are not only present, but they are easy to use. Working with large sections of text is a breeze. Additionally, drawings that you produce in the Draw module can be utilised in the other LibreOffice modules. There are also quick facilities to produce 3D text.
Inkscape takes a different approach. Manipulating text in minute detail is possible because text can be reduced to a path, meaning that Inkscape’s extensive drawing facilities can be brought to bear on it. You can also map text to a path, such as a circle, while keeping it fully editable. It’s ideal for working on text objects that are part of a logo design. However, confining large amounts of text to a frame and formatting it is a fiddly affair compared to LibreOffice Draw.
Ipe has basic facilities for including text objects, which can be stretched, rotated and sheared. You can accomplish some extra effects using LaTeX, but you’d have to be a LaTeX expert to be able to do this.
Xfig only has basic facilities for including small pieces of text, such as controlling the size, font and justification settings.
The text facilities of Krita are quite good, with a pop-up editor for the content and some formatting facilities. However, it’s not possible to confine text to a box or other shape. Krita’s features within the vector realm continue to impress as you can turn text into a path for further manipulation with the drawing facilities.