Inkscape Release Notes
----------------------
Please see the Inkscape website for the latest news about the project,
or TODO and ChangeLog for further details about releases. This file only 
contains the release notes for the current release.

  Inkscape 0.37


    In brief:

    * New functionality: boolean operations on paths, dynamic and linked
      offsets, path outlining, standalone SVG viewer, drag-and-drop,
      letter-spacing.
    * More convenient editing: top panel, new color widget, 256x zoom,
      snapped rotation with Ctrl everywhere, selecting within groups,
      lots of new shortcuts, and more.
    * Interface and usability: saving view with the document, zoom
      history, fullscreen, hide/show all open dialogs, smarter export
      dialog, helpful statusbar, and much more.
    * Inkscape internals: built with C++, brand new classes for points,
      rects, matrices, and URIs, massive cleanups.
    * Last but not least: tutorial for new users, keys and mouse
      reference, Inkscape User mailing list, hassle-free Windows builds. 


    New functionality

    * Boolean operations on shapes are now implemented: union,
      difference, intersection, and exclusive OR (XOR).
    * Paths can be inset or outset (i.e., contracted or expanded
      orthogonally to the path in each point). You can do simple
      inset/outset of a path, or you can create a dynamic offset object
      that you can adjust interactively using the node tool. Moreover, a
      dynamic offset object can be linked to its original path so that
      editing the path will have the offset updated automatically.
    * A stroke can now be converted to a closed path (i.e. outlined,
      taking into account stroke width).
    * A standalone SVG viewer is now available, which can be used as a
      slideshow viewer. Just type inkview *.svg; see
      http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Inkview for details.
    * You can now drag SVG files from Konqueror (and probably other KDE
      apps, too) to Inkscape. And when The Gimp gets full support for
      path drag-and-drop, we'll be able to accept drops from them, too.
    * The Document Options dialog now lets you change the background and
      border colors of a document, with the background color also used
      for bitmap exports - which means you can easily produce PNGs with
      non-transparent background.
    * Support for the letter-spacing CSS property is implemented. Press
      Alt+< or Alt+> when editing text to adjust the letterspacing of
      the current line.
    * The Help menu contains a new interactive tutorial for beginner
      users of Inkscape and a complete Keys and Mouse reference in SVG
      (see an HTML version at http://inkscape.org/doc/keys.html). 


    More convenient editing

    * Complete keyboard control in selector and node tool: now you can
      not only select and move objects/nodes with keyboard, but also
      rotate them by [] keys and scale by <> keys, with various
      modifiers. For nodes, rotating and scaling is applied to the
      control handles of all selected nodes.
    * The top panel for selector tool provides editable fields for the
      coordinates, width, and height of the selection. Press Alt+X to
      access the panel via keyboard.
    * Maximum zoom was upped from 32x to 256x, which was possible by
      increasing the coordinate precision used by the program and stored
      in SVG.
    * A new color widget on the Fill and Stroke dialog allows you to
      select between RGB, CMYK, HSV sliders or an HSV color wheel
      (resize the dialog if you want the wheel to grow larger). Also in
      that dialog, editing gradients is now easier, as you can drag the
      control points of linear and radial gradients.
    * Many new keyboard+mouse modes make mousework a lot more
      convenient. In selector and node tool, as well as in pen, spiral,
      and star tools, rotating objects or control handles of a node with
      Ctrl restricts rotation to 15 degree increments. Dragging nodes
      may be restricted to horizontal/vertical (with Ctrl) and to the
      directions of the node's handles (with Ctrl+Alt). Dragging a
      node's control points with Alt locks the length of the handle, and
      with Shift, rotates the other handle by the same angle.
    * In selector, Ctrl+click and Ctrl+Shift+click select objects within
      groups.
    * In node tool, Ctrl+click toggles cusp/smooth/symmetric,
      Ctrl+Alt+click deletes a node.
    * Previously in selector, mouse dragging from an empty spot started
      rubberband selection, while dragging from an object moved that
      object. Now you can press Shift and Inkscape will start rubberband
      from any spot, object or not. This makes selecting in complex
      drawings more convenient. 


    Interface and usability

    * When you save a document, Inkscape now remembers the zoom level
      and the center of view and restores them on load, so you'll be
      looking at exactly the same point at the same magnification as the
      last time you saved the document. Optionally, it also saves window
      size and position for each document and restores them on load.
      Moreover, Inkscape can read the view template from the preferences
      to set the zoom level, window geometry, grid settings, and guides
      in all new documents.
    * More helpful statusbar display: default hints for all tools,
      explanations for most non-fatal errors, visual feedback for
      non-trivial actions (such as Unicode mode in text tool), the
      number and type of selected nodes in node tool, the font face and
      size for text objects.
    * Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab cycle forward and backward through the
      document windows of the program.
    * Inkscape now preserves the history of zoom settings for each
      document. The ` key restores previous zoom; pressing ` repeatedly
      will guide you through all the zoom settings you've used in this
      session. Shift+` moves forward in the zoom history.
    * Middle click zooms in, Shift+middle click zooms out (in addition
      to middle button drag which pans canvas).
    * All zooming operations via mouse now preserve the point under
      cursor (no centering).
    * Improvements in the Export dialog: the Browse button, helpful
      error messages, and even a progress bar. The dialog remembers and
      restores the export area and dpi settings.
    * The fullscreen mode is implemented; press F11 to toggle.
    * F12 temporarily hides all open dialogs; press F12 again to restore
      them.
    * More screen real estate: you can now hide rulers (Ctrl+R) and
      scrollbars (Ctrl+B). These settings are remembered across sessions.
    * All menus now have mnemonics.
    * Many obsolete and confusing console debug messages removed, some
      of them reworded in plain English and displayed in the statusbar
      or (for important errors) in modal messageboxes.
    * Many cosmetic improvements in the UI. 


    Internals

    * Inkscape is now built using a C++ compiler. More and more code is
      being translated from C to C++.
    * In particular, we now use NR::Point, NR::Matrix and NR::Rect
      classes instead of the clunky old macros.
    * We now have the beginnings of an Inkscape::URI class for working
      with URIs.
    * Using Inkscape::URIReference, clipping paths, masks, and gradients
      are updated properly when their id is changed.
    * Inkscape can use libgnomeprint 2.2 now (Note: it should print to
      the gnome default printer, but was not fully tested before the
      release)
    * Massive cleanups, bugfixes, and trimming dead code. 


    Infrastructure and ports

    * Join the new Inkscape User mailing list!
      http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/inkscape-user
    * The Windows build is now created daily, available at
      http://troi.lincom-asg.com/~rjamison/inkscape/. What's better, now
      it does not require installing any external libraries - just unzip
      and run! 


    Known problems

    * Some window managers, notably Sawfish, interact badly with the
      "Autoraise Dialogs" feature and do not display dialog window
      decorations, making it difficult to use them. For the present,
      users of such window managers can turn this option off in the
      Dialogs menu. This will be fixed in a future release.
    * The Autoraise Dialogs option has no effect on Windows.
    * When using Copy and Paste (or Paste style) commands, you cannot
      copy gradients or arrowheads from one document to another.
      Workaround: use the XML editor to copy the content of the <defs>
      element from the source document to the target document, then
      copying gradients and arrowheads will work.
    * Pasting text directly into a text object on the canvas does not
      work. Workaround: open the Text dialog (Shift+Ctrl+T) and paste
      into the text editing area there, then click Apply.
    * The RGBA field in the Fill and Stroke dialog may sometimes lose
      its value. We are investigating the cause. 


    How you can help

    * Help answer questions on the new Inkscape User mailing list
      (http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/inkscape-user)
    * We are always looking for more developers. Come join us, Inkscape
      development is fun!
    * We need doc writers to build Inkscape documentation.
    * We need translators to translate the interface.
    * We need artists to create new and consistent icons. Many new
      commands are without icons, and some old icons are quite ugly.
      (Yes, you can draw icons for Inkscape using Inkscape!)
    * Above all, we want you to use Inkscape as much as possible and
      report any problems or suggestions. Bug tracker, RFE tracker,
      mailing lists, Wiki - any form of feedback is valuable. 


    Previous releases

    * ReleaseNotes036 
      (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes036) 

