Inkscape also uses SVG as a native file format so that you can easily open your designs on other software if needed.

This program supports layers that you can organize to make your creative process more efficient. It has a nicely-arranged menu system filled with tools for manipulating various paths, shapes, text, gradients, and transparency effects. Some users even claim that it was easier for them to learn how to use the software than many of its premium counterparts. Navigating through Inkscape is simple and remarkably intuitive, especially if you already have experience with tools such as Illustrator. And it comes with a surprising range of features that means it can be considered as a serious alternative to the leading design program. The Inkscape software is their open-source counter to Adobe Illustrator's hefty price tag. The creators of Inkscape certainly understand the meaning of passion, and their love of digital art and their sense of community continues to help graphic designers all over the world. If you’re new to creating art working with a computer, new to vector drawing, or even want to transition from Illustrator to Inkscape, this book will get you from clueless to experienced in no time.As with many design products, Inkscape is passionate about improving its features and its services. Towards the end, it starts touching on topics most well experienced vector artists use on a daily basis, or haven’t even discovered yet, such as using filters to stylize your objects, different options for stylizing text, and making custom looking text, as well as manipulating nopn-vector images inside of inkscape, and even using the XML editor to directly modify the SVG, which gives you an intro into how shapes are actually stored, which can of course be used by different programs (such as HTML5’s ‘canvas’ tag), due to it being an open format for vector graphics. Then it actually allows you to explore the interface by small little projects, such as basic drawing tools, starting to modify objects, using layers, and stylizing text. It starts out very slow, describing what vector graphics actually are, how to install Inkscape, ect. This book is very detailed, assuming you know knowing of vector drawing, and possibly of any kind of digital drawing.

Inkscape is a vector drawing program, much like Illustrator, but free AND open sourced.

Inkscape review