For those that want a free vectoring program...

[M3talhead]

I've been playing around with a little open source program called Inkscape lately.  From what I've seen, its quite similar to Adobe Illustrator, minus the $500 price tag! You can download it from their website, http://www.inkscape.org, under the "Downloads" section. Tech support is a little thin right now since its a relatively unknown program, but for our needs, it fits the bill.

If you want to start working with vectoring programs, but don't want to shell out the cash for a commercial product, try it out and let others know how you like it.

[elvis]

I've been using InkScape for some time now (18 months or so?).  Before the InkScape fork it was called Sodipodi, and still looking good even at such an early stage.

InkScape supports file formats including Adobe Illustrator (.ai), Portable Document Format (PDF), PostScript and Encapsulated Postscript (PS and EPS), Windows Meta Files (WMF) and my personal favourite open standard: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to play with their own vector art.  I used a combination of InkScape and AutoTrace to play with some nice scalable artwork a few years back for another project I was doing:

http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/

Likewise, I use GIMP entirely for my raster stuff now.  Have been doing so since 1.0.

http://www.gimp.org/

There are some brilliant open source art/graphics packages out there.  Perfect for arcade builders who just want to do some quick work, and not shell out thousands of dollars for pro tools.

[M3talhead]

GIMP is an excellent tool. I too have been using it from the beginning (1.0) and love it. As for Inkscape, its still a bit new, but it has the same feel GIMP has and is laid out very nicely, easy for beginners to pick up.

[Grasshopper]

Hmm, might be worth having simply to convert Illustrator files to other formats.

[M3talhead]

The only problem is that it was not designed to open .ai files, HOWEVER, it will open the following:

.svg
.svgz
.ani
.bmp
.gif
.ico
.cur
.jpg
.jpe
.jpeg
.pcx
.png
.pnm
.pnb
.ras
.tga
.targa
.tiff
.wbmp
.xbm
.xpm

[Grasshopper]

That's a pity.

It's a shame the vector library uses one of the least portable file formats.

[Chris]

That's a pity.

It's a shame the vector library uses one of the least portable file formats.

Grasshopper, the list of formats above are all raster formats; the vector library naturally uses vector formats.

[dphirschler]

Least portable ---my bottom---.  Adobe Illustrator is THE vector standard.


Darryl

[Grasshopper]

Least portable <auto-censored>.  Adobe Illustrator is THE vector standard.


Darryl

For professionals certainly, but the point is there don't seem to be any PD/shareware programs that can import AI files, or at least none that I've come across.

[RayB]

For professionals certainly, but the point is there don't seem to be any PD/shareware programs that can import AI files, or at least none that I've come across.

Umm... This whole thread is about Inkscape, and if you'd read post #2, you'd have noticed: "InkScape supports file formats including Adobe Illustrator (.ai), Portable Document Format (PDF), PostScript and Encapsulated Postscript (PS and EPS), Windows Meta Files (WMF) and my personal favourite open standard: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)."

So there's your PD/shareware that supports AI format!

[Grasshopper]

For professionals certainly, but the point is there don't seem to be any PD/shareware programs that can import AI files, or at least none that I've come across.

Umm... This whole thread is about Inkscape, and if you'd read post #2, you'd have noticed: "InkScape supports file formats including Adobe Illustrator (.ai), Portable Document Format (PDF), PostScript and Encapsulated Postscript (PS and EPS), Windows Meta Files (WMF) and my personal favourite open standard: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)."

So there's your PD/shareware that supports AI format!

What about post five then? Or is M3talhead referring to Gimp there?

[elvis]

Least portable <auto-censored>.  Adobe Illustrator is THE vector standard.
Darryl

For professionals certainly, but the point is there don't seem to be any PD/shareware programs that can import AI files, or at least none that I've come across.

Open eyes kids.

InkScape can most certainly import AI files.  I do it on a regular basis.  It cannot SAVE to AI format, but that's not Inkscape's fault.  You can thank Adobe for that.  The close the source of their formats, and then make it illegal for anyone to write to that format without paying royalties.

And as far as standards go, .ai is not a standard.  It is a file type, owned by one single company.  There is nothing standard about it.  Sure, lots of people use it.  That still doesn't make it a standard by pure definition.

If you want a real standard, look at SVG.  SVG is not owned by anyone, is an open format, and is agreed apon by many large bodies including Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Macromedia and many other large industry professionals.  Now THAT is what I call a real standard.

[AceTKK]

Maybe I'm missing something but the version I downloaded is NOT able to open .ai files.  Do I need an external module to enable this functionality?

-Ace-

[Grasshopper]

I downloaded it last night (took ages on dialup). Unfortunately, when I attempt to load it I get a run time error.  Has anyone else here had this problem? Maybe it's not compatible with Windows 98.

Also, it doesn't install automatically. I just ran the EXE file straight from the directory.

[Grasshopper]

Maybe I'm missing something but the version I downloaded is NOT able to open .ai files.  Do I need an external module to enable this functionality?

-Ace-

I haven't tried the program myself (see previous post) but I did think it was a bit odd that it would import .ai files but not export them. I would have assumed that importing is harder to implement than exporting.

[Dire Radiant]

I didn't have any trouble opening it. Doesn't use the GTK runtimes does it? Only reason I ask is because I already have those installed for Pan.

[sugarcube]

Maybe I'm missing something but the version I downloaded is NOT able to open .ai files.  Do I need an external module to enable this functionality?

-Ace-

Just looked into this trying also to import .ai into inkscape. apparently (according to some docs) .ai import only works on linux, not on windows  .

however inkscape seems to be using some perl script (ill2svg.pl) to get this import to work on linux, so maybe this script can be used to convert .ai to SVG.

Anyone knows an easier method to convert .ai to SVG instead of hacking through perl ?

[elvis]

I'm a GNU/Linux user, so I can't help you out.  Sorry.

All I can suggest is installing the GTK+ and Perl Windows runtime libraries and seeing if that sorts you out.

[RayB]

How about exporting the AI file to some other format ?

Just download the AI 30 day trial.....