This is a list of free and open source vector graphics editor software packages.

 

- Inkscape

Inkscape is professional quality vector graphics software which runs on Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux. It is used by design professionals and hobbyists worldwide, for creating a wide variety of graphics such as illustrations, icons, logos, diagrams, maps and web graphics. Inkscape uses the W3C open standard SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) as its native format, and is free and open-source software.

Inkscape has sophisticated drawing tools with capabilities comparable to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Xara Xtreme. It can import and export various file formats, including SVG, AI, EPS, PDF, PS and PNG. It has a comprehensive feature set, a simple interface, multi-lingual support and is designed to be extensible; users can customize Inkscape's functionality with add-ons.

The Inkscape project has a growing international user community, and many learning materials exist to help get you started with your creations. Help and support is provided by the community, and there are lots of ways for you to get involved if you want to help improve the Inkscape project.

Features of Inkscape:

  • Object creation

  • Object manipulation

  • Fill and stroke

  • Operations on paths

  • Text support

  • Rendering

  • Export/Import

 

- SK1 Project

sK1 is an open source cross-platform vector graphics editor like CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, or Freehand. The major feature of sK1 is a professional precise printing and prepress ready PDF output.

sK1 2.0 is licensed under GPL v3. So you may use this application as for personal or commercial purposes without any fees.

Application supports basic vector graphics primitives: rectangles, rounded rectangles, ellipses, pies, sectors, chords, polygons, Bézier curves, text and bitmaps. The objects may be structured on pages, layers and just in selectable groups/containers. Pages within a document can be of different sizes. Bézier curves are fundamental rendering units. All the primitives can be converted into curves. We use Cairo library to render these curves on the screen.

Thanks to cairo we have cross-platform unified antialiased rendering, similar to PostScript/PDF definitions.

Inside sK1 2.0 all the color values and raster images are under color management. We use LittleCMS library for these purposes. Despite of built-in profiles, end users can use own color profiles to customize color management engine. Printer emulation on screen option is also available. sK1 2.0 text engine has a full-function rendering of multi-language text and cross-platform support because it's powered by Pango library.

 

- Karbon

Karbon is a vector drawing application with an user interface that is easy to use, highly customizable and extensible. That makes Karbon a great application for users starting to explore the world of vector graphics as well as for artists wanting to create breathtaking vector art.

Whether you want to create clipart, logos, illustrations or photorealistic vector images – look no further, Karbon is the tool for you!

Karbon is free software and is getting better every day. To increase the pace at which we are moving forward you are invited to contribute in the form of code, documentation, tutorials, document templates or user feedback. Join us on #calligra at irc.freenode.net, or on our mailinglist.

 

- Libre Office Draw

Draw lets you produce anything from a quick sketch to a complex plan, and gives you the means to communicate with graphics and diagrams. With a maximum page size of 300cm by 300cm, Draw is a an excellent package for producing technical drawings, brochures, posters and many other documents. Draw lets you manipulate graphical objects, group them, crop them, use objects in 3D and much more.

Design powerful and intuitive flowcharts with Draw. Smart connectors make it easy to build flowcharts, organization charts, network diagrams and much more, even if you're not a naturally talented artist. You can define your own "glue points" for connectors to adhere to, for precise and easily repeatable positioning. Dimension lines automatically calculate and display linear dimensions as you draw.

 

- LaTeXDraw

LaTeXDraw is a graphical drawing editor for LaTeX. LaTeXDraw can be used to 1) generate PSTricks code; 2) directly create PDF or PS pictures. LaTeXDraw is developed in Java and thus runs on top of Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. You need Java 8 to launch LaTeXDraw.

 

- SVG-Edit

SVG-edit is a web-based free and open-source vector graphics editor. It can be used to create and edit Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) images from within a web browser, not requiring additional software installation.

SVG-edit is a cross-browser web-based, JavaScript-driven web tool, and has also been made into browser addons, such as an addon for Firefox, a Chrome extension, and a standalone widget for Opera. There's also an experimental SVG editing extension on MediaWiki that uses SVG-edit.

SVG-edit consists of two major components: svg-editor.js and svgcanvas.js. These components work cooperatively. File svgcanvas.js can be used outside of SVG-edit, allowing developers to create alternative interfaces to the canvas.

 

- TupiTube

TupiTube ( also known as Tupi 2D) is a 2D animation software focus on children, teenagers and amateurs. This project is developed and maintained by the Colombian startup MaeFloresta. This project is covered under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2, meaning that TupiTube is free and open-source software. 

Features:

  • Support for basic tools for vector illustration that includes rectangles, ellipses, lines, and polygons. Paths can also be created using the pen or pencil tool. The paint bucket tool can be used to fill bounded areas of vector objects.

  • Raster images (sometimes called Bitmap) can be imported and used as either static backgrounds or animated assets.

  • Finished animations can be exported to various file formats that include: (Ogg Theora, AVI, MPEG, SWF. Or as a sequence of images in PNG, JPEG, and SVG format.

  • Basic support for tweening of positions, colors, rotation, scale, sheer, and opacity has been added to recent releases.

  • The Library panel allows for the organization and reuse of imported media assets.

 

- Synfig Studio

Synfig Studio (also known as Synfig) is a free and open-source 2D vector graphics and timeline-based computer animation program created by Robert Quattlebaum with additional contributions by Adrian Bentley.

Synfig began as the custom animation platform for Voria Studios (now defunct), and in 2005 was released as free/open source software, under the GNU General Public License.

Features:

As a true front-end and back-end application, it is possible to design the animation in the front-end, Synfig Studio, and to render it at a later time with the backend, Synfig Tool, on another (potentially faster) computer without a graphical display connected. Incremental and parallel rendering with Synfig Tool is supported by some open source render farm management software, such as RenderChan.

The goal of the developers is to create a program that is capable of producing "feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources." The program offers an alternative to manual tweening so that the animator does not have to draw each and every frame.

The software is capable of simulating soft-shading using curved gradients within an area so that the animator doesn't have to draw shading into every single frame. There is also a wide variety of other real-time effects that can be applied to layers or groups of layers like radial blurs, color tweaks that all are resolution-independent. Other features include the ability to control and animate the width of lines at their individual control points, and the ability to link any related data from one object to another. Synfig also works with High Dynamic Range Imaging.

 

- Knotter

Knotter is a free and open source customizable interlace designer.

Interlace patterns are a kind of design historically used as a decorations in many places and by different cultures. Some examples are Celtic knotworks and Islamic interlaces. Knotter aims to allow its user to intuitively design such patterns and to provide easy ways to integrate the result in external general-purpose graphic software for this purpose designs created within Knotter can be saved in a custom Human-Readable format and exported as scalable vector graphics and in a wide number of raster image formats.