I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
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Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#2These look excellent.
On the other hand, I still make an embarrassing amount of technical figures using powerpoint built in shapes.
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#3These look excellent. On the other hand, I still make an embarrassing amount of technical figures using powerpoint built in shapes.
Try https://excalidraw.com/ - it's SUPER NICE for these simple "shape" diagrams.
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#4This should have a (2019) in the title. If I'm not wrong, somewhere between 2019 and now Inkscape 1.0 was released. And now the betas have numerous new features and UI changes, most notably the introduction of multiple pages in a single document.
Besides, framing Inkscape as a "free — but arguably less featureful — alternative to Adobe Illustrator. You can use it for designing flyers and logos ~~like in the picture below~~, but it’s also a powerful tool for drawing mathematical figures" seems poor and rather unfair to it. Its compliance to the SVG standard makes it the best tool to produce scalable graphics for the web and it's extensively used to develop icon systems and theming in multiple FOSS software.
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#5Inkscape is great for technical figures, especially cartoons like the examples shown here. At least in my field, purely conceptual futures are called "cartoons" to distinguish from "figures" which are based on observational data.
A former advisor of mine had a quote that I'll happily steal here: "A cartoon is the highest form of scientific communication". Distilling a concept down to a very simple illustration is an underappreciated artform.
Inkscape is really great for scientific cartoons. I've used illustrator for many years, as well, and it's more powerful, but lacks something for quick bare-bones sketches compared to inkscape. There are things that illustrator is far better suited for, but these sort of conceptual sketches are kind of a sweet spot for inkscape.
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#6These look excellent. On the other hand, I still make an embarrassing amount of technical figures using powerpoint built in shapes.
If it works, it works.
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#7When I started writing papers I was really bullish on tikz. I thought that professional looking papers should have figures that were precise to the mm. But the time it takes to get something useful is just insane. I quickly moved to the vectorial drawing tool I had handy: keynote. It’s really not made for that, but it has enough features that you can quickly use it to do pretty things. I ended up using keynote to do all the figures in Real-World Cryptography https://www.amazon.com/dp/1617296716/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GA...
You can see some example in this thread: https://twitter.com/cryptodavidw/status/1436368473395925000?...
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#8This should have a (2019) in the title. If I'm not wrong, somewhere between 2019 and now Inkscape 1.0 was released. And now the betas have numerous new features and UI changes, most notably the introduction of multiple pages in a single document. Besides, framing Inkscape as a "free — but arguably less featureful — alternative to Adobe Illustrator. You can use it for designing flyers and logos ~~like in the picture b…
Year added above. Thanks!
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#9When I started writing papers I was really bullish on tikz. I thought that professional looking papers should have figures that were precise to the mm. But the time it takes to get something useful is just insane. I quickly moved to the vectorial drawing tool I had handy: keynote. It’s really not made for that, but it has enough features that you can quickly use it to do pretty things. I ended up using keynote to do…
I personally use Adobe XD for almost everything vector. It's not the job it's made for, but it's way faster to work in and is easier to organize. No need to switch between lucidcharts, illustrator and XD when everything I need is in one place.
Re: I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape (2019)
#10I love inkskape, but I wish it took some interface tips from modern graphical software like Sketch. Inkscape's interface hasn't changed much in the last 15 years or more, and since then a LOT has changed in the UX world. Tools like Sketch and Figma introduced so many tiny interface and usability improvements, that when combined with each other they raise productivity be a factor of 10 or more for tasks like drawing a vector icon.