Inkscape

Physicists end up doing a lot of writing and presenting. It is fairly well accepted that something written by a considerate physicist should not only have text but should also have lots of nice diagrams and equations. Some would argue that a physicist making a presentation should have just about no text. The more theoretical ones would then ask for nothing but equations, charts, and diagrams. The more practical ones would maybe allow one or two equations but then ask that all of the rest of the talk be made up of charts, pictures and diagrams.

I’ve been using tools like OpenOffice, Windows Office, and LaTeX to make my diagrams. But I see these beautiful diagrams all the time in presentations and publications that tell me I’ve got to find something better. So I’ve asked around a bit and looked around a bit and no one has been able to give me an inexpensive answer: the guys who make the nice diagrams are all using Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw.

Well, I think I’ve finally found an open source answer to Adobe and Corel. Inkscape is one of the cooler programs to hit the planet. It is vector based and powerful. It is layered and has all kinds of operations and transformations that can be performed on different visual objects or groups of objects.

Simple interfaces are all the rage right now with every person wanting to be like Google. I like simplicity. But I have to say that Inkscape is more fun than simplicity. When you begin using it you will probably have to stare at it awhile before you can do anything cool. You will wonder why there are only four types of shapes to draw, squares, stars, and circles, and spirals. Open up a couple of the tutorials under the help button, though, and I think you may begin to fall in love. Transforming the star object alone may keep you entertained for 10s of minutes. Incscape is fairly intuitive and in some ways it is simple. But a better discription is that it is rich and deep. There are a lot of tricks to learn in there.

And then, after you feel that you are starting to get familiar with things, press Ctrl+Shift+X and boom! You have opened up the hood and have direct access to the XML format of your document in editable form.

Anyway, it’s free, powerful, and fun. Check it out.

Doug

Our bags are packed, we’re going home.

The midwife came and checked on Gina and found all to be clear.  It happened to be Ginger, who was the one who delivered Lily.  So we celebrated together for awhile and noted how well things had gone and how blessed we were.  She said that she had been really touched by Gina’s willingness to follow instinct rather than fear and to decide to go home rather than have a C-section and by how well things had turned out.  She also said that when Lily was born she had her cord checked to determine oxygenation and the gas ratios were right on target.  That meant that even through the toughest times Lily was alright and getting all the oxygen she needed.

Lily is nursing happily as I type.  She went down from 8 lb 7.8 oz to 8 lb 1 oz like a normal baby waiting for her mother to fill up.  Last night she had her first wet diaper, which the nurses say means she had probably started to get some fluid.  Gina is remarkably cheerful and seems to be doing great physically.

So, I guess I’ll put the computer away.  Wow, what a couple of days.

Love,

Doug