Inkscape's native file format is SVG. Not "SVG export": SVG is literally the file on disk. What you're working in is a W3C standard document, which means when you open it in a text editor, you see readable XML. When you hand it to a developer, they can work with it directly. There's no translation layer, no "inspect and recreate in code" step.
This is an unusual design choice among vector tools, and it has real consequences. Inkscape handles the full SVG spec (filters, gradients, clip paths, masks, text-on-path, flowtext in blocks) and lets you inspect and edit the underlying XML directly if you want. It also means the files Inkscape produces are more likely to render correctly in a browser than files exported from tools whose SVG output is an afterthought.
The feature set has grown substantially over the last few major releases. The 1.3 version added a Shape Builder tool for merging and subtracting overlapping paths by painting over them, the same concept as Illustrator's Shaper tool. Boolean operations (union, difference, intersection, exclusion) have been available for years. Bezier editing is precise. The bitmap tracing (via Potrace integration) converts raster images to vectors with enough control over the threshold and path smoothing to be genuinely useful for logo recreation and illustration cleanup.
The interface is the main friction point. It does not look like contemporary software, and some workflows that are simple in Illustrator or Affinity Designer require more steps or careful menu navigation. The typography tools are capable (kerning, glyph shaping, text-on-path) but not as fluid as what you'd get in a dedicated type tool. File compatibility with Illustrator's .ai format is partial: Inkscape can open AI files packaged as PDFs, but complex effects may not import cleanly.
For web work, Inkscape is harder to argue against than it's ever been. Designing icons, illustrations, or UI components directly in SVG, without an export round-trip, removes a whole class of "why does this look different in the browser" problems. For print or anything requiring precise CMYK control, Illustrator is still the better tool for precision.
Free, open source, cross-platform. No account required, no subscription, no telemetry.
Inkscape's native file format is SVG. Not "SVG export": SVG is literally the file on disk. What you're working in is a W3C standard document, which means when you open it in a text editor, you see readable XML. When you hand it to a developer, they can work with it directly. There's no translation layer, no "inspect and recreate in code" step.
This is an unusual design choice among vector tools, and it has real consequences. Inkscape handles the full SVG spec (filters, gradients, clip paths, masks, text-on-path, flowtext in blocks) and lets you inspect and edit the underlying XML directly if you want. It also means the files Inkscape produces are more likely to render correctly in a browser than files exported from tools whose SVG output is an afterthought.
The feature set has grown substantially over the last few major releases. The 1.3 version added a Shape Builder tool for merging and subtracting overlapping paths by painting over them, the same concept as Illustrator's Shaper tool. Boolean operations (union, difference, intersection, exclusion) have been available for years. Bezier editing is precise. The bitmap tracing (via Potrace integration) converts raster images to vectors with enough control over the threshold and path smoothing to be genuinely useful for logo recreation and illustration cleanup.
The interface is the main friction point. It does not look like contemporary software, and some workflows that are simple in Illustrator or Affinity Designer require more steps or careful menu navigation. The typography tools are capable (kerning, glyph shaping, text-on-path) but not as fluid as what you'd get in a dedicated type tool. File compatibility with Illustrator's .ai format is partial: Inkscape can open AI files packaged as PDFs, but complex effects may not import cleanly.
For web work, Inkscape is harder to argue against than it's ever been. Designing icons, illustrations, or UI components directly in SVG, without an export round-trip, removes a whole class of "why does this look different in the browser" problems. For print or anything requiring precise CMYK control, Illustrator is still the better tool for precision.
Free, open source, cross-platform. No account required, no subscription, no telemetry.