Ipe (drawing program)
| Ipe
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 The Ipe extensible drawing editor |
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| Basic data
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| developer | Otfried Cheong |
| Publishing year | 1993 |
| Current version | 7.2.20 (June 2020) |
| operating system | Linux , Windows , macOS |
| programming language | C ++, Lua |
| category | Vector graphic program |
| License | GPL ( Free Software ) |
| ipe.otfried.org | |
The Ipe extensible drawing editor is a free vector graphics editor for drawing vector graphics in PDF or EPS format. The program is particularly suitable for creating illustrations for integration into LaTeX documents. Multi-page PDF presentations with transition effects can be easily created.
Ipe was developed by Otfried Cheong in 1993 and initially only ran on SGI workstations. Ipe 6 was released in 2003. The file format was changed to XML , which can also be embedded in the PDF and EPS files created. Ipe 7 was released in 2009.
Ipe has the following characteristics:
- Input of text as LaTeX source code. This means that mathematical expressions can be entered very easily and LaTeX macros from the main document can continue to be used directly.
- Generates native PostScript and / or PDF, including the text. Ipe converts the LaTeX texts into PDF or PostScript with the help of pdfTeX when the file is saved.
- SVG and PNG files can be generated.
- It can polylines , arcs, splines generated and text objects grouped and edited.
- Transparency, color gradients, user-defined line ends (e.g. arrows) and hatching are supported, but must be entered manually in the stylesheet.
- Different object snap options (corner, edge, intersection, grid) make it easy to construct geometrically.
- A plug-in interface is available through which any functions can be added to Ipe using so-called ipelets . These can be written in C ++ or (from version 7) also in Lua .
- Ipe supports layers and multi-page documents.
- Presentations can be provided with transition effects (such as fade in) by defining views.
- Bitmap images can be inserted via the clipboard or via the import of JPEG or BMP files.
- Existing PDF and SVG files can be converted into IPE format using a utility program.
- Uniform formatting can be ensured using style templates.
- In Ipe 7, Lua was integrated into the system as a scripting language.
Web links
- Ipe website with downloads on SourceForge
- Article about Ipe in the PracTex Journal (English)