Cenon - Graphics Software with Style

Cenon is a graphical tool of a special kind. Build upon a modular graphical core, Cenon offers a wide variety of possibilities and applications. The feature-rich Cenon core is free software, available with full source codes, and at home on many computer platforms.

Cenon is being developed with love. The clean user interface on Apple, Linux and other systems (using GNUstep) creates a pleasant user experience.

Cenon Features

Import

    * Import of DXF, HPGL, PostScript (PS and EPS), Adobe Illustrator 3, Gerber, PDF, Sieb&Meyer, Wessel, Excellon
    * Import of images (TIFF, GIF, JPG etc.)
    * Import of Type-1 Fonts
    * option: automatic distribution of colors to layers
    * option: automatic joining of paths
    * Import of text lists in ASCII format for mass production

Graphic- and Editing functions

    * Lines, Arcs, Rectangles, Bezier curves, etc.
    * complex paths
    * object manipulations like join, punch etc.
    * Rich Text (vector fonts, tabulators, rotation, ...)
    * Text along paths
    * Graphic Inspector
    * comfortable layer (page) management
    * alignment of graphic objects
    * multiple Undo and Redo

DTP

    * Exposing of images (Clipping)
    * Color shading (Graduate, Radial, Axial)
    * Thumbnail images
    * Color separation

Output

    * Export of DXF, HPGL, PostScript (EPS + PS), Gerber, etc.

Special features

    * Vectorisation of images
    * creating the contour of graphic objects
    * Mix function
    * Batch production
    * Serial numbers

Cenon System Requirements
  
2010-06-21

These are the system requirements for the different computer platforms and architectures.
  
Apple

The easiest way to go.

    * Apple with Power-PC or Intel CPU, Cenon is Universal Binary
    * Mac-OS X, version 10.4 (Tiger) or higher

Linux

The easiest way is to start from one of the available Linux distributions. There are no special requirements for hardware, mostly any modern Computer will do the job.

The GNUstep backend of choice is the Art-Backend because it allows text scaling and text rotation.

      Linux based on a standard distribution:

          o SuSE (vhf offers GNUstep packages)
          o Red Hat
          o Debian
          o Gentoo (Source-Distribution)

      GNUstep Library
          o GNUstep RPMs for SuSE Linux (packages provided by vhf)
          o Debian (GNUstep packages for Debian Linux)

Unix in general

Systems like Sun Solaris, Free BSD, Net BSD need to be compiled from source code.

    * Cenon Source Codes
    * GNUstep Core Libraries (Make, Base, GUI)

OpenStep

Still own a version of OpenStep 4.2? On any modern PCs this is a rocket with a slick user experience, the world has not seen again since then. Nowadays not a true option any more without USB support...

    * Intel compatible PC (x86)
    * OpenStep 4.2

Download here...

Inkscape - An Open Source vector graphics editor

Again this one is from Open Source. Again this one rocks. Great news for Graphic Designers....you dont get ~$500 or something to buy a 'COSTLY' vector editing software.

An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.

Supported Operating Systems

Inkscape binaries are provided for the following platforms:
Official binary distributions

• Linux
• Windows Me, NT, 2000, XP, Vista
• Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and later; Starting with the 0.42 release  

Current Features

Object creation

    * Drawing: pencil tool (freehand drawing with simple paths), pen tool (creating Bezier curves and straight lines), calligraphy tool (freehand drawing using filled paths representing calligraphic strokes)
    * Shape tools: rectangles (may have rounded corners), ellipses (includes circles, arcs, segments), stars/polygons (can be rounded and/or randomized), spirals
    * Text tool (multiline text, full on-canvas editing)
    * Embedded bitmaps (with a command to create and embed bitmaps of selected objects)
    * Clones ("live" linked copies of objects), including a tool to create patterns and arrangements of clones

Object manipulation

    * Affine transformations (moving, scaling, rotating, skewing), both interactively and by specifying exact numeric values
    * Z-order operations
    * Grouping objects, with a way to "select in group" without ungrouping, or "enter the group" making it a temporary layer
    * Layers, with a way to lock and/or hide individual layers, rearrange them, etc; layers can form a hierarchical tree
    * Copying and pasting objects
    * Alignment and distribution commands

Fill and stroke

    * Color selector (RGB, HSV, color wheel)
    * Color picker tool
    * Copy/paste style
    * A gradient editor capable of multi-stop gradients
    * Pattern fills (bitmap/vectors)
    * Dashed strokes, with many predefined dash patterns
    * Path markers (e.g. arrowheads)

Operations on paths

    * Node editing: moving nodes and Bezier handles, node alignment and distribution, etc.
    * Converting to path (for text objects or shapes), including converting stroke to path
    * Boolean operations
    * Path simplification, with variable threshold
    * Path insetting and outsetting, including dynamic and linked offset objects
    * Bitmap tracing (both color and b/w)

Text support

    * Multi-line text
    * Uses any installed outline fonts, including right-to-left scripts
    * Kerning, letterspacing, linespacing adjustments
    * Text on path (both text and path remain editable)
    * Text in shape (fill shape following stroke)

Rendering

    * Fully anti-aliased display
    * Alpha transparency support for display and PNG export
    * Complete "as you drag" rendering of objects during interactive transformations

Misc

    * Live watching and editing the document tree in the XML editor
    * PNG and PostScript export
    * Command line options for export and conversions
    * Perfectly compliant SVG format file generation and editing

Download here