Recently I saw the need to develop my skills in vector graphics. Having been vocationally trained in AutoCadd way back in high school, and having written several 3d vector math algorithms, I figured picking up the new skill would only be a matter of learning software functionality. Of course I could have gone out and bought the best of the best Vector Graphic program from Adobe, but all I really needed was to understand the principles behind making great vector graphic slide presentations, and drawing great vector diagrams, so I instead searched out a freeware program to train myself on.

One of the best vector graphic freeware programs I’ve come across is Inkscape. On OSX Inkscape runs on the  X windows system just like GIMP and some other apps do. One good way to efficiently learn a new program is to google tutorials for it. I started out just drawing some basic concept diagram stick outlines. This however was a far cry from great looking graphics I’ve come to expect when I’m confronted with data. I found a tutorial that walked the user thru some basic methodologies, which enabled me to look up functions as needed in the manual.

Some of the basic methods used are layering, shading, adding depth, and texturing. Having just started out and spending most of my time looking for buttons and menu options, I think I did pretty good. Here it is straight from Inkscape embedded in html in svg format.

(note: I removed the svg embed because it was displaying twice in some browsers.)

If you can’t see the embedded vector graphic file as is the case with IE browsers without a plugin for it, below it is exported to a PNG format: