Features of Inkscape

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 (multi-line 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 :

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

Fill and stroke :

• Color selector (RGB, HSL, 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 (ending and/or beginning marks, 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 monochrome paths).

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, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, sk1, PDF, EPS and PostScript export formats.
• Command line options for export and conversions.
• Perfectly compliant SVG format file generation and editing.

Resource: www.inkscape.org