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About Screen Contest

Contest for Inkscape 1.4

The 2024 contest for Inkscape 1.4 has concluded.

The winning image is Inkonic's contest entry "Inkscape's Path–Artist's Blossom":

Inkscape's Path-Artist's Blossom by Inkonic with Winner banner- CC-By-SA 4.0

If you'd like to see all the fabulous works submitted by our community visit the Contest Gallery .

Celebrating Artists, Inkscape, and Community

For each new version of Inkscape, we invite all Inkscape artists, newcomers and seasoned professionals, to submit an artwork for the "About Screen" contest.

The About Screen is an image that you get to see when you click on Help → About in Inkscape to find more information about the version of the program installed on your device.

But the About Screen Contest is about much more than the About Screen. Contest artwork is also frequently featured in news articles about the release, on the inkscape.org download page, and in other locations.

Free and Open Source software is about community! Not only does the Inkscape community create and share unique artworks, but the community votes to elevate more than one artwork for the Inkscape contributors to choose. Entries not chosen for the About Screen are often used on the inkscape.org website as well as other places in the project. Entering the contest and voting for your favorites is a great way to help the Inkscape project continue to thrive! Each and every submission helps us test the newest version of Inkscape.

The topic for this year's contest is "GROWTH". We're excited to see what great art is submitted this year!

How does the contest work?

Artists

Getting started is easy. Just six steps & you'll be ready to submit your artwork!

  1. Read the Rules. It's a good idea to read through the contest rules & pre-submission check below before starting on your artwork. If there's anything you don't understand just hop in the chat and we'll answer any questions you have (note: it might take a bit to get a response, so be patient!)

  2. Download the Contest Template. Getting started is easy. Just download the template and open the file with Inkscape. Video guide here (note: should be available shortly).

  3. Make Your Art! Open the Contest Template in Inkscape and make your art! (Note: This is a contest for people. AI-generated artwork is not allowed). Once you're finished with your artwork...

  4. Do a Pre-submission Check. Read through the pre-submission check, follow the instructions, and you'll be ready to submit!

  5. Submit. Upload your artwork (the original Inkscape SVG file) right here.

    1. We will need you to post your SVG file online in the correct contest gallery on the inkscape.org website at the link above.

  6. Await Formal Approval. Keep watch in the comment section of your submission! Our contest administration team will review your artwork & let you know if your artwork has been approved for submission or if there is something that needs to be fixed before your artwork can be included in the contest. (Note: You should be receiving an email when someone comments on your artwork, but please also visit your artwork's comment section to be sure you don't miss anything.)

That's IT!

Voting

Once the artwork submission period ends on Sunday, April 7  April 14, 2024, we'll move to onto the voting phase of the contest!

The Inkscape Community will vote for their favorites, using ranked choice voting–meaning you can vote for as many artworks as you like, instead of having to choose only one favorite! Keep in mind, all entries are eligible to be used to help the project! Make sure to share your favorite artworks far and wide!

When the voting has ended, the Inkscape community will have elevated their favorite artworks to move to the final round where a panel of judges (the Inkscape Contributors) will carefully deliberate and, on April 30, 2024, officially announce the contest results to the whole world!

Note: Community Voting requires a free Inkscape account on the inkscape.org website, so be sure to create an account if you haven't already!

Contest Timeline

All times in UTC/GMT:

  • Accepting Artwork Submissions: Sunday, March 3, 2024 - Sunday, April 7, 2024 - extended to Sunday, April 14 2024!

  • Voting:

    • Round 1: Community Voting: Monday, April 15, 2024 - Sunday, April 21, 2024

    • Round 2: Panel of Judges: Monday, April 22, 2024 - Monday, April 29, 2024

  • Contest Announcement: Tuesday, April 30, 2024!

Update!

Community Voting Select Top 5 Artworks

Here are the 5 items the community voting elevated for the final round (in alphabetical order):

  • "Creative Growth“ by Chris Hildenbrand

  • "Expand Your Creative Universe" by Chris Hildenbrand

  • "Inkscape's Path-Artist's Blossom" by Inkonic

  • "Draw your world" by Kess

  • "Vibe On Creators" by NDIM DONALD

Inkscape Contributors are our Panel of Judges for Round 2 and can vote here!

Contest Rules

Note: The rules are different from previous contests! Please read carefully, even if you've participated before.

Submission:

  • You may only submit up to two (2) entries.

  • Your submission must be on the official Contest Template

    • Do not resize the pages in the template.

      1. Your image can bleed outside of the canvas, but anything outside of the canvas border will not be rendered. You can move the pages around to avoid overlapping between pages, if needed.

    • Do not edit the Branding layer with the logo and version number, except for choosing between the provided black or white variant. You can delete or hide the Layout layer when you do not need it.

  • No changes are allowed after the artwork has received the 'check' from our Contest Administration team.

Artwork:

  • Your image must not contain raster graphics (i.e. pixel-based (bitmap) images like bmp, jpg or png). (note: Exceptions may be made for patterns and masks.)

  • This contest is for people, so your image must not be AI-generated or contain AI-generated elements.

  • Your artwork must not contain anything inappropriate or otherwise offensive. We ask you to avoid things such as nudity, violence, and political or religious imagery. Material considered inappropriate or offensive will be disqualified at the project team's sole and final discretion.

  • Your artwork must be submitted as an "Inkscape SVG" file with no post-processing as we require the SVG file to use for the About Screen. Save your work as "Inkscape SVG" (default), so the editing information and layers will stay intact.

  • Before submitting your artwork please follow the steps in the pre-submission check.

Licensing:

  • Your image must be licensed appropriately: CC-BY-SA 4.0 (see pre-submission check)

  • Any text in your image must use a font with an open source license (OFL, GPL, Apache, MIT, PD/CC-0, CC-By-SA, ...).

    • You can find some fonts that fulfill this requirement at the Font Library and a huge collection on Google Fonts. Fonts that cannot be found on any of those two websites may be unsuitable.

    • Do not use any fonts that are 'free for personal use'. We cannot have those fonts in Inkscape, because we would then infringe someone else's copyright.

    • If you're unsure about a font license or whether any other element fulfills the requirements, you can ask us in the chat.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can I sign my artwork? Yes. You are welcome to add a small, unobtrusive signature (only your name, artist's logo or artist's name) into the drawing. Please ensure that any text in it uses a compatible license and has been converted to a path (see rules & pre-submission check).

  • Can I change my artwork? No changes are allowed after the artwork has received the 'check' from our Contest Administration team.

  • How complex can my artwork be? Very complex! As complex as your artwork requires. Inkscape is a powerful graphical tool. You can see the previous contest entries here. However, because the winning artwork will be rendered in real-time when someone views the About Screen your artwork should follow the pre-submission check to ensure it is as fast as possible without impacting your final artwork.

  • What else should I know? Nothing! Go make your art!

  • What if my artwork doesn't look correct on the contest page? That can happen! Browsers and websites can't display everything that works in Inkscape (e.g. mesh gradients, and some blend modes), so the fix here is to also export your SVG image as PNG, and additionally upload your artwork as a PNG with the "Choose visible image" button. Your artwork should now look like it will in Inkscape on the Contest page (and we'll still have the your original SVG artwork for the About Screen)!

  • What if the black Inkscape logo doesn't look good on my artwork? No worries! If you open click Layer > Layers and Objects you'll see a menu open on the right side. Click the arrow to the left of "Branding" and then click the open eye icon that appears when you hover over the "Black Logo" line. Then click the closed eye icon on the "White Logo" line and you'll see the lighter version. One of those will appear on top of your artwork on the About Screen!

    • None

Pre-Submission Check

1) License: Ensure your submission has the appropriate license.

  • Navigate to File > Document Properties and click on the License tab. Make sure CC-Attribution-ShareAlike is checked. Note: Your SVG file will be distributed with the Inkscape program, hence the need for the above requested licensing. Learn more about the license here.

2) Attribution: Add your Name & give credit to any third-party sources.

  • In the metadata section:

    • Title: Give your artwork a title.

    • Creator: Add your name.

    • Contributors: If you use any third-party materials, those must be properly attributed and their author must have allowed their use under the required license (CC-BY-SA 4.0) or a compatible license (e.g. CC0, Public Domain, CC-BY, OFL).

  • Please add a link to licensing information for any font you use into the description field when you upload your art. This point is very important!

3) Reduce the file size.

  1. Remove/delete any elements that are not visible in the resulting image (e.g. raster images you traced, elements outside the page area).

  2. Go to File > Clean up document

4) Prepare Text:

  1. Step 1: Preserve Original Text

    • Select all text objects in your artwork

    • Duplicate the text objects.

      • Edit > Duplicate

    • Move the duplicated text objects to the Layer "Text (hidden layer)".

      • Layer > Move Selection to Layer

      • Select "Text (hidden layer)"

      • Click "Move"

      • Confirm the duplicate texts are on the hidden layer by hiding other layers temporarily

Step 2: Convert Artwork Text Objects to Paths

  1. First: Select all text object(s) on the "Your Artwork Here" layer (and sublayers).

  2. Then: Path > Object to Path

5) Save your Artwork and Submit!

  • `File > Save` your artwork as an "Inkscape SVG" format (should be default) and submit your artwork to the contest!

  • Await Formal Approval. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Keep watch in the comment section of your submission! Our contest administration team will review your artwork & let you know if your artwork has been approved for submission or if there is something that needs to be fixed before your artwork can be included in the contest. (note: You should be receiving an email when someone comments on your artwork, but please also visit your artwork's comment section to be sure you don't miss anything.)

Get Inspired!

This gallery contains the winning pictures from previous Inkscape contests, as well as some About Screens from our ancestor project Sodipodi. They are a piece of history, a record of progress, and an inspiration for all of us!

Inkscape is Free and Open Source Software licensed under the GPL.