SK1 (program)


sK1 is an open-source, cross-platform illustration program that can be used as a substitute for professional proprietary software like CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator. Unique project features are CorelDRAW formats importers, tabbed multiple document interface, Cairo-based engine, and color management.

History

A small team led by Igor Novikov started the project in 2003, based on the existing open source vector graphics editor Skencil. sK1 is a fork of the Skencil 0.6.x series which used Tk widgets for the user interface. Although an attempt was made to unify the project with Skencil, it failed.
In 2007 the sK1 team reverse-engineered the CorelDRAW format. The results and the first working snapshot of the CDR importer were presented at the Libre Graphics Meeting 2007 conference taking place in May 2007 in Montreal. Later on the team parsed the structure of other Corel formats with the help of CDR Explorer. As of 2008, the sK1 project claims to have the best import support for CorelDRAW file formats among open source software programs. Export into CDR and CMX file formats was presented at the Libre Graphics Meeting 2019 conference taking place in May 2019 in Saarbrücken.

Target audience

Since the project was started by a small team of Ukrainian professionals in prepress, it was unambiguously focused on full support for PostScript, PDF, CMYK color model and color management at the expense of developing some advanced functions for illustrators. Informally the project is positioned as a free open source alternative to the commercial CorelDRAW.

Functionality

; Tools:
; Import:
; Export:
;UniConvertor
;Color Palette Collection
;CDR Explorer
;

Awards

UniConvertor versions