How to run Inkscape on Mac Leopard

Posted in Mac, Tutorials, leopard, macbook, tips on May 14, 2008

If you like Inkscape (an open source alternative to Adobe Illustrator) and have a Mac with Leopard; you will figure that it after installation it will not work. It will say that font caching might take time, but never start. It’s because of a simple bug, with a simple solution. Just open a terminal (Applications/Utilities) and type this, followed by an enter;

mkdir ~/.fontconfig

After that it should start normally.

And a note: Latest snapshot doesn’t seem to work. Just grab the latest stable package.

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36 Responses to “ How to run Inkscape on Mac Leopard ”

  1. # 1 Ferhat Ayaz Says:

    Thanks! This was very helpful. I wonder why Inkscape can not simply create the folder if it does not exist.

  2. # 2 Nilo Says:

    Thanks a lot! I had almost resigned to using Inkscape only on PC

  3. # 3 Henk Kleynhans Says:

    Thanks! Sorted me out!

  4. # 4 joeyo Says:

    Many thanks. Your blog post just saved my day!

  5. # 5 Nancy Says:

    Thank you so much. Saved my day too!

  6. # 6 ak19 Says:

    dear, no words, 2 min. and inkscape works on; why inkscape.org don’t notice this simply terminal bug solution in the download of the leopard dmg versions? ak19/Milan/Italy

  7. # 7 Doreen Says:

    Thanks! This works a treat. I was about to dump Inkscape!

  8. # 8 Melissa Says:

    Wow, thanks! After days of sadness thinking I couldn’t use Inkscape, your post has renewed my love of life!

  9. # 9 József Says:

    Juhhe!
    Such a great help! Thanks! Works great.

  10. # 10 Bernhard Says:

    Just works. I wonder why the Inkscape people can not fix this.

  11. # 11 Muggie Says:

    Woot! I have it back up!

  12. # 12 Robert Says:

    Hi!

    Just what I needed. Thx.

  13. # 13 Wouter Says:

    Thanks for sharing. Saved me a lot of trouble!

  14. # 14 Martin Says:

    thanks, that was what I needed.

  15. # 15 Pascal Says:

    Thanks

    It works now.

  16. # 16 Come risolvere un problema di inkscape su Leopard « Blog Archive « Macbiters Says:

    [...] bloggy.kuneri.net] Share [...]

  17. # 17 J Money Says:

    Thanks man, I do appreciate this.

  18. # 18 Michael Sharman - chapter31 » Blog Archive » Getting Inkscape (0.46) to run on Mac Leopard Says:

    [...] A quick google later found the solution from Kuneri Bloggy. [...]

  19. # 19 Julius Says:

    Absolutely brilliant.
    Thanks a million
    Best wishes
    Julius

  20. # 20 Grace Says:

    OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

  21. # 21 ritsgirl Says:

    Thank you very much.
    I’m very happy now.

  22. # 22 Anna Says:

    tanks a lot!!!!! As I can use Inkscape on my mac now, I am 100% happy with my new MacBook, thanks!!!

  23. # 23 Rob Says:

    Thanks so much! I was about to give up on the Mac version of Inkscape. Odd that the Inkscape dev team hasn’t picked up on this, yet. Someone has told them, right? Chances are, it’s a one-line fix.

  24. # 24 Georg Says:

    IT IS WORKING!!! It is great to have people like you who a) have the technical knowledge and b) are happy to share it with ‘us’! Thanks!

  25. # 25 Ed T. Says:

    A huge thanks to you!! I had never tried inkscape but downloaded it from their website on the advice of a friend.

    I was saddened to see it didn’t work (I waited ten minutes for the ‘font building’). Then searched the net and your site popped up.

    30 seconds later and I’m in Inkscape drawing away!

    THANKS!!!

  26. # 26 Bram Faems Says:

    I get ‘Permission denied’ when i enter it into terminal? Any ideas?

  27. # 27 DG Says:

    @ Bram Faems:
    Type:
    sudo mkdir ~/.fontconfig

    It will then first ask your password before proceeding with the execution.

  28. # 28 Rakesh Ravindran Says:

    Thank you very much for your great solution!!

  29. # 29 daniel Says:

    i love u boy

  30. # 30 Phil Says:

    little bug, simple fix. Thanks. Would have taken me hours to figure that out.

  31. # 31 Gaetans Says:

    YEAH DUDE!

  32. # 32 PapaSue Says:

    This helped. Now if you could tell me how to get the shortcut keys to work!

  33. # 33 Lucreative.eu Says:

    Yeah! Thanks alot!

  34. # 34 bricolage.108 Says:

    Thanks for this.

  35. # 35 C BROWN Says:

    you are great……that did it

  36. # 36 Ras Says:

    I just tried this and it didnt help. From https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/424124 i found out that i had to do the following:

    rm .fontconfig/*
    sudo rm /opt/local/var/cache/fontconfig/*

    as well. Then it worked

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