SK1 (program)

SK1

sK1 2.0 (in progress)
Developer(s)	sK1 Team
Stable release	0.9.3 / 19 February 2015; 2 years ago (2015-02-19)
Preview release	2.0RC2 / 24 October 2016; 5 months ago (2016-10-24)
Written in	Python, Tcl/Tk
Platform	Linux, Windows, MacOSX
Type	Vector graphics editor
License	GNU Lesser General Public License
Website	sk1project.net

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 multidocument interface, Cairo-based engine, and color management. The program was put on feature freeze since 2010, and development switched to its successor, PrintDesign.

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 (this version had been dropped by the main Skencil developers who were working on a branch of the program based on GTK+). Although an attempt was made to unify the project with Skencil, it failed.

In 2007 the sK1 team reverse-engineered the Corel Draw (CDR) 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 (Canada). 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.

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.