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Ipe extensible drawing editor is a free vector graphics editor for creating figures in PDF or EPS format. It can be used for making small figures for inclusion into LaTeX documents as well as making multi-page PDF presentations. It was developed by Otfried Cheong in 1993 and initially worked on SGI workstations only. Ipe 6 was released in 2003 which changed the file format into XML code embedded into PDF and EPS files. This version can be compiled under Windows, Mac OS X and Unix.

Ipe lets users draw geometric objects such as poly lines, arcs and spline curves and text. Ipe supports use of layers and multiple pages. It can paste bitmap images from clipboard or import from JPEG or BMP, and also through a conversion software it can import PDF figures generated by other software. It differentiates itself from similar programs by including advanced snapping tools and the ability to directly include LaTeX text and equations.

This article talks about author’s (Jan Hlavacek) experiences with the Ipe graphics editor. This graphics tool, which runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, is well-suited to preparing graphics for LaTeX documents. The main features of Ipe are described, as well as some advanced usage. A similar editor, VRR, is also described briefly.

Ipe downloads are available from SourceForge. You can find more information about Ipe features in the manual (PDF version). Please also see the frequently asked questions.

Local IPE 7.0.10 windows (8Mb) download is available here, and with windows dependence files pre-configured.