After almost two years of development Inkscape team released new version with lots of great improvements. New Inkscape is already available on rollApp cloud platform.

This release brings important new features:

• support for Mesh Gradients
  
• New path effects including Envelope/Perspective, Lattice Deformation, Mirror and Rotate Copies
• Updates to Spray tool and Measure tool
• BSplines (and more) for the Pen tool
  

For more details check out announcement and full release notes on Inkscape site.

To maintain consistency with the CSS standard, Inkscape’s default resolution has changed from 90dpi to 96dpi. Inkscape will detect files created with previous versions and offer to convert them. You will get the prompt to convert files, when you open them.

Latest update to 2.2 branch of LyX – a document processor that combines power of LaTeX and ease of use of graphical user interface – brings important bugfixes and the latest version 2.2.2 is already available online on rollApp.

LyX 2.2 brought a number of substantial new features:

• Horizontal scrolling for large insets
  
• Improved control of paragraph breaks
  
• Improved text color support
  
• Reworked instant preview
  
• New text display algorithm

You can read the full announcement is here.

Time is one of the most valuable resources in our lives. Do you know how much time do you spend on typing a Facebook post, for instance? There are two great apps for your Chromebook that will definitely help you save precious minutes, no matter what you do with a computer. All of us write messages, emails, tweets, reports or essays. With no doubt typing skill is an essential part of computer literacy and everyday life for adults and for kids.

It used to take at least a minute to type a name with two fingers. Luckily that time has gone long ago. Now there is an alternative - touch typing with all ten fingers without even looking at the keyboard. How to learn it? The first application called KTouch really knows the answer.

It’s a typing tutor specifically designed to gain and improve touch typing skills. The app has an effective set of typing lessons and exercises. You can use any free moment to work on typing speed and accuracy wherever you have your Chromebook and Internet connection. All your results are saved in statistics so you can easily track your progress.

The other app, Klavaro, buids your competence in typing in four stages. First, you learn positions of the keys and fingers “assigned” for typing each symbol. Then you work on adaptability, speed, and fluidity of your typing. As the result, you will be able to type the whole paragraphs quickly, rhythmically and without misprints. Amazing, isn’t it? 

Besides, Klavaro supports many languages, different keyboard layouts and allows to import your own texts for typing practice.

By the way, Guinness World Records states that the fastest time to type a text message on a touch-screen is 18.19 seconds. Can you beat that with your keyboard? Here is the text :

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

Have your beaten the record yet? No? Then you can use both of these typing tutors online to work on your typing speed. Good news is that to use this software no download is needed. Now you have everything to start improving your typing right away! 

We already discussed some of the best apps for Chromebook for working with text and documents. Not surprisingly image manipulation is also very common thing we do with computers. Let’s take a look at some useful instruments for a Chromebook that you can use to work with graphics.

There are two main types of graphics: raster (or bitmap) and  vector graphics.

You have definitely seen files with extensions .jpg, .gif, .png, .tif, and .bmp. All these files, including photos you take with your camera or smartphone are examples of raster graphics images. These pictures are comprised of pixels of different colors.  Raster images are really ubiquitous – you can view them on any computing device. However, they have shortcomings: they become blurred, when you scale them, and objects found in the picture can not be easily changed.

In contrast to raster graphics, vector graphics uses curves, lines, and shapes to create a picture. Since picture is a set of objects, they can be easily manipulated to change color, size or shape. Thanks to that it is possible to enlarge or scale the image down and it will not lose any details or sharpness.

Working with photos on Chromebook

When you think of working with graphics on a computer the first thing that comes to mind is Adobe Photoshop. It is well known for its omnipotence and complexity. But do you know that there is another awesome app as capable as Photoshop available online? It is called GIMP. Many art and graphic design schools, photographers and game developers choose GIMP for its plentiful functionality in creating, editing and converting image files highlighting that it is a powerful tool for serious tasks. And you can take advantage of it on your Chromebook with GIMP on rollApp right now!

If you need a capable graphics editor but you don’t have time to learn all the intricacies of Photoshop or GIMP you may like Pixlr Editor.  Its interface is similar to familiar desktop apps and has all the necessary functions – you can work with layers, remove red eyes, and apply numerous filters and effects to your photos with this great free application.

Another great tool for editing photos is  PicMonkey – amazing photo editor, simple and accessible even for kids. According to PC Magazine, it is one of the Top 100 best online apps. By the way, during this holiday season you can apply outstanding winter effects to your pictures and make snowy collages for your Facebook profile in this great app.

Those who like painting will definitely appreciate Krita. It’s a perfect app for sketching, making exquisite concept art, comics and cartoons. Just as GIMP, Krita used to be exclusively a desktop application. But with Krita on rollApp you can create digital art masterpieces online with no download!

Creating vector drawings on Chromebooks

Vector graphics is based on completely different principles and is indispensable, when you need to be able to manipulate and adjust objects and shapes that comprise your picture. Vector Paint is a great start for those making first steps in creating vector drawings. This intuitively clear web app written especially for Google Chrome can help you create unique designs with different shapes, color gradients and layers for posters, diagrams, schemes and other graphics..

The next app called Inkscape is considered to be one of the best solutions for professional web designers and illustrators. It has a wide range of powerful tools for work with layers, contours, text and filters. Inkscape supports many vector and raster graphics file formats, and can convert between them.

Last but not least in our today’s review is online vector graphics editor YouiDraw. It offers a set of modern independent tools for drawing, painting, and making logos and website elements. They come with hundreds of templates, customized brushes and other useful features to help your creative work.

Feel inspired? We hope the apps we show will help you unleash your creativity. If you know other great apps that you would like to use online, please, check our wishlist and vote for your favorites. We will do our best to make your wishes come true as soon as possible.

Applications for education take special place in our cloud app collection. All of them are special and allow to study particular area of science or practice a useful skill. If you are into geometry GeoGebra on rollApp is definitely worth checking out.

GeoGebra is a mathematics app for learning geometry and algebra, and working with tables, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package.

You can do constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, conic sections and more.  For example, you can easily, well, easily if you know how,  inscribe a circle in a triangle:

You can work with functions and change them dynamically afterwards. Great feature is that you can enter equations and coordinates directly. Just choose “Perspectives” menu and there “Algebra & Graphics”. It gives you great tool solve equations and plot graphics.

Other features of GeoGebra include:

• Adding of unique objects: Points, Lines Through Two Points, Polygons, Ellipses, Angles, Reflect Objects, and Sliders;

• Customization and configuration of each added object;

• Creating and managing of new tools via a simple wizard;

• Multilingual interface, and more

GeoGebra developers make their application available in the Chrome Web Store. Using GeoGebra on rollApp you can work (export and import) with your files in cloud storage - Google Drive, Dropbox, and others. And with rollApp it will work not only on Chromebooks, but also on iPads, Android tablets and other devices. All you need to advance your math is just a web browser.

GeoGebra has received several educational software awards in Europe and USA. Try it online right now!