KOffice
Encyclopedia
Calligra Suite is a graphic art and office suite
by KDE
created from KOffice
in 2010. It is available for desktop PCs
, tablet computer
s, and smartphone
s. It contains applications for word processing
, spreadsheet
s, presentation
, databases
, vector graphics
and digital painting
.
Calligra uses the OpenDocument
format as its default file format and can import other formats, such as Microsoft Office
formats. Calligra relies on KDE technology
and is often used in combination with KDE Plasma Workspaces.
running Linux
, FreeBSD
, Mac OS X
, and Windows
of which Linux is the best supported system. A version of Calligra’s predecessor KOffice was ported to Haiku
.
On desktop systems the whole range of features is available.
or its successor MeeGo
but simple editing features are also available. This version only includes Words, Tables and Stage.
Development was initiated in summer 2009 and first shown during Akademy
/ Desktop Summit 2009 by KO GmbH as a simple port of KOffice to Maemo. Later Nokia
hired KO to assist them with a full-fledged mobile version, including a touchscreen-friendly user interface which was presented by Nokia during Maemo Conference in October 2009. The first alpha version was made available in January 2010.
Calligra was created as a result of a split in the KOffice community in 2010. Initial work on KOffice development began in November 1997 with KPresenter
, followed by KWord
in January 1998.
In 1999, KOffice was cited in testimony in the United States v. Microsoft
anti-trust trial by then-Microsoft executive Paul Maritz
as evidence of competition in the operating system and office suite arena.
The first official release of the KOffice suite was in 2000 when it was released as part of K Desktop Environment 2.0. Versions 1.1 followed in 2001, 1.2 in 2002. KOffice 1.6, which was the last in the 1.x series, was released in 2006.
KOffice has undergone a major transition accompanying the release of KDE Software Compilation 4. Coinciding with the work on KDE SC 4, the KOffice team prepared a major new release, KOffice 2 which used the new KDE Platform 4.
KOffice 2.0 was released in 2009. It was only recommended for testers and developers rather than production use, since the release was missing key features and applications from the previous stable release series.
Kexi
, the data management application, returned in May 2010, with KOffice 2.2. In this version a new framework for effects on shapes and a new import filters for the Office Open XML formats got added.
In mid-2010, following disagreements between the core developers, the KOffice community split into two separate communities, KOffice and Calligra Suite. Following arbitration with the community members several applications were renamed by both communities. Most developers and maintainers of particular applications joined the Calligra project. Three applications, Kexi, Krita and KPlato and the user interfaces for mobile devices have been completely moved out of KOffice and are only available within Calligra. A new application called Braindump has been added to Calligra after the split.
KOffice 2.3, released 31 December 2010, along with subsequent bugfix releases (2.3.1–2.3.3) was still a collaborative effort of both the KOffice and Calligra development teams. According to its developers, this version is stable enough for real use, and Karbon14, Krita and KSpread are recommended for production work.
On 18 May 2011 the Calligra team began releasing monthly snapshots while preparing for the release of Calligra 2.4 which is scheduled for November 2011.
, using the Qt and KDE libraries. However it is released independently of the KDE Software Compilation
. All its components are released under free software licenses and use OpenDocument
as their native file format.
The developers of Calligra plan to share as much infrastructure as possible between applications to reduce bugs and improve the user experience. This is done by common technologies like Flake
and Pigment. Flake provides a way to handle shapes, which can contain text, images, formulas (via KFormula), charts (via KChart) or other objects, in a consistent way across all applications. The Calligra team also wants to create an OpenDocument library for use in other KDE applications that will allow developers to easily add support for reading and outputting OpenDocument files to their applications. Automating tasks and extending the suite with custom functionality can be done with D-Bus
or with scripting languages like Python
, Ruby
, and JavaScript
through the Kross
scripting framework.
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
by KDE
KDE
KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
created from KOffice
KOffice
Calligra Suite is a graphic art and office suite by KDE created from KOffice in 2010. It is available for desktop PCs, tablet computers, and smartphones...
in 2010. It is available for desktop PCs
Desktop computer
A desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer. Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright...
, tablet computer
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
s, and smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
s. It contains applications for word processing
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
, spreadsheet
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
s, presentation
Presentation program
A presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show...
, databases
Relational database management system
A relational database management system is a database management system that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd. Most popular databases currently in use are based on the relational database model....
, vector graphics
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
and digital painting
Digital painting
Digital painting is an emerging art form in which traditional painting techniques such as watercolor, oils, impasto, etc. are applied using digital tools by means of a computer, a digitizing tablet and stylus, and software. Traditional painting is painting with a physical medium as opposed to a...
.
Calligra uses the OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
format as its default file format and can import other formats, such as Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
formats. Calligra relies on KDE technology
KDE Platform
KDE Platform is a set of frameworks by KDE that serve as technological foundation for all KDE applications. Ever since KDE’s brand repositioning the Platform is released as separate product in sync with KDE’s Plasma Workspaces as part of the KDE Software Compilation 4...
and is often used in combination with KDE Plasma Workspaces.
Supported systems
Calligra Suite heavily relies on Qt and therefore can be ported to any platform compatible to Qt with relative ease.Desktops
Calligra’s main platform are desktop PCsDesktop computer
A desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer. Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright...
running Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
of which Linux is the best supported system. A version of Calligra’s predecessor KOffice was ported to Haiku
Haiku (operating system)
Haiku is a free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS. Its development began in 2001, and the operating system became self-hosting in 2008, with the first alpha release in September 2009, the second in May 2010 and the third in June 2011....
.
On desktop systems the whole range of features is available.
Smartphones
Calligra Mobile is a version for smartphone-like formfactors. Its main purpose is to serve as document viewer for devices running MaemoMaemo
Maemo is a software platform developed by the Maemo community for smartphones and Internet tablets. It is based on the Debian Linux distribution, but has no relation to it...
or its successor MeeGo
MeeGo
MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project. Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances in the consumer electronics market, MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet...
but simple editing features are also available. This version only includes Words, Tables and Stage.
Development was initiated in summer 2009 and first shown during Akademy
AKademy
Akademy is an annual contributors and users conference of the KDE community. Akademy is held at varying venues in Europe....
/ Desktop Summit 2009 by KO GmbH as a simple port of KOffice to Maemo. Later Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
hired KO to assist them with a full-fledged mobile version, including a touchscreen-friendly user interface which was presented by Nokia during Maemo Conference in October 2009. The first alpha version was made available in January 2010.
Tablets
Calligra Active was launched after the Plasma Active initiative to provide a document viewer similar to Calligra Mobile but for tablet computers. As with Mobile, only Words, Tables and Stage are included.History
| Development Sprints | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Venue | Date |
| 2000 | Erlangen Erlangen Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants.... , Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
9/23-9/25 |
| 2007 | Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... , Germany |
|
| 2008 | Berlin, Germany | 11/7-11/9 |
| 2009 | Berlin, Germany | 6/5-6/7 |
| 2009 | Oslo Oslo Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King... , Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
|
| 2010 | Essen Essen - Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of... , Germany |
6/11-6/13 |
| 2011 | Berlin, Germany | 4/1-4/3 |
Calligra was created as a result of a split in the KOffice community in 2010. Initial work on KOffice development began in November 1997 with KPresenter
KPresenter
Calligra Stage is a free presentation program that is part of the Calligra Suite, an integrated office suite for the KDE Platform....
, followed by KWord
KWord
Calligra Words is a free word processor, part of Calligra Suite and developed by KDE.The text-layout scheme in Words is based on frames, making it similar to FrameMaker by Adobe. These can be placed anywhere on the page, and can incorporate text, graphics and embedded objects...
in January 1998.
In 1999, KOffice was cited in testimony in the United States v. Microsoft
United States v. Microsoft
United States v. Microsoft was a set of civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 Section 1 and 2 on May 8, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor...
anti-trust trial by then-Microsoft executive Paul Maritz
Paul Maritz
Paul Maritz is CEO of VMware Corporation , and a past senior executive at Microsoft.Born and raised in Rhodesia , his family later moved to South Africa where he was schooled at Highbury Preparatory School and Hilton College. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Natal,...
as evidence of competition in the operating system and office suite arena.
The first official release of the KOffice suite was in 2000 when it was released as part of K Desktop Environment 2.0. Versions 1.1 followed in 2001, 1.2 in 2002. KOffice 1.6, which was the last in the 1.x series, was released in 2006.
KOffice has undergone a major transition accompanying the release of KDE Software Compilation 4. Coinciding with the work on KDE SC 4, the KOffice team prepared a major new release, KOffice 2 which used the new KDE Platform 4.
KOffice 2.0 was released in 2009. It was only recommended for testers and developers rather than production use, since the release was missing key features and applications from the previous stable release series.
Kexi
Kexi
Kexi is an integrated data management application, designed to fill the gap between spreadsheets and database solutions requiring more sophisticated development...
, the data management application, returned in May 2010, with KOffice 2.2. In this version a new framework for effects on shapes and a new import filters for the Office Open XML formats got added.
In mid-2010, following disagreements between the core developers, the KOffice community split into two separate communities, KOffice and Calligra Suite. Following arbitration with the community members several applications were renamed by both communities. Most developers and maintainers of particular applications joined the Calligra project. Three applications, Kexi, Krita and KPlato and the user interfaces for mobile devices have been completely moved out of KOffice and are only available within Calligra. A new application called Braindump has been added to Calligra after the split.
KOffice 2.3, released 31 December 2010, along with subsequent bugfix releases (2.3.1–2.3.3) was still a collaborative effort of both the KOffice and Calligra development teams. According to its developers, this version is stable enough for real use, and Karbon14, Krita and KSpread are recommended for production work.
On 18 May 2011 the Calligra team began releasing monthly snapshots while preparing for the release of Calligra 2.4 which is scheduled for November 2011.
Components
Calligra Suite includes the following applications:- Words (formerly KWord), a word processorWord processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
and desktop publishingDesktop publishingDesktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
program. - Tables (formerly KSpread), a spreadsheetSpreadsheetA spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
application. - Stage (formerly KPresenter), a presentation programPresentation programA presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show...
. - KexiKexiKexi is an integrated data management application, designed to fill the gap between spreadsheets and database solutions requiring more sophisticated development...
, an integrated data management application, designed as a Microsoft AccessMicrosoft AccessMicrosoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of...
or FileMakerFileMakerFileMaker Pro is a cross-platform relational database application from FileMaker Inc., formerly Claris, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It integrates a database engine with a GUI-based interface, allowing users to modify the database by dragging new elements into layouts, screens, or forms...
competitor. It has limited compatibility with the MS Access file format. - Flow (formerly Kivio), a programmable flowchartFlowchartA flowchart is a type of diagram that represents an algorithm or process, showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting these with arrows. This diagrammatic representation can give a step-by-step solution to a given problem. Process operations are represented in these...
drawing program with dynamically loadable stencilStencilA stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
s. Developed by theKompanyTheKompanytheKompany is a California-based group of international Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X developers that write software for software development and home office uses, first founded in 2000. The group concentrates primarily on enterprise, software development, and embedded software solutions. Much of...
, which offers additional (non-free) stencils for sale. - Karbon14Karbon14Karbon14 is a vector graphics editor. It is a component of Calligra Suite, an integrated graphic art and office suite by KDE...
, a vector graphics editorVector graphics editorA vector graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to compose and edit vector graphics images interactively on a computer and save them in one of many popular vector graphics formats, such as EPS, PDF, WMF, SVG, or VML.... - KritaKritaKrita is the digital painting and illustration software included based on the KDE Platform and Calligra Suite libraries. Designed as a digital painting and illustration suite, Krita is free software and distributed under GNU General Public License...
(formerly known as Krayon and KImageshop), a digital paintingDigital paintingDigital painting is an emerging art form in which traditional painting techniques such as watercolor, oils, impasto, etc. are applied using digital tools by means of a computer, a digitizing tablet and stylus, and software. Traditional painting is painting with a physical medium as opposed to a...
program with some image editingImage editingImage editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they be digital photographs, traditional analog photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any...
features. - Plan (formerly known as KPlato), a project managementProject managementProject management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
application that can create Gantt chartGantt chartA Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...
s. - Braindump, a note taking application.
Technical details
Calligra is designed to work with the KDE PlatformKDE Platform
KDE Platform is a set of frameworks by KDE that serve as technological foundation for all KDE applications. Ever since KDE’s brand repositioning the Platform is released as separate product in sync with KDE’s Plasma Workspaces as part of the KDE Software Compilation 4...
, using the Qt and KDE libraries. However it is released independently of the KDE Software Compilation
KDE Software Compilation
The KDE Software Compilation is a desktop environment and an associated range of KDE Applications produced by KDE. Prior to version 4.4, released in February 2010, the Software Compilation was known as KDE, which used to stand for K Desktop Environment until November 2009...
. All its components are released under free software licenses and use OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
as their native file format.
The developers of Calligra plan to share as much infrastructure as possible between applications to reduce bugs and improve the user experience. This is done by common technologies like Flake
Flake (KDE)
Flake is a programming library that is used in Calligra Suite and the KOffice 2 series. Flake provides the basic concept of a “shape”. To the end user a shape appears as some piece of content like an image or a text. A shape can be in any form and contain any kind of media since the Shape is...
and Pigment. Flake provides a way to handle shapes, which can contain text, images, formulas (via KFormula), charts (via KChart) or other objects, in a consistent way across all applications. The Calligra team also wants to create an OpenDocument library for use in other KDE applications that will allow developers to easily add support for reading and outputting OpenDocument files to their applications. Automating tasks and extending the suite with custom functionality can be done with D-Bus
D-Bus
In computing, D-Bus is a simple inter-process communication open-source system for software applications to communicate with one another. Heavily influenced by KDE2–3's DCOP system, D-Bus has replaced DCOP in the KDE 4 release. An implementation of D-Bus supports most POSIX operating...
or with scripting languages like Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
, and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
through the Kross
Kross (KDE)
Kross is the new scripting framework for KDE SC 4, the latest version of the KDE SC. Originally Kross was designed for use in Koffice but eventually became the official scripting framework in KDE SC 4...
scripting framework.