- Inkscape Devel - Inkscape Mailman

Two essentials for publishing users.
by John Culleton 16 Sep '10

16 Sep '10

Inkscape needs two more features for publishing. First, the CMYK color model needs to be a real option. ImageMagick will convert an svg file to CMYK but that means going from vector to bitmap. Second, there should be an option for PDF output in PDF X/1-a format to satisfy the largest POD printer, Lightning Source Inc. (LSI). Currently my only path is to import all or part of a cover image into Scribus 1.5.0 (development version) and save it from there. Two requests from the trenches. -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Updates from the Image Links branch
by Steren 13 Sep '10

13 Sep '10

Hi, The project of the students from Ecole Centrale Lyon has ended in June. Their report (written in english) is available on my page of the Inkscape Wiki <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/User:Steren>. The code is in a dedicated Inkscape branch<https://code.launchpad.net/~centralelyon2010/inkscape/imagelinks2> on Launchpad. You will find: - a use of relative links by default - a smart relinking tool for broken images - a first step in the image properties redesign. The first part of this page<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Image_properties_dialog_enhancements> details what has been done and is dedicated to bug tracking for this branch. (Can we use launchpad bug tracking for a branch? If so, we should do it). You are welcomed to test it and report errors, keep in mind that it is non-finished work. Once again, I think it was a great experience for the students to work on a project such as Inkscape. I hope they will see their effort being integrated into trunk one day, the same we were pleased to see the spray tool or the enhanced LPEs. Students involved are : - François Petit <Francois.Petit@...2281...> - Baptiste Soyer <Baptiste.Soyer@...2281...> - Mor Ngom <Mor.Ngom@...2281...> - Rafik Boughida <Rafik.Boughida@...2281...> - Vincent Pais <Vincent.Pais@...2281...> - Yoann Desgrande <Yoann.Desgrange@...2281...> And I was their mentor. Unfortunately, I won't be able to be involved into this project in the future. Some of the students and Nicolas Dufour <nicoduf@...48...> (JazzyNico) volunteered to continue the work. (thanks!) I would advise to continue the work on the branch, and to merge when things start being usable. The code surely needs a review from an experienced dev. And some questions around usage of URL or IRI shoud be discussed (see the previous wiki page): Originally, file:// was before the path, after the students' work, path is written directly and no ASCII conversion is done. The W3C allow the use of IRI, but this change may interfere with Inkscape. I guess it shouldn't be too hard to transform the IRI into a URI. What do you think ? Any feedback is welcomed. Feel free to test the branch. I hope these efforts will help Inkscape. Thanks for your support. Cheers Steren

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Expand svg standard to include CMYK color model.
by John Culleton 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

If the proposed new standard were to include the CMYK color model as an alternate to RGB , and Inkscape were modified to include it, then the potential for using Inkscape in publishing work would be expanded. ImageMagick will convert from one color model to another but it appears that ImageMagick also converts to a bitmap format as a byproduct. -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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Could someone help Nina Paley the author of Sita sings the blues to convert fla files to Inkscape ?
by Ivan Louette 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

I have always thought that open source graphics software need well known and appreciated artists to use it end talk about it. Thus I sent a message to Nina Paley because I was so fascinated by "Sita" and I am interested to draw the attention of artists to Inkscape and svg filters. And one hour and an half later she replied the following message ! I think there is a very important opportunity to spread information about Inkscape there and that's why I send the message to you all. Thanks a lot in advance for any advice, ivan ----- Message transféré ---- De : Nina Paley <nina_paley@...36...> À : Ivan Louette <ivan_louette@...48...> Envoyé le : Jeu 9 septembre 2010, 22h 03min 13s Objet : Re: Free Open Source software : The Inkscape SVG Filter Effects Hi Ivan, I desperately need a migration tool to allow Flash frames - with all their alpha channels, tints, and strokes - to be usable with Inkscape. Can your community help? http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/save_sita_sings_blues_flash_for… All the .fla source files are here: http://www.archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues_Files I also name-checked (via a graphic) Inkscape in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n04IeQo4RCQ&feature=autofb Thanks, --Nina http://www.ninapaley.com/ ________________________________ From: Ivan Louette <ivan_louette@...48...> To: Nina Paley <nina_paley@...36...> Sent: Thu, September 9, 2010 1:32:10 PM Subject: Free Open Source software : The Inkscape SVG Filter Effects Hello ! I saw your amazing movie "Sita sings the blues" some weeks ago. A lot of fun amongst deep human sensitiveness. I am a member of Inkscape developers community and my goal is developing a set of useful, funny and sometimes somewhat innovative filters effects for this open source vector drawing program which manages nicely bitmap images too. I would draw your attention to them because I think you could have pleasure to use them and taking account of your imagination the results could be marvelous. That's just an idea. If you are interested you can find more infos here : http://www.inkscape.org/ And you can find the latest release of my filters here : http://www.openclipart.org/detail/84109 Have fun and If you want to know more, don't hesitate to contact me. ivan

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Tr : Tr : Could someone help Nina Paley the author of Sita sings the blues to convert fla files to Inkscape ?
by Ivan Louette 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

No problem ! I am glad to help ! ivan ----- Message transféré ---- De : Nina Paley <nina_paley@...36...> À : Ivan Louette <ivan_louette@...48...> Envoyé le : Jeu 9 septembre 2010, 23h 19min 59s Objet : Re: Tr : Could someone help Nina Paley the author of Sita sings the blues to convert fla files to Inkscape ? Thanks for spreading the message, Ivan! Some Synfig developers are also aware of the need for a Flash migration tool. I haven't tackled either Inkscape or Synfig, but I'm glad both are growing. If any Inkscape animation tool developers want my input, I am available. Best, --Nina http://www.ninapaley.com/

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Where is the barcode code?
by John Culleton 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

I assume the barcode function was borrowed from another OS project. Can someone point me to that project? In any case, can someone name the source code files that implement bar codes on Inkscape 0.48? I have an inquiry on another list looking for a subprogram that can be integrated in a larger app. SVG output is desired. -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html

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[Fwd: Ruby Scripting for Inkscape]
by Ted Gould 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

Thiago sent this to me, it looks like it might help some Ruby developers, anyone interested? --Ted -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Ruby Scripting for Inkscape Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:14:07 +0000 Hi, I am writing you because inkscape lists you as the responsible for scripting/extensions. The thing is I wanted to do some overlay based animations with Inkscape. The idea is to name layers/objects and then write scripts to show/hide them and take snapshots. This way you can make a presentation by listing the snapshots. Since the RubyInk web page was not working (I think this is listed as Ruby's API for inkscape) I wrote myself a very tiny API for manipulating SVG files. I only wrote enough functionality for what I needed to do. So, maybe somebody is interested in the code, or want to improve it. I don't know how to advertise it, but if you are interested, it's in http://github.com/thiagobart/rubyscape Cheers, Thiago

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Automatic mention of shortcuts in tooltips
by Jasper van de Gronde 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

I've just added code to automatically add the shortcut key to tooltips of verbs. If you find any problems with tooltips (it lists something strange, a tooltip doesn't show anymore, the shortcut is listed double, whatever) you know where to look first. The main change is that the shortcut is now made part of the tooltip as reported by the verb and that we now use a gtk function to derive the shortcut label instead of our own function (the result seems to be the same). I've tried to check for situations where this would lead to double or unwanted listing of the shortcut, but so far it seems fine.

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Integrating Diffusion Curves
by Jasper van de Gronde 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

I'm working on Diffusion Curves (for master thesis) and will try to get them in Inkscape in the foreseeable future (this calender year hopefully). As I'm slowly getting more grip on the technical side of things (which is what my thesis will be about) I'd love some input (and help) on UI issues. For those who haven't heard about them yet, they're basically a new and very(!) flexible way of specifying color transitions. You just assign colors to curves and let the program fill in the intermediate space using diffusion. This tends to create visually pleasing, smooth, transitions while allowing for a very complex geometry with minimal effort. More information (especially see the references at the bottom for examples): http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Diffusion_Curves My current thinking is that it would probably be best to treat diffusion curves as a paint server, allowing people to assign color to nodes (that either coincide with existing nodes or are positioned somewhere on the path). The colors would be linearly interpolated along the path. A scheme like this would fit in well with the idea of expanding the functionality of the gradient tool and having a general color picker. Unfortunately this would sort of limit the ability to blur boundaries to the point that it might not make any sense. But then again, maybe it's a mistake to try and integrate two separate concepts (blur and color transitions), even in the original paper these are treated quite separately (the blur values are diffused separately and then a spatially varying blur is applied). Any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful. Also, would it make sense to apply diffusion curves to strokes? If so, how would that work?

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SVG Open 2010 Report
by Tavmjong Bah 07 Sep '10

07 Sep '10

SVG Open 2010 was held in Paris, and since I live nearby I offered to give a talk about Inkscape. I would like to thank the organizers for waving the conference fee and even providing a ticket for the conference dinner aboard a boat on the Seine. There were quite a few interesting talks and panels and I learned quite a bit. My overall impression can be summed up easily: SVG has finally arrived. This conclusion was easy to make after talking to the many representatives of the major web browsers, including those from Microsoft who were there in numbers. In case anybody missed the news, IE9 will include comprehensive support for SVG, only missing the filters, SMIL, and SVG fonts modules. Filters will almost certainly appear in IE10; SMIL and fonts might too depending on demand. In case anybody wants to know, it took about 15 developers 15 months to implement SVG support in IE. A good fraction of the discussion was on how SVG fits into HTML5. HTML5 is not a finished standard and there are still pieces to work out. Microsoft is implementing what it can now and has an important message for users: Download and test the IE9 previews and betas. Complain about any behavior you find wrong or undesirable. You have about three months before IE9 gets locked down. It will be hard to change behavior after that as IE9 is expected to be around for 10 years and future versions of IE will maintain backwards compatibility. I'm afraid my notes are quite poor so I will just make a list of some random observations: * HTML5 will be everywhere soon. Firefox 4 and IE9 already contains HTML5 parsers, Webkit (Chrome and Safari) and Opera will have them soon (you can use SVG in XHTML right now). All the browsers support some HTML5 features. * There is a huge desire to have CSS3 apply the same way to HTML as to SVG. This includes things like sharing filters. * SVG is very popular in mapping circles (and not just in OpenStreetMap). * Vector effects are very interesting for maps, especially the ability to share partial paths between objects and for creating complex paths for roads, et cetera. * Most TV set-top boxes use SVG for their displays. * Look for cool SVG demos at SVG-Wow.org. Tav -- Tavmjong Bah Inkscape, Guide to Vector Drawing Program http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/

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