- Inkscape Devel - Inkscape Mailman

GSoC 2008: Inkscape tools for publishing using LaTeX
by Andrew Lewis 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

Hi all, I would be grateful for feedback on this GSoC project idea which I would like to do. It should be reasonably orthogonal to the Inkscape core so it shouldn't interfere with refactoring. I haven't contributed to Inkscape before, but I did a GSoC project last year for BBC R&D (on Dirac motion estimation/mode decision). Name: Andrew Lewis (1st year PhD Student, University of Cambridge, UK) Abstract: Inkscape is an ideal tool for producing the types of diagrams present in academic papers, but various features could be added to make it ideal for tool-chains which use LaTeX [1] to typeset documents. Authors who want to use consistent fonts in diagrams and body-text (both font family and size) must currently put `position marker' text into their documents and then replace this when their document is compiled using a tool such as psfrag [2] to re-write an EPS file. This method has some short-comings with text alignment (baseline and right alignment) and is inconvenient at design-time as documents are no longer WYSIWYG. The tool to add LaTeX equations to Inkscape documents is not ideal for adding larger elements of text as it renders to a standard vector object, discarding information about baseline position, alightment, font-size and so on. It is also difficult for new users to understand what information will be preserved during the EPS conversion. To make this clearer I propose a pre-export check where users are informed, possibly with a preview, if the appearance of the diagram will change when it is included in a LaTeX document, and online documentation with a tutorial and FAQ about exporting for LaTeX. This project would make Inkscape easier to use when creating diagrams for eventual inclusion in LaTeX documents by keeping information about text alignment (for example, moving the text control point on aligment) and making font scaling clearer, which might require additions to the file format. As an extension, I would like to make a file output filter for generating .tex files which can produce posters with diagrams and standard body text which aims to produce output similar to what would have been made by hand. This project would make Inkscape an excellent alternative to tools such as xfig [3] when diagrams must look consistent with body text, make changes on exporting clearer to the user (including those not targeting academic papers but still using EPS) and produce better output for LaTeX users who make their diagrams in Inkscape. [1] LaTeX: http://www.latex-project.org/ [2] psfrag: http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/psfrag.ps [3] Xfig: http://www.xfig.org/userman/ Notes This project would first consist of a psfrag-like feature with LaTeX placeholders, where I would fix the problems with text alignment by inclusion of right-align/baseline information in the file format. (This might involve moving the control point on text which has been aligned.) I would then try to make this render nicely when Inkscape is able to find dependencies (the feature would be unavailable if LaTeX is not installed). The aim would be to get as close to WYSIWYG editing for this as possible without going as far as a TeXmacs style editor (so focussing on plain diagram labelling and simple equations to start with). There would be an export to EPS for inclusion in LaTeX document feature, which would do a pre-export check and notify the user of any features which would be removed (gradients, effects, opacity and so on). Time permitting I would like to work on supporting as many of these features as possible; this might include improving the PDF output filter (its output can be included in a LaTeX document compiled using pdflatex) to, for example, support gradients. I would also write documentation and a tutorial to explain how to produce diagrams for LaTeX output. One of the main difficulties here is integrating with LaTeX on different platforms. I would first make this work on (Ubuntu) Linux, other distributions and then Windows (possibly with MikteX). If time permits I would also like to make an output filter for Inkscape which can produce .tex files for posters including standard body text and diagrams. The aim would be to produce a file which is as close to a .tex file written by hand. This would likely overrun the length of the programme, but would be useful and make it possible for people who haven't used LaTeX before to produce high quality posters in Inkscape. Thank you for having a look at this! Andrew

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Google Summer of Code Application: PGF Export
by Caleb Reach 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

Hey, Here's my GSoC application, any comments/critiques are welcome! Cheers, Caleb ============= Application ============= Abstract ======== I would like to implement a PGF output extension for Inkscape. Currently, the TeX exporter in Inkscape utilizes the PSTricks macros, which are not portable and do not work with pdftex/pdflatex. PGF is a Portable Graphics Format for use with TeX/LaTeX/ConTeXt and works with all major back-end drivers. There are several feature requests which will be solved by this project: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170802 : PS + LaTeX export https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/171141 : Richer text layout features https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/172195 : Export LaTeX with PGF/TikZ macros https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/172022 : Combined PDF/LaTeX export Details ======= The implementation will be rather straightforward due to Inkscape's extension system. A new output extension (latex-pgf) will be developed which provides TeX output using the PGF macro package. PGF has two interface layers: the base system (PGF) and the front-end interface (TikZ). While exporting TikZ code might make subsequent editing easier, the base PGF layer is much more flexible and therefore will be used for this project. Qualifications --------------- While I haven't used GTK or worked with the Inkscape code base (aside from a simple bug fix for proof-of-competency: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/168349/comments/10), I have extensive experience with C++ and have used other widget toolkits such as JUCE. I have contributed small patches to several open source projects including Django and Lazy C++. I am also very familiar with LaTeX, having used it to typeset many reports over the last several years, and I use the PGF/TikZ package whenever I need to typeset drawings and diagrams. I also work well alone, and require little hand-holding. I have completed numerous projects on my own and am currently working on a software metrics visualization application in C++ which I plan to open source. Features -------- The PGF exporter will have support for the following features: * Paths - Clipping * Fill styles - Solid - Gradient - Pattern * Stroke styles - Dashes, Dots, etc. Implementation Plan ------------------- The first order of business will be to get a very basic export working. This will include support for paths, and nothing more. After this, features will be added on incrementally until the full export extension is complete. After basic path support is working, text output will be added. An option will be provided to either escape text or pass it through as-is so that it will be processed by TeX, allowing for formulas and other TeX trickery. Strokes styles, fills, and gradients will be implemented next. These all have direct equivalents in PGF. Finally, more esoteric features such as pattern fills and clipping will be implemented. Although these are supported in PGF, they are far less likely to be used than the other output functionality and thus will be implemented last.

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Status - Inkscape 0.46.0-1 Windows Package
by Bryce Harrington 27 Mar '08

27 Mar '08

I. Rygle, that round-up of Windows issues is quite handy! II. Patches included so far #179988 01_win32_printing.patch ?????? 02_win32_print_dialog_parent_window.patch (from Joel; no LP#) #183646 03_vista_turn_off_dashes.patch #168896 05_save_as_xaml.patch: III. Patches/bugs not included due to problems #165726 04_win32_remove_dialogs_on_top_preference.patch Fails to apply. See bug for details. #204779: ?? Not sure what to do here. A late comment refs to a patch in #187290 so maybe that patch needs inclusion? #187290: ?? I'm unclear if the patch here (comment #34) is ready, or needs additional testing/fixing. IV. New Windows patch packaging system I've added a debian-like patch setup for managing Windows patches. In other words, rather than apply patches directly, they are placed in inkscape/packaging/win32/patches/ and listed in the 'series' file in that directory. I've also written a simple script to apply the patches: cd /packaging/win32/ && ./apply_patches.sh This will need to be done by the Windows packagers when building 0.46.0 Windows packages (perhaps some scripts could be updated to include this step). Please someone update the Win32 docs to reflect this. This may seem weird compared with just committing the patches directly onto the stable branch, however this is standard operating procedure on Linux distros, and makes managing the patches and future updates easier. By keeping the patches only applied for Windows, it also completely avoids the risk of windows patches breaking linux code (these patches look safe, but you never know...) This also gives the windows packagers the flexibility to do 0.46.0-2, -3, etc. releases with more patches later on if they wish. So the basic rule is that we should have one common 0.46.0 tarball, and then each distro (including the Windows package as a distro), applies their packaging patches against it before building their packages. When we prepare for 0.46.1, we can look into incorporating some/all of the windows (and other distro) patches. V. Packaging and Release Announcements As mentioned before, March 24th is the day for sending out release announcements. This means we need to get all packages (including Windows) posted ASAP. Please let me know if anyone needs additional time for packaging, in case we need to delay the PR a bit. Bryce On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 08:30:29AM -0700, rygle wrote: > > A few minor improvements have been made to the Win32 printing patch, and it's > as ready as I think it will get for 0.46 release. Can someone please commit > it? > https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/179988/comments/139 > > > Here's the latest information on printing under Win32; > > * Non-printing - FIXED > > * Default page size problems - FIXED > > * Print Scaling problems - FIXED > > * White or black boxes over printing - FIXED - GTK uses the wrong call in > Cairo (create_win32_surface, not the create_win32_printing_surface). There > is a patch in the GTK bug tracker to fix this, but in the meantime we have > bypassed that part of GTK. The code will revert to GTK automatically when > GTK itself fixes the problem. > > * All known crashes - FIXED > Adrian Johnson has patched the Cairo libs to fix a rare crash with radial > gradients. > - There are two patched libs here (needs both) - > http://annarchy.freedesktop.org/~ajohnson/cairo/ > - A patch has also been submitted to the Cairo git repository - > http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=cairo;a=commit;h=ae9635bf33cb989f5c525800b… > - If the cairo dlls for inkscape are built by patching 1.5.14 instead of > building from git head Adrian recommends also getting the PostScript bug fix > as well: > http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=cairo;a=commit;h=13e05bffd5cae5690fada24c7… > > > > Remaining problems with Windows printing are; > > * Some blurs are misaligned/mis-scaled - see > https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/205732 > The workaround is to print to bitmap (under rendering in the print dialogue) > > * When printing falls back to bitmap, the bitmap is not always an ideal > resolution. Again the workaround is to print to bitmap (Print -> Rendering > -> Bitmap). > > > > > -- > View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Win32-libs-tp16033417p16254450.html > Sent from the Inkscape - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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"Inkscape out of the box for Ubuntu Hardy" News Item
by Joel Holdsworth 27 Mar '08

27 Mar '08

Hi All, Would it be worth putting a news item on the website mentioning that 0.46 will be included by default in Ubuntu Hardy? - it's quite big news, and it makes me want to tell the world! What do you think? Joel

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Inkscape at LugRadio Live USA 2008
by Jon A. Cruz 27 Mar '08

27 Mar '08

Hi, Just spreading the word that Inkscape will be exhibiting at LugRadio Live USA 2008 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * http://www.lugradio.org/live/USA2008/ LugRadio Live USA 2008 brings San Francisco the unique atmosphere of LugRadio Live UK, an event that has developed a strong reputation for providing a range of topics about free software, Open Source, digital rights, technology and more, a compelling list of speakers, exhibitors and birds of a feather sessions, and wrapping it all in a unique, fun, loose, social and inclusive event, which is often described as combining the atmosphere of a rock concert and a computer conference. LugRadio Live USA 2008 brings this unique atmosphere to the USA, with around 30 speakers, over 20 exhibitors, an eclectic range of BOF sessions, and plenty of additional sessions such as our debate discussion panel, a showcase of five minute talks, tech demos, and of course a live recording of LugRadio in front of an audience. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Any and all are welcome to come by and visit, hang out, talk about whatever. It's also a very user-centric conference with registration only running $10. We also need any volunteers to come by and help man the booth. Even being able to commit a few hours would be a great help to the Inkscape project. Additionally we have a minor need for equipment for the booth... it's a small, informal show but we can still do with a few things like monitors or projectors (if anyone lives in the area that would be handy). If anyone can volunteer, please let me know so that I can get them a list of all our people to get signed up. Thanks, and hope to see people there!

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Public keys for Ubuntu?
by Diederik van Lierop 27 Mar '08

27 Mar '08

In our sourceforge forum an anonymous poster is asking: "Please provide public keys for the Ubuntu (Gutsy and Hardy) 0.46 testing distrubtion." Do we have these? If so, were? See http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1985330&forum_id=323059 BTW, I noticed a few weeks ago that the (likely highly ineffective) spamming of our "installation help" forum has stopped, so I've re-enabled the anonymous posting. Regards, Diederik

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ill2svg.pl
by Alexandre Prokoudine 27 Mar '08

27 Mar '08

Hi, We have at least one bug on old AI files importer, namely LP145145. In the past I already suggested moving to UC for importing old AI files. Do you think it's the right time to do it now? If yes, do we need a separate verb for this extension so that both PS-based and PDF-based AI importers would work? Alexandre

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Copy-and-paste of defs/use
by Michael Droettboom 26 Mar '08

26 Mar '08

First -- I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for Inkscape... Truly an important application to have as open source. I am one of the matplotlib developers, and somewhat recently extended its SVG output backend to save the glyph outlines directly in the SVG file. (To remove the need to install obscure math fonts everywhere the SVG file will be viewed.) It uses <defs>/<symbol> to define the character and then <use> to render them. Yes, SVG fonts would probably be better for this, but the lack of support for them in Mozilla and other tools makes them a no-go for now. One of our users recently came across a problem where copying from one SVG file into another mangles the text. See his blog here: http://assorted-experience.blogspot.com/2008/03/inkscape-matplotlibs-svg-on… From poking around the resulting XML, what seems to be happening is that the <symbol> elements in the pasted data are reassigned new ids, but the <use> elements are not updated accordingly, and thus the <use> elements end up referring to symbols in the existing (pasted onto) file. Matplotlib, at present, assigns ids to glyph outlines sequentially as they are encountered, so there is no attempt to assign "universally" unique names, and id clashes across different files are guaranteed. There's a simple workaround I'm considering at our end, which is to use hashes on the path content itself as ids. This would also ensure that glyphs that are common between files will have the same id, for whatever that's worth. It does seem to at least make things behave as expected in Inkscape. However, I wanted to bring this to your attention because a) maybe this is an Inkscape bug, and it should be correcting the defs/use links on a copy/paste operation. b) maybe my understanding/expectations aren't correct and I'm just horribly misusing the SVG spec... I've attached two example SVG files. If you open both, and then copy the contents of one into the other, you can see that the title text will be incorrect. Cheers, Mike -- Michael Droettboom Science Software Branch Operations and Engineering Division Space Telescope Science Institute Operated by AURA for NASA

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Font Selector widget - Font size unit issue
by tayfun_biyikoglu 26 Mar '08

26 Mar '08

Hi, I need some help on font selector widget ? My exact question is how do we set the font name and size values on the toolbar right above the canvas after selecting some values from font selector(Text and Font Dialog). I am java developer and investigating the codes to add unit functionality and i am trying to get familier with c++. I really appreciate brief explanation of codes and also any technical approach for this issue is welcome. I am planning to add a new tab to document properties maybe named Font Defaults. I want to add two things there one is default font name and the other is default font size unit. If for example pt is selected i want to treat the font sizes as pt. I am sure this is a very simple issue for the ones who knows the codes and c++ very well. But as i go deeper i get more confused. Thanks, Sincerely, Tayfun -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Font-Selector-widget---Font-size-unit-issue-tp1631764… Sent from the Inkscape - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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Gsoc 2008 for 2geom: towards making up a proposal
by Marco 26 Mar '08

26 Mar '08

As already stated in previous mails the goal of my application is to implement 2geom or lpe features. After having browsed a lot of 2geom source code I started implementing a proof of concept version of SVGEllipticalArc, the result of my effort is attached at this mail (see svg_elliptical_arc.cpp). In order to get it compiled you have to put the file under the toy folder and add the file name into the list of source file in CMakeList.txt. The file provides a EllipticalArc class and a toy class for test it. (Please feedback!) I have always to write down a complete proposal but here are some ideas (any critique or suggestion is welcome) : (1) give my help in the integration task (2) make elliptical arc a first citizen in 2geom library I'd like also to implement basic shape support ( regular poligon, circle, ellipse, ..) and routines to support classical geometric construction methods (circonference by 3 point, circonference by 2 point and tangent to a given line, ...). Anyway I saw Maximilian Albert's mail and I'm not sure if this last point may overlap with his proposal or as I hope it could provide a basis for his project. Moreover I'm trying to complete my proposal with some other algorithm to be implemented so if you have something in mind I'd like to hear it. Kind Regards, Marco Cecchetti PS: are there mentors avaible for my project ? -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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