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lib2geom python binding
by joel＠...1709... 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

Question: are there any plans to make a python lib2geom interface? I've had a really nifty idea for an extension, but it requires bezier curves to be loaded from stock SVG files, and then I need to be able to solve the beziers in X for a given Y coordinate. [can lib2geom even do this?]

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] [Inkscape-user] exporting slices as boxes
by bulia byak 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

On 8/17/07, Aaron Spike <aaron@...749...> wrote: > It would be more convenient and require less mental effort for the user > if they could see them. It helps to be able to see all of the boxes, not > just the selected box, while creating new boxes. You can. Just select all and then draw with Rect tool. It will even snap to the existing rects. (It will unselect all but the new one once you finish it, though.) > there is a simple solution. I can select all the boxes and give them > color while I am working with them. But again this is only a work > around. Everything can be called workaround for something else. For example, if we implement your "magic slices" and I want to change their color, I will most likely have to go and search for that in prefs. Which, for me, is a poor workaround for just selecting the boxes I need and clicking on the color palette. > And it require effort from a user to do something that we should > provide a real solution for. No solution is "real". One may be better than another but it does not make it more "real" in any sense. A specialized solution may be more convenient, but it may also be more clumsy and getting-in-the-way of those who don't need it. See, a new specialized feature is worth it if it offers something which is _in principle_ impossible or very hard to do with existing tools. And even if it has some added value, that feature better be very isolated and orthogonal to everything else. Otherwise, if it's instrusive, it must provide some really basic and important facility in order to be considered. The slicing facility is important for many people, check. But doing it via "magic slices" is very intrusive and non-orthogonal because it involves a whole new kind of objects and/or controls that all tools will need to be aware of - no check. And it also does not offer much added value compared to the naive approach, except some conveniences that may be just as well incorporated into existing tools/templates/dialogs - also no check. That's why it does not pass my filter. > > Yes, but this is just one of the dozens of selection methods available > > in Inkscape. Most other methods work fine. > > Could you please list the "dozens" of selection methods? I know we > provide quite a number, perhaps even 12 but I think you may be > exaggerating. OK, granted, "dozens" was an exaggeration :) But you can get 12 if you count all the keyboard modifiers in selector :) > Now, of all of the selection methods that Inkscape > provides, what would you say is the simplest, most obvious method for > selecting a single object. I argue that it is the single click of the > selector tool. Yes, but you forget another proposed method that you can use if you don't like transparent rects: make them blue, but place them in a semitransparent layer. Then when you need to export it, just set its transparency to 0. Minimum clicks to get what you need, and you can still click to select the slices. What's wrong with this? Difficult to set up? Just provide a template with that semitransparent "slices" layer already present. Difficult to discover? Write and popularize a tutorial. Cannot batch export the slices? Yes you can, in SVN this is added right to the Export dialog (the "export selected objects separately" checkbox). I can even easily add another checkbox there: export all within the object's bbox but not the object itself - and then you will not need to make the boxes transparent, because they will be hidden in the export anyway. Or, we can eventually support per-layer Outline view (this was already requested by other people for other purposes), which, if enabled for the export layer, will solve all of your problems at once: rects will be always visible and clickable even if transparent. And we can even enable per-layer outline color to differentiate them visually. Need more intuitive manipulation of the slices? Excellent suggestion, just implement the rect-specific commands for "subdivide horizontally", "subdivide vertically", and "rectangle union" on the Rect toolbar, and fix the KnotHolder so it can edit more than one selected rect (e.g. by dragging the touching sides of two adjacent rects) - and editing the slices will be a breeze, not to mention all the other benefits you get from these improvements. See? Every convenience you can think of is easily possible with the simple approach, just by extending the capabilities of existing tools. And the big advantage is that these extensions may be useful in various other situations too. Whereas, if you create a specialized tool just for slicing, it will be useless for anything but slicing. -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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Calligraphy width - can you guess what I'm going to say? :)
by microUgly 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

I did a search for this because I thought it would have been brought up many times - but I couldn't find anything. I don't understand the benefit of width not being effected by zoom with the calligraphy tool. The Inkscape.org tutorial justifies it by saying: "This makes sense, because the natural "unit of measure" in calligraphy is the range of your hand's movement, and it is therefore convenient to have the width of your pen nib in constant ratio to the size of your "drawing board"" I could understand this if the calligraphy tool was only ever used for calligraphy writing. But I would think it's as likely, if not more likely, to be used as a drawing tool. And as a drawing tool this feature is very frustrating. To ensure consistent thickness lines when inking you have to manually calculate the width everytime you change zoom. Otherwise you end up with a mixture of very thick and very thin lines. Perhaps to not upset traditional calligraphy artists, is it possible we could get a checkbox to toggle how the width is effected when zooming? Even if the feature simply adjusted the value in width field as you zoomed in and out. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Calligraphy-width---can-you-guess-what-I%27m-going-to… Sent from the Inkscape - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] Time to start thinking about a release?
by joel＠...1709... 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

> PDF does not support blur, let alone PS. The only workaround you have is to convert blur to bitmap before exporting. I think inkscape needs a pre-flight dialog then which gives you errors, warnings and messages concerning your export, otherwise the inexperianced user will struggle to understand why blur failed to export, much less how they can get around the issue. CorelDRAW has a rather nice example of a pre-flight dialog for printing. ---------------------------------------- From: "bulia byak" <buliabyak@...400...> Sent: 23 August 2007 23:51 To: "Adib Taraben" <taraben.a@...1512...> Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Time to start thinking about a release? On 8/23/07, Adib Taraben wrote: > also we need to mark the things that _have to_ go into the release. > I do a lot of technical drawings and for me it is absolutely necessary > to include the blur into the pdf and ps export formats. PDF does not support blur, let alone PS. The only workaround you have is to convert blur to bitmap before exporting. We may eventually add an option to do this automatically but I don't think it's particularly high priority because the workaround is easy (just press Alt+B). -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] inkscape and scim
by Gerrit Sangel 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

I just tried it on Windows and there's the same problem... Hm... maybe it is just a gtk issue. I think I'll investigate this further on the gtk mailinglist. But I wonder why this works with Firefox without any problems. And Gimp has more or less a mixture of it. It does not work the same way as with my German keyboard, but it is not so annoying as with inkscape or scim. But this problem is really annoying. Almost unusable. Luckily, usually you don't have to enter long texts in inkscape, but in Abiword it's the same problem and really really annoying there. Gerrit Am Mittwoch 22 August 2007 schrieben Sie: > (The list seems to reject me so I'll send direct) > > The scim issues are known, and not limited to scim. I reported this on > Windows about two years ago. See > http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1223602&group_id=9 >3438&atid=604306 > > James

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] Tango Icons
by joel＠...1709... 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

I completely agree. That Tango icons look much better. ---------------------------------------- From: David Christian Berg <david@...407...> Sent: 24 August 2007 00:37 To: Ryan Lerch <ryanlerch@...400...> Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Tango Icons Definitely it should be used. I'm using it since a while and I'm totally contend. just my 2 ¢ David On Fri, 2007-08-24 at 08:15 +1000, Ryan Lerch wrote: > I was reading the release notes for the upcoming GIMP release > (http://gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.4.html ), and I noticed that > they are updating their icon set to one that adheres to the tango > guidelines. I was wondering what everyone thinks about using the > inkscape tango icons > set(http://gnomelook.org/content/show.php/Tangofied+inkscape+icons > +set?content=48140 ) as default. > > > > I know that the current revision of this icon set is incomplete in > some parts (eg: Tweak and Bucket Fill.) > > > > Just thought I would throw the idea out there. > > > > Cheers, > > > > ryanlerch > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. > Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. > Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. > Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ > _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel

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[Fwd: [Scale-announce] So Cal Linux Expo Announces Call For Papers]
by Ted Gould 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

Historically Inkscape has had a pretty large presence at SCALE, I imagine we will this year as well. One thing that I'd like to see is more Inkscape speakers and free graphics in general. Heck, I'd love to see enough submissions for a free graphics track! :) The CFP is until the end of November, so there is time. Start to think about what you can present! --Ted -------- Forwarded Message -------- From: SCALE Announcements <scale-announce@...1782...> Reply-To: nobody@...1782... To: SCALE-announce <scale-announce@...1566...> Subject: [Scale-announce] So Cal Linux Expo Announces Call For Papers Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:47:04 -0700 July 26th, 2007 The Linux Expo of Southern California has opened the Call For Papers for the 6th Annual Southern California Linux Expo, to be held February 8th, 9th, & 10th, 2008. As with SCALE 5x, S6x will be held at the Westin Hotel at Los Angeles International Airport. If you’re interested in speaking at SCALE, don’t wait to submit your proposal. Over their last couple of events, the Linux Expo has had many more applications than they have had speaker slots available. See http://socallinuxexpo.com/scale6x/documents/scale6x-cfp.pdf for details on how to apply for a speaking opportunity at SCALE. Likewise, if you know someone who has something interesting to say about Open Source software, pass along the CFP to them and encourage them to apply. _______________________________________________ Scale-announce mailing list Scale-announce@...1783... http://mail.socallinuxexpo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/scale-announce

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Import from OCAL feature
by Bruno Dilly 23 Aug '07

23 Aug '07

Hi people, I implemented a new feature: import from open clip art library. When you have some time (and if you have interest), take a look on this and give me some feedback. Thanks

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wiki broken
by bulia byak 23 Aug '07

23 Aug '07

I get the following when trying to save a page on wiki. Logging out didn't help, now I can't log back in with the same error: While trying to retrieve the URL: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php? The following error was encountered: * Access Denied. Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect. Your cache administrator is root. -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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NEW: Tweak tool
by bulia byak 23 Aug '07

23 Aug '07

As discussed before, I moved the thinning/thickening functionality into a tool of its own, added two more modes and some controls. For one thing, you don't need Alt anymore :) Attention lib2geom hackers: please consider this a challenge! Can you switch this to using your new lib instead of livarot? Livarot sucks big time with regard to performance and memory leaking (see Known Problems below), and working with it involves way too much black magic which I don't like. What is needed is simple: convert a path to a polygon with a given tolerance, move the points of the polygon according to some simple algorithm, and convert the result back to path with some simplification. If someone switches this to lib2geom and it works good, I will consider adding more modes. Otherwise, I'm afraid I may have to remove the Roughen mode before the release because it's really not working reliably enough (often locks the path with the "directed eulerian" warning, caused by too small subpaths). Now for the official announcement: Tweak tool The Tweak tool is an exciting new way to edit paths. Unlike the Node tool, you don't need to worry about where the nodes of a path are and how to manipulate them to obtain the shape you want. Instead, you just act on any part of a path using the tool's "brush" in order to bend, twist, or stretch that part, and the path will respond smoothly and naturally regardless of where its nodes lie. While not very useful for technical applications such as schemes or diagrams, this tool will be indispensable for artistic uses of Inkscape - cartoons, drawings, sketches, anime, etc. This new functionality is somewhat similar to the "Pucker", "Bloat", and other similar tools in the latest versions of Adobe Illustrator, except that in Inkscape it works softer and is easier to control. The area of the tool's action (its "brush") is visualized as an orange-colored circular outline centered at your mouse pointer. However, that area actually has no sharp boundaries; the power of the tool's action falls off gradually, following a smooth bell-shaped profile. This makes the tool act softly and smoothly, and the paths respond as if they are made of soft jelly. The tool will work on any number of selected objects; for example, you can select all (Ctrl+A) and "smear" your entire drawing by Push. If applied to a shape or text, the tool converts them to paths automatically. You can also apply it to groups of objects. If you're trying to use it without anything selected, it will remind you to select some objects by a statusbar message. Width The width of the tool's brush can be changed by the Width control in the tool's controls bar above the canvas (in the range from 1 to 100). You can also change width by Left and Right arrow keys (same as in the Calligraphy tool) at any time (including during action). Also like in Calligraphy tool, the visible width of the brush is independent of zoom; simply zooming in or out is often easier than adjusting the width if you want to cover a smaller or larger area of the drawing. Force The next control is Force which adjusts the power of the action (in the range from 1 to 100). You can also change width by Up and Down arrow keys at any time (including during action). Think of it as the force of pressure you apply to the paths you tweak. If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet and the "Use pressure" button on the right-hand end of the controls bar is on, then the force will also depend on how hard you actually press your pen into your tablet, varying in the range from zero to whatever you set in the Force control. If all you have is a mouse, then the force will be constant but still settable by the Force control. The force of the effect also depends on zoom (or in other words, it stays the same when measured by screen pixels, same as when you move and object by Alt+arrow keys). Fidelity Any tweaking of a path slightly distorts the entire path, including even those parts that you didn't touch. These distortions are similar to those that a Simplify command produces. The Fidelity value (also in the range from 1 to 100, default is 50) allows you to control the amount of these distortions. With a higher fidelity, the distortions are less noticeable, but the path may end up having a lot of nodes which blows up the SVG size and slows down Inkscape. The best value of Fidelity depends on the nature of your artwork. If you're sculpting an amorphous blob, you can do with low fidelity of about 20. If, however, you are pushing or blowing a text string (as a single path) and want the letters outside the distorted area to remain crisp and clean, you will need to raise fidelity to 80 or more. Modes There are currently four modes in the Tweak tool: Push, Melt, Blow, and Roughen. * This default mode of the tool, Push, simply displaces the part of the path under the cursor in the direction of the drag. The path behaves like soft jelly, bending and bulging smoothly and naturally. It's an easy way to produce various irregular, lifelike, handmade-looking shapes starting from something as simple as an ellipse or a calligraphic stroke. For parallel-stroke hatching (engraving) done in the Calligraphy tool, pushing is an easy way to bend, pinch, or curve the entire hatching uniformly. * The Melt and Blow are two opposite modes that move each point of a path in a direction perpendicular to the path's surface at the point, either inwards (Melt) or outwards (Blow). This is similar to the Inset and Outset commands, except that the Tweak tool can act on a part of a path instead of the whole path. For example, the visible lightness/darkness of an engraving hatching may not exactly correspond to your artistic intention. Also, the ends of strokes are often far from ideal - they may be too blunt or have unsightly bends or blobs. This is where the Tweak tool may help. Select all the strokes in a hatching pattern and apply a light Melt action where you want the lines to become thinner (and the hatching to become lighter), up until total disappearance. If you press hard, melting works as an eraser, so you can easily clean the strokes' ends in a hatching to making them thin, sharp, and uniform. Conversely, applying Blow makes strokes wider (i.e. the hatching becomes darker). Of course, melting and blowing are useful not only for calligraphic strokes. Same as with Push, with Melt and Blow you can sculpt any path, spawning smooth treacle-like appendages with Blowing and carving holes with Melting. Unlike the "node sculpting" mode in the Node tool, however, this does not require adding new nodes, selecting any nodes, or even being aware of nodes at all. * The Roughen mode does exactly this: roughens the edge of the path without changing its overall shape. Slight roughening simply makes the edge crooked and uneven; strong roughening tears and explodes the edge into random blobs and splotches. Note that this operation, especially with high Fidelity, adds a lot of nodes which increases the size of your SVG document and may slow down Inkscape considerably. In particular, pushing/melting/blowing of a roughened path becomes much slower and more difficult, so it's recommended to finalize the overall shape of a path first and roughen it, if necessary, only as the final step. Keyboard shortcuts * W, Alt+F2: switch to the Tweak tool * Shift+P: switch to the Push mode * Shift+M: switch to the Melt mode * Shift+B: switch to the Blow mode * Shift+R: switch to the Roughen mode * Left, Right: change width * Up, Down: change force * mouse drag: act on selected path in the current mode * Ctrl+mouse drag: temporarily switch to Melt (while Ctrl is down) * Shift+Ctrl+mouse drag: temporarily switch to Blow (while Shift+Ctrl is down) Known problems Known problems with the Tweak tool: 1. it is rather slow; 2. it quickly eats memory; and 3. it is sometimes buggy - thin calligraphic strokes may suddenly disappear or change their shape drastically as you're melting or blowing them. For (3), it helps to increase Fidelity. Also, you can undo the bad change and try again with less pressure on the pen - if you do your thinning in several light touches instead of one heavy press, usually you will be able to get the desired result without the buggy behavior. Also, sometimes after roughening, further tweaking of a path becomes impossible with this diagnostic: WARNING **: Shape error in ConvertToShape: directedEulerian(a) == false All these problems stem from the livarot library that we use for geometric manipulation of paths. Fortunately, livarot is scheduled for replacement by lib2geom, a new library now in development, so hopefully these issues will be addressed then. -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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