On 2011-03-31 0:05, gespertino@...400... wrote:
Also, this would require Inkscape to write out SVGs which have a clearly defined absolute size, which we still don't if I'm not mistaken.
My reasoning is simple: Inkscape uses 90 dpi as default resolution to make the translation from pixels to real units (for instance, when I use inches as default units and I want a square of 1 by 1 inches, a square of 90x90px is drawn).
Ah, but that's the catch. Inkscape does do that, but this is NOT a requirement of the specification. In fact, the spec says absolutely nothing about the actual resolution that should be used. Even "worse", you can explicitly set it to something different (which is actually often the most sensible way to go about it if you want absolute units). The specification explicitly states that absolute units should generally not be used anywhere but for defining the size of the document, precisely because of this reason. (Note that CSS seems to have a slightly different notion of px which is even more complicated, as there a px is defined to be the device grid unless it has a resolution wildly different from 90dpi...)
So, yes, we could implement a "simple" fix that lets users specify a font size in points. We could even just use the SVG unit pt, as that is also defined as an "appropriate" multiple of px. And perhaps we should do this if people find it useful. But I think it would give the wrong impression (that you were actually using an absolute unit) and it could lead to weird issues once Inkscape will let the user specify the coordinate system (do we then stick to the somewhat arbitrary scaling factor or do we want true points?). I admit that it's a slightly academic debate, but still, what's the point if you're not really using points?
(There's another GSoC project for you.)
Unfortunately I'm not eligible at all. I was just adding some points that are (afaik) also SVG compliance issues
I didn't necessarily mean "you" as in a single person, but more "you" as in anyone interested. It should definitely be doable to let Inkscape deal with absolute sizes, and depending on the exact proposal I think it could be (part of) an interesting GSoC project.