February 2007 - Inkscape Users

Re: [Inkscape-user] NEW: batch export and slicing
by Michael Grosberg 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@...125...> writes: > The DPI setting in the dialog is ignored, then? > I would assume that one usually wants everything exported with the same > DPI. Actually, I have trouble to think of a reason for varying DPI. Work on web or interface graphics is usually done in pixels, so the DPI setting is irrelevant anyway. You *could* use it to scale the work, but if we want this functionality, it would better be with a dedicated "scale" settings and not through DPI. Speaking of which, DPI is the wrong term here. Dots per Inch are used on printers, which actually print tiny dots. The correct term with exporting raster images is PPI or pixels per Inch. I don't currently have Gimp installed - what do they use there? Photoshop uses "Pixels/Inch".

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Font for "Draw Freely" non-free? "Pushkin"
by ValessioBrito 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

Where to lower one font exempts to write "Draw Freely". Pushkin using in: ./share/clipart/draw-freely.*.svg Pushkin: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/paratype/pushkin/ Designed for ParaType in 1999-2004 by Gennady Fridman. The Pushkin type family is based on the autographs of Alexander Pushkin, the eminent Russian poet (1799-1837). Alternative letters typical for Pushkin's hand are included. There are several variants of Pushkin's hand. Pushkin Script in 2 styles was based on the manuscripts of 1815 and covers Western and Russian character sets. Pushkin One was developed on the basis of thoroughly written documents. Pushkin Two imitates small but nevertheless rather legible hand. Pushkin Three in 2 weights was created on the basis of the autographs distinguished by sprawling hand. Pushkin One, Two and Three series covers just the Russian character set. This set of Russian fonts was amended by Pushkin French font that is based on French writings and covers Western character set. -- .ValessioBrito ://valessio.ul-jb.org/

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NEW: batch export and slicing
by bulia byak 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

* Batch export: The Bitmap Export dialog (Ctrl+Shift+E) got a new checkbox, Batch export all selected objects. This checkbox is available when two or more objects are selected. If it is checked, instead of exporting selection as a whole, Inkscape exports each selected object separately into its own PNG file. This uses each object's export hints (i.e. export filename and DPI) if they are remembered from a previous export; otherwise, the filename is created from the object ID and the DPI is 90 pixels per inch. Caution: Unlike regular export, batch export overwrites all existing PNG files without warning. This makes it possible to implement all kinds of image slicing and automated export scenarios. For example, if you are working on a web site design, you can create a separate "export" layer. In that layer, "slice" your web page image into separate areas by creating invisible rectangles with no fill and no stroke. Select each rectangle (by Tab/Shift+Tab, or by switching to Outline mode where even an invisible rectangle can be selected by clicking on its outline) and export it into the corresponding filename (which gets saved as that object's export hint). After that, if you do any changes to your graphics, it's very easy to reexport all the slices: just switch to the "export" layer, select all in that layer (Ctrl+A), and export with the Batch export selected objects checkbox on. This functionality replaces the "groups to pngs" extension which I'm going to remove. If you know of any reason why it should stay, please speak up. -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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I'd prefer guides per layer
by Dennis Heuer 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

That's it. Dennis Heuer

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How to select invisible objects
by Dennis Heuer 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

I created a template with text frames (simple rectangles). Because there seems to be no highlighting of objects a way that the highlighting is not printed (a fix part of the object itself), I decided to configure no fill and no border for the frames and leave the ruler guides at place. However, then I was not able to select any frame anymore except via the XML-editor. Is there a more clever method? Dennis

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Adding an external DTD to inkscape SVG
by Asciimonster 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

Hi all, I've been stumped for this for some time now. I need to include some character entities that I have in a separate DTD. As far as my knowledge about XML goes, it should be straightforward. Just suppose I have a DTD called t.dtd containing one line: <!ENTITY test "TEST"> Get an inkscape SVG, add an extra namespace and insert the entity: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <svg xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" (...) xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape" *xmlns:chrtr="t.dtd"* (...)> (...) <text (...)> <tspan (...)> *&test;* </tspan> </text> (...) </svg> (N.B. Large parts removed for readability) Well, this doesn't load in inkscape (no reason given). After A LOT of experimentation I found that this actually loads as I want it in Inkscape 0.44 (Linux): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> *<!DOCTYPE svg [ <!ENTITY % getme SYSTEM "t.dtd"> %getme; ]>* <svg xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" (...) xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape" *xmlns:chrtr="t.dtd"* (...)> (...) <text (...)> <tspan (...)> *&test;* </tspan> </text> (...) </svg> Which is, I believe, a piece of incorrectly formed XML. The equivalent *<!DOCTYPE svg SYSTEM "t.dtd"> *doesn't work, which is odd. But somehow the entity is ignored in Inkscape 0.45 (windows). I don't know if it is the version or the OS. At the moment I have something that works therefore I'm not finding out. Could somebody please shed some light on this?

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Re: [Inkscape-user] printing layers as pages of a PDF file?
by Donn 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

> I couldn't install the python extension because of some incompatible > char*/char-casts in the swig code. Besid ethat, I was searching for > some easier way. I really think that inkscape needs a > page-concept--possibly based on layers. Well, Python is the easiest route. The stock answer to your posts will be "You want it, you code it." I don't know why your install failed, did you compile from source? I'm on Kubuntu Dapper and found the .package file to be all I needed. /d

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NEW: faster blur
by bulia byak 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

I committed the patch by Jasper which implements a faster blur algorithm, so now the Gaussian blur must be noticeably faster in the SVN trunk. Everyone using gaussian blur, please test the new code with regard to: - any especially bad artefacts? (as before, lowering quality in Preferences > Filters introduces some artefacts, but they look reasonable, I think even nicer than with the old algorithm) - how much faster it is on your images? (test on different zooms and with export; we need some estimates to put into the release notes) - is the range of quality/speed settings adequate? or would you like to have a still faster/lower quality step? - any other problems? -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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Help with the
by Michael Grosberg 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

I'm currently using this great extension (yes, it does work fine for me on both the development and stable versions, on a Windows XP machine). It's great for exporting a large amount of icons from a single file - I used to have to export from inkscape to photoshop to break a single file into slices, but now I can skip that, which is a great help. Now the way I work with it, is like this: I'm creating a grid of icons on a single file. So, I open a new layer and name it "slices". On it I draw 16x16 pixel rectangles and give them appropriate icon names. now on the layers dialog I lock this layer and change its opacity to 0%, and I'm free to draw anything I want on a layer above that. Just before export I group all the stuff on the top layer, so when I run the extension I get PNG files for all my icons plus one large file with all of them at once, which I can delete. So it's all well but I was wondering if there was any way I could edit the python script so it would only look for objects on a single layer named "slices". I'm not looking into any fancy change in dialog, I was just wondering if a quick hack of the python script could do that. I'm not a programmer, but I do have some background in scripting, so I tried to look a the script and the correct place seems to be the for loop at the end, but I'll be damned if I know what to put in there to make it do what I want. So, if anyone can help me and it's not too much of a bother, I'd be really hankful!

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Baffling UI
by Olivier Lefevre 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

I've been trying to use Inkscape but its UI seems designed to foil attempts. Specifically when I select the rectangle drawing tool and create a shape by dragging I get one width a dashed contour that vanishes as soon as I click anywhere on the pane. There does not seem to be any way to make it stick and thus to actually get a rectangle. How dumb is that? If you need assistance just to draw a rectangle, never mind more advanced operation, something's really wrong with the UI. Likewise the need to use a CTRL modifier for the arrow keys to work runs counter to th expectations developed in users by every other software I can think of and is inconvenient to boot. -- O.L.

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