Thanks for your input!
On Thu, 2011-11-03 at 11:00 +0000, Mark Crutch wrote:
- ISSUE 2271: Variable Stroke Width
I notice that Variable Stroke Width has been given a "yes", which is great, but Randomization has been given a "no". It would be good to allow some randomisation in the syntax for the variable stroke width, to simulate a hand drawn look.
I'm assuming from the notes that variable stroke width is likely to be implemented something like this, where the variable widths are evenly spaced along the path:
<path d="..." stroke-width="0,3,10,2.5,0" />
I'd like to see a syntax to allow those stroke widths to be randomised by +/- a defined amount:
<path d="..." stroke-width="0,3,rand(10,2),rand(2.5,0.5),0" />
So the first, second and last widths are fixed, but the third and fourth are randomised as 10+/-2 and 2.5+/-0.5. For elements that are re-used, the randomisation would be recalculated for each use so that "identical" paths each have a slightly different look to them (there might be a need for this to be optional - I can see uses where a randomised path would need to keep the same widths when re-used elsewhere).
Doing this declaratively is a lot easier than writing some JS to handle it.
I'll mention this during a WG meeting. Note, the randomization would have to be a pseudo-randomization, much like what is done for the turbulence filter, so that the drawing would be the same in different SVG renders. Different "identical" paths could by made to look different by setting a different seed.
- Alternative Transformations
I notice you've already mentioned that Inkscape users would like perspective transformations. I strongly agree with that position - it's one of the things that causes me the most problems when trying to draw my SVG comics. For signage in the strips, in particular, I'd love to be able to use a perspective transform on the text, but still have it as text in the SVG (rather than converting to a path and manipulating the nodes).
This would simplify some other use cases, such as re-using a door in multiple panels using perspective transforms to make it seem to "open" (or, indeed, for animating the same effect in a single image).
This should be doable by CSS Transformations which SVG will use. See:
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-3d-transforms/
For demos, see:
http://css3.bradshawenterprises.com/all/
- Enhanced Text Support
I am strongly in favour of David Dailey's proposal to allow text to be manipulated and squished into convex polygons. This would solve many of the requirements I have for perspective transformations (though not all of them), and would let SVG produce a wide variety of artistic/design effects that it's not currently suited to.
I'm not sure this is going to fly. There is strong interest in the group for additional means of manipulating text but this may not be the answer.
- Basic SVG UI enhancements
I strongly agree with the need for viewers to provide a default zoom-and-pan widget. There should be a way for the author to indicate a preference for it appearing or not, and for the user to override that preference. Without an easy way to pan and zoom, the S and V in SVG don't mean much.
I think the WG will think this is more of a browser issue. However, things like currenScale, currentTranslate could be added to make it easier for browsers to do this.
- ISSUE-2354: Consider adding a 'inverse' value to clip-rule
I'm strongly in favour of this.
Noted.