On Fri, 21 Apr 2017 16:06:24 +0200 Donn Ingle <donn.ingle@...155...> wrote:
Seems SVG is more and more invisible to the big companies. Here's sad tale of Amelia Bellamy-Royds's experiences with SVG and its seeming demise. (http://codepen.io/AmeliaBR/post/me-and-svg)
I wonder how the Inkscape devs (et al.) feel about this. Could Inkscape not take a new route, perhaps bake-in some new features*, now that the SVG standards seem to be moot?
I'm very satified with Inkscape. I use it for simple drawings on Troubleshooters.Com, and in the books I sell. Inkscape-authored graphics have tiny byte counts, and look great at any magnification. I use it to fill in PDFs. My course diploma maker uses an Inscape-drawn SVG file as a template with tokens replaced according to information in a YAML file. I use Inkscape to create all sorts of other templates for other automation. My form-letter generator is Inkscape based.
Multiple pages in one file
Put all the files in one directory for convenience, play them back in an HTML file that's created programmatically with a 50 line Python file.
— and export to multi-page PDFs.
LaTeX
A real symbol system — within and *between *documents. Custom colours that don't rely on that fake gradient trick (And make them work between documents too!)
Not sure what you mean here: I can implement any color that's describeable as #RRGGBB.
Animation time lines.
Sounds kind of niche to me, considering that SVG1 is for images
Output to gif,
convert test.svg test.gif
video and so forth. Perhaps to HTML5 Canvas with some
This seems to be beyond the mandate of Inkscape, and yet, check out this page:
http://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/8-great-examples-of-graphic-design-p...
js framework too.
Why?
Scripting, Blender-style, right there in the app.
"Right there in the app" is the entire issue I have with all of this. You have a perfectly good SVG file that secondary programs can manipulate to their heart's content. The minute Inscape becomes an SVG superset or SVG-noncompliant, this very valuable feature goes away.
In Python and JS perhaps. Opening of Gimp native files (xcf) into layers, perhaps. Use of 3D objects and materials, from Blender (say) directly in the canvas — some kind of OLE layer thing.
Where do I start?
The preceding features, if added to Inkscape itself instead of as separate programs to work on the SVG file, would add tons of complexity to Inkscape. Complexity means bugs, instability, and all too often incompatibility.
Features have value only to the extent that they bestow benefits. I haven't seen benefits attached to the preceding features, but I'd expect that each such benefit accommodates only a small percentage of Inkscape users. And a lot of these features could be implemented as separate programs that operate on the SVG file. Doing it that way leaves Inkscape simple, and each feature's program is simple. Few bugs.
OLE? Are you kidding? Some who use Inkscape do it on Linux, where simplicity is a virtue.
I am sure there are many more.
I think Inkscape could have, by now, matched what Flash, Freehand and Corel et al. had 20 years ago!
That 20 years point is a bit of an ad-hominem, don't you think?
It did not go there because it, honourably, stuck to the SVG standards.
Yeah. That's why I can put an Inkscape-created SVG on Troubleshooters.Com, and anybody with a halfway modern browser can see it. These days I don't even use .png as a fallback: Everyone can read my Inkscape-authored graphics. SVG is THE standard for EPUB images.
And the fact that Inscape, for the most part, stuck to the SVG standards, means that anybody wanting an additional feature can throw together a Python program that parses the XML, reads the nodes, and copies off to a modified version that incorporates the desired feature.
Inkscape is the best thing we have for graphic design on Linux (at least), but it's still way too primitive. Could we dare to think bigger? Start our own standard?
Just wondering. Is this a disaster or an opportunity?
Opportunity. Roll up your sleeves and code a translator to convert *standard* SVG to a multipage display, or whatever you want.
But please: Inkscape works perfectly: Don't add a bunch of code, to Inkscape itself, to give bugs nooks and crannies in which to hide out, and don't diverge from SVG.
When it comes to Inkscape itself, as opposed to add-on programs, please leave well enough alone.
SteveT
Steve Litt April 2017 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques