I am evaluating the use of SVG for a website I'm working on, and I'd like to see some examples of pages using it effectively. I don't mean a "Sample SVG page" or specific parts like showing chars, but any well done site (not specifically about SVG) that conveys a good graphics experience through the employment of SVG for some or all of its graphics, as an alternative to styling it with PNG/GIF etc.
This question isn't really about programming, so is likely to get closed. Anyway here are a couple of examples:
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2012/tournament-calendar/index.html
http://hitmo-studio.com
http://beta.visualize.yahoo.com/core/
http://evolutionofweb.appspot.com/
http://www.wheredidmytaxdollarsgo.com/
Related
I'm kicking around an idea for a side project and am looking for advice on which direction to go in terms of technology. I've done some research already, but am still fairly confused as to what the realistic options are.
I'd like to make an interactive map based on a fictional world (think Middle Earth), including a timeline filter and a details section for additional information on an event or location.
Desired Features:
map on the left
details pane on the right
timeline slider/filter at bottom
Territories
color for political affiliation
displays details in details pane
labels
labels for cities
Hurdles:
Get a clean map image to work with
Map image into intermediate format (svg, geojson, topojson?)
Display map on webpage, style map, add animations, etc
Technologies
SVG
I'm pretty sure I could code all of this in SVG using events and boundaries. I've already been able to create SVG Paths from the image using GIMP, so converting the map into an SVG file seems plausible.
The issue with doing it this way is I would end up doing all the work the hard way when there seems to be lots of frameworks for this kind of thing already.
Kartograph
La Bella Italia is a very nice example and would serve as a good starting point. I love the trade route animations and the border styling with the glow filters.
The bonus here is that I know I can make an svg map, which is all this would need to get up and running.
My issue here is it doesn't seem like Kartograph is as rich of a platform as D3.js. I'm not sure if I can double dip and link some D3 stuff with the kartograph events. If I could, that might be the solution.
D3.js
The sliders, animations(hover and selection), and topojson seem like they would be perfect. But the main issue I have here is getting my image converted into a GeoJson format. From what I can tell these formats are strictly for Real World maps, using longitude/latitude.
So there you have it! I'm hoping there is some good news on how I might convert my map image into topojson so I can enjoy the benefits of D3.js. If not, I suppose I could just try kartograph and wire the events up with D3 controls.
Thoughts?
I'm currently writing my master thesis and I have the same topic like you had these days. I called my project Arda Maps. Feel free to ask me anything if have techonology questions.
I'm using the following frameworks/tools in my project:
QGIS
JQuery
D3.js
GeoJSON/TopoJSON
TimeGlider
I'd like to try some decorative fonts for a web site, like this one (just as an example):
http://www.dafont.com/nymphette.font
As usual, for the web one must verify the format compatibility of the font and licensing - no problem with that. The question is relative to the proper integration in a page without side effects. As you can see in the character table, decorations are mapped to regular characters - e.g 'A'. Let's suppose I want to use the decoration mapped to A; if the web page is consumed on a browser which doesn't support external fonts, of when the font is not downloaded yet, the decoration would be rendered as 'A', and it's confusing; a browser with accessibility support would probably speak the letter out loud, etc...
How to avoid that?
Thanks.
PS Of course it appear simpler to use plain image decorations. My question is not related to solving a problem, rather to experiment with this approach and understand how workable is.
** Update: I clarify that I know how to embed fonts in CSS, and I'm already using some "regular" (alphabetic) fonts from Google. The difference between alphabetic fonts and decorative fonts is that clearly you encode readable text with the former ones; you can minimize inconveniences during the loading by specifying fallback such as "serif", etc... With decorative fonts, you're using characters to represent graphics, hence my doubts.
You can embed fonts in your CSS.
You might also want to look into the Google Font API if you want some Google fonts with no learning curve.
I'm looking to do a portfolio site, and I wanted to do some creative drawing on the website without using images.
I considered canvas, which I really think would be cool, plus an interesting project, however, I heard that IE has no compatibility (is that true?) so I cannot have that.
Then, I considered Raphaël, which seems like it's the most viable option thus far.
Ughh, there was another library that I can't remember the name to, which also seemed like a good option.
What do you guys think about Raphaël and its overall compatibility, and its capabilities, regarding the kinds of drawing its capable of. I was browsing through the documentation and I think it's quite powerful.
Do you want to draw the vector graphics on the site itself, or just publish premade vector graphics?
If the former, have a look at svg-edit which can easily be embedded in your site, and which works in most browsers (old IE versions require the chrome frame plugin, but IE9 will be supported by svg-edit 2.6).
If the latter then there are probably many options, here are a couple off the top of my head:
Use SVGWeb - get started quickly with that using templates from svgboilerplate.com
Serve svg to browsers that support it, and static images to everyone else
<object data="your.svg" type="image/svg+xml"><img src="staticyoursvg.png"></object>
Well you could download Inkscape and draw what you want cross-browser in there.
Then go to my website (Page with tool and instructions below) and use the SVGTOHTML converter there.
I'm adding more with each release.
The SVG is conveted into Raphael and there are a couple of options as to what format you can have.
The version is at 0.57 at the point of typing this.
http://www.irunmywebsite.com/raphael/svgsource.php
It isn’t true that IE doesn’t support canvas. IE9 will support it, which is the same version that will support SVG.
For SVG development, it depends what you want to do. For static images you can even use Illustrator or Inkscape then save/export as SVG. If you do this, remember to use Scour [0], as the auto-generated markup can be a bit crufty. I usually just write the SVG by hand, unless I'm doing something complex, in which case it is better to use a image editor.
There are no real good editors to add animations though, so I always add those by hand. Things like SMIL (used for animating SVG) are not that difficult to learn, but a bit verbose. If you use SMIL then it is recommended to use FakeSMIL, which is included in the SVGBoilerplate that Erik links to above, as some browsers have lacking support for SMIL.
If you want to use a JS library to generate the SVG rather than writing by hand or using an editor, then Raphaël is probably the most mature. There is also Dojo GFX [1]. Which is best really depends on personal preference and what you are trying to do. It would be best to try them out with something simple and see which you prefer.
[0] http://www.codedread.com/scour/
[1] http://docs.dojocampus.org/dojox/gfx
Look into SVG Web, it uses Flash to emulate SVG in non-supporting browsers. It's written by industry leaders like Brad Neuberg and it doesn't interfere with the way you want to write SVG markup so when the browsers that don't support SVG disappear you can ditch it and your SVG markup will still work. With Raphaël, you have to to write JavaScript code instead of SVG markup, so you have to keep using it forever, or re-code your graphics. Also, Raphaël only supports the lowest common denominator between SVG and VML, so you can't do much. It even emulates some VML bugs in SVG, so that both graphics look the same. Raphaël is better for dynamically generated SVG, but for other cases, I'd recommend SVG Web.
Is it possible to simplify / clean up svg code by replacing the use-tags with standard svg elements? Maybe an inkscape plugin? Haven't found anything...
Background: I'm converting some svgs to javafx graphics (.fxz) with javafx's production suite. And the tool doesn't understand the <use> element.
Take a look at Scour - an SVG scrubber
Scour is an open-source Python script that aggressively cleans SVG files, removing a lot of 'cruft' that certain tools or authors embed into their documents. The goal of scour is to provide an identically rendered image (i.e. a scoured document should have no discernable visible differences from the original file).
They also have an extension for Inkscape as of v.48. To use it, go to "Save As.." and choose "Optimized .SVG. Be careful, and check your output, as I've found it can get too aggressive. Take these examples for instance, if they show up...
Good: Bad:
They claim to have and an online tool that does the same tricks... but as of 6/2011 it was not working. Hope this helps you clean up those often SCARY looking SVG's. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that realizes what this format is capable of!
Our (beloved) designer keeps creating PNG files with transparent backgrounds for use in our applications. I'd like to make sure that this feature of the PNG works in "older" browsers as well. What's the best solution?
edits below
#mabwi & #syd - Whether or not I agree about the use of a PNG is not the point. This is a problem that I need to solve!
#Tim Sullivan - IE7.js looks pretty cool, but I don't think I want to introduce all of the other changes an application. I'd like a solution that fixes the PNG issue exclusively. Thanks for the link.
IE PNG Fix 2.0 which supports background-position and -repeat!
Also paletted 8-bit PNG with full alpha transparency exist, contrary to what Photoshop and GIMP may make you believe, and they degrade better in IE6 – it just cuts down transparency to 1-bit. Use pngquant to generate such files from 24-bit PNGs.
I've found what looks to be a very good solution here: Unit Interactive -> Labs -> Unit PNG Fix
update Unit PNG is also featured on a list of PNG fix options on NETTUTS
Here are the highlights from their website:
Very compact javascript: Under 1kb!
Fixes some interactivity problems caused by IE’s filter
attribute.
Works on img objects and background-image attributes.
Runs automatically. You don’t have to define classes or call
functions.
Allows for auto width and auto height elements.
Super simple to deploy.
IE7.js will provide support for PNGs (including transparency) in IE6.
I've messed with trying to make a site with .pngs and it just isn't worth it. The site becomes slow, and you use hacks that don't work 100%. Here's a good article on some options, but my advice is to find a way to make gifs work until you don't have to support IE6. Or just give IE6 a degraded experience.
Using PNGs in IE6 is hardly any more difficult than any other browser. You can support all of it in your CSS without Javascript. I've seen this hack shown before...
div.theImage {
background : url(smile.png) top left no-repeat;
height : 100px;
width : 100px;
}
* html div.theImage {
background : none;
progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src="layout/smile.png", sizingMethod="scale");
}
I'm not so sure this is valid CSS, but depending on the site, it may not matter so much.
(it's worth noting that the URL for the first image is based on the directory of the stylesheet, where the second is based on the directory of the page being viewed - thus why they do not match)
#Hboss
that's all fine and dandy if you know exactly all the files (and the dimensions of each) that you're going to be displaying - it'd be a royal pain to maintain that CSS file, but I suppose it'd be possible. When you want to start using transparent PNGs for some very common purposes: a) incidental graphics such as icons (perhaps of differing size) which work on any background, and b) repeating backgrounds; then you're screwed. Every workaround I've tried has hit a stumbling block at some point (can't select text when the background is transparent, sometimes the images are displayed at wacky sizes, etc etc), and I've found that for maximum reliability I'll have to revert to gifs.
My advice is to give the PNG transparency hack a shot, but at the same time realise that it's definitely not perfect - and just remember, you're bending over backwards for users of a browser which is over 7 years old. What I do these days is give IE6 users a popup on their first visit to the site, with a friendly reminder that their browser is outdated and doesn't offer the features required by modern websites, and, though we'll try our best to give you the best, you'll get a better experience from our site and the internet as a whole if you BLOODY WELL UPGRADED.
I believe all browsers support PNG-8. Its not alpha blended, but it does have transparent backgrounds.
I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure IE6 and less just don't do transparency with PNG files.
You sort of are, and you sort of aren't.
IE6 has no support natively for them.
However, IE has support for crazy custom javascript/css and COM objects (which is how they originally implemented XmlHttpRequest)
All of these hacks basically do this:
Find all the png images
Use a directx image filter to load them and produce a transparent image in some kind of format IE understands
Replace the images with the filtered copy.
One thing to think about is Email clients. You often want PNG-24 transparency but in Outlook 2003 with a machine using IE6. Email clients won't allow CSS or JS tricks.
Here is a good way to handle that.
http://commadot.com/png-8-that-acts-like-png-24-without-fireworks/
If you export your images as PNG-8 from Fireworks then they'll act the same as gif images. So they won't look shitty and grey, transparency will be transparency but they won't have the full 24 bit loveliness that other browsers do.
Might not totally solve your problem but at least you can get part way there just be re-exporting them.
I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure IE6 and less just don't do transparency with PNG files.
I have two "solutions" that I use. Either create GIF files with transparency and use those everywhere, or just use them for IE 6 and older with conditional style sheets. The second really only works if you are using them as backgrounds, etc.