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!
Related
Does anyone have experience or insights into how to convert SVG to PNG using ImageMagick.NET where the SVG has custom embedded fonts?
I've seen similar posts about this, but I'm specifically interested in ImageMagick.net and I would like to avoid calling anything from command line. I currently use Batik, but I want to move this to Azure and I don't want to go through starting the JVM so that the JAR file can be executed.
Note additionally, my problem is that I am getting the SVG from another party and most fonts are not freely available, so I can't just pre-install all potential fonts.
Many thanks for any insight.
I don't know anything about azure platform, but I can share some insight on the SVG process within ImageMagick. This is more of a long-winded comment than an answer
ImageMagick (of which Magick.net sets on top of) performs tasks on raster images, so any vector input must be "decoded" into a raster image before any additional work be be done. For SVG images, I'm aware of three ways ImageMagick can render vector graphics into authenticated pixels.
Use a primitive internal MSVG coder to draw each shape.
Pass the rendering work to librsvg if compiled with delegate library support. (Usually on *NIX systems)
Call an external command-line application. Identical to the suggestions referenced in the links you provided.
If I would map it out, I would imagine it would look something like this.
SVG Fonts with MSVG (option #1)
I believe this is the option your asking about as it would be the default configuration for must ImageMagick installs. For a font to be rendered, the typeface must be found on the system, and supported by freetype (.ttf or .otf files). Embedded fonts are usually base64 ttf files attached inline under the #font-face CSS at-rule. If this is true, you should be able to preprocess the document, extract the font-file to a local/temporary filesystem, and assign it with MagickReadSettings.FontFamily before reading the SVG document. Although I'm not sure if this would work with multiple fonts.
SVG Fonts with RSVG (option #2)
The librsvg offers a lot more support for SVG specs then the internal renderer, but also enforces more restricted approach for external resources. There's also an open issue with adding support to #font-face, so you might be forced to do option #1 anyway.
External Command-line (option #3)
This would be your best option. ImageMagick's delegate.xml file can be altered to call other utilities. Inkscape, for example, can be called by ImageMagick with the following rule..
<delegate decode="svg" command="inkscape.exe -e %o %i"/>
Although I'm not sure if inkscape is a good example as support for CSS fonts are still listed on a wishlist.
TL;DR
... convert SVG to PNG using ImageMagick.NET where the SVG has custom embedded fonts?
All-n-all, it boils down to the right tool for the right job. If your only use-case is converting SVG+CSS to PNG, and you have no additional raster manipulation tasks, a direct utility like batik is more appropriate than ImageMagick. Like it or not, installing a JRE to execute a JAR file might be the best option. Magick.net by itself doesn't meet your requirements.
is it possible to create a stroke with a dynamic width with SVG? I want to achieve a Calligraphy look like here, here or here.
Is this even possible? It seems customization of strokes in SVG is fairly limited. Even gradients in strokes seem to be non-trivial (see here).
There is a proposal to add into SVG standard a mechanism, that does exactly what you want:
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/wiki/Proposals/Variable_width_stroke
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-svg/2013May/0041.html
There's even an example implementation available here:
https://rawgit.com/birtles/curvy/master/index.html
It is, however, by no means official and we cannot be even sure it'll ever be.
Until then you'll need to stick to Bezier curves and object filling:
You can also use calligraphic fonts, for example - Tangerine available on Google CDN:
This approach requires less work since you don't need to draw everything from scratch, but then again, using third party fonts leaves you with little control over the final result.
You can't dynamically adjust the stroke of a path element. However you could draw a path, use a fill color on it instead of stroke, then double back upon the letters at a slight distance away from the original line.
Also, if you are using the SVG on the web then you can use css fonts on text elements. There are some pretty good cursive fonts that you can use for free... just check google web fonts.
I am trying to modify a SVG file which has a path converted from a text. I want to be able to manipulate it to create Word Art like effects (eg: Wedge, Widen, Curved text etc).
I've tried many options like parsing the file and modifying each point, but the results are bizarre and curves go wild. There is no tool/library to do this kinda stuff to an svg file.
In short, I am looking for a tool like ImageMagick but for svg. Please Help!!!
Inkscape can do some of this I think, also see this writeup by Tavmjong Bah. Inkscape uses a library called lib2geom to do these effects, and there seems to be a python wrapper for that library.
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.
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.