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I'll share my experience working with the SVG fonts, in case it is useful. My target document is pdf, and I use TeX and LaTeX as my typesetting system. That system works exclusively with Encapsulated Postscript, (eps), which like SVG is a vector graphics format. ImageMagick, which IIRC is used by SWIS, includes a utility, convert, that translates images between formats. While it will, technically, translate between SVG and EPS, it does so by converting the SVG to a raster image and then converting that raster image to EPS: you lose all of the benefit of having the graphic in SVG, it is just as if you had a PNG image! There is another tool called Inkscape that I used to convert the SVG graphics to EPS. This tool preserves the vector information present in the SVG, giving me a scallable EPS file from the SVG file. If you need to do something similar, you'll get better results using Inkscape! Another problem I run into is that I fit each SVG image into a box in my document. Some symbols are wider than they are tall, some symbols are taller than they are wide. To get consistent formatting results, I store a flag in my database saying whether the image is portrait or landscape, and render it appropriately so everything looks nice in the document.[1] Finally, some symbols really should be rendered smaller than the box I allocate for them. If I'm rendering the letteral 'A' and the sign for afraid, the 'A' looks wrong being so large. I'm more-or-less scaling on a case-by-case basis, though I would love a suggestion on how I might render two symbols with different scaling factors such that they appear at the same relative size: I would love to render 'C' then 'cup' and have the C-hand be the same size in each image, by way of an example. In traditional typesetting, this would be something like a constant x-height. I was amazed to look at my first SVG document. I was getting aliasing and artifacting with even regular-sized documents with PNG images, and now I'm producing poster-quality documents that look really sharp. -Alan 1: I imagine one could ask the SVG image whether it is a portrait or landscape image. I haven't explored this yet. On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 07:48:37AM -0700, Valerie Sutton wrote: > SignWriting List > September 20, 2011 > Hello Adam and Steve! > Congratulations to you both. You are a team and without both of your > "tireless" efforts we would not have such a lovely version of SVG in > SignPuddle's ColumnMaker right now! > I am preparing some instruction for our users, to learn how to change your > documents from the PNG Standard to the SVG Refinement fonts, to see if the > SVG is helpful to your publications - Steve just posted the SVG Refinement > font so I myself have not learned yet, how it looks when we print a > document - I am looking forward to exploring what this accomplishment > means for all of us - > And Adam, you did work tirelessly, for three months, every day during the > summer of 2011, and also for several years earlier... I know because you > were here in my home doing the work! So I saw the painstaking > dot-by-dot-png images become smooth SVG images - and then I asked you to > re-do some of them to a thinner line - and that was no small task - > I also want to acknowledge Machado from Brazil for his original and first > full SVG font for SignWriting, that was done for the IMWA 2004. Thank you, > Machado, for paving the way. And now Adam and Steve have done the same for > the ISWA 2010. I plan to write a history of the SVG development, when I > can - It is an impressive job all around - > SVG is not TrueType - Stefan and Steve Parkhurst and Michael Everson have > created beautiful TrueType fonts for SignWriting that are so wonderful, > and we need TrueType too. But SVG can help create new TrueType fonts for > the future, and in some ways, gives the same look, because now the Facial > Circles are smoother with both SVG and TrueType. > As Adam knows, I am a caregiver here in my home for my parents and I need > to help them with breakfast, but later today I will tell you all how to > use the SVG we have in SignPuddle now - I am testing it in Microsoft Word > and other documents - > Have a great day everyone! > Val ;-) > -------- > On Sep 20, 2011, at 7:24 AM, Adam Frost wrote: > > Oh, I don't know about working tirelessly because there were times I was > quite tired. ;-) But I knew I had to get it done. > Adam > On Sep 20, 2011, at 10:18 AM, Steve Slevinski wrote: > > Hi list, > > This past summer, Adam Frost worked tirelessly to finish the Scalable > Vector Graphics refinement of the ISWA 2010. He completed every > symbol. SVG allows for round circles, smooth lines, and improved > clarity at different sizes. > > After Adam finished his work, I needed to rotate, refactor, and > package his work as a font that could work with SignPuddle. This has > been completed. > > The new version of the SVG Refinement has been installed in > SignPuddle. You can access it through ColumnMaker. > > For those using the SignWriting Image Server or other custom software, > you can download the new version of the SVG Refinement font online: > [1]http://www.signpuddle.net/iswa > > This is not the final version of the SVG Refinement, but this is the > first time the entire symbol set has been available in this font. > > Thanks to Adam for all of his work. > > Regards, > -Steve > > References > > Visible links > 1. http://www.signpuddle.net/iswa -- .i ma'a lo bradi cu penmi gi'e du