going vectorial

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 30, 2003

Guylhem Azner wrote:
How hard would it be to have SSS 2004 available in vectorial format?

Val answers:
The sss-2004 will not be available until March 2004. If you want to do
vector graphics before that time, I would suggest vectorizing the
sss-1999, which is a complete symbol set. The sss-1999 is used in the
current version of SignWriter Java. The sss-1999 was created with a
Symbol Editor (bitmap editor), that is posted on the web for download:

Download sss-1999 Symbol Editor
Number 5 on this web page:
http://signwriting.org/forums/software/sw50/download/download01.html


Steven Aerts wrote:
> It is not so easy.  The graphics available at http://www.signbank.org
> are the
> original ones. So the resolution is far too small to automatically
> generate
> perfect vector graphics. We have auto-generated vector graphics (with
> autotrace:
> http://autotrace.sf.net ) but they can only be used for development
> because
> of the poor quality.  You can find them at:
> http://plantijn.ruca.ua.ac.be/~aertsbraem/download/svg.tar.bz2
>
> Those images have to be sorted out (remove duplicate, rotations and
> mirrors)
> and altered where autotrace has failed before they can be used as a
> real
> symbolset. Valerie has decided to wait with this untill the 2004
> symbolset is finished.


Val answers:
Steve, Bart...your offer to help with the vector graphics is wonderful
and I do thank you for that. Antonio Carlos has also worked, with
others, on vector graphics, so I have been aware of this need for some
time...but you are right, it is a huge job...

What confused me a little, is that people want to vectorize two
symbolsets that are still under development. The sss2002 and sss2004
are not finished yet...But why not vectorize the sss1999, which is a
finished symbolset? It is housed inside the bitmap Symbol Editor, which
I mentioned above... The reason I suggest that is for these reasons:

1. There are no duplicates. The Symbol Editor has a way to rotate and
flop the symbols, so there was no need for the duplicates (that are
necessary in sss2002 and sss2004 which were designed for a database
that did not have the flop and rotate features).

2. In the sss-1999 Symbol Editor, you can enlarge the symbols and take
screen captures of the symbols in a larger size...this will give you
larger symbols to work with...

3. The sss-1999 is used in the current version of SignWriter Java, and
since some people use that software daily, there is use for vector
graphics of that symbol set...

Just a thought - I am not saying you should do this...I know you all
are busy people!

The sss-1999 Symbol Editor was written in C++ I believe, and it works
on the Macintosh...

Val ;-)