SVG symbols

[Jonathan]

Hi Sandy,
    I had a look at your SVG files,  if we did all the symbols like you
did yours, there would be as you said dramatic savings.  I was
wondering, do you hand code the document or do you have a program to
help you organize all the parts?
    I know you are away on holiday, I hope to can get back to me when
you get back.

Jonathan

Sandy Fleming wrote:
> Certainly SVG seems to work very well for SignWriting, despite the
> scepticism I've met with on the list in the past. I've attached examples
> of Easter and Christmas cards I've done with SVG SignWriting - these of
> course come with backgrounds which I haven't attached in order to keep
> the email small, but you could experiment with your own.
>
> And yes, as Jonathon points out, you could reduce the whole IMWA
> dramatically by using SVG. More dramatically than he realises, I think,
> because not only can the orientation be calculated from a pure number,
> but so can the shapes for the fills.
>
> Also Jonathon seems to think it wouldn't help much for faces, but I've
> found it does: faces can be built up heirarchically from simple to more
> complex shapes and such things as the head rims can be produced as a
> single symbol plus rotation.
>
> There are some gotchas: for example, fingers and shoulders won't scale
> well if they're drawn as lines: the lines look thinner and thinner as
> you scale them. You'd need to scale the thickness of the stroke as well,
> and I suspect it would be easier to do them as filled polygons rather
> than lines.
>
> Incidentally, I'm on holiday for a week starting from tomorrow and won't
> be on line, so maybe no speedy replies!
>
> Sandy Fleming
> http://bsltext.org/
>
>
> On Tue, 2007-04-24 at 02:57 -0500, Pharos wrote:
>   
>> I noticed that in Steve Slevinski's correspondence with the Wikimedia
>> language subcommittee, he raised the issue of SVG symbols several
>> times.
>>
>> I am aware that bitmap-to-vector conversions are a fairly common
>> activity at Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia's image and media hub, mostly
>> for flags and coats of arms which can be quite complicated.
>>
>> http://commons.wikimedia.org/
>>
>> I wonder if some Wikimedia Commons people would be interested in
>> helping with the conversion?  I can't guarantee that how many people
>> will participate, but it does seems like the type of project that
>> could generate significant interest among community members.  Before
>> we raise this issue there, though, I would like to know (1) how big
>> the job would be, (2) if the job can be trusted to technically savvy
>> people who are ignorant of SignWriting, and (3) what the current
>> copyright is (if any) on the bitmap symbols.
>>
>> Thanks
>>