SVG version of our IMWA symbols

[Sandy Fleming]

Hi Steve!

On Sun, 2007-05-06 at 09:54 -0400, Steve Slevinski wrote:
> Hi Sandy,
> 
> The SignWriting alphabet uses 3 colors: black, white and transparent.
> This information needs to be part of the SVG or Image. 

In SVG, styles can be stated separately from everything else: as in my
Easter and Christmas cards, the style is in a small section at the
beginning of the file. You can go there and change "red" to "black" and
"yellow" to "white" or any other colours, and the style of all the
SignWriting will change.

In the style section I also offer a background colour which can be
replaced with a jpeg or other graphic file if desired, and a shadow
colour, used for distinguishing overlapping symbols. This isn't strictly
necessary as it would work to just make it the same colour as the fill,
but it was simple in SVG to let the writer make them different if he
wanted, so I used it.

> One standard Val and I have been using regards white palms.  Here's
> how the base ten hand shape looks.  The palms are filled white as well
> as the overhead line break.

> Programs can not figure this out properly.

I didn't have any trouble with this. My prototype draws the unfilled
hand first, then draws the fill as a shape on top of it, then draws the
white overhead line break on top of that. My SVG also does this.

There are some handshapes which would need special treatment for this, I
think, but as long as the shape can be drawn, it can be done.

> The center of each symbol also need to be know for rotation.
> SignPuddle doesn't rotate properly.  
> 
As I explained in other emails, having the middle of the wrist as the
centre of rotation is true to life and works well.

> However with proper writing in lanes, additional complications are
> added.  For each sign we need to know the head's center of a sign.
> This information will need to be included in a signs SVG data.

Am I missing something about body shift? Body shift just means that the
whole sign is shifted right or left on the page, doesn't it? So all we
need is a number stating the x-distance to shift it, surely?

Sandy