New version of the ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement is ready

[Alan Post]

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