Re: SVG 1.2 Comment: vector effects

As a content creator and cartographer I can only second Peters and Dougs 
comments.

Many of the more complex map symbolization problems can be adressed 
using vector effects.

The number and quality of graphics features was always the strong side 
of SVG compared with competing technologies. I think, that SVG should 
continue to excel with solving complex graphical problems.

Besides that, vector effects can help to solve quite a few GIS analysis 
features (such as intersection, excluding, merging of elements). Doing 
it all by script would be complex and slow, besides the problems that 
Doug mentioned, regarding semantics.

Leaving all the complex symbolization situations to the authoring tools 
would prevent many interactive SVG applications or would make them very 
complex to script. Besides that, it would bloat file sizes.

Of course, not every SVG viewer needs to implement vector effects. 
That's why we have profiles. I totally understand, that a SVG basic or 
SVG tiny renderer cannot adress vector effects.

Andreas Neumann

Peter Sorotokin wrote:

>
> At 08:45 AM 10/31/2004 +0000, Ian Hickson wrote:
>
>> > 9 Vector effects
>>
>> While I am sure there is demand for such features, and while I am sure
>> such features can be used to create great effects, it still seems like
>> this is feature creep. Many of the effects achievable by the
>> mechanisms described in this section are also possible by careful use
>> of <path>, use of different markers, and existing options on the
>> "fill" and "stroke" attributes.
>>
>> It would seem better to have the authoring tools effectively
>> "prerender" the vector effects than to require that all the SVG user
>> agents support an entire chapter's worth of additional features.
>
>
> The solutions that you suggest were all reviewed and rejected because 
> they do not address the problems that vector effects are trying to 
> solve. There is a very strong demand for these features from the 
> mapping and schematics community. In short:
>
> - there is a need to scale stroke outlines and stroke/fill patterns 
> differently from the rest of graphics
> - there is a need to assign multiple strokes and fills to an object 
> (drawing tools had this for long time)
> - there is a need to "set back" strokes around the markers while 
> preserving actual path data
> - there is a need to reuse edges in several shapes (esp. on maps)
> - all of the above should integrate with animation (e.g, path 
> animation) and not cause substantial file size bloat.
>
> Peter
>
>


-- 
--
---------------------------------------------- 
Andreas Neumann - Department of Cartography 
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) 
ETH Hoenggerberg, CH-8093  Zurich, Switzerland 
Phone: ++41-1-633 3031, Fax: ++41-1-633 1153 
e-mail: neumann@karto.baug.ethz.ch 
www: http://www.karto.ethz.ch/neumann/ 
SVG.Open: http://www.svgopen.org/ 
Carto.net: http://www.carto.net/

Received on Saturday, 6 November 2004 17:55:36 UTC