SVG support (was: Re: Generic Embeddable plugins.)

On Sat, 2005-01-15 at 08:18 -0800, Dom Lachowicz wrote:
> --- Hubert Figuiere <hfiguiere@teaser.fr> wrote:
> > > Plus, this doesn't address printing.
> >
> > Just print the SVG representation :-)
>
> <grin>
>
> This assumes that:
>
> 1) You have a SVG representation

This should be a requirement for embedding an object. You embed the
actual data and the actual vector representation for viewing AND
printing.

Why ? Simply because otherwise it is a nightmare.

I remember the actual case of this intern report written painfully at
work using MS-Word 97 and doing graphics using Micrografx Designer, and
embedding them to the Word document. Back at home on Word 98 for Mac,
the document would open, but Word would complain because et couldn't
open or display anything. Pictures were lost. And I'm even wondering if
that wouldn't have happened on a Windows machine without Micrografx
Designer.

I just don't want this to happen with AbiWord. AbiWord is
cross-platform, file format MUST BE cross-platform. Any document
produced on one platform MUST BE opened and viewed on any other
platform, without any glitches. Variation of font size is tolerated
(even if that should or could be addressed in some way), but surely not
the content of pictures/objects.

> 2) Someone writes a real SVG renderer for AbiWord that
> doesn't rasterize the SVG

Agreed again, I never said otherwise.

This is why we should first handle the SVG problem, and then start
thinking about objects.
Vector image support has been a long time request, and I don't see use
going further WITHOUT this feature.

For SVG printing, when need to answer these a few basic questions:

1/ does a SVG to GNOME-print exists ?
2/ does a SVG to PostScript exists ?
3/ does a SVG to PDF exists ?
4/ does a SVG to GDI exists ?

If you say yes to all 4 questions then we have support for all 4
platforms.

SVG support is tricky, and I think we should handle that one first.

Hub

-- 
Crazy French - http://www.figuiere.net/hub/