[Novalug] Favorite Linux Applications
Theodore Ruegsegger
truegsegger@csc.com
Wed Feb 7 09:03:35 EST 2007
Maxwell asks:
> What are the names of *your* favorite Linux applications and why?
I have lots, but my latest favorite is InkScape:
http://www.inkscape.org/
1. InkScape is an excellent GUI drawing tool with lots of nice
features and extensive help and tutorials.
2. Its native format is scalable vector graphics (SVG):
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/
This is the best possible format for me, since
a. SVG is just markup language, giving instructions for drawing the
pictures, rather than a pixel-by-pixel raster image.
b. This means the image will scale to any size without loss of
quality.
c. I can generate it from PHP; it can't help but be easier and more
readable than, say, the Ploticus syntax.
d. For inferior browsers that can't render SVG, there's a plugin
from Adobe at
http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html
Adobe won't support it after this year, but it will still be
available. In any case, I can convert to other formats.
3. It can convert SVG to other formats, for example EPS or PNG, with
any user-specified size. This lets me support inferior browsers
without making users install a plugin.
4. It can run from the command line for things like PNG export.
5. It's GPL.
Ergo:
1. I can draw an example of the graphic I need to generate.
2. I can then look at the SVG code to see how to achieve the result I
want (instant SVG expert!) and then write PHP code to generate it
automatically.
3. From within PHP, I can execute inkscape as a shell command and use
the conversion feature to convert the image to PNG, at whatever
size I wish, with no scaling artifacts. I then spit out a web page
that displays the image normally.
Ted
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