Inkscape Bug with Embedded Rasters

Imagine for a moment:

  1. Joe User knows nothing about the SVG format other than it's an image format.
  2. Starts a new document in Inkscape
  3. Imports a raster image (PNG) from the hard drive
  4. Saves image as SVG
  5. Uploads the SVG file to a clip art website
  6. Is baffled why the image displays fine on his computer in the browser but is blank for everyone else

Yes this could really happen. So how do we fix it?

  • Warn during Import stage of local references?
  • Warn during Save stage of local references?
  • Embed raster as a data: url in the SVG source (breaking link with local file)?
§492 · August 27, 2008 · Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Inkscape Bug with Embedded Rasters · Tags: ,

Perception Is Everything

I think Inkscape needs to change its versioning scheme. Knowing nothing else, what would you think of a product that went from version 0.45 to version 0.46? Only minor changes? About half-done? One percent improvement? Not very polished? All of these are far from the truth with the latest preview of Inkscape 0.46. Read the rest of this entry ...

§431 · February 23, 2008 · Software, SVG, Technology · Comments Off on Perception Is Everything · Tags: , ,

Ink On My Fingers

I think Mike Shaver said it best when he stated (in a podcast here) that an Open Source project should do its best to let willing contributors get in and get out quickly. As a busy father, husband, home owner, and engineer - I don't have a lot of time to contribute to open source projects, so when I do have some time, I'd like my efforts to count. Ideally, it's best if I can find a bug to fix that will directly impact the user experience (as opposed to changing some software plumbing underneath that doesn't have any immediate user impact). In other words, as a part time contributor with not a lot of time to invest, I want my efforts to have some immediate visible benefit.

Furthermore, it's best to pick bugs (at least initially) that don't require full-scale immersions into software architectures to figure out the root of the problem. This wouldwill likely change ifas more time is spent working with such projects.

I just spent a half hour or so fixing a couple minor errors in the Basic tutorial in Inkscape. I had some back-and-forth conversations with MenTaLguY and Bryce on IRC and mailing lists earlier in the week where I learned that the tutorials, while deployed as SVG, are actually stored as DocBook format in the SVN repository. So here's how I did things using my OpenSUSE 10.2 box. Read the rest of this entry ...

§349 · March 25, 2007 · Software, SVG, Technology, Tips · Comments Off on Ink On My Fingers · Tags:

SVG Cartoons

It's interesting when two of my interests find a merging point. Here is one such example which talks about putting SVG cartoons onto mobile devices. Read the rest of this entry ...

§128 · July 28, 2005 · Cartoons, Entertainment, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on SVG Cartoons · Tags: , ,