News (page 2)

KIYUT just released Sketsa SVG Editor 5.2, a cross platform vector drawing application based on SVG. It features various tools for optimizing content creation, giving designers unsurpassed support for creativity. These tools include property palette, source editor, resources editor, SVG specific shape tools, transformation tools, and additional illustration tools. Sketsa uses SVG as a native file format.

What's new:

• Improved Menu Mnemonics and Shortcut
  
• Updated to use Apache Batik (rev 659033)
  
• Updated to use Netbeans 6.1
  
• Fix DOM Editor NPE
  
• Fix Rotate Tool (constraint angle > 180 degree)
  
• Fix CanvasSelection when SVG node is removed
  
• Fix Save Menu disabled
  
• Other bug fixes and enhancements
  

Opera Software released a public alpha version of a new developer tool named Dragonfly.

The Dragonfly alpha release will upgrade automatically and includes a JavaScript Debugger, DOM and CSS Inspectors, Error Console and Command Line. To try it out, visit the Dragonfly product page for a free download.

To learn how more about how to use Opera Dragonfly head on over to dev.opera.com for an introduction.

Note especially that Opera is looking for feedback and that your input will help make the developer tools even better.

Mihai Sucan has written an excellent article on How to make a Voice controlled SVG game over on dev.opera.com.

From the article:
The game I have built displays several objects on screen, and the object of the game is to make all the objects have the same shape and color - you can do this by issuing voice commands ot the page, such as "change the blue squares to red triangles" or "switch the yellow shapes to circles". Once a player does so they win and the game ends. The game allows you to change various parameters such as the number of objects and players.

"The demand for customized handsets and improved user experience continues to increase," said Nico Finke, head of product management at Esmertec. "This partnership allows us to deliver high-quality 2D-graphics technology to our customers. We look forward to providing Quickoffice's products and continue our commitment to being the best in the industry."

http://www.quickoffice.com/news/quickoffice-press-releases/2008-press-releases/press-release-april-22-2008/

Dallas, Texas, April 1, 2008: "Quickoffice, Inc., the leading global provider of innovative software and solutions for the mobile business professional, today announced its Scalable Vector Graphics Tiny (SVGT) Platform has been selected by ARM to be optimized for the ARM Mali Graphics Architecture. The partnership will benefit developers of ARM technology-based system-on-chip (SoC) designs, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and mobile platform vendors, such as Symbian and Windows Mobile.

http://www.quickoffice.com/news/quickoffice-press-releases/2008-press-releases/press-release-april-1-2008/

GEMï (ex GUI) is a multiple windows system with scroll bars, resize, collapse and restore, move, zoom, menus (file open and close), dialogs, windows tabs, thumbnails, colorpicker, preferences, selective print, info, online help. It's main vocation is to be used on the web or private network. In remote use it can open project's files and save the user preferences.

GEMï is under LGPL license.

http://www.dotuscomus.com/svg/lib/library.html#gemi

"Utilizing the Open Mobile Alliance Rich Media Environment (OMA-RME) application framework layer and a connected device such as a mobile handset or PC, MobiTV will provide an array of interactive applications to the field trial including voting, polling, mCommerce, interactive advertising, real-time audience measurement and key reporting capabilities that drive unique measurement. These enhancements will become indispensable in defining the next generation of mobile television applications and business models. MobiTV is working with world class partners including BitFlash and VisualOn, to create a ubiquitous reference standard and client platform ready for mass deployment across a wide variety of devices."

http://www.mobitv.com/about/press/releases/page=press/release_041408a

The English and French editions of the LearnSVG.com ebook is now available for free and can be downloaded here: Learn SVG.

The Inkscape community today is announcing the release of the newest version of its open source vector graphics editor. Inkscape 0.46 is a major update that introduces native PDF support. The implementation of PDF support in Inkscape provides an easy, open source solution to editing PDF documents. Tons of new features and performance improvements are included in this release. Dialogs now have the ability to be docked to the editing window. Gradients can be edited completely on-canvas. The new Paint Bucket Tool fills bounded areas with color. A new 3D Box tool helps create perspective-correct drawings. A new Tweak tool provides an intuitive method for editing paths and painting objects. The new Live Path Effects feature can create "brushes" and various organic effects on paths. Improvements to color management include support for color spaces other than sRGB. Most SVG filters are now implemented, and a new powerful UI is provided for editing filter stacks.

Download Inkscape 0.46 for Linux, Windows or Mac OS X

New to all this, but you folks may be interested.

I've made a server that converts Blazonry (the jargon for describing coats of arms) into SVG.  The SVG I produce, near as I can tell, is mostly valid, though no web browser seems to be able to handle it well, and of libraries only rsvglib works right.  So by default the server converts to PNG, but there's an option to see the SVG instead.

Take a look at http://web.meson.org/blazonserver/ and let me know what you think!

For a tutorial on how to do photoshop-like effects in SVG head on over to dev.opera.com for an in-depth article on the subject.

This site also hosts a number of SVG-related articles that show you how to use SVG in modern web browsers.

The SVG Open 2008 abstract submission forms are available. SVG Open is the worldwide SVG developers conference targeting SVG content developers and users, tool makers and people interested in advancing the SVG and related W3C specifications.

Please submit your abstracts at http://www.svgopen.org/ → Registration.

Looking forward to receiving many interesting abstracts!

Firefox 3 T-Shirt Contest: send in your SVG before Sunday March 16th 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST). Good luck

I collected some interesting links for beginners, they are sorted by language:

German / Deutsch:

• SVG on Wikipedia
• Selfsvg.info
• svg.tutorial.aptico.de
• s-v-g.net
• svglbc.datenverdrahten.de

English:

• SVG on Wikipedia
• adobe.com/svg
• mozilla.org/projects/svg

I think, this are the most popular links to begin and understand svg. You are welcome to submit me more links.