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title: Skencil / Frequently Asked Questions |
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|
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<h2>Table of Contents</h2> |
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1 <a href="#FAQ1">About Skencil</a><br /> |
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1.1 <a href="#FAQ1.1">What is Skencil?</a><br /> |
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1.2 <a href="#FAQ1.2">Why would I want to use Skencil? I have GIMP!</a><br /> |
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1.3 <a href="#FAQWebpage">Where can I find out more about Skencil?</a><br /> |
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1.4 <a href="#FAQ1.4">Which Platforms does Skencil work on?</a><br /> |
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2 <a href="#FAQ2">Troubleshooting</a><br /> |
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2.1 <a href="#FAQ2.1">I get the error message "ImportError: No module named Image"</a><br /> |
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2.2 <a href="#FAQ2.2">The window resizes when I drag the mouse or change the selection</a><br /> |
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3 <a href="#FAQ3">Using Skencil</a><br /> |
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3.1 <a href="#FAQ3.1">How do I import a PostScript or EPS file?</a><br /> |
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3.2 <a href="#FAQ3.2">How do I export a drawing as EPS?</a><br /> |
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3.3 <a href="#FAQ3.3">How do I close a curve or polygon?</a><br /> |
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3.4 <a href="#FAQ3.4">How do I rotate an object by a precise angle?</a><br /> |
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3.5 <a href="#FAQ3.5">Is there a command line tool to convert sk-files to PostScript?</a><br /> |
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4 <a href="#FAQ4">Miscellaneous</a><br /> |
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4.1 <a href="#FAQFeatureRequest">Why doesn't Skencil have support for <some cool feature>?</a><br /> |
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4.2 <a href="#FAQ4.2">Which font formats are supported?</a><br /> |
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4.3 <a href="#FAQTrueTypeFonts">Why doesn't Skencil support TrueType fonts?</a><br /> |
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4.4 <a href="#FAQEncodings">Can I input text in ISO-Latin-2 or some other encoding?</a><br /> |
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5 <a href="#FAQ5">Microsoft Windows specific issues</a><br /> |
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5.1 <a href="#FAQWindowsImportError">I get "ImportError: DLL load failed" error message when trying to start |
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the program</a><br /> |
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<h2><a name="FAQ1">1 About Skencil</a></h2> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ1.1">1.1 What is Skencil?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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|
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Skencil is an interactive vector drawing program for GNU/Linux and other |
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UNIX compatible systems. Skencil is implemented almost completely in |
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Python, a very high-level, object oriented, interpreted language, with |
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the rest written in C for speed. |
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</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ1.2">1.2 Why would I want to use Skencil? I have GIMP!</a></h3> |
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|
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<p>Skencil is a <em>vector drawing program</em>. That means a Skencil drawing |
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is made up of shapes like rectangles, ellipses and curves that can be |
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filled and stroked. Each object is represented by the mathematical |
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description of its shape, e.g. for a circle they're the coordinates of |
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the center point and the length of the radius. Because of this, vector |
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drawings can be scaled without quality loss and it's very easy to change |
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parts of a drawing.</p> |
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|
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<p>GIMP, on the other hand, is an <em>image manipulation program</em>. |
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A GIMP image is made up of thousands of pixels and apart from layers has |
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no inner structure. This representation has the advantage that you can |
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easily have a lot of fine detail because each pixel can have a different |
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color, but after you e.g. have drawn a line, all you have is pixels. You |
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can't easily change the position or length or color of the line after |
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you've drawn it. Furthermore, a raster image is always designed with one |
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particular resolution in mind and scaling it often reduces its quality.</p> |
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<p>Both kinds of graphics programs have their strengths and weaknesses |
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and for some purposes an image manipulation program is the appropriate |
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tool while for others it's the vector drawing program and often you'll |
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need both.</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQWebpage">1.3 Where can I find out more about Skencil?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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|
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The best place to go for information about Skencil is its web-page at |
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<a href="http://www.skencil.org/">http://www.skencil.org/</a>. |
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</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ1.4">1.4 Which Platforms does Skencil work on?</a></h3> |
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|
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<p> |
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The feedback I've got so far about other platforms indicates that Skencil |
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runs on these platforms too: |
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</p> |
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|
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<ul><li>GNU/Linux on i386, Alpha, m68k, PowerPC and Sparc</li><li>FreeBSD</li><li>Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, 2.7</li><li>IRIX64 6.4</li><li>AIX</li></ul> |
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<h2><a name="FAQ2">2 Troubleshooting</a></h2> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ2.1">2.1 I get the error message "ImportError: No module named Image"</a></h3> |
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<p>This message usually means that the Python Imaging Library (PIL) is not |
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installed on your system, so the solution is to install it.</p> |
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<p> URLs for the sources and rpms can be found on Skencil's web-page |
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(see FAQ <a href="#FAQWebpage">1.3</a>) and in the INSTALL file. Some Linux |
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distributions already contain a suitable version of PIL although in some |
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cases they're a bit buggy.</p> |
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<p>SuSE Linux 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4, for instance, have a PIL-package, but |
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it's slightly broken. The file /usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/PIL.pth |
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is missing. To fix this, create that file with just the line 'PIL' in it |
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(without the quotes). (the purpose and syntax of *.pth files is |
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described in /usr/lib/python1.5/site.py)</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ2.2">2.2 The window resizes when I drag the mouse or change the selection</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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The frequent resizes are caused by the changing texts in the status bar. |
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The best solution is to either use the "--geometry" command line option |
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to set the size of the main window or to put an entry like |
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"sketch.geometry: 900x680" into your .Xdefaults file. |
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</p> |
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<h2><a name="FAQ3">3 Using Skencil</a></h2> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ3.1">3.1 How do I import a PostScript or EPS file?</a></h3> |
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<p>That depends on what you want to do exactly.</p> |
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<p>If you want to embed an EPS file as a whole into a Skencil drawing, |
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just treat it like a raster image, i.e. use the menu command |
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Edit->Create->Load Image file or use the corresponding toolbar button |
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which is the rightmost one.</p> |
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<p>In this case, you get an EPS-object which Skencil displays with a |
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preview image rendered by ghostscript. It behaves very much like a |
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raster image, but when you output your drawing as a postscript file, the |
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EPS' postscript code is copied to the output file.</p> |
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<p>If you want to import your postscript file because you want to edit |
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its contents, to change fill colors for example, you can in some |
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circumstances use the normal file loading commands, i.e. File->Open or |
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File->Insert Document, to achieve this. It only works if the file is |
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actually an Illustrator file.</p> |
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<p> For other postscript files, have a look at <a href="http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/1958/pstoedit/">pstoedit</a>. It uses ghostscript to interpret arbitrary postscript |
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files and can write several vector file formats, including Skencil's own |
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sk-format.</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ3.2">3.2 How do I export a drawing as EPS?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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Just print into a file or use File->Save as PostScript in the menu. |
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Skencil always generates EPS files. You don't have to do anything |
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special. |
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</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ3.3">3.3 How do I close a curve or polygon?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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|
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In edit mode, select both end points and invoke the menu command |
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Curve->Close Nodes. |
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</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ3.4">3.4 How do I rotate an object by a precise angle?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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Skencil doesn't have a dialog for this yet, but if you want to rotate it |
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by a multiple of 15 degrees, just hold control while rotating the object |
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interactively. |
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</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ3.5">3.5 Is there a command line tool to convert sk-files to PostScript?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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Skencil comes with a script called sk2ps that does just that. It's |
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automatically installed alongside Skencil and can even read all the file |
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formats Skencil can read. |
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</p> |
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<h2><a name="FAQ4">4 Miscellaneous</a></h2> |
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<h3><a name="FAQFeatureRequest">4.1 Why doesn't Skencil have support for <some cool feature>?</a></h3> |
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|
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<p>Depending on what the feature in question is, there are several possible |
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answers.</p> |
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|
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<p>The most common reason is simply that nobody has written it yet. |
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There are many useful features that Skencil should have, but currently |
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there's only one Programmer writing code and that severely limits what |
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gets implemented and how fast.</p> |
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<p>Of course, not every feature is useful or fits well with the goals |
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of the Skencil project. However, I hope to make Skencil flexible and |
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extensible enough to accommodate such features with plugins and user |
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scripts.</p> |
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<p>See also the FAQs about TrueType fonts (<a href="#FAQTrueTypeFonts">4.3</a>) and text encodings (<a href="#FAQEncodings">4.4</a>)</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQ4.2">4.2 Which font formats are supported?</a></h3> |
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<p> |
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|
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Currently, Skencil supports only Type 1 fonts. |
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</p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQTrueTypeFonts">4.3 Why doesn't Skencil support TrueType fonts?</a></h3> |
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|
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<p>Well, font-handling under Linux/Unix/X is pretty complex. Applications |
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have to do a lot of things themselves that should be provided by the |
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'system' (whatever that means). So it's simply a lot of work and I went |
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the easy route and support only Type1 fonts because X can render them |
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even without any special setup and printing them is no problem because |
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it's the native PostScript font format.</p> |
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<p> Now, with FreeType and XFree 4.0, supporting TrueType fonts will |
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become much easier and Skencil will support them one day.</p> |
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<p>You may also want to have a look at the CurveText extension or the |
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JapaneseText extension which let you create bezier objects based on |
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TrueType fonts. Both extensions are available through the <a href="addon.html">add-on page</a></p> |
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<h3><a name="FAQEncodings">4.4 Can I input text in ISO-Latin-2 or some other encoding?</a></h3> |
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<p>Unfortunately, no. At least not in the 0.6 stable releases.</p> |
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<p>Adding proper support for that would require a lot more work than I |
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want to do for 0.6.x. It would require changes to the way events are |
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handled, text objects would have to know about encodings and the |
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post-script output code as well, and it would require changes to the |
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file format.</p> |
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<p>That having been said, one of the goals of the current developer |
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series, 0.7, is better text support including better support for |
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encodings other than ISO-Latin-1. One of the first steps will probably |
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be to switch to unicode internally.</p> |
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<p>When I added text support to Skencil, I simply chose the most simple |
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way to handle encodings that would suffice for my needs and that's |
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Latin-1 and some support for font-specific encodings for symbol fonts. I |
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knew of course that this wouldn't be enough in the long run, especially |
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with respect to non-latin scripts and multi-byte character sets, but |
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having a simple implementation that works for many users is always |
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better than to have no usable code because the project gets bogged down |
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in a too complex design, IMO, especially in a Free Software project.</p> |
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<h2><a name="FAQ5">5 Microsoft Windows specific issues</a></h2> |
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<h3><a name="FAQWindowsImportError">5.1 I get "ImportError: DLL load failed" error message when trying to start |
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the program</a></h3> |
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|
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<p>The error can be caused by missing DLL libraries or by wrong versions of |
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some DLL libraries on your system.</p> |
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<p>If the error message is e.g. "The specified procedure could not be found", |
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you propably have an old version of some GTK-related DLL in your system |
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directory. On Windows, DLLs are searched from system directories before PATH |
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directories. That's why a wrong version of a library can get loaded. To solve |
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the problem, move the offending DLL form the system directory to a non-system |
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directory on PATH.</p> |
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|
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<p>DLL problems can usually be solved be examining PyGTK's gobject.pyd using |
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<a href="http://www.dependencywalker.com">Dependency Walker</a>.</p> |
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