trunk/pages/features.html

title: Skencil / Features

<h2>Drawing Primitives</h2>
<p>Skencil has the usual drawing primitives found in a vector
drawing program:</p>
<ul>
<li>Rectangles, optionally with rounded corners</li>
<li>Ellipses (full ellipses, pie slices, arcs and chords)</li>
<li>B&eacute;zier curves (single and multi path)</li>
<li>External images: 
<ul>
<li>Raster images: JPEG, PNG,...<br />
 (all types the Python Imaging Library can read)</li>
<li>Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)</li></ul></li>
<li>Text (very simple at the moment)</li></ul>
 
<p>All objects, including images and text, can be rotated, scaled,
sheared, etc. (all affine transformations are possible)</p>

<h2>Properties</h2>
<p>Primitives can usually have fill and line properties:</p>
<p>Fill properties are patterns like solid colors, gradients, tiled
images and hatching.</p>
<p>Line properties are currently a (solid) color, width, dashes,
cap and join styles and arrow heads. Patterns instead of a single
color are planned for the future.</p>

<h2><a name="N2" id="N2">Special Effects and Features</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>Rectangles, ellipses and b&eacute;zier curves can be used as
guides. Skencil has ordinary horizontal and vertical guide lines as
well, of course.</li>
<li>Blend Groups: Automatically updated interpolations of arbitrary
objects</li>
<li>Text can be converted to b&eacute;zier curves. (This works only
if Skencil has access to the PostScript Type 1 font files (pfa or
pfb)).</li>
<li>Text along a path: 

<table style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">
<tr>
<td><img src="images/textpathrot.png" width="200" height="150"
alt="Rotated letters" /></td>
<td><img src="images/textpathskew.png" width="200" height="150"
alt="Skewed letters" /></td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Text along a path can have either rotated letters
(left) or skewed letters
(right).</td></tr></table>

</li></ul>
<br />
<br />
 

<h2>Plugins</h2>
<p>Skencil has plugin mechanisms for a variety of purposes:</p>
<p><em>Import Filters</em> allow Skencil to read different file
formats. Currently Skencil has import filters for XFig (.fig),
Adobe&nbsp;Illustrator (.ai) files, Corel CMX, Windows 3.1
Metafiles, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and for its own file
format.</p>
<p><em>Export Filters</em> allow Skencil to write the drawing to
various file formats. Skencil has filters for its own format and for
Adobe&nbsp;Illustrator, PDF and SVG files.</p>
<p><em>Plugin Objects</em> provide a way to define new graphics
objects.</p>

<h2>Other Features</h2>
<ul>
<li>User scripts</li>
<li>Exports Encapsulated PostScript</li>
<li>Unlimited undo history</li></ul>
<br />
<br />
1	jpaalasm	606	title: Skencil / Features
2
3			<h2>Drawing Primitives</h2>
4			<p>Skencil has the usual drawing primitives found in a vector
5			drawing program:</p>
6			<ul>
7			<li>Rectangles, optionally with rounded corners</li>
8			<li>Ellipses (full ellipses, pie slices, arcs and chords)</li>
9			<li>Bézier curves (single and multi path)</li>
10			<li>External images:
11			<ul>
12			<li>Raster images: JPEG, PNG,...<br />
13			(all types the Python Imaging Library can read)</li>
14			<li>Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)</li></ul></li>
15			<li>Text (very simple at the moment)</li></ul>
16
17			<p>All objects, including images and text, can be rotated, scaled,
18			sheared, etc. (all affine transformations are possible)</p>
19
20			<h2>Properties</h2>
21			<p>Primitives can usually have fill and line properties:</p>
22			<p>Fill properties are patterns like solid colors, gradients, tiled
23			images and hatching.</p>
24			<p>Line properties are currently a (solid) color, width, dashes,
25			cap and join styles and arrow heads. Patterns instead of a single
26			color are planned for the future.</p>
27
28			<h2><a name="N2" id="N2">Special Effects and Features</a></h2>
29			<ul>
30			<li>Rectangles, ellipses and bézier curves can be used as
31			guides. Skencil has ordinary horizontal and vertical guide lines as
32			well, of course.</li>
33			<li>Blend Groups: Automatically updated interpolations of arbitrary
34			objects</li>
35			<li>Text can be converted to bézier curves. (This works only
36			if Skencil has access to the PostScript Type 1 font files (pfa or
37			pfb)).</li>
38			<li>Text along a path:
39
40			<table style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">
41			<tr>
42	torsten	664	<td><img src="images/textpathrot.png" width="200" height="150"
43	jpaalasm	606	alt="Rotated letters" /></td>
44	torsten	664	<td><img src="images/textpathskew.png" width="200" height="150"
45	jpaalasm	606	alt="Skewed letters" /></td></tr>
46			<tr>
47			<td colspan="2">Text along a path can have either rotated letters
48			(left) or skewed letters
49			(right).</td></tr></table>
50
51			</li></ul>
52			<br />
53			<br />
54
55
56			<h2>Plugins</h2>
57			<p>Skencil has plugin mechanisms for a variety of purposes:</p>
58			<p><em>Import Filters</em> allow Skencil to read different file
59			formats. Currently Skencil has import filters for XFig (.fig),
60			Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files, Corel CMX, Windows 3.1
61			Metafiles, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and for its own file
62			format.</p>
63			<p><em>Export Filters</em> allow Skencil to write the drawing to
64			various file formats. Skencil has filters for its own format and for
65			Adobe Illustrator, PDF and SVG files.</p>
66			<p><em>Plugin Objects</em> provide a way to define new graphics
67			objects.</p>
68
69			<h2>Other Features</h2>
70			<ul>
71			<li>User scripts</li>
72			<li>Exports Encapsulated PostScript</li>
73			<li>Unlimited undo history</li></ul>
74			<br />
75			<br />
Name	Value
svn:eol-style	native
svn:executable	*
svn:keywords	Author Date Id Revision