I wonder if we couldn't just use the PNG , SVG, support from the GNU plotutils from which we already have the Hershey scalable vector fonts [-> help(Hershey)] The new plotutils (July 2000) do support these (and will probably even better in the future, i.e., we can build on others people free software. Paul [who built "Hershey" into R], do you think this path is worth pursuing?>From http://www.gnu.org/software/plotutils/plotutils.html>> The GNU plotutils package contains software for both programmers and >> technical users. Its centerpiece is libplot, a powerful C/C++ function >> library for exporting 2-D vector graphics in many file formats, both vector >> and raster. It can also do vector graphics animations. >> >> libplot is device-independent in the sense that its API (application >> programming interface) does not depend on the type of graphics file to be >> exported. >> >> Besides libplot, the package contains command-line programs for plotting >> scientific data. Many of them use libplot to export graphics. >> >> The current version is 2.4.1, released July 2000. It can be installed on >> GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and Unix systems. >> >> >> GNU libplot, and applications built on it, can now export graphics >> files in SVG format. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a new, >> XML-based format for Web graphics, which is being standardized by >> the Graphics Activity of the W3 Consortium. >> >> PNG format can now be exported too! >> >> The libplot API has been extended to support the drawing of >> Postscript-style compound paths. >> >> The plotutils package comes with a 175-page manual. Here is an older >> version of the manual. >> >> The package is free software. Its source code is distributed as a gzipped >> tar file, 3.3 megabytes in size. Here is how you can get it.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
Hi> I wonder if we couldn't just use the PNG , SVG, support from the > GNU plotutils > from which we already have the Hershey scalable vector fonts [->help(Hershey)]> The new plotutils (July 2000) do support these (and will probably even > better in the future, i.e., we can build on others people free software. > > Paul [who built "Hershey" into R], do you think this path is worthpursuing? What I wanted to do with the Hershey vector fonts was JUST grab all of the vector font database information and all of the stuff that converted a character string into a set of line-drawing commands (using the vector font database). This proved possible for the vector fonts, but that was because I was able to find a fairly clear interface between the vector font code and the device-handling code. This meant I was able replace calls to the GNU plotutils devices with calls to R graphics devices without (I think) too much horribleness. I was deliberately not trying to figure out how the GNU plotutils device code worked, but the vague impression I obtained was that it was quite complicated and differed quite a bit from R's concept of a device. Now, without having looked at the PNG/SVG code, my guess would be that it might be much more tightly bound to GNU's device-handling code - i.e., probably harder to only extract the PNG/SVG bits we want. On a more positive note ... in general, the GNU plotutils code (at least the bits I saw) impressed me. It seemed well-documented, well-organised, and VERY thorough. Mad though it may sound, perhaps we might want to adopt ALL of their device-handling code rather than trying to just get the PNG/SVG bits (maybe one way to make our postscript woes disappear :) I _suspect_ that a significant amount of time and effort would be involved in trying to understand the PNG/SVG code (or all of the device-handling code). However, I also suspect that it would be worth the effort because from what I've seen there's a lot of really good stuff in there. Paul -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._