We do what you propose, but use our build system (an ant
script) to call batik http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/ and
rasterize the images when going to html. The way we have it set up, when
you insert the svg image in XMetaL, a macro sees it's an svg and pops up a
dialog asking if you want it rasterized. If so, it converts it to a png and
displays the png (since XMetaL can't display svg !?!). The system also runs an
xslt on svgs that come from Visio to workaround a Visio bug that causes
arrowheads not to appear in pngs rasterized from Visio svg
source.
I understand that Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/ can also convert svgs to other formats from the command
line, but I haven't tried it.
David
From: Colin Shapiro
[mailto:]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 10:24
AM
To:
Subject:
[docbook-apps] Image manipulation via XSLT extensions
Hello,
"Unfortunately, there is no single graphics file
format that meets all needs." - Bob
Bob is right. One of
the biggest annoyances I have when writing documents is that, when I want to
insert a graphic, I must reference and maintain multiple versions of the image
file in order to accommodate the various types of output I am producing:
<mediaobject>
<imageobject
role="fo">
<imagedata format="SVG"
fileref="figure.svg"/>
</imageobject>
<imageobject role="html">
<imagedata
format="PNG" fileref="figure.png"/>
</imageobject>
</mediaobject>
Let's say I created a
figure in SVG, as in the above example. This SVG is my original image
source, and in a perfect world, it would be all I'd need to carry
around. But, since we can't trust SVGs with our web browsers, I must
convert it to PNG and carry around another version of the file for HTML
output.
What if I actually could only keep the SVG, and have the
stylesheet somehow convert the image to alternate formats as needed? If
I run the HTML stylesheet, it sees an SVG, and calls an external program--say,
ImageMagick--to convert the file to a PNG.
This leads me to my
question. I know that with processors like Saxon and Xalan, you can
write extensions in Java/JavaScript. It seems to me that one would be
able to write an extension to call ImageMagick as needed. However, I
have absolutely no experience with XSLT extensions, and don't really know
where to start.
I do know where to find resources on the
subject. However, I thought I would first post here to see if anyone has
done anything similar, or thought about anything like this before.
-
Colin
