RE: [XaraXtreme-dev] Arbitrary EPS/PS/PDF import & Cairo

[Alex Bligh <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

--On 17 June 2006 09:38 +0100 Charles Moir <CharlesM@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Yes that strikes me a very powerful idea indeed, and given CDraw, like
> Cairo, is fundamentally based on Postscript rendering primitives there
> should a perfect fit.

You could implement this as a filter with Gerry's new filter system.
It would declare itself as a filter capable of reading EPS, PS and
(for that matter) PDF files, and declare a HowCompatible number lower
than the native EPS filters. On an import, it would pipe the file through
GS to its own backend which would produce a limited number of .xar objects.
It should be easy enough to write a proof of concept which just produced
a single bitmap (not that that would be much use).

If you did (say) all the simple fill types, plus shapes, text and bitmaps,
you'd have something which would load everything albeit perhaps in large
number of shapes. Not great for a page of text I admit, but useful for
any PS graphics.

> The ability to import any arbitrary Postscript / EPS would be hugely
> powerful (even if it is the basic shapes data with no meta information).

I think you'd get no meta information or nearly no meta information (you
might get a colour list).

Alex