processing.candy
Class SVG

java.lang.Object
  processing.core.PShape
      processing.candy.BaseObject
          processing.candy.SVG

All Implemented Interfaces:

PConstants

public class SVG
extends BaseObject

Candy is a minimal SVG import library for Processing. Candy was written by Michael Chang, and later revised and expanded for use as a Processing core library by Ben Fry.

SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, a portable graphics format. It is a vector format so it allows for infinite resolution and relatively small file sizes. Most modern media software can view SVG files, including Adobe products, Firefox, etc. Illustrator and Inkscape can edit SVG files.

We have no intention of turning this into a full-featured SVG library. The goal of this project is a basic shape importer that is small enough to be included with applets, meaning that its download size should be in the neighborhood of 25-30k. Because of this size, it is not made part of processing.core, as it's not a feature that will be used by the majority of our audience. For more sophisticated import/export, consider the Batik library from the Apache Software Foundation. Future improvements to this library may focus on this properly supporting a specific subset of SVG, for instance the simpler SVG profiles known as SVG Tiny or Basic, although we still would not support the interactivity options.

This library was specifically tested under SVG files created with Adobe Illustrator. We can't guarantee that it will work for any SVGs created with other software. In the future we would like to improve compatibility with Open Source software such as Inkscape, however initial tests show its base implementation produces more complicated files, and this will require more time.

An SVG created under Illustrator must be created in one of two ways:

• File → Save for Web (or control-alt-shift-s on a PC). Under settings, make sure the CSS properties is set to "Presentation Attributes".
• With Illustrator CS2, it is also possible to use "Save As" with "SVG" as the file setting, but the CSS properties should also be set similarly.

A minimal example program using Candy: (assuming a working moo.svg is in your data folder)

 import processing.candy.*;
 import processing.xml.*;

 SVG moo;
 void setup() {
   size(400,400);
   moo = new SVG("moo.svg",this);
 }
 void draw() {
   moo.draw();
 }
 

August 2008 revisions by fry (Processing 0149)

• Major changes to rework around PShape.
• Now implementing more of the "transform" attribute.

• Added support for quadratic curves in paths (Q, q, T, and t operators)
• Support for reading SVG font data (though not rendering it yet)

• Switch to the new processing.xml library
• Several bug fixes for parsing of shape data
• Support for linear and radial gradients
• Support for additional types of shapes
• Added compound shapes (shapes with interior points)
• Added methods to get shapes from an internal table

• Now properly supports Processing 0118
• Fixed a bunch of things for Casey's students and general buggity.
• Will now properly draw #FFFFFFFF colors (were being represented as -1)
• SVGs without tags are now properly caught and loaded
• Added a method customStyle() for overriding SVG colors/styles
• Added a method SVGStyle() to go back to using SVG colors/styles

• Rounded rectangles
• Drop shadow objects
• Typography
• Layers added for Candy 2
• Patterns
• Embedded images

SVG

public SVG(PApplet parent,
           java.lang.String filename)

Initializes a new SVG Object with the given filename.

SVG

public SVG(XMLElement svg)

Initializes a new SVG Object with the given filename.