Dear Philip,
>> However, in this day and age,
>> writing on trees is not necessarily the intended target, and
>> perhaps it is more important to mainting consistency between
>> the screen view and the SVG format output.
>
> My primary use of xcircuit results in PDF files for me and the customer.
>
> However, at the completion of each project, all the drawings are
> printed on dead trees, so paper printing is of high value to me.
The news that it is actually sort-of kind-of possible to do
transparency in PostScript solves the issue, assuming that it
is possible to get there through ghostscript (which is invoked
by "ps2pdf", which is what I normally use to get PDF files out
of xcircuit). I'll have to do a little more research to see if
that's possible, or if there's a standard *open source* way to
construct a PDF file out of PostScript and preserve transparency.
Clearly what's supported by the PDF standard will transfer
correctly to most printers these days (but again, I'll have to
experiment with a few printers to check that all support it).
>> One could make an argument for transparent outlines, but the
>> effect is rather subtle and it doesn't seem to me necessary to
>> provide the option.
>
> I vote for 1b. Right now I use a dashed line that's light gray
> to convey a physical grouping because I can't use a
> semi-transparent line.
>
>>> 2. How are the color lists handled?
>>> 2a. Separate fill and outline color lists.
>>> 2b. Shared fill and outline color lists.
>> Using the same arguments as above, option 2b is preferred.
>
> Sorry Tim, I vote for 2a.
> I use a kludge to work around the existing limitation. I create
> two objects, one filled, one without fill. I put the no-fill
> object on top of the filled object so the outline is a different
> color. than the fill. Example? I want to represent a light
> green LED. A light green circle is hard to see, so I want a
> black outline. So if I could make one object with a black
> outline and a green fill I would not have to make two objects,
> get the correct one on top, then make them a library item so
> they are stuck together when I move them.
Hey, it's a democracy; but if you change the underlying format of
xcircuit, it's something I'm going to have to update to my version
first, and define new PostScript macros and so forth. Of course I
have never considered option (1b) before due to the lack of alpha
transparency in both X11 and plain PostScript, but you might be
surprised how often I have considered implementing option (2a),
given the number of times I have used the same kludge. Although
as yet I have not been so put out by the kludge that I would
bother to take the time to implement the 2a solution. Still, you
know, silent voices are not heard, and I *do* listen to users'
requests, and compared to a lot of open-source software developers,
I am generally responsive to them.
---Tim
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Dr. R. Timothy Edwards (Tim) | email: [email protected] |
| Open Circuit Design, Inc. | web: http://opencircuitdesign.com |
| 22815 Timber Creek Lane | phone: (301) 528-5030 |
| Clarksburg, MD 20871-4001 | cell: (240) 401-0616 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
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