[Clipart] Oodles of broken cliparts

[J. Alves]

>Why we don't just use the actual cliparts themselves, I don't know, since the whole point of clipart is scalablity.

I think the cliparts are sometimes much larger (file size) than PNG
thumbnails are, which might impact a lot the loading of the pages.
Well, at least some of the ones I uploaded are... :-)

J

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 11:56 PM, chovynz <chovynz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ideally, I would expect this issue will be fixed in time. It's starting to
> get into a technical side which I don't understand, but as far as I do
> understand I believe the problem lies in the external tool that we use to
> convert from SVG to PNG. The converter doesn't read text very well, and so
> makes a "broken" png file for viewing. The smaller cliparts and thumbnails
> are PNG files that we see after conversion.
>
> Why we don't just use the actual cliparts themselves, I don't know, since
> the whole point of clipart is scalablity. The thumbnails keep refreshing
> too, so I really can't see the point in using the svg > png converter. Just
> seems like <del>double</del> triple handling and broadband waste to me,
> since we have to download the thumbnail, and the detail png, AND the clipart
> at the end of it. Can most browsers can handle svg nowdays? I know the four
> I've tried haven't had any major problems in displaying the cliparts.
> (Opera, Firefox, IE, Chrome).
>
> Also to take into account is integration with Inkscape. Linux Inkscape has a
> direct svg import from the OCAL library, so I know it affects these
> decisions, but don't really know how they do. Jon would be the one to ask.
>
> By the way, "it" hasn't necessarily been decided yet, I'm just stating what
> I would like to see happen. Jon and Bassel are the ultimate drivers. I think
> they listen though. :)
>
> On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 1:53 PM, J. Alves <alvesjmp at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Ah, OK. Since it is something that has been thought about and decided,
>> then that's fine.
>>
>> And yes, I tried a couple of those "broken" ones and they did work
>> (only when displayed at full size, by itself on a browser page),
>> thanks.
>>
>> Now, the problem is: why don't the small versions work, and would it
>> be feasible to fix that? I assumed the cliparts were broken and never
>> bothered to click on the full sized ones. How many people are getting
>> turned away when they see the broken thumbnail and assuming the design
>> is bad or broken, I don't know. Might or not be a problem, hard to
>> know...
>>
>> J
>>
>> On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 5:52 PM, chovynz <chovynz at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > It's not necessarily a problem although I do see your point. (haha pun!)
>> >
>> > I think you'll find that when you look at the clipart IN detail (as in:
>> > after you download it and click on the picture from the detail page, so
>> > that
>> > you are only looking at the clipart itself), you will see that the
>> > browser
>> > renders it correctly.
>> >
>> > I used to be quite hard on authors who uploaded unconverted text,
>> > however
>> > I've had time to reflect, and in some cases it's actually useful to have
>> > unconverted text i.e. a calendar. So that issue isn't resolved for me.
>> > Yes/No could go either way, and I don't want to make it burdonsome for
>> > uploaders, or users.
>> >
>> > The problem that I wish to see fixed is a way to contact authors,
>> > because
>> > there is currently no way other than the comments, to contact them. This
>> > is
>> > related to copyrighted clipart, as well as semi-"broken" clipart. As far
>> > as
>> > I understand we could get by without having the SVG interpret text
>> > correctly, however we cannot get by with copyrighted material. Simple
>> > matter
>> > is, we need to be able to contact any author.
>> >
>> > And unfortunatly I don't yet know how to implement that, otherwise I
>> > would've! :)
>> >
>> > @ Bassel, here's an idea, next time you need to do a change on the OCAL,
>> > can
>> > I suggest you grab one of us who wants Aiki training, and step us
>> > through
>> > doing that change? It may take more time, for them to do it with your
>> > oversight, but the more experience we get on actually doing it, the more
>> > useful we'll be to you, (instead of always going "Hey Bassel!!!") It's
>> > possible that we may even screw up, but hey that's what backups are for
>> > right? (You do have backups correct?) The more we screw up the better
>> > our
>> > coding will be in the long run!
>> >
>> > On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 9:20 AM, J. Alves <alvesjmp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> Nearly every time I visit OCAL's front page, I see this problem:
>> >> people do not convert the text in their SVG to paths. So, it all shows
>> >> as squares in my browser/OS (Firefox/Ubuntu, in this case, but also
>> >> happens in other browsers). I don't know how it would look in a system
>> >> that has the font that was used, but I'm supposing it looks fine, or
>> >> these people would have noticed that squares there instead of the text
>> >> they intended.
>> >>
>> >> So, my question/suggestion is: would it be possible for the SVG
>> >> processing step that happens during upload to automatically REJECT an
>> >> clipart that has unconverted text in it? (and tell the submitter what
>> >> the problem was and how to solve it, of course) I don't know much
>> >> about SVG, but it does not sound too difficult if certain tags are
>> >> present and whatnot...
>> >>
>> >> Or is that too drastic or undesirable for some other reason? Either
>> >> way, there must be a way to fix this problem. Just contacting the
>> >> author and letting him/her know of the problem after the fact does not
>> >> always work -- specially if the comments do not get emailed to the
>> >> author, who might never see the comment.
>> >>
>> >> Cheers
>> >> J
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> >> João Marcelo Pereira Alves (J) - Genomics, Molecular Phylogeny and
>> >> Evolution
>> >> Dept. Microbiology & Immunology - MCV/VCU - Richmond, VA, USA
>> >> f. 1-804-828-3897 / 804-852-1234 - http://bioinfo.lpb.mic.vcu.edu
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> clipart mailing list
>> >> clipart at lists.freedesktop.org
>> >> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/clipart
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Cheers
>> > Chovynz
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> João Marcelo Pereira Alves (J) - Genomics, Molecular Phylogeny and
>> Evolution
>> Dept. Microbiology & Immunology - MCV/VCU - Richmond, VA, USA
>> f. 1-804-828-3897 / 804-852-1234 - http://bioinfo.lpb.mic.vcu.edu
>
>
>
> --
> Cheers
> Chovynz
>



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
João Marcelo Pereira Alves (J) - Genomics, Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution
Dept. Microbiology & Immunology - MCV/VCU - Richmond, VA, USA
f. 1-804-828-3897 / 804-852-1234 - http://bioinfo.lpb.mic.vcu.edu