Publisher Description

Geared toward Perl users and webmasters, "Perl Graphics Programming focuses on open-source scripting programs that manipulate graphics files for use on the Web. The book demystifies the manipulation of graphics formats for newcomers to the Web with a practical, resource-like approach. With this book you'll learn to: generate dynamic Web graphics with charts, tables, and buttons; automate graphics tasks (thumbnails and borders); create dynamics Web documents (PDF, Postscript); and produce rich Internet experiences with Flash and SVG. You'll begin with a tour of the most common web graphic file formats--PNG, JPEG, GIF, SWF, SVG, Postscript and PDF then you'll explore the most powerful tools and Perl modules available for manipulating these graphics, such as GD, PerlMagick, and GIMP. Included in this part of the book is a thorough description of the Ming module for creating on-the-fly Flash files. Next, a "cookbook" section includes practical, all purpose recipes: GIF animation, generating images within a dynamic application, communicating between SWF front-end and Perl back-end, XSLT transformations, compression, and more.

Author Biography

Shawn Wallace has been applying computers to graphics problems for the past fifteen years. A programmer and artist, Shawn is managing director of the AS220 artist community in Providence, RI, a cofounder of the SMT Computing Society, and a member of the Rhode Island chapter of the Perl Mongers. He is also involved in the Bolero open source music notation system and the Institute for Folk Computing, a program to inform and inspire the use of open software by the general public in Providence. Shawn studied computer engineering at the University of Rhode Island and participated in the construction of an early (mid-80s) hypermedia delivery system at HyperView Systems in Middletown, RI.

Table of Contents

Preface Part I. Raster Images and Web Graphics 1. Creating Graphics with Perl Introduction to File Formats Color Raster File Formats Vector Graphic File Formats Document File Formats References 2. On-the-Fly Graphics with GD GD Basics Sample GD Applications Reading and Writing Methods Getting and Setting General Information Color Table Manipulation Methods Brushes, Styles, and Tiles Copying and Transforming Images Image Drawing and Manipulation Methods Strings and Fonts Polygon Methods 3. Graphics Scripting with Image::Magick What Is ImageMagick? Using Image::Magick Sample Image::Magick Applications Reading and Writing Images Retrieving and Setting File Information Sizing and Transforming Images Copying and Composing Images Color and Transparency Annotation and Drawing Filters and Effects 4. Charts and Graphs with GD::Graph Let's Make Some Graphs! A Sample GD::Graph Application GD::Graph Methods Attributes of GD::Graph Objects Colors and Fonts in GD::Graph 5. Scripting the Gimp with Perl Getting and Installing the Gimp Writing Gimp Plug-ins in Perl Your First Gimp Script Object-Oriented Versus Procedural Scripting Adding New Features to the Gimp Standalone Scripts Part II. Vector Images and Animations 6. SVG: The Scalable Vector Graphics Format SVG Document Structure The Basic SVG Tags 7. Creating SVG with Perl A Slide-Show Presentation SVG Animation Creating a Bouncing Ball SVG Scripting with JavaScript Using Unicode Text in SVG Images Transformation with XSLT and Perl 8. SWF: The Flash File Format The History of Flash and SWF The Format and Function of SWF Files Anatomy of a Tag Parsing an SWF File with Perl 9. Using Ming Installation Overview of the Perl Interface The Astral Trespassers Game The SWF Module The SWF::Movie Module The SWF::Sprite (or SWF::MovieClip) Module The SWF::DisplayItem Module The SWF::Shape Module The SWF::Button Module The SWF::Bitmap Module The SWF::Text Module The SWF::TextField Module The SWF::Font Module The SWF::Fill Module The SWF::Gradient Module The SWF::Morph Module The SWF::Sound Module The SWF::Action Module SWF Recipes Part III. Documents and Printing 10. Printing with Postscript and PDF PostScript in a Nutshell Portable Document Format (PDF) References 11. Using the PostScript Modules Creating PostScript from a Web Interface The PostScript::TextBlock Module The PostScript::Document Module The PostScript::Elements Module Other PostScript Modules 12. Creating PDF Documents with Perl Introduction to PDF::API2 Creating Address Labels Adding to Existing PDF Files PDF::API2 Reference PDF::API2::Page PDF::API2::Content PDF::API2::Gfx PDF::API2::Text PDF::API2::Outline References Part IV. Appendixes A. Serving Graphics on the Web B. Gimp Reference C. Image::Magick File Formats D. ActionScript Reference Index

Review

"In summary, I think this is a very well-written and helpful book. I learned quite a lot from it quite rapidly. Someone with a graphics problem to be solved (and quite a few other problems as well) will soon be put on the right track with the aid of this book as to what packages to try and what lines to follow. I am sure I will refer to it frequently in the future." - John Collins, news@UK

Long Description

Graphics programmers aren't the only ones who need to be proficient with graphics. Web and applications programmers know that a dull web page can be quickly transformed into one that's interesting and lively with the use of well-planned graphics. And fortunately, you don't need the skills of a fulltime graphics programmer to use graphics effectively. From access counters and log report graphs to scientific plots and on-the-fly animated GIFs, graphics scripting is within the grasp of most web programmers. Using open source software, like Perl, you have the power to dynamically generate graphics based on user input and activity, easily manipulate graphics content, and optimize graphics for compression and quality. Geared toward Perl users and webmasters, "Perl Graphics Programming focuses on open-source scripting programs that manipulate graphics files for use on the Web. The book demystifies the manipulation of graphics formats for newcomers to the Web with a practical, resource-like approach. With this book you'll learn to: Generate dynamic web graphics with charts, tables, and buttons Automate graphics tasks (thumbnails and borders) Create dynamics web documents (PDF, Postscript) Produce rich Internet experiences with Flash and SVG You'll begin with a tour of the most common web graphic file formats--PNG, JPEG, GIF, SWF, SVG, Postscript and PDF--then you'll explore the most powerful tools and Perl modules available for manipulating these graphics, such as GD, PerlMagick, and GIMP. Included in this part of the book is a thorough description of the Ming module for creating on-the-fly Flash files. Next, a "cookbook" section includes practical, all purpose recipes: GIFanimation, generating images within a dynamic application, communicating between SWF front-end and Perl back-end, XSLT transformations, compression, and much more. Perl programmers naturally turn to Perl to tackle whatever challenge they have at hand, and graphics programming is no exception. "Perl Graphics Programming provides all the tools you need to begin programming and designing graphics for the Web immediately. This book will change how you think about generating and manipulating graphics for the Web.

Details