Importing art files into XPP 9.2.2

Are there any known issues with "NOT" using an extension on art files? For example: .eps, .tiff, .jpeg, etc.

Also, are there any known issues with importing .svg files into XPP. We have been unsuccessful as they do not show up on a page.

Thanks,
Lori Gearheart

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  • Hi, Lori ... In addition to the excellent comments from Tom and Bart, I had the pleasure of needing to do a deep dive into XPP SVG rendering issues many years ago.

    The java tool XPP uses for rendering is Apache batik-rasterizer a/k/a Batik SVG Rasterizer. It's important to know that this is somewhat configurable in XPP. This may all be well-documented but I'll just share a couple things. 

    In our line of work, most SVG images we work with are not developed as native SVG, but converted from Adobe Illustrator or from CGM-type vector images from CAD applications. We've even seen what were obviously originally TIFF images ingested into CAD systems and converted again to SVG as an output. So they are in effect static raster images wrapped in SVG tags. And often missing important vector information in the wrapper part. That is to say, "SVG/vector in name only." Which introduced a host of quality and rendering issues. Hence, the need to manipulate these in the XPP Batik settings. 

    Not to let Adobe Illustrator off the hook. Their SVG output sometimes has issues, too.

    In the most extreme cases, we had to preprocess the "SVG/vector in name only" art to add missing information so that XPP would render them in an acceptable quality. Hopefully you won't have to go there, as it will require some research into SVG tagging (it's been 15 years, but I think our specific issues had to do with incomplete or invalid tagging in the root <svg ...> and especially the "viewbox" attribute values.)

    The workings of the Batik SVG Rasterizer can be found here: $XYV_EXECS/sys/gr/batik

    You can get the native help summary by typing: java -jar $XYV_EXECS/sys/gr/batik/batik-rasterizer.jar

    The config file in this folder named "batik-config" can be modified as you discover command line options that may help you. For example, we made this change from the original:

    jbaldwin-49> cat batik-config.default
    -q .99

    jbaldwin-50> cat batik-config
    -q .99 -dpi 96

    I think you can also add a "java-config" file here if you want to add java command line options, for example if you want to bump up the java heap memory.

    -Jay Baldwin (Tweddle Group)

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  • Hi, Lori ... In addition to the excellent comments from Tom and Bart, I had the pleasure of needing to do a deep dive into XPP SVG rendering issues many years ago.

    The java tool XPP uses for rendering is Apache batik-rasterizer a/k/a Batik SVG Rasterizer. It's important to know that this is somewhat configurable in XPP. This may all be well-documented but I'll just share a couple things. 

    In our line of work, most SVG images we work with are not developed as native SVG, but converted from Adobe Illustrator or from CGM-type vector images from CAD applications. We've even seen what were obviously originally TIFF images ingested into CAD systems and converted again to SVG as an output. So they are in effect static raster images wrapped in SVG tags. And often missing important vector information in the wrapper part. That is to say, "SVG/vector in name only." Which introduced a host of quality and rendering issues. Hence, the need to manipulate these in the XPP Batik settings. 

    Not to let Adobe Illustrator off the hook. Their SVG output sometimes has issues, too.

    In the most extreme cases, we had to preprocess the "SVG/vector in name only" art to add missing information so that XPP would render them in an acceptable quality. Hopefully you won't have to go there, as it will require some research into SVG tagging (it's been 15 years, but I think our specific issues had to do with incomplete or invalid tagging in the root <svg ...> and especially the "viewbox" attribute values.)

    The workings of the Batik SVG Rasterizer can be found here: $XYV_EXECS/sys/gr/batik

    You can get the native help summary by typing: java -jar $XYV_EXECS/sys/gr/batik/batik-rasterizer.jar

    The config file in this folder named "batik-config" can be modified as you discover command line options that may help you. For example, we made this change from the original:

    jbaldwin-49> cat batik-config.default
    -q .99

    jbaldwin-50> cat batik-config
    -q .99 -dpi 96

    I think you can also add a "java-config" file here if you want to add java command line options, for example if you want to bump up the java heap memory.

    -Jay Baldwin (Tweddle Group)

    emoji
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