Tag Archive for 'openclipartlibrary'

Thanks to the Fedora Project, LGM Goal Met

Published by
jon
at April 28, 2008 in Notes. 1 Comment

I wanted to send a big thank you out to The Fedora Project, Max Spevack and Greg DeKoenigsberg for their support of the upcoming Libre Graphics Meeting 2008 in Poland, May 8 - 11!

Dave Neary wrote a good overview of the state of the massively successful fundraiser we put together with Pledgie.com (try it out if you want to raise money for your cause!).

It is still not too late to donate money (you can use paypal with the previous link ;) which will help get more developers to the event. Cheers to all who gave too and linked to the various posts thus truly shedding light onto the huge community of free and open source graphics users and developers out there in the world :)

Support the Libre Graphics Meeting 2008 in Poland

Published by
jon
at April 1, 2008 in Notes. 2 Comments

We are trying to raise USD$ 20,000 in the next 16 days before Friday, April 18th in order to support the conference and travel from so many Free and Open Source software developers to attend the 3rd Annual Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) conference in Wrocław, Poland May 8 - 11 - the premiere event bringing together free and open source creative software application developers for a productive international conference (emphasis on productivity!).

This is really a big community drive for all you users, supporters, and companies to donate money so that all us free and open source developers may get together to have a productive face to face meeting. The last two LGM’s have been invaluable to coordinate, consolidate and create the future in a free and open source way.

For the next 16 days, we want all the supporting projects to put a note about this pledge drive right on their front page of their website! You can use the badge below as well to help us raise money!

Click here to lend your support to: Support the Libre Graphics Meeting and make a donation at www.pledgie.com !

You can also help by spreading the url to our pledgie campaign: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/613

And, don’t forget to digg this story: http://digg.com/linux_unix/Support_the_Libre_Graphics_Meeting_2008

More from the Pledgie.com page:

Libre Graphics Meeting, 8 - 11 May 2008


What is the Libre Graphics Meeting?

The Libre Graphics Meeting brings together developers and users of free software graphics applications, such as the GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus, Blender, Krita, the Open Clipart Library and more.

In its third edition, the organization needs your help! You can support your favorite graphics application, and ensure that the travel costs of as many volunteer developers as possible are paid to ensure that this edition of the conference is more successful that its predecessors.


Where will the money go?

We have kept costs associated with infrastructure to a minimum. Over 80% of the conference budget will be spent on subsidizing travel and accommodation costs for developers.


A non-profit organization

All donations will be made to the conference organizers via the GNOME Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax exempt US-based non-profit, so donations will be tax deductible for US taxpayers. We would like to thank the GNOME Foundation for their support.

Inkscape 0.46 Released

Published by
jon
at March 26, 2008 in Notes. 3 Comments

Download the latest copy of your favorite editor everone!!!

More from Bryce’s post:

The Inkscape community today is announcing the release of the newest
version of its open source vector graphics editor. Inkscape 0.46 is a
major update that introduces native PDF support. The implementation of
PDF support in Inkscape provides an easy, open source solution to
editing PDF documents.

Tons of new features and performance improvements are included in this
release. Dialogs now have the ability to be docked to the editing
window. Gradients can be edited completely on-canvas. The new Paint
Bucket Tool fills bounded areas with color. A new 3D Box tool helps
create perspective-correct drawings. A new Tweak tool provides an
intuitive method for editing paths and painting objects. The new Live
Path Effects feature can create “brushes” and various organic effects on
paths. Improvements to color management include support for color spaces
other than sRGB. Most SVG filters are now implemented, and a new
powerful UI is provided for editing filter stacks.

Downloading Inkscape 0.46

Inkscape 0.46 is already included by default in Ubuntu Hardy so just
install it normally. Ubuntu Gutsy users can install by adding the
following to System : Admin : Software Sources : Third-Party Software:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/inkscape.testers/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/inkscape.testers/ubuntu gutsy main

Macintosh OS X users can download a Leopard Universal package from our
SourceForge site:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93438

Packages for Fedora, Debian, Windows, and other platforms should be
coming soon.

For more information

Complete Release Notes for 0.46:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes046

Community Contributed Screenshots:
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/

Here are the example screenshots demo’ing 0.46…its hot!

Version 0.46
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-tweak-path_thumb.png

The path changing modes of the new Tweak tool
allow you to push, shrink, grow, attract, repel, or roughen any path,
easily and naturally sculpting exciting freeform shapes. This is a lot more
convenient than the Node tool not only because you don’t need to think
about nodes, but also because it can work on any number of selected
paths at the same time.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-tweak-color_thumb.png

The color changing modes of the new Tweak tool,
paint and jitter, are very similar to the way a soft brush
works in a bitmap editor. If you have a number of separate
objects, you can select them all and paint over them with
any fill or stroke color.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-stockpatterns_thumb.png

Inkscape 0.46 comes with a selection of stock patterns,
accessible via the Fill and Stroke dialog. It is now much
easier and faster than before to fill a path with stripes,
checkerboard, or polka dots.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-screenshot-mac_thumb.png

The use of effects which previously required to manually installed
some Python modules is now straightforward on Mac OS X: they all work
out of the box. In addition, Inkscape’s interface was made more Mac-
friendly by the use of a default theme. This theme reflects the
changes made in OS X system preferences (Appearance panel) and works
with Graphite (as demonstrated here) or Aqua variants. For advanced
users already having a custom ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file, the theme is not
enforced and their personal settings are respected.

http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-paint-bucket_thumb.png

The Paint Bucket tool works just like the Paint Bucket tool
in bitmap image editors — clicking in an area fills the area with the
chosen color. Unlike other editors, the Inkscape tool features
some additional fill methods to help you finish your work faster.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-lpe-twilight_thumb.png With SVG Filters and Inkscape’s new Live Path Effects, the available options and ease of editability to accomplish various visual effects has been greatly enhanced. The picture in this screenshot utilizes a number of features such as Tiled Clones, SVG Filters, Live Path Effects, Clipping and Masking, Multi-stop Gradients and more. This screenshot shows the parameters used on a patch of hair created with the Stitch Sub-Curves Path Effect. Additionally, you can see how handy having docked dialogs is to un-clutter the workspace with the side benefit of increased productivity. To see the full version of this picture you can click here.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-lpe-pathalongpath_thumb.png

The Path along Path effect can curve a path along another path.

When this effect is applied to path A (called skeleton), another path B

(called pattern) can then be passed as a parameter. The result is that

path B is bent along path A. With the node edit tool, path A can be

editted on-canvas and the result is updated live.

This provides a direct equivalent of “vector brushes” or

“skeletal strokes” features in other vector editors.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-engraving2_thumb.png

This example shows how the new hatching techniques can be used to produce a traditional
line engraving from a photo. Note also that thinning/thickening can be used not only for
hatchings but for sculpting arbitrary paths - easy shape morphing without the Node tool!
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-engraving1_thumb.png

Several new features were added to the Calligraphic pen to make Inkscape capable of the
ancient art of line engraving. This screenshot demonstrates tracking a guide path
to hatch areas quickly and uniformly; tracing background to make your pen width reflect
the lightness of the background in every point; and thinning/thickening that lets you
change the darkness of your hatchings at any point, or even erase parts of the drawing.
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/thumbs/inkscape-0.46-01-angled_guidelines_thumb.png

Now all guidelines are angled. The usual horizontal and vertical guidelines
have become angled at 0/90 degrees. To change to a different angle, just
double-click the guideline you want to change and enter the values. You can also
create a guideline with an angle of 45 degrees by dragging the guideline from
the ends of the rulers. You can also create an angled guideline from a straight
line. Draw this line and press Shift+G.

liblicense 0.5: first stable version of C library supporting CC and licensing metadata - Creative Commons

Published by
jon
at January 16, 2008 in Notes. 2 Comments

Asheesh blogged about the super-cool liblicense 0.5: first stable version of C library supporting CC metadata - Creative Commons. The thing I would add for all you out there in licensing land is that this generalized to support all free and open content licensing as long as it uses the great RDF developed by CC to express a license:

With the help of Hubert Figuiere, Nathan Yergler, Peter Miller, Scott Shawcroft, and Jason Kivlighn, I’m happy to finally announce a new version of liblicense. Summary: Now this is really worth using.

For those just joining us now, liblicense is a library to make it easy to add CC metadata support to desktop and server side software you write. The biggest reason to choose liblicense rather than handling CC metadata yourself is that we (huge thanks to Jason and Hubert) have written handlers for many file formats. We use Hubert’s Exempi library that is derived from Adobe’s Free/Open Source XMP library.

The two major driving factors on this release were making it crash less and providing a stable interface (API and ABI) for others to build upon. Earlier versions of liblicense would crash on invalid files. Also, crucially, this release has metadata inside the library, called “shared object versioning,” indicating what features the library supports.

As always, you can reuse this under the terms of the GNU LGPL. It’s interoperable with our metadata panel for Adobe applications, supports embedding into files ranging from JPEG to MP3 to Ogg Vorbis, and is available from SourceForge.net. It is written in C and comes with bindings for Python and Ruby. Finally, thanks to Venkatesh Srinivas for his tireless help.

I haven’t had as much time to blog about this project. I’m super proud of the work done by Scott, Jason, Asheesh, Nathan Y., Hubert, Peter Miller and many others! Thanks guys.

Now, onto the big business! Let’s get this library added to KDE 4.1, the Gnome desktop, and some other example apps like Eye of Gnome (EOG), Rhythmbox, Inkscape, etc. Is anyone interested in this? We need to get it plugged-in. Currently, KDE folks are planning on including in KDE 4.1, so I’d like to talk more with other about getting it into Gnome apps, and more specific apps to drive usage and development of this app. Also, we want to get liblicense integrated into OpenMoko, as liblicense creation happened in order to enable content license read/write on al our devices…ebooks, mp3s, etc, that have their licenses inside.

BTW, liblicense comes with an awesome command-line program called license. All it does is allow for getting and setting of license information on files on your desktop!!! It handles content right now, but there is no reason it can’t handle other things…like source code, etc…just need developers!!!

Today is Public Domain Day!

Published by
jon
at January 2, 2008 in Notes. 2 Comments

Open Clip Art Library is helping celebreate Public Domain Day!!! All content submitted to the Open Clip Art Library is dedicated into the public domain! Hooray!!! As a community, we need to look at Creative Commons new CC0 project and figure out how to migrate to this once released hopefully in mid-January. Here is more from the original post:

January 1st is Public Domain Day, as noted by copyrightwatch.ca:

Welcome to 2008, and let’s welcome into the Public Domain thousands, indeed millions, of creative works from the collective cultural past of our little planet and its many countries. Yes, it’s January 1st, Public Domain Day in most countries of the world, where copyright runs from the death of the author of a work until the end of the 50th, 70th, or some other year thereafter.

Read the whole post for some notable works falling into the public domain in some jurisdictions.

Everybody’s Libraries also has an informative post about Public Domain Day 2008.

A post from Lessig on Public Domain Day 2004.

The microformats community jumped the gun, announcing a transition of their wiki to the public domain a few days ago.

Creative Commons offers a public domain dedication and we’ve announced that we’ll be upgrading and extending that this year with the CC0 project.

Via Boing Boing.

Happy Anniversary! and Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays

Published by
jon
at December 24, 2007 in Notes. 3 Comments

From a cold Beijing, that is amazingly cleaned up and metropolitan, merry xmas and happy holidays and happy new year!

Most importantly, happy 1 year anniversary to Lu for being married for one year (to me)! Its taken a massive amount of engineering to get here right now and to have some degrees of freedom for our lives, so pretty happy about that overall!

Jon and Lu in Beijing

Now its time for me, my mom, dad, Lu and I to take 24 hour train to Guangzhou…geez, I miss my 14 hour battery now :)

Time to get sentimental and see some amazing country-side while my real imagination comes true. Time to hack on OpenMoko and Open Clip Art Library while on the train :)

BTW, while waiting for my parents at the Beijing International Airport, I decided to break from that activity to find the atm. While walking towards it, out from the domestic terminal came the the worlds tallest man!!!

I stopped dead in my track and like the other Chinese folks around me, pulled out my phone and took a picture!

World’s Tallest Man (normal size image)

Kottke’s Silkscreen Font on Open Font Library

Published by
jon
at December 15, 2007 in Notes. 2 Comments

This week has been crazy! First, I have been working on a couple of huge announcements for projects I manage at Creative Commons for CC’s 5th Birthday Party tomorrow (SAT) in SF (its free and freer). And, Lu and I have rented out our new place we got in SF and are going to spend the next few months in China getting that part of our lives settled.

Kottke's Silkscreen Font

And, on the side, Alex sent me over this cool little piece posted on the web by mihmo saying Jason Kottke had licensed his ever-so-popular Silkscreen font under the Open Font License and even better, he uploaded it to the Open Font Library. Cool!

Here is Kottke’s description of the Silkscreen font:

Silkscreen is best used in places where extremely small graphical display type is needed (duh!). The primary use is for navigational items (nav bars, menus, etc.). However, you can also use it for image captions and the like…wherever small type is needed. Silkscreen also works very well at large point sizes if you’re looking for that chunky, old school computer look so popular with the kids today.

In order to preserve the proper spacing and letterforms, Silkscreen should be used at 8pt. multiples (8pt., 16pt., 24pt., etc.) with anti-aliasing turned off. For larger text (larger than 64pt.), you can use whatever size you want without too much of a problem.

Check it out and use the site! It is the Open Clip Art Library’s sister site…please use it! And, don’t forget to upload your fonts and/or help make better free and open fonts from the ones already posted.

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