[Blindmath] Using color in SVGDraw01

[Richard Baldwin]

P.S. I forgot to mention that the individual described below is making very
heavy use of color in his drawings.

Dick Baldwin

On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 7:03 PM, Richard Baldwin <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>wrote:

> The most recent four or five versions of SVGDraw01 have supported color for
> strokes and fills. I haven't said much about that because I was under the
> impression that it wouldn't be of much interest to blind users. However, on
> October 6, John Gardner of ViewPlus told us the following:
>
> "Now a comment on color.  There is an undocumented feature in all ViewPlus
> printer drivers that permit one to substitute a tactile pattern of your
> design for a color.  I intend to write an article for Access2Science
> documenting use of this feature - which you can then use with SVG drawings
> created with SVG Draw."
>
> Also, I have had another experience that has a bearing on color, which I
> will relate to you later in this message.
>
> If you would like to add color (or even specific shades of gray) to your
> drawings, do the following:
>
> 1. Create your shapes as usual, probably setting the opacity for strokes
> and fills to 1.0 (Setting to less than 1.0 causes the color to be partially
> transparent. This can be interesting for overlapping colors, and the white
> background is a color.)
>
> 2. Pull down the Advanced menu and select Set Attributes (Alt+Shift+S)
>
> 3. Mark one or more shapes of interest in the list of shapes (or check the
> checkbox to select all shapes)
>
> 4a. For stroke color, tab down and check the stroke checkbox. Then type the
> name of your color into the text field that will open up. (More on color
> names later.)
>
> 4b. For fill color, check the fill checkbox and type the name of your color
> into the text field that will open up.
>
> 5a. For stroke opacity, check the stroke-opacity checkbox and enter a value
> between 0 and 1.0 in the text field  (0 is transparent and 1.0 is opaque).
>
> 5b. For fill opacity, check the fill-opacity checkbox and enter a value
> between 0 and 1.0 in the text field.
>
> 6. Tab down and press the Set attributes button
>
> 7. Do it again for other shapes and other colors if desired.
>
> 8. Save the file, read John's article on Tiger color and have fun.
>
> The webpage at http://www.december.com/html/spec/colorsvg.html lists the
> names of 147 different colors that should work with SVGDraw01. Be sure to
> spell the names of the colors correctly. Otherwise, the SVG processor will
> probably revert to black.
>
> Now back to that other experience I mentioned earlier. I have been
> exchanging email messages with an individual with low vision who never
> before had a tool that made it possible for him to draw with any degree of
> accuracy. He is now drawing and having a lot of fun. He may be creating
> drawings using SVGDraw01 and then editing the SVG output file to incorporate
> features that I haven't purposely included in SVGDraw01, such as animation.
> If so, he is not only enjoying being able to draw, he is also learning about
> XML/SVG in the process.
>
> Dick Baldwin
> --
> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>
> Professor of Computer Information Technology
> Austin Community College
> (512) 223-4758
> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
>



-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/