new graphics program
I am... not an artist. I occasionally have to mess around with a photograph in Gimp, to crop it or resize it or convert the format, but that's basically the extent of my graphics skill.
Yesterday, for my other blog, I decided I wanted a version of the standard RSS feed icon (
) in the color scheme of the site. It turns out that using SVG, a vector graphics format, this was absolutely ridiculously easy. Because every aspect of the shapes and colors is saved descriptively, rather than as individual pixels, changing one aspect of the description (like the color in a gradient) yields a new result that is 100% correct, and gorgeous.
Hence...
(I have generated a PNG of the image for display purposes)
Working in SVG required abandoning my trusty Gimp, as vector graphics are simply not its model for work; Inkscape, another open source graphics program (specifically for vector graphics), came to my rescue. There are still plenty of little odd polish issues and bugs, but overall I was pretty impressed with the app.
Yesterday, for my other blog, I decided I wanted a version of the standard RSS feed icon (
) in the color scheme of the site. It turns out that using SVG, a vector graphics format, this was absolutely ridiculously easy. Because every aspect of the shapes and colors is saved descriptively, rather than as individual pixels, changing one aspect of the description (like the color in a gradient) yields a new result that is 100% correct, and gorgeous.
Hence...
(I have generated a PNG of the image for display purposes)
Working in SVG required abandoning my trusty Gimp, as vector graphics are simply not its model for work; Inkscape, another open source graphics program (specifically for vector graphics), came to my rescue. There are still plenty of little odd polish issues and bugs, but overall I was pretty impressed with the app.