Last year Inkscape got some good work done over the summer, thanks in part to Google's Summer of Code. After talking to Chris DiBona at SCALE this year, I realized that it is a good time to start coming up with projects for next year's Sumer of Code. Last year I was the mentor for David Yip's work on integrating and improving Inkscape's Jabber whiteboard functionality, whoever comes this year has big shoes to fill. Here's an idea for a summer project with Inkscape:
Summer of Code: Adding bitmap capabilities to Inkscape
While the purpose of Inkscape is to be a vector editor, design in the real world requires dealing with bitmaps too. Inkscape can import the bitmaps, and have them as full canvas objects, but there is no significant bitmap operations in Inkscape. While there is no reason for Inkscape to replicate the functionality of The GIMP, it would be desirable to have a few simple operations built into Inkscape.
This project will use the Inkscape extensions system to add a series of bitmap effects. The majority of the effects will achieved through the integration of the ImageMagick bitmap handling libraries. These effects can then be run on bitmap graphics within Inkscape.
Project Timeline:
- Implement first effect. This involves building Inkscape, linking in ImageMagick and getting one effect written (6 weeks)
- Implement remaining effects within ImageMagick (3 weeks)
- Build a test suite for operations and complete all Doxygen documentation of code (3 weeks)
Of course, people are welcome to come up with their own ideas for projects. I just thought I'd get the ball rolling.
posted Feb 20, 2006 | permanent link
