[GRASS-dev] Re: where to put north arrow images for map composer

[Hamish]

Anna wrote:
> I would like to add north arrow to map composer
> (as eps instruction).
> Where should the images be placed? In
> ps/ps.map/decorations/, there
> are some related images (compass_... .eps) so what
> about ps/ps.map/decorations/north_arrows/ ?

since there there are not many decoration files in
ps/ps.map/decorations/ I would put them there. Once
there was >12 eps files or so there I would consider
to split things up (the platoon rule), but as there
are only 3 (and the rate of new ones has been nil)
I'd consider splitting it up into a bunch of sub-
directories to be premature and just making it
overly complex for no benefit.


Depending on the graphical complexity, also
consider adding them as grass symbols, so that they
could be used seamlessly both by the regular GUI
map window and the ps.map composer. (and a much
wider audience)

there are already 2 north arrows, 2 compasses, and
4 other generic arrows as grass symbols:
  http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/IconSymbols


A long standing todo is to allow d.graph to read in
SVG files, so that we can e.g. reuse and contribute
to a central osgeo collection for symbols, along
with qgis, etc. I translated qgis's fish symbol to
a grass one by converting the original Bézier curve
definitions to x,y coords by hand, but really a
first step would be to allow those to be converted
on the fly.

Complicated ones like Jorge's compass_exterior.eps
and interior are best done in EPS of course. (I'd
still like to see a half-arrow-left (\harpoonleft)
pointing north added onto those 2 eps files:

 /|
/ |
  |
  |
  |

alternately, an svg2gsym or similar tool to convert
symbol formats back and forth could make things
much more interesting.


see also other collections:
 http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/IconSymbols#North_Arrows

svg -> eps can be done directly from the command
line with inkscape, btw.


regards,
Hamish