[xep-support] Linking From/To SVG Graphics

[W. Eliot Kimber]

Nikolai Grigoriev wrote:
> Eliot,
> 
> 
>>I haven't had a chance to experiment with the new SVG support in XEP,
>>but I'm wondering what, if any, support it provides for creating links
>>out of and into SVG graphics?
> 
> 
> Currently, there is no support for links in SVG. There are serious technical
> issues to prevent its easy implementation: the concept of linking is just
> too different in SVG and in PDF/PostScript, and full implementation
> is impossible (e.g one cannot have a non-rectangular hot area in PDF).

I can see that that could be a limitation (although even that can be 
finessed by tiling small rectangles to approximate a non-rectangular area).

> 
>>For example, I would like to be able to
>>make items in a flow chart links to either supporting documentation or
>>other flow charts. By the same token, I would like to be able to link to
>>specific graphic objects.
> 
> 
> It looks very appealing indeed. We will see how it can be done; but in any
> case, it is not going to appear soon - too many things have to be rearranged
> inside XEP.

I can understand that.

If there was a way to get some sort of rendition-time hook in order to 
add link processing, that would be cool, although I'm not entirely sure 
what that would mean. For example, I could provide external link 
processing such that, given the ID of an SVG graphic object, I would 
know that it is linked (via an external link) to something else, and 
possibly be able to give XEP enough info so it could then synthesize the 
appropriate PDF link anchor.

That is, if XEP knew how to make an anchor given an SVG object ID and 
target resource, I would be able to provide the resource itself. Thus it 
would not be necessary for SVG itself to provide any direct linking 
mechanism (which it really shouldn't have to do anyway).

I would probably be happy with a solution that required that link 
anchors be explicitly-defined (in the SVG) rectangular shapes (that is, 
as part of my SVG authoring task I would create additional anchor 
objects as overlays or something).

Cheers,

E.
-- 
W. Eliot Kimber, eliot at isogen.com
Consultant, ISOGEN International

1016 La Posada Dr., Suite 240
Austin, TX  78752 Phone: 512.656.4139

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