[Typo3-dev] Image Processing API - getting rid of IM

[Michael Johnston]

On 17-Sep-04, at 2:27 PM, Karsten Dambekalns wrote:

Yes, but we run Apache on Linux. Fireworks runs on Windows (and
> MacOSX?). IM is free, what about generating graphics for 100 Websites
> with a single Fireworks license? Setting up another server running
> Windows only for Firworks?

Yes, as far as I know there isn't a linux version. Our plan is to run 
it on an OS X box, which is something we have plenty of. Or it could 
run on linux.

As far as I understand, the license is for an instance of Fireworks on 
a machine.

It's true that it isn't free, and I'm not implying it should replace 
IM, only that it would be a valuable tool in addition to the free 
stuff. At our shop, the designers are not happy with the quality of the 
text IM produces, so we intend to replace this functionality with a 
fireworks engine. The first incarnation will be quite simple, as all we 
require for now is replacing dynamic text in a template, sizing the 
height and width according to the size of the text, and setting colors.


> Again, this is my own view of things. Others might be keen about
> this. So, it might be great to take part in the discussion about
> "getting rid of IM", define an API that allows the actual graphics
> engine implementation to be freely chosen. Then go for FireWorks!

I agree that it would be very worthwhile to define an engine-agnostic 
api. However, the api for driving the Fireworks engine might be 
somewhat orthogonal to that of driving IM, since the natural way to use 
Fireworks is to use templates and script dynamic elements in the 
template, where as with IM you are building up images. You can 
certainly use Fireworks to build up images from scratch, but it seems 
better workflow-wise to me to allow designers to create templates that 
can be scripted.

Cheers!
Michael Johnston
Planetactive