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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Deciphering Greek

I have been reading the comments posted on the different discussion boards since posting the message from Doug. Many of you are a little confused with the message and frankly, I don't blame you. When I first read his email, it all went over my head too. Then Doug wrote to me again. This time, in layman's terms, so that my non-technical brain can understand what that was really about.

You see, each of the Lettering Delights' SVG file contains these fantastic code that is embedded inside. Just take any one LD SVG that you own and open it in Notepad. See all that code? Yup. There's something beautiful in it. The trouble is, to make good use of these info we really need the programs (like MTC, and SCAL) to be able to harvest it.

Currently in MTC, we have to do a "To Each Its Own" when we import a LD SVG in order to separate the layers. Imagine skipping that step and being able to have the program automatically separate the layers of the SVG as soon as it is being imported. I know, I know, it's just saving you a step but still, wouldn't it be cool to skip that one step and be able to dive straight into creating with the SVG?

Or imagine having a search feature in SCAL or MTC so that you can easily locate that particular SVG that you have to cut out today. For example, say, you want to find a ladybug cut file from your growing collection of LD SVGs. If that search feature exists, all you need to do is to type in "ladybug" and the program will be able to go through the embedded keywords inside each SVG and retrieve every one that contains "ladybug". That way, you can easily find the SVG you need.

Or to have the program retrieve any instructions or comments that are embedded from the SVG file so that you can read the tips or hints associated with that SVG project.

Or to read the embedded usage and copyright information.
 
Since Lettering Delights have embedded so much information in each SVG file, they might even be able to embed a raster or bitmap image with the cut lines associated with it. This would be awesome for any future SVGs that are intended for print-and-cut! How cool will it be if MTC is able to retrieve that info too!

Unlike many of the other SVG files that are currently on the market, Lettering Delights have included A TON of information in their files. Unfortunately, all these info isn't very useful to the end-users right now because there is currently no programs that is able to harvest it. Perhaps in time to come, Andy(MTC) or Todd(SCAL) can add in some functionality in their programs so that all these embedded info can be used. When that happens, I'm sure we'll all have so much more fun cutting and creating than we do now. Without cartridges. ;-)







9 comments :

  1. That helps to explain it, thanks Jin!

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  2. Isn't this fantastic. And as I said so forward thinking of LD. This holds endless possibilities for the future with SVG cut files.

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  3. Thank you Jin! It will be neat to see the future of these programs (MTC and SCAL). And thank you LD for pushing the companies forward instead of waiting around for them and then changing your files to catch up.

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  4. Thanks so much for helping to explain! Makes lots of sense now! thanks, Jin!

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  5. Dear Jin,
    After reading your blog yesterday, I forwared a copy of the information to Andy at MTC. Hopefully, if we all so the same, he will see that we would love to be able to utilized the encoded information from LD, making the cutting process that much richer and easier. I'm still a newbie and continue to get frustrated with some of the simplest transfers from LD files to Cricut cut. It would be GREAT to have it simplified and more automatic. Thanks for the info!
    Sally in Stockton

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  6. Thanks for taking the time to explain this Jin - I totally didn't understand what it was all about before! Hopefully Andy will be on board soon and I can love my MTC even more! =)

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  7. Thanks for providing clarification. I love that Lettering Delights is ahead of the game and hope SCAL has some of these features in the future. I use SVGs for most of my creations too. If you are interested in seeing my creations, please stop by my new blog sometime. http://www.inlovewithabug.blogspot.com

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  8. Those are awesome ideas! I am new to your blog so I first want to say thanks for making it!

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  9. Jen, great information, just hope that Andy or Todd are paying attention :)

    Hugs!

    Carmen L

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