[aprssig] New Icons for APRS software?

[Stephen H. Smith]

On 5/22/2014 9:35 AM, Andrew Pavlin wrote:
> Hessu,
>
> Is there a way to get the new symbols in a vector format other than proprietary Adobe Illustrator? Such as .svg or some other public vector format?
>
> Since my application rotates the icons for mobile stations to orient with the direction of travel, the symbols would probably look better if drawn in the appropriate rotation instead of rasterized and then rotated (as is done now with the existing raster images).
>
> Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO
> author of YAAC
>
\


That's fairly straightforward....   I just recently transformed some .AI images 
to .SVG .  Both recent versions of Corel DRAW and Abobe Illustrator can take 
.AI images and SAVE AS to .SVG, .DWG/,DXF (AutoCAD), .WMF (Windows Metafile), 
.EPS, etc.



Another intriguing possibility for vector-based source images is to export them 
as individual characters in a Postscript, TrueType or OpenType font.  These 
font formats are actually an array of tiny scalable vector images.

Since the APRS symbols are transmitted and referenced by single alphanumeric 
characters, one could have a specialized non-text symbol font (similar to 
Dingbats or MS WingDings) where the symbols have a one-to-one correspondence to 
the ASCII codes used in APRS packets.

There would be some limitations:

1)   The system hosting the APRS app would have to have a scalable font system 
as part of the OS (TrueType, Postscript, etc).

2)   Characters in fonts are normally a single color + transparent background. 
  This would yield APRS symbols that looked like the white-only icons in 
Microsoft's "Modern" a.k.a. "Metro" interface.

3)   Rotating text characters (which is what these would esentially be could be 
complex on some platforms.