120 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
120 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
# Process Inkscape files and create sets of cards for board games
|
|
|
|
You'll need `inkscape`, `convert`, `montage`, and `gs` in your `PATH`. After installing the
|
|
gem, run `svggvs prereqs` to see what you need installed and, potentially, how to install it.
|
|
|
|
### Using Inkscape in /Applications on Mac OS X
|
|
|
|
If you've installed Inkscape on Mac OS X and want to use that version instead of one from Homebrew,
|
|
you'll need to follow these directions for setting up a shell alias: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MacOS_X#Inkscape_command_line
|
|
|
|
## Initialize a starter project
|
|
|
|
Install the gem globally with `gem install svggvs` and then run `svggvs install <project>` where `project`
|
|
is the name of the directory to place the skeleton project files. You'll get a few files in there:
|
|
|
|
* `template.svg`, an Inkscape template that shoows how to do the basic SVGGVS template setup
|
|
* `data.ods`, a LibreOffice spreadsheet that defines the card data and project settings
|
|
* `Cardfile`, the file SVGGVS uses to find the data file and optionally process the spreadsheet data after-the-fact
|
|
* `Gemfile`, in case you need additional gems. It has SVGGVS added already, but you may also want remote
|
|
data gems like `google_drive`, for instance.
|
|
|
|
## How it works
|
|
|
|
Create an Inkscape SVG file in your project directory. Make sure it has a Source and a Target layer.
|
|
Your card template is made up of sublayers in the Source layer. These layers are copied to the Target layer
|
|
upon processing.
|
|
By default, layers are hidden, and hidden layers are deleted after copying to the Target layer,
|
|
unless they have the following names:
|
|
|
|
* (visible): The layer is always visible, regardless if it's specified in `#active_layers`
|
|
* (protect): The layer will not be deleted if it is hidden. Good for clone sources.
|
|
* (child visible): The layer will be visible if its parent layer is also made visible. Good if you
|
|
break artwork up into multiple layers (inks, colors, shading, etc.)
|
|
* (inject filename.svg): Include all the layers of another SVG file as child layers of this layer.
|
|
Copies some elements from `<defs>` from the injected file!
|
|
|
|
Hiding/showing layers is the way that you make certain card elements appear/disappear on
|
|
different types of cards with with different properties. You can also replace the text in
|
|
text boxes (both standard and flowroot boxes) by giving those boxes a distinct label (under Object Properties).
|
|
|
|
Create a spreadsheet in the same directory, or on Google Drive. This project uses the Roo gem
|
|
to read spreadsheets, so as long as Roo can read it, you're good to do.
|
|
|
|
Give the sheets names so that SVGGVS knows what to do with them:
|
|
|
|
* Put "Card Data" somewhere in the name for SVGGVS to use it as a data source
|
|
* Name it "SVGGVS Settings" to define your project's settings.
|
|
|
|
Under SVGGVS settings, you can currently set the following, as a series of two-column rows:
|
|
|
|
* Card Size: Right now, only one option: Poker
|
|
* Target: Right now, only one option: The Game Crafter
|
|
* SVG Source: The SVG template file
|
|
* Individual Files Path: Where final SVG files go
|
|
* PNG Files Path: Where rendered PNG files go
|
|
* PDF Target: Where the print-n-play PDF goes
|
|
|
|
The following can be manually specified if you don't provide Card Size and Target:
|
|
|
|
* PNG Export Width: The width of the exported card from Inkscape
|
|
* PDF Card Size: The size a card is cropped down to before being placed on the PnP PDF
|
|
* PDF DPI: The DPI of the PDF file
|
|
|
|
The following Card Size and Target settings set these to the following:
|
|
|
|
* The Game Crafter
|
|
* Poker
|
|
* PNG Export Width: 825
|
|
* PDF Card Size: 750x1050
|
|
* PDF DPI: 300
|
|
* Small Square Tile
|
|
* PNG Export Width: 600
|
|
* PDF Card Size: 675x675
|
|
* PDF DPI: 300
|
|
* Square Shard
|
|
* PNG Export Width: 225
|
|
* PDF Card Size: 300x300
|
|
* PDF DPI: 300
|
|
|
|
Create a `Cardfile` in your working directory. It should look something like this:
|
|
|
|
``` ruby
|
|
@session.configure do |c|
|
|
# manipulate the data after reading from the spreadsheet
|
|
# c.post_read_data = proc { |data|
|
|
# data[:active_layers] << "My Cool Layer"
|
|
# data[:active_layers] << /a regular expression/i
|
|
# data[:replacements]['Superpower Text'] << '!!'
|
|
# }
|
|
|
|
# only sheets with this in the title will be read for card data
|
|
# c.card_sheet_identifier = "Card Data"
|
|
|
|
# prepend this PDF to the outputted PDF (useful for game rules)
|
|
# c.prepend_pdf = "rules.pdf"
|
|
|
|
# the cards are landscape, so rotate them counterclockwise
|
|
# after rendering in Inkscape
|
|
# c.orientation = :landscape
|
|
|
|
c.data_source = "data.ods"
|
|
end
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
All of the settings that could be set in your spreadsheet can also be set here. See
|
|
`SVGGVS::Session` for more details.
|
|
|
|
You can also have a `.cardrc` file which is run before loading the `Cardfile`.
|
|
|
|
Process your cards with `svggvs`:
|
|
|
|
* `svggvs merged_file`: Create a big SVG file with all cards as layers. Fine for simple setups, but will create monster files!
|
|
* `svggvs svgs`: Write out individual SVG files.
|
|
* `svggvs pngs`: Write out PNG files after writing out the SVG files.
|
|
* `svggvs pdf`: Write out the merged PnP PDF file.
|
|
|
|
You can also pass in `--cardfile <new file>` to load a different cardfile, say for
|
|
card backs.
|
|
|