Online Design Program

[SPrelewicz]

I've been assigned to write an online application that allows users to create a design of a sign. The user would pcik a clip art, add some text and choose a font and font color, etc. I want the user to be able to move the clipart and text around to put it exactly where they want. Is Perl capable of this type of thing, and if so, what modules should I be looking at?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[siberian]

You want either Image::Magick or the NetPBM libraries.

Either way, this is not a perl issue per se, you want to use other software (like ImageMagick and NetPBM) and then the perl libraries can manipulate these items programmatically.

So, Perl could wrap these up for you in a nice web interface or the like.

 

[SPrelewicz]

Aha, got it. Thanks for the quick reply. I will look into these and let you know of any further questions. TY.

Scott

 

[SPrelewicz]

How about GD, will this do what I want?

 

[siberian]

Probably. I tend to use ImageMagick and NetPBM so I can not say for certain. Try it and see!

 

[tanderso]

GD is much less complete as an image manipulator than ImageMagick and is better suited to making graphs and such. The problem I see is that it looks like you want people to be able to drag around elements on their browser (you said "online" application, right?), and a server-side only solution will not provide that. You could try a combination of Perl on the server and PerlScript or JavaScript on the client. Otherwise, the manipulation will be relatively static, perhaps allowing positioning via imagemaps. Something else you might consider as a front-end would be Flash.

Sincerely,

Tom Anderson
Order amid Chaos, Inc.

http://www.oac-design.com

 

[SPrelewicz]

Yes, that is what I wanted and what is the source of my confusion, how to let the user drag the objects. I have considered flash, or a Java Applet for this. Or, I may just not let the user drag.

 

[siberian]

I recommend flash as well for the user interface. Its much simpler to develop and many of the things you want already exist out there if you google a bit.

 

[SPrelewicz]

Great, that's where I'll go. I'll need to learn some Flash Script, but what's wrong with learning new skills