Charges
Charges, broadly speaking, are the pictures and shapes and whatever that go on a shield. On one hand, this is a very broad category and the myriad pictures that are charges are what give shields their distinctive character. On the other hand, from a computing point of view, one charge is a lot like another, and trying to deal with lots of them is more of a headache than an enlightening programming challenge.
pyBlazon understands some simple geometric charges, and has various ways to use pictures from anywhere else on the web as charges too, without changing the syntax of the blazon (much). Here are some typical charges:
| Roundel | Annulet | Lozenge | Billet | Crescent |
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Charges are blazoned like we saw with Ordinaries. The shields above were blazoned Or a roundel azure, and so forth. The color follows the charge (in general, adjectives in blazonry tend to follow the nouns, and not precede them as in normal English). And the charge can be colored in more complicated ways, as in the examples in PartyPer.
Charges are often found in groups of more than one charge (of the same kind):
| 2 roundels | 5 annulets | 3 escutcheons | 6 billets | 7 mascles |
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As you can see, the charges are arranged in some fashion when there is more than one of them. There is a default arrangement, at least for fairly small numbers of charges (less than ten, say); the examples here show some of them. You can also specify other arrangements, either by shape or by number per row:
| Or 3 triangles in pale azure | Or 4 escutcheons in bend azure | Or 5 annulets in cross azure | Or 5 billets in fess azure |
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| Or 7 mullets azure 1 4 and 2 | Or 6 fleurs-de-lis azure 2 2 and 2 | Or 5 roundels azure 1 1 and 3 | Or 4 annulets azure 3 and 1 |
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See how it works?
(Just a quick word about mullets: by default, a mullet is a five-pointed star. But you can also say mullet of six points, or mullet of seven points and so on, for any number from three through twelve.)
You can use any image on the web (GIF, PNG, JPG, etc) as a charge and pyBlazon will do its level best. The image will be scaled to the size a charge would be (so, smaller when there are many charges, larger when only one or two, etc), placed in position, and an attempt will be made to color it according to the treatment you specify. Note that all these operations are fraught with potential problems and errors, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
When it comes to scaling the pictures, remember that pyBlazon produces SVG files, "Scalable Vector Graphics." As the name implies, these pictures are intended to be scaled up and down. And because they specify the picture in terms of lines and curves and colors, and not in terms of an array of pixels, you can scale them as large as you want and they will remain sharp, and not get fuzzy like ordinary images do when you make them very large. But if you include an ordinary image as a charge, that image will be subject to normal fuzzing if it is scaled up big. This might not be a problem if the source picture is big to start with, and/or if the size you show the shield is small, but you should be aware of it.
Another thing to remember is that web images are rectangular, but most charges are not. pyBlazon can't generally tell that you want only some of your picture shown, so you might wind up with backgrounds behind your images. There is a way to avoid this, though. You have to make sure the images you are including have their backgrounds transparent. This can be done with GIF and PNG files, though JPG files cannot be made transparent. If a picture has transparent parts, those parts will be properly treated as "missing" and not colored in by pyBlazon when it colors the charge.
Speaking of coloring the charge, this is done by coloring an area with the
treatment you specify (color, fur, complex multicolor treatment, whatever)
and masking it with the image. So the image's own colors still have an
effect; only where the image is white is the color you specify shown
through unaltered. Usually this is what you want, but just realize that is
what's going on. To indicate that an image charge should be shown with no
change to its natural color, blazon its color as "proper", as in Or a
<http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/ww/beta/y3.gif> proper. Technically,
you can get the same result by using argent, but that relies on some
coincidences that might not always be there.
To use an external image as a charge, enclose the URL with <> signs.
Ermine a <http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/ww/beta/y3.gif> proper
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Azure six <http://quality.mozilla.org/files/qmo_firefox_logo.png> proper
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Or two <http://www.kli.org/pics/KLIlogo.gif> per saltire gules and azure
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