README
This is the KanjiVG source repository. It is rather raw, so you probably want to process it before using it. Licence ------- KanjiVG is copyright Ulrich Apel and released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Aline 3.0 licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ See the COPYING file for more details. Description ----------- This repository is made of two directories: SVG and XML, as well as a set of Python scripts. The SVG and XML directories contain the structural and graphical description of each kanji, respectively. Each Kanji is described by a file in both directories, named after its unicode encoding in hexadecimal. Variations of a Kanji are followed by a textual suffix. The XML file describes the different components and strokes that make the kanji in a structured way. In addition, other information such as radicals and phonetic keys are also given as attributes. The SVG file guidelines for the graphical representation of various properties of the Kanji. It is visible as is, but is more interesting when its various layers are taken differently. Layers are accessible through an attribute: - The StrokesPaths layer contains <path> elements that should be drawn in order to render the Kanji. The <path> elements are given following the correct stroke order and match their corresponding <stroke> element in the XML description. - The StrokesNumbers layer contains <text> elements that give a hint as to where the number of a given stroke should appear for maximum visibility. There are other layers but they are mostly here as helpers to allow easy editing within your favorite SVG editor. The official KanjiVG release is a single XML file that merges the information contained within the two sets of files. Its syntax is close and compatible with the individual XML files, but stroke paths and stroke number hints are merged with every path. The Python scripts are here to maintain the data and perform simple processing. - The xmlhandler.py and kanjivg.py files contain a loader for the KanjiVG release file and different in-memory representations. - harmonize-svg.py is used to ensure all SVG files have the same structure and same attributes despite of the editor that has been used to alter them. SVG editors tend to mess a lot with the styles and the structure of the file they manipulate and add plenty of attributes. This script loads the essential information from altered SVG files and regenerate a clean file from the template.svg file. All changed SVG files must be passed through this filter before being commited.