In a nutshell, vpype is an extensible CLI pipeline utility which aims to be the Swiss Army knife for creating, modifying and/or optimizing plotter-ready vector graphics. Let's break this down:
CLI: vpype is a command-line utility, so it is operated from a terminal
Pipeline: vpype operates by assembling 'commands' in sequences in which each command generates or process geometries before passing them on to the next command. Here is an example:
vpype read input.svg scale 2 2 linesort write output.svg
Here the geometries are loaded from a file (
read input.svg
), their size is doubled in both directions (scale 2 2
), paths are reordered to minimize plotting time (linesort
), and an SVG file is created with the result (write output.svg
).Extensible: new commands can easily be added to vpype with plug-ins. This allows anyone to extend vpype with new commands or to write their own generative algorithm.
Plotter vector graphics: vpype focuses on the niche of vector graphics for plotters (such as the Axidraw) rather than being a general purpose vector processing utility.
Swiss Army knife: vpype is flexible, contains many tools and its author is Swiss.
For Windows, an installer is available here (note: plug-ins cannot be installed when using this installation method).
For other platforms, and when plug-ins are required, vpype can be installed from the Python Package Index using the following command (Python 3.8 recommended):
pip install vpype
Check the :ref:`installation instructions <install>` for more details, in particular on how to use a virtual environment (recommended).
If you are of the straight-to-action type, the list of available commands is available in the :ref:`reference <reference>` section. You may also jump to the :ref:`cookbook <cookbook>` section to find a recipe that matches your need.
For a deep understanding of vpype, take a dive in the section on :ref:`fundamentals <fundamentals>`.
Developers can learn more about extending vpype in the :ref:`Creating plug-ins <plugins>` section and the :ref:`API reference <api>`.
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
install
fundamentals
cookbook
plugins
contributing
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
reference
api
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
CHANGELOG
license