Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Centrosome Cycle.svg

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File:Centrosome Cycle.svg, featured[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 21 Dec 2012 at 22:24:01 (UTC)
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Diagram of the centrosome cycle.
There is a version with editable text available that is linked to from the main file. I do not use the default Deja Vu font, as it renders extremely poorly (probably due to overly aggressive hinting).
The reason it rendered so well on your browser is precisely because the text is paths, and therefore unhinted. Hinting in moderation makes the text more readable at small sizes, at the cost of æsthetics, and on windows machines, can result in visible jaggedness and deformities. There are also issues with multiple font weights and kerning(which causes the text to collide with the graphics or get cut off).—Kelvinsong (talk) 20:23, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • As I mentionned, it seems possible to embed the font into the SVG (the way you'd do to embed a PNG) by using base64 encoding, but this seems to require some hack. Otherwise, I think it's better to assess the editable version instead. I'm not fan of the deja vu font either, but I think it's OK. Maybe it's also possible to specify Helvetica and, as a substitute, Arial, which is sure to work on most computer (it's also possible to specify URW Nimbus Sans, an Helvetica clone, which is included in most Linux as far as I know). I think Helvetica renders quite nicely, and Arial is also fine although despised by some people. My other comment about typography issues still stands. - Benh (talk) 21:42, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • I do not know how to embed fonts, and I'm not sure if its legal either. I've heard that it doesn't work with Mediawiki too. I think it's fine to have the text as paths and provide an editable text file alongside it—if you need to make substantial changes(such as a translation) to the text, it will probably radically alter the shape of the text regardless of the font, and if it's just a typo fix, it should not be too difficult to just copy and paste a letter. Most computers also don't have the variety of fontweights like the light versions that I make liberal use of(yes, they are necessary to form a sort of "hierarchy"—to demote less important stuff like alternative names and footnotes).
Again, remember that there is an editable text version that already exists—it's not the prettiest, but I thought the purpose of editable text versions was the textual content, not the typographical setting.—Kelvinsong (talk) 22:20, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don't know where you bought your font, but if it's from adobe, you can embed it in anything. Now I did mention Arial/Helvetica because if you make them render fine, it will render fine on most computer. For instance, I don't have Deja vu on my Mac, and it renders with Times instead, which gives something pretty ugly. SVG allows you to specify a set of font and the order of preference. I don't know how to do it in Inkscape, but it should be possible from a text editor. I will try on your editable version maybe. It is not compulsory that we have the fonts on our machines if we're fine with the PNG generated by Wikimedia servers. And they have all the fonts we mention above (but not the Frutiger one of course ;) ). - Benh (talk) 22:29, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It is called Frutiger. One of those fonts you probably see everywhere(airports, state tests, posters, flyers, textbooks, commercials, signs) but never really recognized. If you don't have it, you can use alternatives called Myriad, CartoGothic, or Segoe UI which are nearly the same. All Windows users already have Segoe, CartoGothic is free to download, and Linux users probably know how to get Myriad and Frutiger. ;)—Kelvinsong (talk) 22:09, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • I think it's too much to ask a user to get a font to see a drawing the way it was intended to be ;) that's why I recommend going with ubiquitous ones (if cannot embed). - Benh (talk) 22:31, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • If all one wants to do is view the picture, then path-text should be fine, and is the best—most browsers do not allow you to select SVG text anyways. If one wants to edit the picture, that's what the editable text version is for.—Kelvinsong (talk) 23:08, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Yes but since the editable version is easier to handle, it's going to be more useful. What do we do if you leave the project? Are we stuck with the editable version which renders very bad because Inkscape produces dirty SVG with plenty of parameters we don't need? So it's better we start using the editable version now and make it clean from scratch. Otherwise it's as good you provide bitmap. By the way, I just successfully embed a font in SVG file. If you are interested and have a UNIX (this includes Mac OS X) and base64 utility, I can let you know how (if you have Windows or other, I don't know...). - Benh (talk) 23:29, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hmmm unfortunately, Inkscape doesn't seem to read embedded font well, and I'm pretty much sure Wikimedia servers use it to render the PNG (it's callable from command line) (or have they already switched to librsvg2?). So if the SVG would render fine in a decent browser, the generated thumbnails won't look as good. Anyways, I've said enough on that. In short, SVG a more pig to handle than anything as of now :). - Benh (talk) 23:42, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
 Support While ease of editing is nice, people can easily just go with the non-text-to-path version for that. Adam Cuerden (talk) 06:18, 14 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmed results:
Result: 8 support, 2 oppose, 0 neutral → featured. /A.Savin 18:55, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
This image will be added to the FP gallery: Non-photographic media/Computer-generated
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