Text>Merge extension: merge in place option

[Alex Farlie]

Using Inkscape 0.91 r13725 and Windows XP.

The attached file demonstrates an issue with the Extensions->Text->Merge script.

The 2 lines of text in the centre of the drawing were split into lines from a single text object specfically created so as to avoid the issue of manual kerns..

Using Extensions->Text-> Merge with the default settings generated the text at the upper left of the attached.

It's wrong because
i) It's upside down - rendering the first line below the second.
ii) It's merged to the Origin of the SVG, as opposed to the locally defined page origin, or to the original text baseline of the first text object selected.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Thanks for taking the time to file a report!

i) Not a bug in my humble opinion. The default value for the Text direction option is Left to right, so the bottom line -that is also the leftmost line- is first selected. Setting the option to Top to bottom should work as expected.
Could you please confirm?

ii) If I remember correctly, it was intentional so that the generated test doesn't interfere too strongly with the text on the page. If you need something else we can change the report into a request for enhancement.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Well what I actually wanted to do was merge the split items, back into one 'in place' retaining the positioning and style as far as possible. (I appreciate that it might not be possible to do 100% owing to limitations in the SVG format but it would be useful when sorting out imported EPS/PDF for example.

Maybe a wishlist item for a "Merge in place.." extension?

Thanks.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Thanks for the explanation BTW, perhaps this is something that ideally should be documented when the manual is revised?

(Note to self, File a Bug suggesting documentation errors/ enhancements should be tracked as well.)

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

> Maybe a wishlist item for a "Merge in place.." extension?

Or just a Merge in place option in the same extension. I'm going to change the report's title accordingly.
Thanks for your suggestion.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

First test with a very basic merge in place feature. The text is placed on the first object selected by the extension.
Some improvements in progress, with a Remove merged text option to get rid of original texts.

Don't hesitate to test (just uncompress the archive in your share/extensions folder -save your original text-merge.py and inx files first!) and comment.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Does exactly what I wanted it to in terms of merging in place, provided you select items in the right order and the right merge options :) (So that parts solved.)

(It still does the unexpected upside down merge sometimes (your comments previously about this noted), and I'm not sure how you could resolve that easily without doing some kind of x, y sort of text-spans, based on merge options and other context such as user locale (i.e English is left to right, top to bottom typically..) , and having options to use the topmost/leftmost etc as the reference for the combined text object (like with the Align and Distribute tools).... Perhaps that's another set of options that needs to be considered?.

Text is hard to get right I've been told, but thanks for listening.

Other options thought about in analysing the above:-
- "Scrap existing vertical distribution and apply a standard line spacing of <paramater>" (Each Text item selected becomes a "line" ie Tspan in the new object, a standard linespacing being applied in the overalll text object..

There are probably other options that should be considered.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Also this script seems to have issues when merging inside a group. It's a start but certain cases need to be looked at more closely.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

We have now reached feature and string freeze for 0.92, so I'm linking the report to the next milestone.