[ABU]  8-oct-2006 - Penpad Widget 1.0

[ABU] 11-oct-2006 -  Just some small corrections (sample code).

[ABU]  2-nov-2006 -  Penpad Widget 1.1 (see below for details).

[ABU]  8-aug-2007 -  Penpad Widget 1.2 (see below for details).

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Penpad is a small widget for free-hand drawing. 

[http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/penpad-1.1/doc/images/aldo.gif]


Penpad provides an interactive control (widget) for simple drawing tasks.

With this control, users can draw their scribble, 
as well as make a signature (autograph) for document exchange.

Penpad is just a simple widget that needs to be integrated with 
a toolbar or other interactive controls in a complete application.

   * Start page:  [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/penpad-1.0/doc/index.html]
   * Download  [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/archive/penpad-1.0.zip]


'''HOW TO USE IT'''

Included demos will show you how to add a penpad to your applications.

Basically, in order to activate a penpad you only need to add 3 lines:

  package require Penpad
  penpad .penbox
  pack .penbox
   
There are few other (optional) commands you can use for customizing the penpad (read below).

   # change the look
  .penbox configure -pencolor white -bg black
   # save your drawings on a file (a .gif)
  .penbox export mywork.gif
   # clean your penpad
  .penbox clean

 
For full details, read the "Penpad Reference" [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/penpad-1.0/doc/penpad.html] within the doc directory.
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'''Wish list (need help)'''

   * provide a floating menu/toolbar for common/useful (?) operations.
   * add cut&paste integrated with clipboard (Desktop-clipboard, not TK-clipboard) '''(available in 1.1 - Windows only)'''
   * add more custom good-looking cursors.
   * "Easy way" for adding a background image. '''(available in 1.1)'''
   * Calligraphy !!! 

Please add your comments below.

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[WJP] If you are REALLY ambitious you could add to the wish list:
   * command to recognize characters and export as string.
[GS] The work is almost done. See [Handwriting Word Recognizer]

[ABU] I'd like to extend '''Penpad''' with such capabilities but, as far as I know ( and I experimented ), applications such as [Handwriting Word Recognizer] require too much time to be 'trained', and often have some unacceptable limitations ( just for example, the above app states that ''Must use continuous stroke. You can't lift the pen to cross a t or dot an i'').

In few words, these apps are too hard to be effectively working.
( Of course, I'll be happy if someone could oppose with an enlightening proof )

Just for the sake of research, I've found some interesting open-source projects:
   * STIHRS [http://stihrs.sourceforge.net/]
   * The [FreeHand Formula Entry System] [http://www.cs.rit.edu/~rlaz/ffes]

I'd like to see if it is possible to 'isolate' the complex recognition engine from these apps, and wrap it up with  really-simple Tcl API. Any volunteer ?

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[Alex Caldwell] Nice widget! Could be very useful. I modified [Handwriting Word Recognizer] after reading your comment above. Now you can have a discontinuous pen stroke, which allows dotting an "i" or
crossing a "t". I had to change the bindings to detect when the pen is lifted off vs. pressed on
the canvas. So it's not quite as fast, since you now have to click the "Recog" button to trigger 
recognition when you are done with your stroke. In the original version, the recognition would be triggered automatically when you lifted the pen off the canvas. 

I tried the STIHRS application above. I actually think [Handwriting Word Recognizer] is just about
as good and doesn't look like the training takes any more time. Maybe it's recognition algorithms
might be applicable to your project. It's all pure Tcl code, so should be easy to integrate and
platform neutral. I didn't download the source for STIHRS - I'm not sure what language is used in the programming, but looks like it might be Windows specific.  

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[ABU] 2-nov-2006

'''Penpad 1.1''' is available
 
   * Start page:  [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/penpad-1.1/doc/index.html]
   * Download  [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/archive/penpad-1.1.zip]

New features:
   * snapshot to file (export) now discards any widget border.
   * copy to clipboard (only on Windows; on other platforms this feature is ignored).
   * import a "penpad" background from a graphic file or from the clipboard (import for clipboard works only on Windows)
   * full support for scrollregion.
   * ability to disable/enable the pen-tracing.

I'd like to add clipboard support for Unix/Mac platform, too. Please add your suggestions if you know how to do it.

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[ABU] 8-aug-2007

'''Penpad 1.2''' is available
 
   * Start page:  [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/penpad-1.2/doc/index.html]
   * Download  [http://web.tiscali.it/irrational/tcl/archive/penpad-1.2.zip]

BUGFIX: 
   * filenames with spaces are now correctly handled.
New features:
   * added -transparency option to export method
   * changed license (less restrictive)

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[Category Widget]