Perl Graphics Programming (Paperback)

~ Shawn Wallace (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In summary, I think this is a very well-written and helpful book. I learned quite a lot from it quite rapidly. Someone with a graphics problem to be solved (and quite a few other problems as well) will soon be put on the right track with the aid of this book as to what packages to try and what lines to follow. I am sure I will refer to it frequently in the future." - John Collins, news@UK

Product Description

Geared toward Perl users and webmasters, Perl Graphics Programming focuses on open-source scripting programs that manipulate graphics files for use on the Web. The book demystifies the manipulation of graphics formats for newcomers to the Web with a practical, resource-like approach. You'll begin with a tour of the most common web graphic file formats--PNG, JPEG, GIF, SWF, SVG, Postscript and PDF--then you'll explore the most powerful tools and Perl modules available for manipulating these graphics, such as GD, PerlMagick, and GIMP. Included in this part of the book is a thorough description of the Ming module for creating on-the-fly Flash files. Next, a "cookbook" section includes practical, all purpose recipes: GIF animation, generating images within a dynamic application, communicating between SWF front-end and Perl back-end, XSLT transformations, compression, and much more. Perl Graphics Programming provides all the tools you need to begin programming and designing graphics for the Web immediately.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600219X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002190
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #788,347 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars many supported formats, March 12, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Wallace explains how Perl has evolved to have an impressive image reading and writing ability, for the most common graphics formats of GIF, JPEG, PNG and X bitmap. A lot of the heavy lifting has been done for you in two modules - GD and ImageMagick. The chapters on those expose you to simple subroutines that you'd expect in any graphics package.

But Wallace extends the scope to the usage of Postscript and PDF modules. Some Perl developers recognised the need to output in these formats, for compatibility with much professional documentation. So here too, you can take advantage of a lot of prior sweat.

For completeness, the book also has a section on supported vector graphics and animation. Specifically how to use SVG and Flash in Perl. This is perhaps a more specialised need than the previous modules. But good to have here, for some of you.

It should be noted that the book is not really about teaching graphics programming, per se. Wallace assumes you're already up on this. Rather, the book is about the modules and subroutines that give you the elementary graphics implementation vocabulary.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only Relevant Book I Could Find, October 18, 2008

By	Robert J. Ackermann - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was attempting to write some Perl scripts for graphics manipulation in Linux, and could not find much in the way of relevant documentation. This book supplied the information that I needed.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Google has more!, April 26, 2009

By	Kate Yoak (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have decided, this is the last book on software tools I'll ever buy. It didn't have anything that I didn't find while googling the subject. There are no brilliant insights from the author or cookbook recipes that save you time. At best, it's an abridged collation of internet sources on the subject.