qtqml-tooling-svgtoqml.qdoc

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// Copyright (C) 2024 The Qt Company Ltd.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
 
/*!
\page qtqml-tooling-svgtoqml.html
\title svgtoqml
\brief The SVG to QML converter tool
\ingroup qtqml-tooling
 
\c svgtoqml is a command line tool shipped with Qt that converts an SVG document
to a QML file. This QML file can then be used as a component in Qt Quick
applications. The \l{Weather Forecast Example} includes multiple QML files that have been generated
using this tool.
 
\section1 Overview
The \c svgtoqml will convert an SVG file to a QML file which uses Qt Quick primitives. Since
Qt Quick supports scalable vector graphics, the resulting item will be smoothly transformable as far
as this is possible. As a baseline, the tool supports most of the static features of the SVG Tiny 1.2
profile. Certain additional features are supported, determined on a case-by-case basis. Interactive
features and animations are not supported.
 
\section1 Usage
The basic usage of \c svgtoqml is to provide an input file and an output file:
\c{svgtoqml input.svg output.qml}. This will read the \c{input.svg} file and convert it into the
corresponding Qt Quick scene in \c{output.qml}, which can then be used as part of a Qt Quick
application.
 
In addition, it supports the following options:
 
\table
\header
    \li Option
    \li Description
\row
    \li --copyright-statement <string>
    \li Adds <string> as a comment at the beginning of the generated file.
\row
    \li --curve-renderer
    \li Enables the curve renderer backend for \l{Qt Quick Shapes}. This enables smooth, antialiased
    shapes in the scene without multi-sampling, but at some extra cost.
\row
    \li --optimize-paths
    \li Enables optimization of paths before committing them to the QML file, potentially making
    them faster to load and render later.
\row
    \li --outline-stroke-mode
    \li Stroke the outline (contour) of the filled shape instead of the original path.
\row
    \li -t, --type-name <string>
    \li In place of \l{Shape}, the output will use the type name <string> instead. This is
    enables using a custom item to override the default behavior of \l{Shape} items.
\row
    \li -v, --view
    \li Display a preview of the Qt Quick item as it will be generated.
\endtable
 
\section1 Comparison to other options
There are multiple options for including SVG content in Qt Quick. The following will give an
overview of where \c svgtoqml fits into the story.
 
\section2 Comparison to Qt Svg
\l{Qt Svg} is a module which provides a parser and software renderer for SVG files. In addition, it
includes an image loader plugin, so that SVG files can be loaded directly by the \l{Image} element
in Qt Quick. The SVG will then be rasterized and cached at a specified size and redrawing it will
be quite cheap. But zooming into the image without pixelation will involve reloading it at a
different size, which in turn can be expensive.
 
\c svgtoqml (and the \l{VectorImage} component) are alternative ways of rendering the same content.
Once loaded into Qt Quick, transforms can be changed while retaining the geometry data needed to
render the scene in GPU memory. Thus, the vector image can be redrawn at different scales with very
little overhead.
 
If the image size will not change during the life time of the application, however, loading the
SVG as an \l{Image} will be more efficient. In this case, if the SVG is always rendered at a
small subset of possible sizes, consider pre-rasterizing it to an image format which is more
efficient to load, such as \c PNG.
 
\section2 Comparison to VectorImage
The \l{VectorImage} component provides the same basic functionality as \c svgtoqml, but instead of
pregenerating the Qt Quick scene as a QML file, it creates the scene at runtime. This allows loading
SVG files that are not provided at build time and thus allows for more flexibility. Pregenerating
the scenes with \c svgtoqml allows optimizing the scene before it is loaded. Thus, for files that
are available at build time, \c svgtoqml is the preferred option.
 
\section2 Comparison to PathSvg
The \l{PathSvg} component is part of the \l{Qt Quick Shapes} module. It provides a way to define
paths with the syntax used by SVG, where the control points of a path are specified as a string. It
does not support loading SVG files, so it is not a direct alternative to \c svgtoqml. If a complex
SVG contains a specific shape needed by the application, then copying this path description into
\l{PathSvg} may be more convenient than generating the full file.
 
*/