need advice for an online logo creator

[discodeano]

Hi,

I need some design advice. I am building a flash website that will allow visitors the ability to choose from a series of 20 fonts, choose a colour, type in a title/phrase, and then optionally choose a background vector graphic. Once complete, the flash movie I need to export that as an eps. I do believe this is possible in flash. Can anyone confirm this is possible and if so and add any tips on how to do it?

Cheers,
Dean

[indivision]

you should be able to do that with some combination of flash and a server side script that has access to libraries for creating the eps.

im not 100% on eps specifically but you can use PHP to generate all kinds of images.

[rafiki55]

It sure is possible, but I don't know how.

2advanced did it for http://www.logoyes.com/

http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...hlight=logoyes

[zakp0]

It's actually rather easy. An existing database of words, categories, etc, and let the person decide till he finally comes to a conclusive logo that he likes. Then using a server side script (PHP's NOT your best bet), create a dynamic image out of it.

As far as I know, PHP is not able to dynamically create EPS files. You'll have to use some other server side language, ASP might work, I remember seeing this product by a website that would let you upload files like PSD, EPS, Flash etc and it would generate images out of it, so this might mean that ASP can do vice versa (link - http://www.websupergoo.com/ig-simple.htm), I think it let's you generate it too.

Once generated, it's a simple matter of letting em download the file.

Damn...now I'm getting ideas. Thanks for that.

[indivision]

http://pslib.sourceforge.net/ (probably other better suited libraries around but this is one example)

PHP is still your best bet.

[it looks like this is more widely used for this task in conjunction with php: http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php ]

[zakp0]

PHP is still your best bet.

ASP looks like it would be better if he wants EPS. Otherwise, sure, PHP's your best bet.

[indivision]

why would ASP be better for that?

[zakp0]

I browsed through the two links you provided, and didnt see anything about EPS there, although the link I got (to an ASP resource) actually let's you generate EPS files, therefore ASP's his best bet.

No? :\

[indivision]

i dont know, it was right on the front page: http://www.imagemagick.org/script/formats.php (though you're right that it just reads. see below.)

bottom line is that you can do this with either language. unless [discodeano] is more familiar with one or the other language, he should go with PHP as there are more public resources and free support software available. the idea that ASP does this any better than PHP is not true.

i have built an application that builds pdf's dynamically with php. the eps version, i imagine, would be quite similar.

[as i understand it, eps, like postscript is a plain-text file with directions for building the resulting image. they are actually programming languages themselves. both asp and php should be able to write those files directly. the purpose of the libraries would be to either easily read and display eps files or to provide a simple interface for making them. most developers probably just learn about the eps language and write what is needed directly.]

[Musicman]

Hi,

one more comment: you may find some swf to xxx converters, however your source data is not an swf but just info about which shapes and which texts to put where in the completed design. So probably any solution would be made up of pieces (code to add text in a specific font, code to add one of several predefined images) matching the particulars of the logo creator.
Even if you were to create a self contained swf as output, you would probably do so with a new movie that contains all of the available items as attachable objects.
If your goal was pdf instead of eps, I would imagine writing eps first and then run it through ghostscript, to save the hassles of generating pdf

Musicman