Posted by Tomi Holger Engdahl on 09/13/05 13:13

I am looking for a solution to add on-line drawing tool
to a phpBB discussion board.

The idea would be that the users can draw their own
simple drawings with the tool and attach them easily
as images in the discussion. The idea is to easily
add small drawings to the postings.

The drawign tool should be easy to use and learn.
It should be easily integrate to the phpBB system.
It should work in the users web browser without
needing lots of fancy plug-ins and such...
Should work with as many browsers as possible
(preferably at least IE, Mozilla Firefox, Opera,
operating system independent, so that Windows and Linux
users can use it).
The image drawn with the tool should be visible
on the discussion as standard images without
need for any plug-ins for the discussion board users.

The solution could be for example some Java
applet or some Javascrip DHTML hack.
The drawing program style could be avector
drawing tool (for example SVG based) or
bitmap image editing program.
The drawing coudl be stored in vector or
bitmap format to server... but the end
result should be that the drawing are
viewagle as normal graphics pictures
on the phpBB discussion (gif, jpeg or png).
There is no need for full selection of colors,
drawing with fidex 16 olors woudl be well OK.
The program shoudl support a library of
ready made graphics symbols that can be used
as part of drawing (like Dia graphics libraries).
The symbols would include electronics / electrical
symbols etc.. (can be built in or if symbols can be
easily put to system that is OK as well).

I have looked a little bit, but I have not found
anythin that would fuufill all my needs nicely.

Solution would be preferably free open source
(some inexpensive commercial solution would also be considered).

I am ready to do some server side coding to make the
system work if anyone knows parts that could make
such system.

One idea that comes to my mind is to have just
a simple bitmap editor program. The user gets
when he/she starts a graphics image that contains
the needed symbol plus marked are where to write the image.
When user saves the drawing, the server gets the full edited
image with everything, and cuts the part inside drawign area
that is then saved as the drawn picture (the symbol library
etc... parts are cut out on final result).

Any ideas are wellcome.

--
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at
http://www.epanorama.net/

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