NAME¶
wml::des::imgdot - 1pt Dot-Images for Webdesign
SYNOPSIS¶
#use wml::des::imgdot
<: $file = &imgdot($base, $x, $y, $c, $r, $g, $b, $transp, $format); :>
<imgdot [attributes]>
DESCRIPTION¶
Currently (as of HTML 3.2 and 1997 ;_) webdesigners use two commonly known
tricks for creating their layout on webpages: HTML tables and so-called 1pt
Dot-Images. The first one is nicely supported by the WML tag
"<grid>" (see wml::des::
grid(3) for details), the
latter is supported by this "<imgdot>" tag.
The usual purpose of this tag is to create a transparent PNG or GIF image with a
physical size of 1x1 points and a corresponding "<img>" tag
which includes this image with appropriate "width" and
"height" attributes. The visual result is a invisible reserved space
of size "width"X"height". Alternatively this tag can
create the image with the requested size instead of scaling the 1pt image (see
the "noscale" attribute below). This approach is more safe (all
browsers support this) but wastes bandwith and increases page load time.
ATTRIBUTES¶
- base
- Usually the created images are named
imgdot-XxY-rrggbb.png where "XxY" is the dimension of the
image and "rrggbb" the used color (or `"transp"' for
transparent). When you use a "base=foo" attribute, then the
resulting files are named foo.imgdot-XxY-rrggbb.gif. Actually you
can even use a complete filename including a directory prefix, i.e. when
you use "base=../../common/foo" attribute, then the PNG images
are created as ../../common/foo.imgdot-XxY-rrggbb.png.
And for most flexibility when no base is specified and the variable
"IMGDOT_BASE" is defined (usually from within a .wmlrc
file via "-DIMGDOT_BASE~path/to/imgdot/dir/base") it is used.
Use this feature to redirect the created images to a particular directory.
You may also use the variable "IMAGE_BASE" which defines in a
single line all base names for images generated by WML.
- format
- By default, GIF images are generated. This attribute lets
you use an alternate image format (actually only PNG and GIF are
recognized). You may also change the default format with the variable
"IMAGE_FORMAT".
- width
- Specifies the width (x-dimension) of the reserved space in
pixel. Default is 1 pixel.
- height
- Specifies the height (y-dimension) of the reserved space in
pixel. Default is 1 pixel.
- color
- Sets the color of the image. Default is transparent, i.e.
no color. In fact, this is not true, transparency is rendered by choosing
a color which is made transparent, which is white by default. Prepending
an hyphen to the "color" attribute sets the color of the
transparent color.
- align
- Sets the alignment of the image. Default is
`"bottom"'. This alignment is used for the "align"
attribute of the inserted "<img>" tag.
- noscale
- Indicates if the image should be created with 1pt in size
and scaled online by the browser (default) or should be created with the
correct physical size (this option).
- :img:ATTR=STR
- The ``ATTR=STR'' pairs are passed along to
the "<img>" HTML tag.
AUTHOR¶
Ralf S. Engelschall
rse@engelschall.com
www.engelschall.com
Denis Barbier
barbier@engelschall.com
REQUIRES¶
Internal: P1, P2, P3
SEE ALSO¶
HTML <"img"> tag.