[Bf-committers] GPencil I/O Project: Request to integrate libharu lib to export PDF format

[Antonio Vazquez]

Hi All,



As some of you may already know, for version 2.92 we want to focus on the
Import and Export processes of Grease Pencil (T83190).



Currently, the grease pencil is in some way an "island" in the studios
pipeline and we need to add tools to integrate it. Part of these
integration processes were the work we did to make image traces (2.91) and
shortly, video traces (2.92).



During the contacts that the members of grease pencil team usually have
with 2D studios, they have detected that some commercial software very
important in the studios pipeline does not support the import of SVG, but
of PDF. In addition, the PDF format allows working in many softwares and is
very useful for generating storyboards and work in comics.



Past weeks, I have been working on a new I/O module for grease pencil in C
++ and I already have the SVG Importer (T79875) and the SVG Exporter
(T83191) and PDF Exporter (T83192) working. All work has been done on a
private branch on my PC.



You can see a PDF exporter video here: https://youtu.be/BMm0KeMJsI4



To export to PDF I have used an open source library (libharu
http://libharu.org/) and would need to integrate that library into Blender.
This library is very simple (<1.6 MB on Windows) and allows export to PDF
easily.



Finally, exporting to PDF opens up a world of possibilities and especially
when the new LineArt module will be integrated into Blender.



If we agree to integrate libharu, I can prepare the patch for review the
I/O code I did.



I would like to hear your opinions.



Best Regards,

Antonio Vázquez

Grease Pencil Team