Barcode Plugin Development

This article is part of the Ongoing Discussions series.

Installation • Usability • MacOS • Fonts • Other

This page is intended to provide a collaboration point to coordinate improvements to the barcode plugin which is based on Barcode Writer in Pure PostScript (BWIPP). Please extend, debate and discuss as appropriate.

The BWIPP wiki provides some recommendations for frontends.

Scribus tasks

• Create a new type of Scribus Barcode Item:
  • The input is currently a vector item that can be ungrouped. Ungrouping makes little sense because it typically changes the relationship between the barcode elements, spoiling the meaning of the barcode.
  • The imported object should initially have a fixed aspect ratio. Only occasionally does it make sense to re-scale the imported image since nominal symbol sizes are standardised.
  • Ideally, double-clicking on such an item would bring up the barcode dialogue (not the Group Tab of the PP), so that a user can change the data, and the barcode drawing would be updated after clicking an "Update" button. For this, Scribus must store the value behind the created barcode: codeEdit, optionsEdit, lnColor, bgColor, txtColor (Checkbox states unnecessary as encoded in optionsEdit).

• Allow the barcode plugin to be driven from ScripterNG.

Collaborative tasks

The following tasks require some degree of coordination between Scribus and Terry Burton, the author of BWIPP.

• Extend the barcode.ps metadata to describe the options that are available for each encoder so that any frontends such as the Scribus plugin can be light on compiled in data and enhanced with new format by simply replacing the barcode.ps file. [IN PROGRESS UPSTREAM - https://github.com/bwipp/postscriptbarcode/tree/master/libs]