Graphics::Primitive(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation				  Graphics::Primitive(3pm)

NAME

       Graphics::Primitive - Device and library agnostic graphic primitives

SYNOPSIS

       Graphics::Primitive is a device and library agnostic system for creating and manipulating various graphical elements such as Borders,
       Fonts, Paths and the like.

	   my $c = Graphics::Primitive::Component->new(
	     background_color => Graphics::Color::RGB->new(
		 red => 1, green => 0, blue => 0
	     ),
	     width => 500, height => 350,
	     border => new Graphics::Primitive::Border->new( width => 5 )
	   );

	   my $driver = Graphics::Primitive::Driver::Cairo->new(format => 'SVG');

	   $driver->prepare($c);
	   $driver->finalize($c);
	   $driver->draw($c);

	   $driver->write($filename)

DESCRIPTION

       Graphics::Primitive is library agnostic system for drawing things.

       The idea is to allow you to create and manipulate graphical components and then pass them off to a Driver for actual drawing.

CONCEPTS

       The root object for Graphics::Primitive is the Component.  Components contain all the common elements that you'd expect: margins, padding,
       background color etc.

       The next most important is the Container.  Containers are Components that can hold other Components.  Containers have all the attributes
       and methods of a Component with the addition of the layout_manager attribute for us with Layout::Manager.

       Another important Component is the Canvas.  The Canvas differs from other components by being a container for various Geometry::Primitive
       objects.  This allows drawing of arbitrary shapes that do not fit existing components.

DRAWING LIFECYCLE

       After creating all your components, there is a lifecycle that allows them to do their internal housekeeping to prepare for eventual
       drawing.  The lifecycle is: prepare, layout and pack.  Detailed explanation of these methods can be found in Component.

PREPARATION

       Graphics::Primitive::Component has a "prepared" flag.  This flag is set as part of the "prepare" method (shocking, I know).  If this flag
       is set, then subsequent calls to "prepare" are ignored.	Containers also have a prepare flag, but this flag is not set when calling
       "prepare".  A Container's flag should be set by the layout manager.  More information may be found with Layout::Manager.

INSPIRATION

       Most of the concepts that you'll find in Graphics::Primitive are inspired by Cairo <http://cairographics.org>'s API and CSS
       <http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/>'s box model.

AUTHOR

       Cory Watson, "<gphat@cpan.org>"

CONTRIBUTORS

       Florian Ragwitz

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       Many of the ideas here come from my experience using the Cairo library.

COPYRIGHT &; LICENSE
       Copyright 2008-2010 by Cory G Watson.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.12.3							    2011-06-02						  Graphics::Primitive(3pm)