[BioPython] ReportLab, graphics formats and SVG

[Dinu Gherman]

Hi all,

sniffing a bit on BioPython.org again I found a reference
to the ReportLab package on the download page:

  http://www.biopython.org/Download/

which suggests you can use it only for creating PDF files.
I'd like to point out that you can also use it to generate
EPS and basically all bitmap formats that PIL knows about.

A few weeks ago, in version 1.14, I've also added support
for creating simple SVG files. All these, plus PDF can be
conveniently created from the same API and be rendered at 
the end into the different formats.

Maybe this should be stated more clearly on the page above
as it is 1) closer to the real capabilities of the package
and 2) might be interest to larger BioPython user subgroups?

Also, please note that I've released a Python SVG import
module, svglib.py, version 0.5, that can be downloaded
from:

  http://python.net/~gherman/#svglib

It currently handles mostly basic shapes (with cubic Be-
zier paths being slightly postponed). Unfortunatly, a web
search has not indicated much relevant bio data rendered 
into SVG, yet, but maybe this will change...

Thanks,

Dinu

--
Dinu C. Gherman
ReportLab Consultant