Hi guys (as a UK term, "guys" is actually non-gender specific...),

I know this is the lounge, and it's probably not the place to "talk shop", but any advice is appreciated. Funny, derisive, and glib comments are also welcome if you so choose!

I recently posted a question here:
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic32007.htm

It's fairly recent, so there is still chance that some kind-hearted individual may reply. In the mean time, I was wondering if anyone knows of a web technology that would:

1. Allow a user to create an image (for a simple advert or public announcement), with simple text and maybe simple vector shapes and images - preferably with zoom, grid options, drag-and-drop, etc

2. For the size of the image created (dimensions in cm or inches) to determine the price, and hook into a shopping cart.

3. For the image to be visible to the user as it would be printed in the final product, and (this, I think, is the tricky bit) to be sent in a standard vector drawing format back to the company for production.

I know one work-around would be to use Flash and PHP to produce a bitmap, and use a trace package to convert this into EPS or SVG. Ideally though, they will want the process to be as simple and quick as possible, and I'm not sure if a bitmap is going to be too much work for them to bother with.

So, I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the best combination of web and non-web technologies to get this done? (if it isn't the Flash/PHP/Bitmap one already mentioned)
2. Based on 1, where's a good place to start?

This post has been edited by muso: 24 Aug, 2007 - 05:44 AM

Hang on a minute! While I appreciate it being moved to an expert area, I'm not sure if this category covers what I was after: "Web Development > Building Your Site"

The only bit that's connected with web building that I'm concerned with here is how to extract data from the user's preferences that can be subsequently used to create a vector file (which certainly isn't "Building Your Site" in any case), so at least half of the question would be regarding what to do with that data.

The whole idea with putting it into the lounge area was to avoid limiting the scope of experts - the question, after all, was to see if there were any options other than what was suggested - web or otherwise. In short, I wanted a clue where to start, before asking (if I couldn't then work it out myself) a more specific question in a specialised area.

Maybe the title I gave the thread caused some confusion...

At the very least, it would have been nice to be consulted before moving this thread. The only reason I noticed it was because I was trying to find WolfCoder's amusing reply!

This post has been edited by muso: 24 Aug, 2007 - 05:39 AM