[Sugar-devel] SVG performance

[Bernie Innocenti]

Sascha Silbe wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 08, 2008 at 07:51:54AM -0500, Walter Bender wrote:
> 
>> I think the solution may be as simple as going back to GIF files.
> Please don't. Using vector graphics helps scaling Sugar to non-XO devices.

We had a quick look today, and it seems Gdk.PixBuf.new_from_file():

http://library.gnome.org/devel/gdk-pixbuf/stable/gdk-pixbuf-file-loading.html#gdk-pixbuf-new-from-file


With some instrumentation, it was apparent that it takes a long time
to render some SVG files.  One in particular took half a second on a
laptop with a fast processor!  A visual inspection of the problem
files reveals they mostly contain just a <path> with a few dozen
points in it.

It seems GDK supports SVG through a loader plugin.  Can we put the
blame on librsvg for this slowness?  Are there alternative SVG
renderers we could try?

-- 
   // Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
 \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://www.sugarlabs.org/