I have indeed been thinking about this.
One angle is image compression. Imagine the ability to combine text, graphics,
images and fractal texture gradients. This would allow one to compose large
and rich images which nonetheless can be sent in remarkably few bytes. This
is very important for the huge number of people who could access the Web
from home over the phone line.
Another advantage of composite images is that they allow one to circumvent
the problems when zooming images. Photographic images tend to scale well
but text and line art on images screws up when reduced or shows jaggies when
magnified. I am also interested in TeX like rubber springs that effect the
positioning of elements as the image as a whole is zoomed. This is useful for
say menu bars that must stretch across the window. You want the text size
to remain constant while the bar itself changes in length as the window is
resized.
Now back to HTML. The above would add great value to the Web, but seems to
me to require a new composite graphics format. It would greatly complicate
HTML to represent it as part of the document format, although I see know
reason why one couldn't use SGML for the new format though.
Before launching into developing a new composite graphics format I need to
study the limitations of existing formats and any editing issues. It would
be great to see a new freeware graphics editing package for X11 with these
kinds of capabilities though. Any volunteers?
-- Best wishes,Dave Raggett
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