-*- text -*-
			      FrontLine
    GUI FRONT end for autotrace that extracts outLINE from images

What is frontline?
------------------
Frontline provides a gtk+/gnome based GUI front end for 
autotrace (http://autotrace.sourceforge.net) in 4 ways.

1. Stand alone program. A command `frontline' runs as a stand alone
   program. It will work well with Gnome desktop and nautilus.
   
2. Reusable library. A library `libfrontline.a' could be used as a
   building block of your application that needs the autotrace function.
   APIs are listed in frontline.h.  The stand alone program frontline
   itself uses libfrontline.a.

3. Sodipodi, a drawing editor add-on module. add-on module uses the 
   libfrontline.a. See below.

4. The Gimp plug-in, You can launch frontline from the Gimp's menu.
   Select "<Image>/Filters/Trace/Trace..." . See "the Gimp plug-in".

   You can open trace result on sodipodi with DnD operation: dragging 
   from the trace result window of frontline to sodipodi toolbox.

Requirements
------------
- Autotrace 0.31.1(http://autotrace.sourceforge.net) or higher
- Gnome 1.4 environment
  Gnome 1.4 might include popt and Imlib.
- libart_lgpl-2.3.8 or higher(ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/pre-gnome2/sources/libart_lgpl/)

  libart_lgpl in Gnome 1.4 has a bug that hangs up frontline.

- The Gimp 1.2(optional) to use as gimp plug-in. Even if you have the Gimp, 
  check whether gimptool command and libgimp.{so|a} are also installed. 
  In Some of GNU/Linux distributions, gimp package includes gimp command only;
  and only gimp package is installed by default. gimptool and/or libgimp 
  might be in gimp-devel package in such case. You have to install gimp-devel
  package.

Install
-------
See INSTALL.

The Gimp plug-in
----------------
To get better tracing result in frontline, you might want to apply a
filter to original image as prepossess. The Gimp much helps you to do
so. Most useful filter is Filter->Enhance->Sharpen. This filter
improves the trace results for anti-aliased images.

Sodipodi add-on module
----------------------
- How to setup:
        0. Build and Install frontline
	1. Build and Install sodipodi-0.27 or higher.
	sodipodi's configure will detect frontline.

	Sometimes two versions of libxml will conflict when 
        building sodipodi with frontline; sodipodi uses libxml
        and Imagemagick linked to autotrace uses libxml2. In
        such case, you should disable libxml function in Imagemagick
	with passing --without-xml to configure of Imagemagick.
        
	Here is the dependency:
	sodipodi -> frontline -> autotrace -> Imagemagick
            V                                      V
          libxml                                libxml2

- How to use:
        0. run newly built sodipodi

	1. Create a new document window from the menu

	2. Import an image into the document (something jpeg or png)

	3. Show a context menu with pressing right mouse button on the 
           imported image; and select Image->Trace item. You'll find
           Trace dialog.
	
	4. Change the parameters on the dialog if you need.

	5. Press the Trace button on the dialog.

	6. You'll get the trace result as a new document of sodipodi.

Mailing list and Web site
-------------------------
We discussed on autotrace mailing list.
See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/autotrace/.

The latest version will be available from:
http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/frontline/

Known Bugs and TODO
-------------------
- Bugs: See BUGS file.
- TODO: See TODO file.

Contact
-------
Masatake YAMATO<[email protected]>