Translations inside of SVG files

["Andre Klapper" <ak-47 gmx net>]

Currently bitmap images like

https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-user-docs/plain/gnome-help/C/figures/top-bar-icons.png?h=master
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-user-docs/plain/gnome-help/C/figures/top-bar-icons-classic.png?h=master

require translators to have basic skills in image manipulation.

We could turn such images into SVG images with an embedded PNG file (either via an external URI or via 
embedding via base64 encoding[1]), and define different translations via systemLanguage.

Example of the translation switch (without an embedded PNG file):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";
 width="320" height="140" style="border:1px solid black;
 font-family:sans-serif;font-size:30px">
    <text x="30" y="50">systemLanguage:</text>
    <g transform="translate(30,110)" fill="red">
        <switch allowReorder="yes">
            <text systemLanguage="cs">cs</text>
            <text systemLanguage="en">en</text>
            <text fill="red">other</text>
        </switch>
    </g>
</svg>

systemLanguage ("en" or "cs") is picked up (at least in Firefox 26 using Gecko) according to the prefered 
language setting in the browser, and also when setting "LANG=cs_CZ.utf8" for Yelp 3.10 using WebKit, so it 
works for me(TM).

Now translators could use a text editor and edit the SVG file to translate such images, instead of having to 
use an image manipulation application like GIMP.

However, for translators' convenience the string should end up in the .po file, so something (gettext? 
yelp-tools? itstools? As usual I am lost.) would need to parse SVG files in /po/figures for a "switch -> text 
systemLanguage" element/parameter in the DOM tree.

Is that somehow possible (which implies: could somebody code this, if it does create performance issues), or 
is this a bad idea?

andre

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6249664/does-svg-support-embedding-of-bitmap-images

-- 
Andre Klapper  |  ak-47 gmx net
http://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/