potrace Python bindings

These bindings provide an object oriented API to the potrace library.

The full API documentation is on https://pythonhosted.org/pypotrace/.

Example usage

The bindings work with input images represented as numpy arrays:

import numpy as np
import potrace

# Make a numpy array with a rectangle in the middle
data = np.zeros((32, 32), np.uint32)
data[8:32-8, 8:32-8] = 1

# Create a bitmap from the array
bmp = potrace.Bitmap(data)

# Trace the bitmap to a path
path = bmp.trace()

# Iterate over path curves
for curve in path:
    print "start_point =", curve.start_point
    for segment in curve:
        print segment
        end_point_x, end_point_y = segment.end_point
        if segment.is_corner:
            c_x, c_y = segment.c
        else:
            c1_x, c1_y = segment.c1
            c2_x, c2_y = segment.c2

Installation

Ubuntu

Install system dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev libagg-dev libpotrace-dev pkg-config

Install pypotrace:

$ git clone https://github.com/flupke/pypotrace.git
$ cd pypotrace
$ pip install numpy
$ pip install .

CentOS/RedHat

Install system dependencies:

$ sudo yum -y groupinstall "Development Tools"
$ sudo yum -y install agg-devel potrace-devel python-devel

Install pypotrace:

$ git clone https://github.com/flupke/pypotrace.git
$ cd pypotrace
$ pip install numpy
$ pip install .

OSX

Install system dependencies:

$ brew install libagg pkg-config potrace

Install pypotrace:

$ git clone https://github.com/flupke/pypotrace.git
$ cd pypotrace
$ pip install numpy
$ pip install .

Windows

Thanks to klonuo for the instructions

Here are instruction how to make this package work on Windows, by using MinGW system. Probably it can be done with Visual Studio, but I lack skills to make such magic.

So assuming user has MinGW available, additional two packages are needed:

1. potrace source: http://potrace.sourceforge.net/#downloading
2. agg source: http://www.antigrain.com/download/index.html

I extracted both packages in my C:\src folder. Both are easy to build by executing ./configure; make and ./autogen.sh; make respectively, on MSYS prompt.

After that, we need some variables to build pypotrace successfully:

First, includes paths:

• "numpy/arrayobject.h": C:/Python27/Lib/site-packages/numpy/core/include
• potrace headers: C:/src/potrace-1.11/src
• agg headers: C:/src/agg-2.5

there is a little catch for agg includes, as paths referenced in cpp sources point to agg2/*.h while in downloaded agg package we don't have agg2 folder. For me it was easiest to rename C:/src/agg-2.5/include to C:/src/agg-2.5/agg2 and use C:/src/agg-2.5 as agg include folder.

Next, libdirs for libraries we build above:

• potrace: C:/src/potrace-1.11/src/.libs
• agg: C:/src/agg-2.5/src

and we can make pypotrace build command, and execute it:

python setup.py build_ext -IC:/Python27/Lib/site-packages/numpy/core/include;C:/src/potrace-1.11/src;C:/src/agg-2.5 -LC:/src/potrace-1.11/src/.libs;C:/src/agg-2.5/src

Finally install the package:

C:\src\git\pypotrace>python setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
copying potrace\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace
copying potrace\agg\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace\agg
running build_ext
skipping 'potrace\_potrace.c' Cython extension (up-to-date)
skipping 'potrace\bezier.cpp' Cython extension (up-to-date)
skipping 'potrace/agg\curves.cpp' Cython extension (up-to-date)
running install_lib
creating C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace
creating C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace\agg
copying build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace\agg\curves.pyd -> C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace\agg
copying build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace\agg\__init__.py -> C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace\agg
copying build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace\bezier.pyd -> C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace
copying build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace\_potrace.pyd -> C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace
copying build\lib.win32-2.7\potrace\__init__.py -> C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace
byte-compiling C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace\agg\__init__.py to __init__.pyc
byte-compiling C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\potrace\__init__.py to __init__.pyc
running install_egg_info
Writing C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pypotrace-0.1-py2.7.egg-info

Running tests

You can check everything is working correctly by running the tests:

$ pip install '.[dev]'
$ nosetests -v

Documentation

The documentation is hosted here: http://packages.python.org/pypotrace

A copy is also included in the doc/_build/html directory of the source distribution.

Homepage

This project is hosted on github: http://github.com/flupke/pypotrace