module HexaPDF::Content::GraphicObject

Overview¶ ↑

This module contains classes describing graphic objects that can be drawn on a Canvas.

Since the PDF specification only provides the most common path creation operators, more complex graphic objects need more than one operator for their creation. By defining this graphic object interface (see below) such complex objects can be drawn in a consistent manner on a Canvas.

A graphic object should only use the path creation methods or other graphic objects when it is drawn. Stroking and filling, or optionally clipping, is left to the user.

The Canvas class provides a Canvas#draw method that can be used to draw complex graphic objects as well as a Canvas#graphic_object method to retrieve an instance of a graphic object for custom use. The latter method uses graphic object factories that can be registered via a name using the document specific ‘graphic_object.map’ configuration option.

Implementation of a Graphic Object¶ ↑

Graphic objects are usually implemented as classes since this automatically allows using the class itself as the graphic object’s factory.

A graphic object factory is an object that responds to configure(**kwargs) and returns a configured graphic object. When the factory is implemented as a class, the configure method should be a class method returning properly configured instances of the class.

A graphic object itself has to respond to two methods:

configure(**kwargs)

This method is used for re-configuring the graphic object and it should return the graphic object itself, not a new object.

draw(canvas)

This method is used for drawing the graphic object on the given Canvas.