John Sample

Bits and Bytes
posts - 103, comments - 354, trackbacks - 16

WebSketch

I wrote this little server control while I was working on custom control designers.

It lets you scribble little figures, or sign your name.

No plugins, just javascript and DHTML. Its cross browser and works with IE, Netscape, and Firefox.

WARNING: It runs very slowly on my web host, your mileage may vary.
Scratch that, it only ran slow when it returned GIFs, its pretty fast with jpegs. The code has been updated.
Click here to try it out: http://www.johnsample.com/websketch/

Here's a picture I drew with it:

You can download the DLL here: http://www.johnsample.com/websketch/websketch.zip

To use it, add it to your toolbox in VS.NET and drag it onto a form. You need to use flow layout, it doesn't support absolute positioning yet.

There are only a few properties you need to worry about:
Height
Width
BackColor
LineColor
LineWidth
Image (lets you access and save the image thats being drawn)
Reset (clears the image)

Its still a work in progress, there are many more features to add. I'll put the updates here when I have them.

 

 

posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 5:16 PM

Feedback

# re: WebSketch

Nice work! Downloaded and it worked beautifully.
6/16/2005 8:20 AM | Raishad Peoples

# re: WebSketch

This is really cool. I'm learning new stuff that I didn't think possible.

Here's a few ideas to build upon... 1. it would be neat if a png file was the file format sent back so that alpha channel transparency could be used (I now that IE doesn't correctly show png transparencies, but there are many workarounds/hacks to solve this problem) where you would use this tool to "markup" an drawing or image that might reside in a div/layer underneath it. 2. be able to define a picture underneath the tool... given that idea #1 is implemented. 3. Make the drawing cursor path be visible during the actual drawing.

Anyway, awesome work.

-Mark Chipman
9/14/2005 1:43 AM | Mark Chipman

# re: WebSketch

Thanks Mark, when I get around to working on this again I'll see what I can do.
9/15/2005 8:32 AM | John Sample

# re: WebSketch

Nice work, but what about adding a mouse down event so that you can see what you're drawing?

Jon
3/1/2006 7:54 AM | JY

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