Genoa Banner Creator

This is yet another experimental tool for procedural art. Use simple scripts to describe graphical banners and posters with many repetitive elements, then export them as SVG for further use. Scripts can be edited and previewed in place for rapid turnaround.

Rationale: I make vector art by hand (see the Pocket Guide to Writing SVG). It's a wonderful artistic medium, but turnaround can be slow between my text editor and image viewer. Also, that way it's hard to add repetitive elements. Genoa is meant to help with that as a first step, and for quick iteration of ideas.

Availability

As of 30 November 2024, Genoa is considered stable. Bugs might still exist; please back up your data anyway.

Version 1.1 adds user interface improvements (especially on Linux) and support for the SVG title and desc elements. Additionally, patch 1.1.1 fixes some export-related issues.

System requirements

• To run from source, Tcl/Tk 8.6 with tklib
• screen resolution:
  • minimum 800x600
  • recommended 1280x800

Genoa is open source under the MIT License. The built-in text editor is based on Toyed. Native executables created with FreeWrap.

Usage

Genoa is powered by a little language based on Tcl. For example its own promotional banner is defined like this:

# The viewport declaration can be anywhere.
viewport 75 50 630 500
width 0
fill darkslategray
box 75 50 630 500
width 10
fill ""
proc circles {cx cy} {
    repeat 10 {
        incr i 30
        circle $cx $cy $i
    }
}
color darkred; circles 200 200
color green; circles 500 100
color darkblue; circles 400 400
font "Noto Sans"; size 48
color white; set j 0
foreach i {GENERATE ORIGINAL ART} {
    incr j 64
    text 225 [+ 225 $j] $i
}

Simply paste it in then hit Preview and/or Export. No need to save first.