A specification for full-fledged parametric graphics. In pure SVG.

 

Usage

parametric.svg is a regular XML namespace. To use it on an element, first set the attribute xmlns:parametric="//parametric-svg.js.org/v1" on the element or any of its ancestors. It’s often most convenient to set that on the whole SVG document:

<svg version="1.1"
  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
  xmlns:parametric="//parametric-svg.js.org/v1"
  >
  ...
</svg>

Once you’ve set the xmlns:parametric thing, you can use the namespace on attributes:

<circle
  parametric:r="10 * factor"
             r="50"
/>

A note about HTML5

HTML5 is not namespace-aware. Prefixing your parametric attribute or element with parametric: is enough – you don’t need to declare the xmlns:parametric thing beforehand.

While XML will allow you to bind our namespace to another prefix like p: (through xmlns:p="//parametric-…"), it’s normally a bad idea. Only the prefix parametric: will work if your SVG is injected into a HTML5 document.

 

Parametric attributes

Whenever you set an attribute with the prefix parametric: on an element, we’ll bind it to a regular attribute of the same name, without the prefix. For example, the attribute parametric:height will be bound to height. We’ll call parametric:height a parametric attribute and height its bound attribute.

When your parametric attribute gets an update, the bound attribute is changed – or created, if it doesn’t exist.

 

Syntax

A parametric attribute works like a calculated spreadsheet cell (one with a = in front). It can contain any mathematical expression, as long as it keeps to the rules below.

Operators

We have operators for all common arithmetic operations such as addition and multiplication. We use conventional infix notation for operators: an operator is placed between its arguments.

<circle parametric:r="2 + 3" />
  <!-- → r="5" -->

<circle parametric:r="2 * 3" />
  <!-- → r="6" -->

You can use round parentheses to override the default precedence of operators.

<circle parametric:r="2 + 3 * 4" />
  <!-- → r="14" -->

<circle parametric:r="(2 + 3) * 4" />
  <!-- → r="20" -->

The following operators are available:

Operator	Name	Syntax	Associativity	Example	Result
(, )	Parentheses	(x)	None	2 * (3 + 4)	14
,	Parameter separator	x, y	Left to right	max(2, 1, 5)	5
+	Add	x + y	Left to right	4 + 5	9
-	Subtract	x - y	Left to right	7 - 3	4
-	Unary minus	-y	Right to left	-4	-4
*	Multiply	x * y	Left to right	2 * 3	6
/	Divide	x / y	Left to right	6 / 2	3
%	Modulus	x % y	Left to right	8 % 3	2
^	Power	x ^ y	Right to left	2 ^ 3	8
!	Factorial	y!	Left to right	5!	120
and	Logical and	x and y	Left to right	true and false ? 1 : 0	0
not	Logical not	not y	Right to left	not true ? 1 : 0	0
or	Logical or	x or y	Left to right	true or false ? 1 : 0	1
xor	Logical xor	x xor y	Left to right	true xor true ? 1 : 0	0
? :	Conditional expression	x ? y : z	Right to left	false ? 1 : -1	-1
==	Equal	x == y	Left to right	2 == 4 - 2 ? 1 : 0	1
!=	Unequal	x != y	Left to right	2 != 3 ? 1 : 0	1
<	Smaller	x < y	Left to right	2 < 3 ? 1 : 0	1
>	Larger	x > y	Left to right	2 > 3 ? 1 : 0	0
<=	Smallereq	x <= y	Left to right	4 <= 3 ? 1 : 0	0
>=	Largereq	x >= y	Left to right	2 + 4 >= 6 ? 1 : 0	1

Variables

A variable is like a spreadsheet cell with a static value (without a = in front). You can set your own variables and reference them from parametric attributes – much like you reference a value from a spreadsheet cell.

There is one difference between a spreadsheet cell and a variable. While a cell has an address (like B1) – you must give each variable a name using lower- and uppercase letters (for example, baseLength). You can later use this name to reference a value. This makes your parametric attributes more readable – instead of (B1 + 3) * 2 you would (baseLength + 3) * 2. When you look at the file two weeks later, you’ll still know what’s going on.

If an expression in a parametric attribute contains a variable which doesn’t have any value, the bound attribute won’t be updated.

How you assign values to your variables depends on the implementation you’re using. For example, the <parametric-svg> custom element takes variables as attributes:

<parametric-svg
  x="5"
  color="`green`"
  ><svg>
  <rect
    parametric:x="x + 2"
               x="7"
    parametric:fill="color"
               x="green"
  />
</svg></parametric-svg>

Data types

A parametric attributes can result in two types of values:

• number – A floating-point number like 3 or 29.3. For example, parametric:x="3 + 5.4" will result in x="8.4".

• string – A sequence of characters enclosed in backticks (``). For example, parametric:fill="`green`" will result in fill="green". Your string can contain any whitespace inside. There are some characters you may need to escape:

Escape sequence	Result
\`	` – backtick
\$	$ – dollar sign (See Template strings for more info.)
\\	\ – backslash

In addition, you can use one more type of value internally in your variables and calculations:

• boolean – true or false. For example, parametric:r="true ? 5 : 10" will result in r="5". Keep in mind that the result of a parametric attribute can’t be a boolean – so parametric:r="true" is invalid.

Template strings

You can embed any expression in your string. Just put it between a ${ and a } – we’ll evaluate it and insert the result into your string. You may know this syntax from ES 2015.

For example, if you write parametric:d="`M ${1 + 2}, ${3 + 4}`", we’ll render it as d="M 3, 7".

If you ever need to display the raw sequence of characters ${ in your string and don’t want that to be treated as the start of an expression, remember to escape the $ with a backslash: \${.

Credits

The original parametric.svg parser uses mathjs under the hood. We’ve ripped a lot of this specification off their specs. All credits go to the fine developers of mathjs.

 

License

MIT © Tomek Wiszniewski.