How to get the area taken by an object in Inkscape or the Gimp

[Nauryl]

I'm just wondering if there is a way to get an area taken by my continents or islands. Somewhere I have read that Photoshop can do it in its histogram window, but I haven't seen such stuff in Inkscape or Gimp (Inkscape would be better, tho).

Thanks in advance!

[Greason Wolfe]

This question has popped up a few times. One of these links might have the answer you're looking for

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...lculating+Area

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...Calc-Software-!

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...lculating+Area

Hope that helps.

GW

[Nauryl]

Oh, maybe my search needs some improvement Thanks for the links. I still wonder if it's possible with Inkscape, so I don't have to copy my vector image to Gimp every time I resize stuff...

[Hai-Etlik]

Implementing a a completely general mechanism for calculating the area of a closed SVG path would be a serious pain. I might make an attempt at something that could do it for a limited class of paths (strict polygons)

If you want to try something a bit more exotic, you could try developing your raw map data in a GIS like QuantumGIS, then export to SVG and 'pretty it up' in Inkscape. Then you would have access to tools like area calculation, overlay operations, projection transformation, etc. It does mean learning to use another, fairly complex bit of software though.

[Nauryl]

I already have the solution in my mind, even for Bezier-curves (although it's really a pain to program it), I just wondered if Inkscape already knows it. Maybe I take a deep breath and dive into Inkscape extension writing. Thanks anyways.

[Nauryl]

Now that I have the ultimate solution in my head, I found the answer to my question... Inkscape does know it! Extension > Visualize Path > Measure Path... does the trick. It can measure both the perimeter and the area. How noob was I not finding this yesterday