I have a few questions:
#1: Is there any good Linux mediaplayer that can play
.mpg, .avi and files like that? Where do i get it?
#2: Is there any program that can VECTORIZE bitmap images?
I mean converting them to .cdr, .wmf , .esp and etc.
Im going to order a shirt with the image of tux printed on
it and the owner of the company wanted to get the image
in corel-vector-format (.cdr).

Thankfull for any help
//

sikil_nuru,

There's a player by the name "mplayer". Its got both a command line interface as well as a GUI. Put a search on google for the download site. Am using it and find it to be pretty good. Dunno about the GUI version but the command line works well.

As for the graphics, try fiddling around in GIMP. Don't know much about it but probably you'll find what ur looking for.

-Akshar

mplayer all the way

gimp is not a vector based pacakge, there are plenty of others that have varying levels of ability, "sketch" is pretty good i think, among others. BNest one around seems to be http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/ though, certainly looks very capable

for anyone finding this thread you want to use "inkscape", it has a tracing facility provided by "potrace" that can vectorise bitmaps

GIMP is a bitmap graphics program, not a vector graphics program.

Most distributions come with at least one media player (or more likely choice of players). The main ones are MPlayer, Xine (with GUI Xine-UI, Kaffeine, GXine or others) and VLC.

Forget about "vectorizing" as an program operation. It doesn't work. You have to do it by hand.

The vector program in Linux is Inkscape. Import the bitmap, use the Bezier drawing tool and trace the object. You do it in half and hour or less with something simple like good ol' Tux.

If you save your drawing as .AI. I bet your printer will be able to open that and use it. Otherwise find someone else who has Corel > 12 and is willing to convert your SVG to CDR.

jlinkels

Shouldn't that be "A vector program"? Inkscape is not the one and only vector graphics program for Linux, there are others.

Karbon14 is another one. For more options, you could always search for "Linux vector graphics".

Hehe

You are right, I should have written "the vector program to use" or A vector program.

I had seen Karbon14 before, and it was no comparison with Inkscape regarding tools and features. I just checked version 1.6.1, but Karbon seems to be improved fivefold or so. I would suit the task of tracing Tux equally well.

I should also mention Sketch, which has the capability to import CMX files (Corel Exchange Format). AFAIK it is the only Linux program able to do so. It enables you to export CDR to CMX in Corel, import CMX in Sketch, export it to SVG to A vector program. Contrary to SVG exports from Corel 12 this conversion is error free.

jlinkels

I gather that XaraLX and sK1 also do CMX format. Xnview can too I think and also read the embedded thumbnails in CMX and CDR files.

Also sK1 is set to announce (at the LibreGraphics meeting in June) a CDR import function for sK1 - it's available in SVG at the moment. The developers are Russian and unfortunately I can't get the SVN files to checkout due to some UTF8 problem (the standard app works fine though). Worth watching as this would be one of only a couple of apps to read CDR.

The actual "vectorisation" is done by, correct me if I'm wrong, one of two app/libs - either autotrace or potrace - in the majority of the OSS.

HTH