tesserax 0.2.0

A pure-Python library for rendering professional CS graphics.

Tesserax: A Lightweight SVG Rendering Library

Tesserax is a modern Python 3.12 library designed for programmatic SVG generation with a focus on ease of use, layout management, and flexible geometric primitives. It is particularly well-suited for visualizing data structures, algorithms, and technical diagrams.

Key Features

• Declarative Layouts: Effortlessly arrange shapes in Row or Column containers with automatic alignment and spacing.
• Anchor System: Connect shapes using semantic anchors like top, bottom, left, right, and center.
• Context Manager Support: Use with statements to group shapes naturally within the code.
• Smart Canvas: Automatically fit the canvas viewport to the content with adjustable padding.
• Rich Primitives: Includes Rect, Square, Circle, Ellipse, Line, Arrow, and Path.

Installation

pip install tesserax

Quick Start

The following example demonstrates how to create two shapes in a row and connect them with an arrow using the anchor system.

from tesserax import Canvas, Rect, Arrow, Circle
from tesserax.layout import Row

# Initialize a canvas
with Canvas() as canvas:
    # Arrange a circle and a rectangle in a row with a 50px gap
    with Row(gap=50):
        circle = Circle(20, fill="lightblue")
        rect = Rect(40, 40, fill="lightgrey")

    # Draw an arrow between the two shapes using anchors
    # .dx() provides a small offset for better visual spacing
    Arrow(
        circle.anchor("right").dx(5),
        rect.anchor("left").dx(-5)
    )

# Fit the viewport to the shapes and save
canvas.fit(padding=10).save("example.svg")

Core Components

1. Primitives

All shapes support standard SVG attributes like stroke and fill.

• Rect & Square: Defined by width/height or a single size.
• Circle & Ellipse: Defined by radii.
• Arrow: A specialized line that automatically includes an arrowhead marker.
• Path: Supports a fluent API for complex paths using move_to, line_to, cubic_to, and close.

2. Layouts

Layouts automate the positioning of child elements:

• Row: Aligns shapes horizontally. Baselines can be set to start, middle, or end.
• Column: Aligns shapes vertically with start, middle, or end alignment.

3. Transforms

Every shape has a Transform object allowing for:

• Translation: shape.translated(dx, dy).
• Rotation: shape.rotated(degrees).
• Scaling: shape.scaled(factor).

Developer Information

Tesserax is built with modern Python 3.12 features, including:

• Fully Typed: Comprehensive type hinting for better IDE support and safety.
• Deep Integration: Utilizes dataclasses for points and transforms and abc for extensible shape definitions.