NAME

       wml::des::imgdot - 1pt Dot-Images for Webdesign

SYNOPSIS

        #use wml::des::imgdot

        <: $file = &imgdot($base, $x, $y, $c, $r, $g, $b, $transp, $format); :>

        <imgdot [attributes]>

DESCRIPTION

       Currently (as of HTML 3.2 and 1997 ;_) webdesigners use two commonly known tricks for creating their
       layout on webpages: HTML tables and so-called 1pt Dot-Images.  The first one is nicely supported by the
       WML tag "<grid>" (see wml::des::grid(3) for details), the latter is supported by this "<imgdot>" tag.

       The usual purpose of this tag is to create a transparent PNG or GIF image with a physical size of 1x1
       points and a corresponding "<img>" tag which includes this image with appropriate "width" and "height"
       attributes. The visual result is a invisible reserved space of size "width"X"height".  Alternatively this
       tag can create the image with the requested size instead of scaling the 1pt image (see the "noscale"
       attribute below). This approach is more safe (all browsers support this) but wastes bandwidth and
       increases page load time.

ATTRIBUTES

       base
           Usually the created images are named imgdot-XxY-rrggbb.png where "XxY" is the dimension of the image
           and "rrggbb" the used color (or `"transp"' for transparent). When you use a "base=foo" attribute,
           then the resulting files are named foo.imgdot-XxY-rrggbb.gif.  Actually you can even use a complete
           filename including a directory prefix, i.e. when you use "base=../../common/foo" attribute, then the
           PNG images are created as ../../common/foo.imgdot-XxY-rrggbb.png.

           And for most flexibility when no base is specified and the variable "IMGDOT_BASE" is defined (usually
           from within a .wmlrc file via "-DIMGDOT_BASE~path/to/imgdot/dir/base") it is used.  Use this feature
           to redirect the created images to a particular directory.

           You may also use the variable "IMAGE_BASE" which defines in a single line all base names for images
           generated by WML.

       format
           By default, GIF images are generated. This attribute lets you use an alternate image format (actually
           only PNG and GIF are recognized).  You may also change the default format with the variable
           "IMAGE_FORMAT".

       width
           Specifies the width (x-dimension) of the reserved space in pixel. Default is 1 pixel.

       height
           Specifies the height (y-dimension) of the reserved space in pixel. Default is 1 pixel.

       color
           Sets the color of the image. Default is transparent, i.e. no color. In fact, this is not true,
           transparency is rendered by choosing a color which is made transparent, which is white by default.
           Prepending an hyphen to the "color" attribute sets the color of the transparent color.

       align
           Sets the alignment of the image. Default is `"bottom"'. This alignment is used for the "align"
           attribute of the inserted "<img>" tag.

       noscale
           Indicates if the image should be created with 1pt in size and scaled online by the browser (default)
           or should be created with the correct physical size (this option).

       :img:ATTR=STR
           The ``ATTR=STR'' pairs are passed along to the "<img>" HTML tag.

AUTHOR

        Ralf S. Engelschall
        rse@engelschall.com
        www.engelschall.com

        Denis Barbier
        barbier@engelschall.com

REQUIRES

        Internal: P1, P2, P3

SEE ALSO

       HTML <"img"> tag.