If you downloaded the binary distribution of Batik, you should have gotten a file called batik-1.0.zip, which, when expanded, created a batik-svgbrowser.jar file. To start the browser, type the following on the command line:

cd <installationDirectory>

java -jar batik-svgbrowser.jar

You can pass options to the command line:

java -jar batik-svgbrowser.jar [-font-size <fontSize>] [svgURL]*

Where:

• -font-size <fontSize> will make the browser use small fonts in the GUI.
• [svgURL]* the URLs for the SVG files the browser should open when it starts

For example:

• java -jar batik-svgbrowser.jar -font-size 10 starts the browser with small fonts.
• java -jar batik-svgbrowser.jar -font-size 10 samples/batikLogo.svg starts the browser with the batikLogo.svg file open (and small fonts, because of -font-size)

If you downloaded the developer distrubution of Batik, you should have gotten a zip file that expanded into an xml-batik directory. In that directory, you can find build scripts for the platform you are running on. For example, there is a build.bat script for users of the Windows platform and there is a build.sh script for UNIX users.

To start the browser you should:

• Make sure the xml-batik directory is in your PATH environment variable
• Make sure the ANT_HOME environment variable is set to the xml-batik directory
• Make sure that your JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to your JDK installation directory
• Open a command line window and go to the xml-batik directory where the Batik distribution was expanded
• UNIX users. If you have not done so already, make the build.sh script executable:
  chmod +x build.sh
• At the command prompt, type:
  Windows: build svgbrowser
  UNIX: build.sh svgbrowser
  This will start the browser

You can pass options to the browser as follows:

Windows: build svgbrowser [-font-size <fontSize>] [svgURL]*

UNIX: build.sh svgbrowser [-font-size <fontSize>] [svgURL]*

Refer to "Starting the browser for the binary distribution" for an explanation of these options

The following image shows the result of starting the browser, in the binary or developer distribution, with the -font-size 10 samples/batikFX.svg options.

In situations where you have an SVG file locally on the machine where you are running the Batik SVG browser, you can use the "File->Open File" menu item to open that file, or use the "Ctrl-F" key accelerator. Doing so brings up a file choser that lets you select the file you want to view.

There are many situations where the SVG content you want to view is not local to the machine where the browser is running. In that case, you can use the "File->Open Page" menu item, or use the "Ctrl-O" key accelerator to open that page. Doing so brings up a dialog box where you can type in the URL for the file you want to view.

When you know the URL of the document you want to view, you can enter it directly in the location bar text field at the top of the SVG browser, the same way you can enter a URL in an HTML browser

As with HTML content, it is common to navigate back and forth between SVG files (remember that SVG files contain hyperlinks, just like HTML does) and, as described later in this document, it is possible to zoom into SVG documents, pan and rotate.

The Batik browser offers multiple features to help you browse SVG files:

• Navigating between files. The "Go->Back" menu item (or the Ctrl-left arrow keyboard acceleration) and the "Go->Forward" (or the Ctrl-right arrow keyboard acceleration) let you move to the previous and next visited SVG documents
• History. The "Go" menu also contains a list of the visited SVG documents, which gives you a way to randomly access any document you have already visited.
• Navigation between views. The "View->Previous Transform" menu item (Ctrl-L) and the "View->Next Transform" menu item (Ctrl-N) let you go to the previous or next view you have had of a document. This is useful when, for example, you pan or rotate and document and want to go back to any previous view you had of the document (i.e., before you panned or rotated it).

The Batik SVG Browser can display multiple files simultaneously in different windows. To view a new file in a separate window, simply select the "File-> Create New Window" menu item or use the Ctrl-N keyboard accelerator.

When working on an SVG document, you may want the browser to reprocess a document that you have modified. The "File-> Reload Document" menu item or the Ctrl-R keyboard accelerator will cause the document to be reprocessed by the browser.

When the browser displays an SVG file, you can select the "View-> View Source..." menu item or use the Ctrl-U keyboard accelerator to view the source code.

When the browser displays an SVG file, you can select the "View-> DOM Viewer..." menu item or use the Ctrl-T keyboard accelerator to open a dialog that shows the SVG document in the form of a tree. The dialog lets you navigate the tree, select individual elements, such as a path element, and view the attributes and CSS values that apply to these elements.

There are several methods to zoom in or out an SVG Document:

• You can select the "View -> Zoom In/Out" menu item
• You can click on the "Zoom In/Out" tool bar button (the ones that show a magnifying glass with a "+/-" signs)
• You can use the "Ctrl+I" and "Ctrl+O" keyboard acceleration
• If the mouse is over the document in the display area, you can press the Ctrl key then click the left mouse button and drag to select the area of interest in the document. This can only be used to zoom into a document.
• If the mouse is over the document in the display area, you can press the Shift key then click the right mouse button and drag it. This is called the 'real time' zoom and can be used both for zooming in and out.

Some documents are too big to fit into the browser, especially when you zoom in with a large zoom factor. In these circumstances, it is usefull to be able to 'move around' the document and pan to view different parts of the documents. Again, there are multiple ways to do this:

• With the mouse cursor over the SVG document, press the Shift key and then click and drag the left mouse button to a new location. When you release the mouse, the document will be translated to the new mouse location.
• If you have the thumbnail open, you can select the marker showing the current area of interest and move it to the desired location

It is sometimes useful to be able to rotate a document (maps for example). You can do this in the Batik browser by first pressing the Ctrl key and then clicking and dragging the right mouse button to a new location. The browser will dynamically rotate the image as you move your cursor. When you are satisfied with that angle, you can release the mouse button and the document will be displayed with that new angle.

While the mouse and keyboard interactions give interactive way to navigate an SVG document, it is sometimes desirable to be able to define precisely the amount of zoom, pan or rotation desired. The Transform dialog, available through the "View->Transform" (Ctrl-S) menu offers that feature.

Panning in the document window can be difficult after you have zoomed into a document because you cannot see the whole document. Panning on large documents (or with a large zoom factor) is made easy by the thumbnail that you can bring up through the "View -> Thumbnail" menu item or Ctrl-Y keyboard acceleration. The thumbnail shows a rectangular marker that represents the "Area of Interest", i.e., the region currently displayed in the window (the visible portion of the document). You can drag that little marker with the left mouse button and drag it to another area of interest to view a different portion of the document in the main window.