Spiro Applet version 2.0

Click on one of the buttons below to pop up a Spiro applet drawing canvas. When the design canvas pops up, try picking one of the presets and then clicking on the button "Draw this Design!". For more help, click on the "Help" button, or view the help here.

Sorry, Java is not working. There are three possible causes for this:
• Your browser does not support Java (e.g. WebTV, older AOL, AtomNet, etc.) or its version of Java is too old. Spiro 2.0 requires Java 1.4.2 or later.
  Get a Java-capable browser from Mozilla.org or Microsoft.
• Your browser has Java turned off.
  Turn on Java using Edit|Preferences.
• Your firewall or provider is filtering out Java.
  Sorry, not much you can do about this.

The Spiro applet 1.1 is still available, here: old applet. It works with old versions of Java back to JRE 1.1.

Some Sample Images

Click on one of the thumbnails below to see some examples of what the Spiro applet can do.

The Spiro applet was Applet of the Day on 28 June, 2000, at JavaBoutique.

Changes since Spiro 1.1

Spiro 2.0 includes several changes since 1.1, which was released back in late 2000.
• Added support for elliptical and triangular spirographs
• Changed interface to use Swing instead of AWT
• Added tooltips to all interface elements.
• Changed required Java version from 1.1 to 1.4.2
• Added a wider variety of canvas sizes, eliminated the old 512x512 canvas.
• Added progress bar for design rendering calculations
• Fixed several bugs
• Added built-in help view for Spiro running as an application
• Changed save format for Spiro application from Targa to PNG

Background Information

The Spiro applet is an attempt to offer a fairly serious tool for creating a certain kind of graphic, while keeping things reasonably simple and portable. Written for Java 1.4.2 through 1.6, the Spiro applet has been tested and found to work on the following platforms:
• Firefox 3.0.6, Windows XP, Java 1.6u10
• MS Internet Explorer 7, Windows XP, Java 1.5.0_16
• MS Internet Explorer 6, Windows XP, Java 1.5.0_10
• Firefox 3.0.5, Ubuntu Linux 9.04, Java 1.6u12 64-bit
• Epiphany 2.24, Ubuntu Linux 9.04, Java 1.6u12 64-bit
• K-Meleon 1.5.1, Windows XP, Java 1.6u10
• Safari 3.2, MacOS X 10.5, Java 1.5.0_16
• Firefox 3.0.5, MacOS X 10.5, Java 1.5

This applet will not work with versions of Java older than 1.4.2, sorry.

Unlike most art-creation applets on the web, the Spiro applet allows you to save your work! Normally, saving your work locally from an applet is difficult, because Java security restrictions prevent applets from creating local files. The Spiro applet sidesteps Java's security restrictions by means of a small server-side CGI system that 'reflects' the applet-created image back to the web browser.

Running Spiro as an Application

For folks that would like to play with the Spiro applet on their own computer, Spiro is also available as a Java application. To run Spiro as an application, you'll need the Sun JDK or JRE, version 1.4.2 (1.5 or later recommended). The application version of Spiro allows you to save drawings to your local disk as standard Portable Network Graphics (.png) image files. You can download the Java Application JAR file for Spiro from the link below:

• Spiro 2.0 application: spiroApp.jar
• Java 2 Platform downloads

Once you have the Java Runtime installed, you should be able to run Spiro by double-clicking on the Jar file, or by typing the command java -jar spiro.jar.

The Spiro application is available free of charge, and unencumbered by any warranty or claims of suitability for any particular purpose. Use at your own risk. Source code for Spiro is available on request, use the feedback link below.

 

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This page written by Neal Ziring, last modified 9/15/00.