Comments

• harr

  March 21 edited March 21

  @iylock said:
  Markdown + SVG hybrid approach

  I tried embedding SVG code in my Markdown notes. The idea was to have self-contained files. (I used it for draw.io charts.) It looks fine in Obsidian, because Obsdian can render SVG. But the same text files are unpleasant to read with text editors that cannot render SVG.

  So I ended up using SVG like a non-text file.

  • My zettel is a plain text file that only contains human-readable markup and structured data like Markdown, YAML, HTML. The zettel contains the metadata and comments.
  • I keep the graphics in the same directory as the zettel. It helps me find related files with any file browser. And it makes linking easier, because absolute or relative paths can be a mess with some Markdown editors.
  • I link those graphics from the Markdown file. Personally I prefer wikilink notation ![[dog.1]], but Markdown links work also ![](dog.1.svg).
  • The difficult part is naming the image files. I ended up with the notename.1.png and notename.17.svg for images that belong to notename.md.

  So the files look like this:

  cat.md
  cat.1.png
  cat.2.svg
  cat.3.svg
  cat.4.jpg
  dog.md
  dog.1.svg
  tiger-2021-has-stripes.md
  tiger-2021-has-stripes.1.pdf
  

  Not pretty, but it's scalable and works with many apps and file browsers.
• Martin

  March 21

  We had a similar discussion here a while ago: https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/670/visualising-links-between-zettels-with-keyboard-maestro-and-graphviz. Nice to see it updated.
• andang76

  March 21

  Very interesting idea.

  I’ve always thought that the principles of the Zettelkasten can be successfully applied to other domains as well, by changing the expressive tools or mediums and going beyond text alone.
  I think there are interesting paths to explore using graphics, images, or even in the field of music, where relationships between elements can be just as rich and meaningful.

  Unfortunately, there’s very little out there on this topic, so one has to be a bit of a pioneer in exploring these directions.
• harr

  March 21

  The thread about visual note-taking might be of interest: https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2200/anybody-using-visual-note-taking-and-zettelkasten-would-love-to-hear-your-experience
• ctietze

  March 24

  @iylock Whoa, so did you actually try to create SVGs as the note files and then have a custom XML element with the text?

  That sounds super weird and very ... custom XML is able to support this, but you'd need to write all of the tooling yourself.

  Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
• iylock

  March 25

  @harr @Martin Thank you for sharing!

  @andang76 said:
  Very interesting idea.

  I’ve always thought that the principles of the Zettelkasten can be successfully applied to other domains as well, by changing the expressive tools or mediums and going beyond text alone.
  I think there are interesting paths to explore using graphics, images, or even in the field of music, where relationships between elements can be just as rich and meaningful.

  Unfortunately, there’s very little out there on this topic, so one has to be a bit of a pioneer in exploring these directions.

  I think I'll eventually find a way as I keep at it.
   

  @ctietze said:
  @iylock Whoa, so did you actually try to create SVGs as the note files and then have a custom XML element with the text?

  That sounds super weird and very ... custom XML is able to support this, but you'd need to write all of the tooling yourself.

  I'm a beginner at coding I intended to write this using Inkscape.

  The reason I decided to do so is simple. It started with the thought that if the note content is image-centric, it would be much better to create the note using SVG rather than attaching images to a Markdown note. Image-centric cases include the following:

  1. When there is more to be expressed graphically than through text.

  • For example, a note on how to draw a character's eyes. You can divide the eyes into individual elements and analyze or determine the different drawing methods.

  • When you need to analyze the waveform of a sound file.

  2. When you need to indicate the relationship with images, like in a mood board.

  I thought that doing so would make handling graphics and text a bit easier. The downsides are that full-text search will become difficult as the amount of XML code increases, and that I will have to rely to some extent on software like Inkscape.
• tomp

  May 21

  @iylock said:
  @harr @Martin Thank you for sharing!

  @andang76 said:
  Very interesting idea.

  I’ve always thought that the principles of the Zettelkasten can be successfully applied to other domains as well, by changing the expressive tools or mediums and going beyond text alone.
  I think there are interesting paths to explore using graphics, images, or even in the field of music, where relationships between elements can be just as rich and meaningful.

  [snip]
  I'm a beginner at coding I intended to write this using Inkscape.

  The reason I decided to do so is simple. It started with the thought that if the note content is image-centric, it would be much better to create the note using SVG rather than attaching images to a Markdown note. Image-centric cases include the following:

  1. When there is more to be expressed graphically than through text.

  • For example, a note on how to draw a character's eyes. You can divide the eyes into individual elements and analyze or determine the different drawing methods.

  • When you need to analyze the waveform of a sound file.

  Finding a way to include multimedia in a zettel ("z-card") is absolutely a winning idea. For images, I don't see any reason to focus on SVG specifically. Any standard image file format will do - one needs an image program that will work with the least hindrance.

  In my ZK system I can put a relative file path to any file type in a z-card, and from within the z-card can open that file in the system default handler. So I can pop open an image with a click. I usually move it into a second monitor to make it easier to look at while I'm thinking about the z-card. Recently I had three mind map images and a free-floating view of a related z-card open at the same time. It's a great way to work.

  Think of a z-card as being a multimedia hub that supports the subject of the card. You can still include text that covers in words the core idea that the multimedia files are about. Opening images outside of the ZK window (as opposed to embedding them for viewing inside the card) also has the advantage that the image is not taking up screen space that you want to use for reading the text.