Week 6: Testing Phase
This week was less about implementing brand new features and more about understanding how people actually use SVGs.
After spending the last few weeks building out the export pipeline, I wanted to see whether it held up outside of my own test sketches. It's easy to think you've covered everything when you're the one writing the code, but real users always find workflows you never considered.
Reaching Out for Feedback
One thing I wanted to do this week was get the addon in front of people who work with SVGs regularly.
I reached out to a few members of the community and asked if they'd be willing to try the addon with their own projects. The feedback has been incredibly helpful because everyone has a slightly different workflow and different expectations from SVG export.
One of the people I had the chance to talk with was Sophia, She is an artist whose work combines generative art and creative coding. She spent time experimenting with the addon using one of her own sketches and shared both her experience and suggestions.
Her artwork is a great example of the kind of sketches I want this project to support, and seeing it exported through the addon was both exciting and a good stress test for the exporter.
You can check out Sophia's work here:
Talking directly with artists has been one of the most valuable parts of this project so far. They don't approach SVGs the same way a library developer does, and that perspective has helped me prioritize improvements that make the addon more useful in real creative workflows.
Polishing the Exporter
A good portion of the week was spent acting on the feedback I received.
Some issues were small compatibility fixes, while others required rethinking how certain styles were being recorded and exported. SVG has a surprising number of edge cases, and every new sketch seems to expose another one.
Rather than continuing to pile features on top of the exporter, I wanted to spend some time making the existing implementation more reliable before moving on.
Preparing for SVG Import
With the export side becoming more stable, I finally started planning the next major milestone: SVG import.
This has involved much more design work than I initially expected. Importing isn't just about parsing an SVG fileit means converting SVG elements, styles, and transforms back into p5.Shape objects while preserving the original artwork as closely as possible.
I also spent time discussing different approaches with my mentors. We talked through trade-offs around shared recording infrastructure, transform handling, and how the import pipeline should fit alongside the existing exporter. Those conversations have been incredibly helpful in shaping the direction before writing too much code.
To support this next phase, I also began refactoring parts of the recording system so the export and import pipelines can share more of the same infrastructure instead of maintaining separate implementations.
Looking Ahead
I'd love to hear from the community! If you work with SVGs, how do you use them back in p5.js? What would you expect from SVG import, and are there any features or workflows you'd like to see supported? Your feedback will help shape the next phase of the project.
If you'd like to try the addon yourself:
p5.js Web Editor Demo: https://editor.p5js.org/vanshkabra05/sketches/45caLrfVy
Feel free to try it out and share your thoughts or report any issues!