Smaller than big is great!

July 20, 2004 12:23 PM

Is there a name for the (somewhat overused) graphic technique of using many small images to form a larger, overall picture? It's used a lot in posters and advertising, I was just wondering if it had a name, or whether there was some central repository for such images on web. (I'm sure there's software available to create the effect, but I'm not so much interested in that.) Couldn't find anything on Google since I don't know what to search for.
posted by robbie01 to technology (8 comments total)

"Photomosaic" is what its inventor calls it.
posted by kindall at 12:26 PM on July 20, 2004

Try googling around for: photomosaic, photo mosaic, photo montage.
posted by Hankins at 12:28 PM on July 20, 2004

P.S. the inventor is "Robert Silvers" and I believe he has a patent on it, as well. He created a business centered around it (see his website for Runaway Technology) A great name for a company, I think.
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:51 PM on July 20, 2004

A patent on an art form? What dark times we live in.
posted by Blue Stone at 3:53 AM on July 21, 2004

See also this ask mefi thread.
posted by tcp at 4:31 AM on July 21, 2004

If you want to make such mosaics, check out this site.

The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge rasterized pictures out of relatively small image files. The pictures can be assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 5 meters in size!

posted by chunking express at 9:58 AM on July 21, 2004

Oh. I misunderstood your goal. My mistake. That site is cool nevertheless.
posted by chunking express at 10:01 AM on July 21, 2004

photo montage

...is something entirely different
posted by ChasFile at 2:11 PM on July 21, 2004