Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with images

Program to find and extract images in book scans?

Mo Nickels — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:35:47 -0800

Is there a program that will automatically take scans of pages that contain text and images and then extract the images and place them in separate files? Open source would be best. I have hundreds of pages of a scanned book that contain text and images. I'd like to have all the images grabbed out of those scans and placed in their own files, with unique names, and with some kind of indication in the image file names which original scan they came from. This is a monstrous chore to do manually, but it strikes me as something that should be fairly easy to do programmatically.

Hard Rock Hallelujah Fail.

zackola — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:53:55 -0800

Where did I get this picture of a priest rocking out on a Fender Stratocaster from originally? I'm a moron and when I changed web hosts a while ago, failed to take some image files with me. They are backed up nowhere. Anyhow, one of the images was this priest rocking out on a black and white Fender Stratocaster, in what looks like a church. I LOL captioned it. You can see the thumbnail on google image search by looking up

hard rock hallelujah

Is there any way for me to get the full size image out of google's cache? And if that's not an option, can anyone help me find a copy of the original (before I captioned it). Checked lots of google images and macrochan.org, but not coming up with anything. Thanks for helping out a dumbass (me).

Does Image Alignment Affect Perception Consistently?

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:05:48 -0800

In an image like this, does the alignments of the faces affect the viewers' perceptions or opinions of the people, and if so, does this cognitive bias for or against left or right carry over even to images where the faces are the same (Ie: "I think both people on the left side of either image look more trustworthy.")? Does the alignment of a single subject and addition of negative space also have an affect ("The woman in the second image looks meaner.")? I'm not so much asking for a referendum on these particular examples as I am curious about any empirical studies or statistics relating to this topic. Thanks!

Extract Text and Images From a PDF

backwards guitar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:11:56 -0800

I'd like to extract the text and images from a multi-page pdf to use on the web. I've got a number of large (100 to 200 pages) PDFs that I need to extract the text and images from to use with a CMS for a website. I've looked at a number of PDF to HTML software options, but they all seem to rely on CSS for positioning text, whereas I'd prefer to just have the text in simple paragraph format. If there's a PDF to HTML solution that doesn't format like this, I'd be interested in that, of course. Proper handling of tables would be quite beneficial.

The way Acrobat extracts text is decent, but I'd prefer it if there were no line breaks for individual paragraphs (although I could probably setup a PHP script to run through and fix that if it's my only option). As for the images, it'd be great if I had control over how they were saved. In a folder called PDF_NAME/PAGE_1 for example for all the page 1 images. At the very least I need to know which page they were extracted from, either by the folder or filename.

I also know I can extract images from a PDF using Photoshop, but unless there's a way to bulk extract images and store them in the format mentioned above, I don't think the solution will really work.

I'm running Windows XP, but a solution that works with Linux (Ubuntu) would be fine. If there's an absolutely amazing piece of software for OS X, I'd be inclined to find a system I could use to run it. I'm also open to any web-based solutions (maybe I could use PHP for such a task?).

Getting Google Images results via PHP?

basil1 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:07:55 -0800

PHP maestros: how can I get Google Images results into my PHP code? See Guess the Google (Flash) for an example. Is there a useful set of code that exists? I couldn't find it! I'm not averse to coding it from first principles but maybe you would be kind enough to nudge me in the right direction?

Do's and don'ts of graphic design

sixcolors — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:10:49 -0800

Advice on how to be a successful graphic designer. I've been learning graphic design for the last six months, and I am gaining confidence, enough to do some side jobs for friends/relatives/relative's friends. I eventually would like to branch out to small businesses (freelance)...and maybe even farther down the line getting a full time job as a graphic designer.

I would like some tips on what to do and what not to do. This can be anything from how to handle difficult clients to marketing myself to avoiding common mistakes in creating typography and images.

Linux distro or software for full-screen kiosk slideshow?

odinsdream — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:13:38 -0800

Linux software or distribution for running a kiosk-type slideshow screen? You've seen them in doctors offices and sometimes restaurants. They're typically used for advertisements. I've been tasked with creating a screen that can show variable information with little to no user interaction, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Is there some software that will easily allow me to hook up a Linux box to a screen, is easy to update remotely, and will cycle through a variety of media in a fullscreen display?

I'd like to potentially display various picture formats, HTML, perhaps videos, RSS feeds, etc.

Surely someone has done the legwork on this already? If not, I considered creating a website with meta-refreshes between each page, then loading a full-screen browser on the kiosk computer and pointing it to the site. This would allow me to handle the updates on the web server.

I'd like a Preview.app replacement that won't disappoint!

headlessagnew — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:33:12 -0800

I make a lot of images. Help me find a multiple-image viewing application to meet my needs on Linux... Up until now, I've been a very happy user of Preview.app on OSX. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to use on Linux, and I intend to accelerate my migration back from Appleland. There are a couple things about it that are getting to be a bit tough to beat; I can generate a hundred plots with some other code, open them all up and get a scroll bar next to a pane with the image set at full-size, and it will update within an application instance automatically if the file is modified on-disk. I've tried opening up the plots inside a bunch of firefox tabs and reloading all, but that is a heavyweight solution to a simple problem. "Display" doesn't really behave the way I expected it to, and the various digital camera apps (digiKam for instance) are all aimed at solving a different problem than mere image gallery viewing.

So what's the best app out there that will update on the fly, has a nice simple interface, and allows for full-size viewing within the main application pane? Is there such a thing? Thanks, MeFi!

What is the best approach to reproducible color management?

teem — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:08:23 -0800

What is the best approach to color management? I only just realised that how I see my photos in iPhoto, Photoshop, and Safari isn't how the majority of people on the net are seeing them? What is the best setup for consistent color management that still looks good? Example: Smitten Kitchen versus Use real butter. Both food blogs (neither one mine) look great in Safari, but in Firefox Use real butter's pictures lose saturation, while Smitten Kitchen's remain brilliant.

What combination of setups should I use in my camera, iPhoto, Photoshop, and browser in order to color manage like Smitten Kitchen?

I read This previous question, but was keen to know if any recommendations have changed now that 2 years have passed.

Redirect images & mp3s to mirror via htaccess

frenetic — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:13:40 -0800

How do I redirect all my website's images and mp3s to another domain via .htaccess? I have a domain (foo.com) that ordinarily serves my website and its images and mp3s. I have a mirror (bar.com) that has a mirror/backup of all those images and mp3s.

In the event of a traffic surge on foo.com, I want to make Apache serve all my images and mp3s from bar.com.

All I can find is examples to stop others from hot-linking my files, which isn't what I want.

(Bonus aside question: Am I not turning up examples of this because it's better done in httpd.conf some way?)

Copyright law for online images

leibniz — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:09:44 -0800

What are my legal rights, and what compensation can I get from a UK television channel who used a photograph I had taken without my permission, but which I had uploaded onto facebook?? Channel 4 news in the UK recently used a photograph I had taken of a friend of mine in one of its items (it's on screen for well over a minute). This was used without permission or credit. I had uploaded the image to a public group on facebook, but as I see it, I had uploaded it for use within the group and not for commercial purposes. It is certainly not legally public domain just because it is on a social website.

The news item can be found here.
The photo can be found here (requires facebook login).

So what I would like to know is firstly what my legal rights are here, and secondly who I can complain to (in UK remember) in order to get compensation? I hope I can get some money to donate to his legal fund.

(You may have seen the mefi FPP I wrote about the case here btw.)

Exporting vector graphics for large-format PDF printing

Marquis — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:07:09 -0800

I have a vector-based image I have created in Inkscape. I will be printing it in a very large format - 3" x 4", - and my printer wants the image to be supplied as PDF. What do I need to do to export a PDF that will be of sufficient quality for printing? I have a very simple b&w vector image in Inkscape - just a line of text and two clip-art ornaments. (It saves by default as a .svg)

I need to bring a PDF to the printers but as it will be printed very very big, I'm nervous about quality. If I do a vanilla "Save as... PDF via Cairo" in Inkscape, will the resulting PDF be okay for printing at very large scale? Do I need to do anything else to prepare the image for biggification? Since it's a vector graphic I hoped that it would scale without problems.

(When I save as PDF as above, the resulting file is just 28 kb, which is what's spooked me. I also have to check the "Convert text to paths" box for the font to look right.)

I am computer-savvy but know zilch about graphics (CMYK, what?), so please dumb down yr answers if possible. Oh, and I'm on a iBook/OS 10.4.

How do I rotate images using javascript?

eightball — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:36:02 -0800

Having trouble with javascript. How do I rotate two images using javascript? I might be going about this all wrong, since I'm having trouble getting this to work. I've searched google but can't find anything thats close enough to what I'm doing.

All I need to do is have two images rotate on a web page. One of the images needs to be clickable to a url, and the other should have no link.

Ideally I'd like to have two div's with ID's that swap, but thats not important if thats not the best way.

I tried to use this as a guide, but ran into problems since I don't want one of the images to be clickable.

How to sell photos online?

furtive — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:27:44 -0800

I'd like to create a stock photo service for a client. Does anyone have any recommendations for existing services such as photostockplus.com or those that focus on selling digital content such as tidwit.com or the now defunct blish.com. Is there a leader in this marketplace? My main priority is speed and not cost, so using an existing web service would be greatly appreciated. I'm also debating putting a Wordpress front end that would point to content hosted by one of those (or other) sites.

Format Error! Images Lost! Recovered Giant MPG! WTF?!

punkbitch — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:34:51 -0800

At the end of a badass and beautiful backpacking trip, my digital camera's memory card suddenly read "format error." My camera is a dinosaur Sony Cybershot with merely 3.2 megapixels. I downloaded Photorec and tried to recover the photos, but all I ended up with was a 13.9 Meg mpg file... But I can't do anything with that mpg file. I have to admit a complete technological ignorance...operations of this sort are bewildering to me.

Anyone have any ideas? Are my images somehow recovered onto that mpg file? Is there any way to access them? HELP!!!!

Automatic creation of images displaying sequential numbers

Grensgeval — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:22:02 -0800

How do I automatically create a series of images of sequential numbers? ( 01.jpg shows the number '1', 02.jpg the number '2', etc) I would prefer to do this using software for Windows. Although if need be, a Mac-only solution would do.

The file-format is of no importance, since conversion is always possible.
Image size for my use is about 500x500 pixels. Simple two-tone images are fine, although some influence on (randomization of) background color, font type/color would be even better.

I'm no guru, but have a basic understanding of Adobe's CS3 Suite and have monkeyed around with various video-editing programs (using the titler functions) as well as image-management software (e.g. ThumbsPlus) and different watermarking software to get this problem solved, but without success.

I'm sure it must be possible, even if the method is a 'dirty' way of using a program. ThumbsPlus for example can make thumbnail-sheets of images, which it then numbers, if you ask it to. However, I haven't been able to cheat this option into doing what I need.

Any ideas? Making these by hand is not going to be fun...

Is there a website where I can download high quality, large images?

thebrokenmuse — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:20:12 -0800

Is there a website where I can download high quality, large images? Without watermarks? I am interested in printing some art for my walls but I am having trouble finding images with high enough quality to look good printed 11 by 14 inches. I am looking for mostly historical photographs, fashion drawings, old movie stills and pin-ups.

viewing HTML shrunken images

Sparx — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:26:54 -0800

On the blue, delmoi pointed out that the images of an online comic had been shrunk via HTML to fit the page. Is there a greasemonkey script or something that would allow those images to be seen fullsize without having to think about it?

configuration of vista breadcrumb bar/firefox second tab row

lrodman — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:15:34 -0800

Is it possible to trim Vista Breadcrumb sections so that the breadcrumb bar doesn't clip off most of the path in long titles? I.e. anything over say, 10 characters gets cropped, so that long paths can be shown? Also, is there a way to fix the glitchy second row of tabs in firefox? I want the second row of tabs to have the same height as the first, so that graphics don't go all screwy.

Favorite high-res images

aerotive — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:06:15 -0800

A local print shop is having a sale on 36"x24" custom prints. What are some of your favorite high-resolution digital images that would work well as framed prints? I have lots of photos but not very many at the resolution they recommend (3500x2500 or greater). They need to be legal images--creative commons or public domain or otherwise ok to reproduce.

I'm open to other sots of images besides photos--high res scanned art, computer generated art, etc.

A coffee cup refresh icon?

clearly — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:52:58 -0800

Mac question. In Safari, A coffee cup icon with two curved arrows comes up when I can't see a certain type of image (kind of like a refresh icon with a coffee cup in the middle). In Firefox they show up as a grey outlined box with a red X on the left hand side. What am I missing here? Do I need to download something to be able to see these images? Are these images nonexistent?

Help!

Getting started in graphic design

sixcolors — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:37:28 -0800

Where does one find images for graphic design? I am interested in doing graphic design. I know there's programs such as quark that one can use. But, I couldn't find any images or even fancy font on there. I assume that I need another program to add images. Where can I find them?

Insert Inline Image?

iconjack — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:50:08 -0800

How do I inline an image an Outlook 2007? Microsoft Outlook 2007 has three e-mail formats: plain, rich-text, and html. I create a new message of the html type and I want to insert an image, inline, in the text. In other words, I want to get an <IMG> tag in the html of the message. Surely there's a way?

A little bigger than a thumbnail

tmcw — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:36:38 -0800

Resizing & storing many images on a webserver: limits, options, etc? I'm working on a web app that currently follows the following method for image uploads:

1. upload via PHP
2. generate new unique name for the file & its thumbnails
3. generate thumbnails via GD2
4. save image files all in one directory.

My concerns are basically that this might need to be scalable and flat directories, GD2, and 128MB of VPS memory just don't sound convincing in that respect. I'm wondering if there's a smarter option that I'm missing. I was earlier considering storage in S3 and doing thumbnails in EC2 - anyone have experience doing this? I'm really wondering about how difficult it is to use EC2, since it appears to be optimized for big, big scenarios.

Will A3 essentially serve these static files? Also, does anyone have knowledge about GD2 vs. Imagemagick vs. any other library that might optimize for memory?

Thanks for any help!

Local File Browsing and Viewing Via a Web Interface?

WCityMike — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:08:35 -0800

I'm looking for a file browsing and HTML- and media-viewing interface that can be set up on a Mac OS X machine locally and accessed through a web browser. Remote access not necessary; I'm just looking for a local interface. Basically, I have a number of files -- HTML files, ASCII files, images (mostly JPEGs), PDFs, and movies (I think mostly AVIs, although there's some MOVs, MP4s, SWFs, and RMs). These files are mostly bits and pieces of my life that have gone with me from computer to computer, and I tend to find myself referring to them fairly often.

Right now, I access and browse these files via Mac OS X's Finder (well, technically, via Cocoatech's Path Finder).

What I'd like is to be able to access and browse these files from within the Firefox browser, preferably by setting up some sort of localhost file browsing solution that also has the power to display images, movie files, and PDFs, and to detect the difference between a text file and an HTML file.

I tend to access these files while in a web situation, so the added steps of exiting the browser and navigating through directories is a tad annoying. Being able to browse through the files via a web interface -- even if not actually mounted in a publicly accessible "live" webspace but only on my machine -- would be useful to me.

Fairly idiotproof instructions would be greatly appreciated.

If there are a number of different packages out there that can do this (as I suspect), essentially the qualities I would be looking for would be slickness of interface; the power to display images, movie files, and PDFs, and to detect the difference between a text file and an HTML file; and ease of installation.