Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pixel

Help make my card catalog into an awesome pixel-ated image.

melodykramer — Sun, 17 May 2009 09:23:23 -0800

I recently acquired one of these orthodontic cabinets at a consignment shop and it is in desperate need of a paint job. Because there are 100 drawers (10 x 10) I would like to paint the individual drawers to create a neat image when the cabinet is viewed from a distance. Any suggestions? I've thought of a Mondrian-style idea as well as Mario or Space Invaders. I do not mind purchasing different colored spray paints but would like the entire cabinet to become a talking point in my living room. (The wackier or more humorous, the better.) But since there are only 100 drawers, I do not think a Close-style drawing or depiction of something huge would work.

(As an aside, I purchased the cabinet for 25 bucks and it was rusty and gross. I did not know it was an orthodontics cabinet (I assumed library) until I opened up some of the bins and they contained teeth. Yes, teeth. Teeth and tooth molds. Ew. Ew. Ew. So I've scrubbed and vinegared/baking soda-ed all 100 of the drawers, and they are now clean and ready for primer and paint.)

Celebrity Pixel Art?

stevil — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:02:18 -0800

Who created those 8-bit pixel art graphics of many famous characters? This was a big blogosphere thing maybe 2 or 3 years ago? An artist created this huge number of blocky front-view representations of all sorts of famous people and it was almost a game to see if you could figure out who it was. And the fun part was that you COULD tell who they were, even though they were really minimal. I remember some of them were individual characters (I'm figuring Star Wars characters) and some were groups (I remember Kiss and Guns 'n Roses).

I looked here and boingboing under any variation of 8-bit, pixel-art, icon, celebrity, etc. and I can't find it.

I think this even ended up in the mainstream media at one point. I'm sure this is an easy one but my mind is totally blank and my Google-mojo seems to have left me.

Where can I find pixelated clothes?

drew3d — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:11:12 -0800

What pixelated clothing can I obtain that would complement my new pixelated ThinkGeek "8-bit" Necktie? I'm thinking about using the tie as part of a Halloween costume. But I need more. A t-shirt with pixel designs is OK, but even better would be something where the pixelation is part of the design, like with the necktie. Ideally the store selling the clothes would be online and ship quickly to the USA. Pixel shirts? Pixel pants? Pixel hats? Anything?

How to relate Pixels to inches

JayRwv — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:44:06 -0800

I cannot relate picture size in pixels to actual dimensions. I am looking for a source to educate me in how to relate a picture on my HD from Pixel size (say 800 x 600) to dimensions in inches. Do such things relate? Why is it so confusing? Any help is appreciated.

Why can't I change pixel size / resolution in Adobe Premiere?

Flying Saucer — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:24:25 -0800

When I change the pixel size in Adobe Premiere Pro...why doesn't it change? I'm editing DV footage with a partner. He's got an Apple and FCP; I've got a PC and Adobe Premiere 6.0.

Somewhere along the way we realized that my videos, output as 720x480, show up on Quicktime (on both machines) as 640x480.

Premiere seems to have three settings that relate to pixel size:

- The presets, which you select when you start a new project. One of them is "720x480 NTSC for Quicktime," which STILL turns my videos into 640x480 when played on QT.

- Clip > Advanced Options > Pixel Aspect Ratio, which doesn't seem to do anything.

- The Pixel Aspect Ratio menu under Project > Project Settings > Video, which also has no effect.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Is it something I failed to do during capture, forever dooming this footage to black margins when they're played on a Mac?

I've looked all over the web and Adobe's instructions and can't find a solution. Thanks for any suggestions.

My LCDs got the blues

bkudria — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:46:55 -0800

My 2-year old LCD has a blue vertical line for anything not white. Can it be fixed? I have a two-year old LCD that has a vertical line of stuck pixels. Any color on that line is now blue, with blue blue if the background is dark and a lighter blue depending on the color value. Total white makes the line go away.

It's not a software problem, the line appears even at POST, and it's not a cable problem, because the "No Signal Input" message displayed when the cable is disconnected also has the line.

So, my question is, can I make the line go away? I'm not averse to opening the display to fix it, but only if you guys suggest it - I wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

The monitor is a Samsung Syncmaster 915n, running at native resolution (1280x1024) but the line appears on a non-native resolution as well. If it's relevant, the monitor is connected to my laptop with a VGA cable.

OS X only makes bitmap PDFs

blueshammer — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:05:25 -0800

When I make a PDF from any application in OS X (10.3.x), they come out pixelated. Much like the steering well in the pirate's pants, it's driving me nuts. Whenever I PDFify a file in OS X -- definitely Illustrator 10, and I think from Pages as well -- I get a very high-rez bitmap image instead of vectors. At first I thought it was just Illustrator -- something to do with "output resolution" -- but I believe I tested it in other vector apps and had the same problem.

I'm not in front of my computer right now -- well, not in front of that computer -- but I just realized that I'm going to have to send a PDF off on deadline this evening and I want it to be vectors, so I have to search to remember this and that. So if you have an Illustrator-specific solution, I'm happy to try that, but I think the problem is system-wide.

Return a digital camera because of a few stuck pixels?

drew3d — Fri, 26 May 2006 10:03:15 -0800

Hot/stuck pixels in a new consumer-grade digital camera? Fact of life, or defect? I just got a Casio Exilim EX-Z750 from Costco. 7.2 megapixels. I like the camera, but right away I noticed 4 hot pixels/stuck pixels. These are pixels that are lit, even at fast shutter speeds (e.g. 1/60). They are always in the same spot on the photos. Note that these stuck pixels are in the photos themselves, NOT on the camera LCD display screen.

I am aware of all the ways to clean up hot pixels, and I am proficient with graphics software so that would be no problem. Scaling down the images with Photoshop blends them away. This is a consumer grade camera so it doesn't have any black frame subtraction features built in.

Should I return/exchange it? Are hot pixels a fact of life with consumer-grade high-megapixel cameras? What are the chances that I'll get one with more stuck pixels if I exchange it?

Free poly-sized pixel fonts?

bkudria — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:31:35 -0800

I'm looking for more fonts like Terminus. Terminus is a free pixel font that comes in multiple sizes. I really like the look for pixel fonts, but all the ones I've found are available in only one point size...Terminus has several. If I try to view webpages with another pixel font, my browser scales it, and it becomes blurry. This does not happen with Terminus, but I would like some more variety. Are there any other free pixel fonts with multiple size available? Italics are a bonus.

Should a single dead pixel bother me?

aberrant — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:36:10 -0800

Should I ask to return my new GPS? I received my Garmin nuvi this evening. It's awesome, but I noticed after I got it home (from the UPS pickup) that there's a dead pixel close to the center of the screen. I can live with it, but it's annoying. Is it reasonable to expect to be able to return the unit, or is this sort of thing just an unfortunate fact of life? It's not "in the way" as far as I can see - just stuck red, and visible due to the black background.

Dead Pixel

furiousxgeorge — Wed, 18 May 2005 19:55:45 -0800

I just got a new laptop which I like very much, but there is one dead pixel on the right side of the screen. I'm debating if I should exchange it. It really isn't that big a deal, but it seems like one of those little things that might slowly drive me insane if I keep it. Am I overreacting? One bad pixel worthy of exchange? If you have lived with pixel trouble I'd like to know what you think.

Dead Apple Pixels

garethspor — Sat, 22 May 2004 17:47:05 -0800

How many pixels need to be broken for Apple to replace one of their laptop screens? (more inside)