Low-overhead image viewer with layers?
September 8, 2011 12:44 PM Subscribe
Needed: the ability to overlay images sequentially. I have about 60 drawings, constituting a 40-km strip of land, that I would like to be able to view continuously (about 1-km at a time).
I need, at a minimum, the ability to shift individual layers/images to line them up manually. Ideally, the ability to do this automatically - a very simple version of panorama creation, without mag & warp - would be awesome.
The drawings have frames, of course, but I can automatically erase those using batch processing in IrfanView.
I've tried a few freeware image processing programs, but they aren't really built for allowing dozens of images to be manipulated at a time. However, since I'll only need to see two drawings at once, the memory overhead shouldn't be that bad, regardless of how many jpgs/tiffs were in the layout, if I had a program designed to do this.
Anyone have any ideas?
I need, at a minimum, the ability to shift individual layers/images to line them up manually. Ideally, the ability to do this automatically - a very simple version of panorama creation, without mag & warp - would be awesome.
The drawings have frames, of course, but I can automatically erase those using batch processing in IrfanView.
I've tried a few freeware image processing programs, but they aren't really built for allowing dozens of images to be manipulated at a time. However, since I'll only need to see two drawings at once, the memory overhead shouldn't be that bad, regardless of how many jpgs/tiffs were in the layout, if I had a program designed to do this.
Anyone have any ideas?
Not fully getting the concept, but I am guessing you have drawings that need to be stitched together to make one really long drawing?
If so, most panorama software programs ie. Hugin also have a mode for "images scanned in sections" usually used to stitch together large posters that were scanned in pieces on a small flat bed scanner, this goes pretty quick because it just has to move and rotate as opposed to warp and blend.
There is a tutorial here.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 1:11 PM on September 8, 2011
If so, most panorama software programs ie. Hugin also have a mode for "images scanned in sections" usually used to stitch together large posters that were scanned in pieces on a small flat bed scanner, this goes pretty quick because it just has to move and rotate as opposed to warp and blend.
There is a tutorial here.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 1:11 PM on September 8, 2011
Are you dealing with GIS data? If the files are GeoTiffs and have location information embedded within them, you can use something like GDAL to stitch them all together (specifically the 'gdal_merge' command). However, I don't think a GUI exists for it, but it's a pretty simple command.
posted by Fidel Cashflow at 1:25 PM on September 8, 2011
posted by Fidel Cashflow at 1:25 PM on September 8, 2011
Best answer: Depending if you are doing this once or many times you may want to look at VIPS . Not trivial but it is exactly what it is intended for. Handling large data sets of images and making mosaics. Hugin would be simpler . Following this link to the mosaic example may scare you , but it will do your job. Manual alignment etc.
posted by stuartmm at 2:00 PM on September 8, 2011
posted by stuartmm at 2:00 PM on September 8, 2011
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It works with only specific file types (not jpg, but bmp) but handles large numbers of files in memory at once, though you have to line up each overlap by hand, not automated.
posted by aimedwander at 12:53 PM on September 8, 2011