I need picture mosaic software of some kind

[tChr]

I was wondering if anyone know about software (programs/plugins) to do the following:

You have seen those posters that are put together of many many small pictures, that form a larger picture when seen from distance? I need this, and in addition to the final result i need to know wich filename is put where in the resulting mosaic, or at the very least, wich files were used, and how many times each.

platform, master program, whetever doesnt matter, allthough free would be good, however not required

I'm in a little bit of a hurry with this, so any feedback would be apprecieated.

[Toets]

I've never worked with this kind of software, but try googling with THIS, it does return quite some results... good luck!

[KadaverJack]

A quick apt-cache search came up with this:
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/~schani/metapixel/

I doubt it supports the "which image was put where" output you wanna have (i'm not sure if any program supports that), but it's open source, so it should be not too hard to add that output.

[obi_wan]

found another one

...or i should be able to do it in actionscript (flash) if you want, but limited in width and height for the output file.
Got one for mac too if someone wants it

[tChr]

Im not interested in the output file. I'm going to make this with printed pictures over 1.5 x 2 meters, but I'd like a tool to create the order of the pics for me

this is 10x20 pcs of 15x10 cm pictures, making a total of 150x200 cm with 200 pictures, and the plan is that the mosaic should display a portrait of the girl that is in all of the pics Might seems obsessive, but whattaheck Every pic is 5.7 MegaPixels, so I guess setting them up would require some time This, I think, also explains why I need to know wich pic goes where

[kern]

i was at a loose end so investigated jimage-mosaic.

http://jimage-mosaic.sourceforge.net/screens.php

This should fit the bill altho they recommend between 300 and 1000 images to construct a reasonable mosaic.

(10x20 pcs of 15x10 cm pictures) may be a bit on the thin side for detail but you can alter the algorithm and colour correction.
& There are options on how to render, and whether to allow any images to be repeated in the bigger picture.

Theres no file table of output that i can see, but depending on how many pics you use, the image map created is visible enough to do it by eye when reconstructing it physically say, on the wall.

If you choose to use repeat images, i think it may be easier to first of all do it digitally, then print of the images separately for each tile location.
If no duplicates used, then print off the whole set en masse, and then just stick them together in the order they appear.

200 pics huh ? you must really like her

The package is avalable for Win / Lin / Sun although you need to follow instructions to download the latest JRE and JAI progs.
i installed under Windows XP, as i hate the mess around Linux has for java files. You then run the prog from a cmd box, having traversed to the directory the stuff is in. When you come to construct the library and save it, be sure to include the extension .jml

The rendered image is saved as a bitmap, and this would be your map for where to stick the pics when transfering it to the wall, say.

gl&hf

[obi_wan]

Im not interested in the output file. I'm going to make this with printed pictures over 1.5 x 2 meters, but I'd like a tool to create the order of the pics for me
this is 10x20 pcs of 15x10 cm pictures, making a total of 150x200 cm with 200 pictures, and the plan is that the mosaic should display a portrait of the girl that is in all of the pics

Great project !! like it i've done it before for a client's truck and it is really beautiful.

Tips i remember (becoz the softwares told here gives you an output file, not an order actually) :
- The images that the soft takes as input files (future tiles) should have the name of the image incrusted in them, or anything that allows you to recognize them. (but not too big, becoz of how it works...)
- Taking the pictures : if you want your mosaic to be fine, you should have photos with a lot of different dominant color and brightness. You will need some too much exposed photos, and some too dark.
- The big photo from which you make the mosaic should have a big contrast between the background and the model.
- Try with different settings for the contrast of the original image.
- The results can be great with a 2-colors original image.

Hope it'll help you

[tChr]

Im not interested in the output file. I'm going to make this with printed pictures over 1.5 x 2 meters, but I'd like a tool to create the order of the pics for me
this is 10x20 pcs of 15x10 cm pictures, making a total of 150x200 cm with 200 pictures, and the plan is that the mosaic should display a portrait of the girl that is in all of the pics

Great project !! like it i've done it before for a client's truck and it is really beautiful.

Tips i remember (becoz the softwares told here gives you an output file, not an order actually) :
- The images that the soft takes as input files (future tiles) should have the name of the image incrusted in them, or anything that allows you to recognize them. (but not too big, becoz of how it works...)
- Taking the pictures : if you want your mosaic to be fine, you should have photos with a lot of different dominant color and brightness. You will need some too much exposed photos, and some too dark.
- The big photo from which you make the mosaic should have a big contrast between the background and the model.
- Try with different settings for the contrast of the original image.
- The results can be great with a 2-colors original image.

Hope it'll help you

Yeah.. I've figured out that with a low resolution like this (only 200 images) i might have to use a very low-detail original, maybe only an eye, or part of the face, because reproducing a full protrait or something will be hard to recognize. I'll probably use a b/w pic as the full source, but I'm not sure yet weither to use b/w or color images as tiles. Any suggestions?

[tChr]

200 pics huh ? you must really like her

Hey.. You cannot do something like this woutout real inspiration

[tChr]

Ok.. Ive done some testing, and what I've found out until now is a bit annoying.

There eis no way to create a recognisable image with less than 13 x 25 images or so, however, this leaves me with a misaic that is far too big in dimension (195 x 250 cm) so therefor I think I'll end up doing it the following way:

I double the intentional plan of tiles to ~20x30 and I use photoshop or something to add 4 and 4 pic together (in 2x2 fasion) then print these 2x2 montages on 10x13 paper, then putn them together.. the backdraw ofcoz is that I need 4 times as many pics (800; omg). At lest I have to spend time with her

Clolse calculations end me up at 8 pics (x2) widh and 14 pix (x2) height, ending at 104 x 140 cm and 16x28 = 448 pics.

Sounds good?

ps: Wy wasnt I surprised when obi was the one that had actually done this before