Textograph User Guide

Textograph is a Java application that takes an image in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format and converts it to a black and white image pixelated by text characters. The utility uses different text characters to represent different grayscale levels based on the "density" of the characters - the amount of black in the characters' glyphs. The resulting images can be saved as plain text files, and used to present pictorial images in text-only media (e.g., for pictorial signatures in email messages, etc.)

The image below is a photograph of the author transformed into a text image with textograph.

.....                                                              
.....                       ...``````::.                           
.....                   :`!s$#MMMMMMMMMM#T_:                       
 ..                  :Iy#MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMN|.                   
.....            .:TNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMs`                
......          `\MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMW&MMWMMMMMMMMMMMMMA:              
.....         :[MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM@##@&WW@@MMMMMMMMMMMMM3             
....        .IMMMMMMMMN$QgagODD$$NWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM`           
     .     .gMMMMMMMa[||\\\|TyO$$QMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMr          
     .    .aMMMMMqsI_`;;`:`;_!I!!\TyO$NMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM|         
     .    |MMMMg|"`:::::::..   . :;_I[sFN@MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!        
        ."MMMMO\_`::...          ...:`;;!|\\$MMMMMMMMMMMMMM`       
        _MMMMas!;`:.                  ...:`;_[MMMMMMMMMMMMMg       
.       AMMM#Tr_::.                   :::::`![WMMMMMMMMMMMMM`      
.      ;MMMMD[\"`:.                   ::`::`"[#MMMMMMMMMMMMM!      
.      |MMM#a[\!`:.                 ..:``::`"s$MMMMMMMMMMMMM3      
      .TMMM$3[\!`:..                . .::.::_|gMMMMMMMMMMMMMg      
      .TMM#a[\"`:..                 ..:::::`;Ia&WMMMMMMMMMMMg      
       "MMNq\_`:.                    ..::::``;|N@MMMMMMMMMMM$      
       :MM@O[\\!`:                 .:.:::::``;!3NMMMMMMMMMMM$      
      ..DMO|``;;;;::.      .:`;`:     .:::````_IaMMMMMMMMMMMO      
       .aN3!"I\aTs"!_:    .:.:::::     ..:`;``_rOMMMM@qsr!DM3      
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       :Tyyq\`::.::;\\`:;`:.:`::::::``:::. .::`!FMMMq"..;:$MM.     
...   .:\FT\":::..:sF!_"!"`::::.      ......::;IsAMA|:..`_MMM.     
...  ..;T[r_::...:_3\`;"!"`:..   ...........::_rIFgF_  .:TMMT      
..   .._[\;::  ..`rs!:`_"_`:  ..    .......::`_!!\T\;::`;&MM;      
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:....      :IMMM3s||\3as;:.   .:::::.:..:`I\s[Ta$AMMM\`:           
: ..        `MMMMgs\!"`:.  .. :`!|!"::::_rT3FT3QQQMMF.    ..::..   
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MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM&AgqyyF33T[I;``;``.. .`sNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM[`      
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MMMMMMMMMMMMMAMMQgy[r!";;`:::..:`IaMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM&I_:
MMMMMMMMMMMMQWMM$q3s!`::::::;sAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Starting the Application

To start Textograph, double-click on the Textograph.jar file. In most operating systems (Windows, Mac OSX), this will start the application. For Macintosh Classic (OS9), there's a special double-clickable icon named Textograph in the Mac Classic distribution that will start the application. In Linux and Unix systems, you can start the utility at the command line; enter

java -jar Textograph.jar

at the command line. In any case, you'll need a relatively recent Java runtime installed to run the application. This is available as a free download from Sun's website:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html

(Choose an entry in the JRE column on the webpage.)

Menu Selections

Open image file...
Brings up a file selection dialog so that an image (JPEG, GIF, PNG) can be read in for "textifying". The image will be processed, and the resulting "textified" image will be displayed in the main window. Various parameters can be adjusted to improve the image (see "Show parameters dialog", below). Note that images with strong contrast - very light and dark areas - will look best when "textified".
Save text image...
Brings up a file-save dialog so the displayed "textified" image can be saved. The image is saved as plain text, which can be viewed and edited in any text editor.
Show parameters dialog...
Brings up the parameters dialog, which provides parameters for adjusting the "textification" of the image. A screenshot of the dialog is shown below.
- Font
  - Font name
    Specifies the font to be used in the image. It's best to choose a "monospaced" font, one in which the spacing of the characters is the same for all characters - i.e., where an "i" has the same width as an "M".
  - Font size
    Specifies the size of font to be used in textifying the image. The smaller the font, the better the resolution (since more charaters will fit in the image).
  - Line spacing (pixels)
    Specifies the vertical spacing, in pixels, between two lines of text during textification. If this is too large, i.e., is larger than the "real" spacing between lines of text in the text editor, the image will appear elongated vertically when it's viewed in the text editor after saving.
  - Characters to omit
    Specifies characters that shouldn't be used to generate the "textification" of an image. The default specifies the characters "<" and ">"; these have been omitted because they're used in HTML to specify formatting tags, and if present in a "textified" image may cause the image to be incorrectly displayed in some web browsers. Similarly, if you want to include a "textified" image as a comment in your C/C++/Java source code, you'll probably want to omit the characters "/" and "*", since these are used to delineate comments.
- Color offset
  The color offset sliders can be adjusted to offset the color in an image. This is often needed to lighten or darken an image so the range of shades can be displayed well by the text characters. If a "textified" image shows up as too light, try moving the sliders to the left; if the image shows up as too dark, being composed mostly of "M"s, try moving the sliders to the right. By adjusting the various colors independently, the text image can often be improved.

Questions/comments: jsevy@mcs.drexel.edu