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textorizer

Textorizer is a program that allows you to make pictures formed with text. It is best described by the sample images below. Although there are many versions around, the only one that is continuing to supported is this one.

Download - Examples - Documentation - Support - Acknowledgements

Download (it's free)

Current version: 20100519

Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
System requirements: a recent enough version of Java
Installation: download, unzip, double-click on the application, and wait a bit for it to start. If you get a message saying javaw.exe cannot be found, then you need to download and install the Java Runtime before being able to run textorizer

The latest source code is available on github, but also inside the ZIP. It is free for reuse, according to the terms of the W3C software license. Basically, that means you can do whatever you want with it, but you must credit me. Anybody is also welcome to contribute back to the project.

Previous versions: 20100423 (win, mac, linux), 20091029 (win, mac, linux), 20091027 (win, mac, linux), 20040424 (win, mac, linux)

examples

Here are a few pictures produced with textorizer (click to see the text)

There is even a Textorized Group on Flickr, with many more examples.

Documentation

There are 2 ways of textorizing a picture. One is with the text going across the picture (called: textorizer 2), the other is with the text scattered around (textorizer 1).

How to:

• Start the program
• Click on 'change image' at the top, and select one of your own photos
• Depending on which of Textorizer 1 or Textorizer 2 you would like to use, click "Change Words" or "Change Text" and select a file containing respectively a few words, or longer text.
• Click on 'Textorize!' or 'Textorize2!'
• Wait a bit, then see the results
• Play around with the controls, to improve the result
• The result is automatically saves as an image (called 'textorizer.png') and as an SVG file (called 'textorizer.svg'

A brief description of the controls

• "Input Image": the file name of the picture to textorize
• "OUTPUT IMAGE SIZE": the width of the computed picture. Its height is set accordingly.
• "BACKGROUND OPACITY": the original picture can appear below the text, with varying opacity. Change this setting to change how visible it is.
• "SVG Output file": lets you change the name of the SVG output file
• "Output Image": lets you change the name of the PNG output file
• "SELECT FONT": select the font to use on the resulting image
• Textorizer 1 controls
  • "NUMBER OF STROKES": the number of pieces of texts that will be drawn
  • "THRESHOLD": A value which controls how the text should emphasize the image's features
  • "FONT RANGE": smallest and largest font size
  • "Words File": selects a new text file witht the words to use
  • "TEXTORIZE!": runs the textorizer
• Textorizer 2 controls
• "TEXT SIZE": height of the output text. The smaller the text, the more lines.
• "LINE HEIGHT": distance between 2 lines
• "COLOUR SATURATION": emphasizes the text colour, if the result too pale
• "KERNING": controls the distance between adjacent letters
• "FONT SCALE": controls how big the font can become in darker areas
• "Text File": selects a new text file witht the text to use
• "TEXTORIZE2!": runs the textorizer2

Support

Please email max @ lapin - bleu . net for help. I try to answer all the emails, but I can't guarantee I ever will. All the older versions of textorizer are no longer supported, and I strongly discourage their use (if only because they have many more bugs and far fewer features than this one)

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Michael McQuade for designing the textorizer icon and to everyone who encouraged or suggested, and Rik Penny for making nice prints