How do I break a picture?

Here is the image I want to unglue into seperate pictures! John

A mosaic creator?

 http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/

Mosaic software?
http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/

I am trying to take a huge picture and create smaller pictures from the bigger one like frames from a animated gif! And save the smaller pictures? John

which image editor do you use?

Paintshop Pro X2, is there a standalone breaker? John

Not that I know of, I'm using Photoshop I'll let you know How long it takes me.

Hmmm, Philip has had 6 hours, so I'll attach my cropped images as a Zip file and describe my method using the free IrfanView image viewer/editor and a batch file designed for Windows 2000 upwards (also attached).

IrfanView:
http://www.irfanview.com/
http://download.cnet.com/IrfanView/3000-2192_4-10021962.html?part=dl-IrfanView&subj=dl&tag=button

Plugins if desired:
http://www.software.com/irfanview-4.25-graphic-viewer-plugins-9374-1

IrfanView supports the following useful Command Line Options:

/killmesoftly
Close all IrfanView instances (exit after command line)

/silent
Don't show messages for command line read/save errors

i_view32.exe /crop=(x,y,w,h)
Crop input image: x-start horiz, y-start vertical, width, height

Examples for crop:

Open "c:\test.jpg" and crop: x-start=10, y-start=10, width=300, height=300

i_view32.exe "c:\test.jpg" /crop=(10,10,300,300)

i_view32.exe "c:\test.jpg" /crop=(10,10,300,300) /convert=c:\giftest.gif

The /convert switch does batch file format conversion, but if you specify the same file type it just works as a renaming command, so I would use that option in method 1.

OK, so I would suggest that you should be able to perform what you need using either of the batch file methods as follows:

METHOD 1
========

1. Copy the image 115 times using logical sequential file names.
This Batch file would do the copying:

@echo off
for /L %%a in (1,1,105) do copy activity.jpg activity_%%a.jpg
exit

This creates copies as "activity_1.jpg", "activity_2.jpg", up to "activity_105.jpg".
I can alter the batch file attached so that it prefixes the cropped images with a number and file name eg. "111_activity.jpg" if preferred, but that gets sorted in the Windows quirky way that groups numbers.

2. Run a separate "crop" command on each *.jpg file that specifies a different x (hozizontal axis) and y (vertical axis) starting points.  Your image is 200 x 21000 pixels, so x will always be zero.  You just need to step down 200 pixels on the vertical (y) axis each time for your new starting crop position.

This requires a bit of mathematics, which I am terrible at, but 21000 divided by 15 logically equals 200.  The following are the first 3 commands added to the original batch file telling IrfanView to crop the first 3 files, because that's all I can work out ;-)


start /b /wait C:\Progra~1\IrfanView\i_view32.exe "%CD%\activity_1.jpg" /crop=(0,0,200,200) /convert="%CD%\_activity_1.jpg" /silent /killmesoftly
start /b /wait C:\Progra~1\IrfanView\i_view32.exe "%CD%\activity_2.jpg" /crop=(0,200,200,200) /convert="%CD%\_activity_2.jpg" /silent /killmesoftly
start /b /wait C:\Progra~1\IrfanView\i_view32.exe "%CD%\activity_3.jpg" /crop=(0,400,200,200) /convert="%CD%\_activity_3.jpg" /silent /killmesoftly
....... etc .....
start /b /wait C:\Progra~1\IrfanView\i_view32.exe "%CD%\activity_105.jpg" /crop=(0,20800,200,200) /convert="%CD%\_activity_105.jpg" /silent /killmesoftly


3. Each separate image file will be cropped down to only the square you need.

To use the attached batch file, do as follows:

Save "Crop-Convert-cmd.txt" and then rename it to "Crop-Convert.cmd", accepting the warning about changing file types.

Make sure it is in the same folder as your "activity.jpg" image file, and preferably use a copy of it.  Although the batch file appears to work on a folder path with spaces in the names, I suggest that you use it in one without spaces created for this purpose, eg. "C:\CROP"

Install IrfanView to the default path of "C:\Program Files\IrfanView".  The program executable will be in there as "i_view32.exe".  Because the batch file is calling i_view32.exe with the parameters it needs there is no need to configure the program first, although it's always better to have a properly configured program installed.

TIP:  Don't associate IrfanView with any file types except perhaps for some of the unusual ones not handled by your default image editor.

Double-Click on your batch file "Crop-Convert.cmd" and allow it to run.

METHOD 2
========

I didn't do one because Method 1 works fine.  I was going to use a FOR loop in the batch file to avoid creating all the 105 temporary copies of the image and just use an incrementing variable to crop and convert the image to a new file name with each loop, but I can't really be bothered ;-)

Bill

OK, there's something screwy with the file attachment option that has obviously been reworked.  Let me try and attach the ZIP file of images again.

Nope, the function is down.  The narrow box is scrollable and I can just see "down for maintenance" peeping through as I scroll.  I'll try again later.

The resultant cropped images are from 1 to 9 KB in size, and the zip file (which contains the 169KB original image) is 581KB, so that's well within the 50MB maximum file size that can be attached here.

LOL I've been doing other things in the 6 hours. Watching Football (soccer) takes precedence. Will sit down with this later.

Hey, you don't have to call it "soccer".  It's Fitba' in Scotland, and is normally accompanied by either something from the Chippy or a Chicken Tikka Tandoori Masala, a few cans of Irn Bru is you're teetotal or driving, or else a few cans of Tennants if you have no taste buds or imagination.  I'm only 45 minutes away from you, but thankfully I have no great interest in Rangers, Hearts, Celtic, Hibs, or any of the rest of them.  Enjoy your night, I'm just about to phone for Mixed Pakora and Chasni myself and then see what songs Jonathan and Edward can screw up this week on X-factor and still get through.

Dunfermline's my Scottish team, lived there for 18 yrs. At this moment watching Leeds v Olham in another tab. Leeds being my supported team. Currently 1 nil a screamer from Johnny Howson.

Sorry for hijacking thread with football :)

start /b /wait C:\Progra~1\IRFANV~1\i_view32.exe "D:\boot\pics\activity_105.jpg" /crop=(0,20800,200,200) /convert="D:\boot\pics\_activity_105.jpg" /silent /killmesoftly
 What is wrong with this, watching fotbol eh, I am watching American Football!
John

Hi John

Uh oh, didn't the batch file work?

What is your operating system?
I am testing this on Windows XP, so it should work with Windows 2000 and Vista, but I can't be sure because I don't have any computers running those.

I have had some failures when I enclose the path to IrfanView's i_vew32.exe in quotes and leave the path unaltered, ie.
"C:\Program Files\Infanview\i_view32.exe"
It usually comes up with a dialog error that i_view32.exe cannot find the file, so I tend to just cut down the "Program Files" to "Progra~1" but leave the "Irfanview" folder with its 9 character file name.  Using "DOS" 8.3 file names, it should really be as you have done with "Irfanv~1", but I've found that it still works with the full "Irfanview" folder name.

I can't see any reason from your example line that the command should fail.  The system variable %CD% should always be the "Current Directory", and should therefore be expanded to the directory that the batch file is being run from when executed.  The easiest way to test this is to add the lines:

echo Current Directory is %CD%
pause

up near the top of the batch file.

Another way to store the Current Directory is using the %0 variable and modifying it.  %0 should store the full path to your batch file if used within your batch file, and modifying it to %~dp0 should then store the full path to the batch file with a trailing backslash.  I don't like using that because you end up with something like this:

"%~dp0activity_105.jpg"

Note the absence of the backslash because the variable already has the path stored with the trailing backslash.  You can do this type of thing to get rid of it:

set CurrDir=%~dp0
set CurrDir=%CurrDir:~0,-1%

C:\Progra~1\IrfanView\i_view32.exe "%CurrDir%\activity_105.jpg" /crop=(0,20800,200,200) /convert="%CurrDir%\_activity_105.jpg" /silent /killmesoftly

When it comes to it, you should theoretically be able to declare all the paths at the start of the batch file and then use the variables in the commands like this:

@echo off
set IVIEW=C:\Progra~1\Irfanv~1
set ImgPath=D:\boot\pics

start /b /wait %IVIEW% %ImgPath%\activity_105.jpg /crop=(0,20800,200,200) /convert=%ImgPath%\_activity_105.jpg /silent /killmesoftly

In theory that should work, but Irfanview is a bit quirky with what it accepts on the command line.  It also insists that all command line switches must be lowercase, so /CROP and /SILENT will not work.

I added a     start /b /wait    command at the beginning of each line to ensure that batch processing waited for the IrfanView command to complete before executing the next.  In previous versions of "DOS" this was necessary, but Windows XP (and probably 2000 and Vista) seem to wait anyway, so it may not be necessary.  The /b switch just tells it not to open a new "DOS" window for each command.

By the way, to create batch files like this I tend to use Excel to create the number lists in columns and then populate the other columns using copy and paste.  I then Save as a *.csv file, rename as *.txt, and use the Find and Replace to get rid of the unwanted commas and quotation marks, add spaces, etc.  It looks like a laborious exercise, but you would quickly see it's quite quick if you wanted to test without the start /b /wait comand at the start of each line.  Do it on a copy of the batch file:
Find     start /b /wait <space>
Replace with    nothing

Similarly you could test another copy by replacing paths with variables, etc.

I can try to modify the batch file if you wish, but let's see if the images are suitable for you, in which case you may not need to use the batch file at all.  Unfortunately the attachment function is still not working yet.  Hopefully it will be functional soon.

Bill

Wait up.

I modified the batch file and have attached the revised version as "Crop-Convert_02-cmd.txt".

I used the modification I mentioned above:

set IVIEW=C:\Progra~1\Irfanv~1
set ImgPath=D:\boot\pics

and then:

Replaced all instances of:
start /b /wait C:\Progra~1\Irfanview\i_view32.exe
with:
%IVIEW%

Replaced all instances of %CD% with %ImgPath%

I have just tested the revised batch file by creating a new folder D:\boot\pics and copying "activity.jpg" into it.  The batch file now runs from any folder on my XP system.

Note:  If you wished to permanently set the path to i_view32.exe so that you did not have to specify a path to it, there are two methods that work with Windows XP:

Registry using a *.reg file or manually in REGEDIT (works for Windows 2000 and XP, but not sure about Vista):

Open Regedit and create a new sub-key named   i_view32.exe    under the key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths]
(note the space in "App Paths".  Some tweaking progams and setup packages wrongly create a new key named "AppPaths").

Click on the new "i_view32.exe" key, then double-click on the (Default) String Value (REG_SZ), or Right-Click > Modify.  In the "Value Data" field of the Edit String dialog, insert the path      C:\Progra~1\IrfanView\i_view32.exe   or    C:\Progra~1\Irfanv~1\i_view32.exe

Create a New String Value named "Path", then Edit it to    C:\Progra~1\IrfanView  or    C:\Progra~1\Irfanv~1

Close Regedit and test by typing   i_view32   in the Start Menu's Run field or in a command window.

*.reg file to save and Right-Click > Merge to registry is in the code snippet.  Be sure to leave two blank lines after the last line in the file or the new values may not be written to the registry.

The other method uses Environment Variables.  I can only vouch for this working in Windows XP.

Right-Click on My Computer and choose Properties.  Open the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.  You will have two areas in the dialog: User and System.  I suggest that you use the "user" field only.

If the "Path" variable exists, you can Double-Click on it to show the Variable Value field.  If there are no entries in there already, just add the path to i_view32.exe as with the Regedit method above.  If there is already a value or values in that field, then add the path to i_view32.exe on after placing a semicolon right after the last entry.  No spaces between them.

I would prefer just to create a brand new user environment variable named eg. IrfanView and set the path for it to i_view32.exe.

Click OK to close the Environment Variables dialog, then click the "Apply" button on the System Properties dialog, and OK to close it.  Test by typing    irfanview    in the tart Menu's Run field or at the command prompt.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\i_view32.exe]
@="C:\\Progra~1\\Irfanv~1\\i_view32.exe"
"Path"="C:\\Progra~1\\Irfanv~1"
                                              

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Philip
I prefer Rugby to football, but even then I only watch if there's nothing else on.  I was intrigued by the New Zealand All Blacks vs Wales on TV last night though.  Those are some tough beasts of guys.  Man, they smash each other around to the same degree as American Footballers ... but only wearing shorts and T shirts!  Imagine facing guys the size of wardrobes doing this at you before the game:
http://files.allblacks.com/downloadable-hakas/kapaopango-300.wmv

Thank you, John

Thank You, John

Thank you John.  I hope the images are OK.  As far as I know the process will not have compressed them any more and degraded them.

How do I have seperate on one drive and put the pics on another?