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Overview

I’ve been experimenting with Colour Filter Image manipulation lately. As an example showcasing some of the possibilities I created several images based on the standard orange RSS feed icon.

The source image used in generating all the filtered images on this page has been licensed under the GNU General Public License and can be downloaded from Wikipedia.

If you are interested in the technical details behind the colour filter implementation you can browse the C# How to articles at C# How to: Swapping Bitmap ARGB Colour Channels and C# How to: Blending Bitmap images using colour filters.

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The following section provides a thumbnails preview of the images I created. Please note that all images have the size dimension of 2000×2000 pixels. I’ve opted to provide high resolution images to accommodate better results should images be edited further. It is not recommended using high resolution images directly due to larger file sizes when compared to typically used lower resolution images. Reducing image resolution is a fairly straight forward task easily achieved using most image editing software.

Images are provided under the GNU General Public License. You are free to download, modify and redistribute the images.

To download an image simply click on the relevant thumbnail.

Image Filters: The Red Hot Chilli Peppers live in concert

Published March 24, 2013 Graphic Filters , Graphics , Image Filtering , Opensource , Tip Leave a Comment
Tags: Alpha Red Green Blue, ARGB, Image Blending, Image Filters, Image Manipulation, Image Transform, Sample Images, Swapping ARGB

The Original Image

All of the images featured in this article were generated from the same the input source image file. Each image illustrates the implementation of a different colour filter.

The original source image is a photo I had taken myself during a live concert performance by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, performed at Soccer City, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The colour filter technical details are explored in the articles: C# How to: Blending Bitmap images using colour filters and C# How to: Swapping Bitmap ARGB Colour Channels.

Original Image

Filtered Images

Image Filters: Tropical Storm

The Original Image

The original image file has been released into the public domain. Download the original from Wikipedia.

All or the images featured in this set were created using the original image and applying various colour filters. The colour filter technical details are explored in the articles: C# How to: Blending Bitmap images using colour filters and C# How to: Swapping Bitmap ARGB Colour Channels.

Original Image

Filtered Images

Create and download PDF documents on Wikipedia.org

Published March 24, 2013 Microsoft , Opensource , Social Media , Tip , Wikipedia Leave a Comment
Tags: Book Creator, Wikipedia, Wikipedia Articles, Wikipedia eBook, Wikipedia PDF Documents

Overview

I consider Wikipedia.org as one of my favourite and definitely most used online resources. Recently I unintentionally discovered a really useful feature exposed by Wikipedia: Compiling ebooks from one or several Wikipedia articles. Being able to neatly package Wikipedia content for offline reference use can prove to be very useful in certain scenarios.

The Wikipedia Book Creator

The process of compiling and managing ebook formatted Wikipedia content is the responsibility of the Wikipedia Book Creator. The first step in using the Book Creator would to make sure you’ve enable Book Creator.

Wikipedia’s navigation pane on the left-hand side of the screen provides a link to enable Book Creator, located under the Print/Export option:

After clicking the Create a Book link, the page that loads next provides a button to start the Book Creator:

In addition on this page you will find instructions relating to how to make use of the Book Creator feature. More in depth information can be found on the Book Creator Help page.

Once you’ve enabled the Book Creator you can continue browsing Wikipedia as per normal, with the exception of specifying which article pages should be added to your book.

Adding Article pages

You will notice that at the top of each Wikipedia article page you are now presented with additional links allowing you to interact with the Book Creator. As you browse through articles on Wikipedia you only have to click the link titled Add this page to your book.

Compiling and Downloading your Wikipedia eBook

When you decide that you have included enough article content in your book you can start reviewing your book by clicking the Show Book link located towards the top of the page.

When reviewing your book you can remove Wikipedia articles you no longer want to include in the final eBook, additionally you can specify the book’s title and subtitle.

The final step required to create your book is to specify the eBook format you prefer and then to click download.

Do note that Wikipedia also provides a service allowing users to order a printed copy of the eBook being generated.

In the steps illustrated above I created a PDF format eBook referencing Microsoft’s Wikipedia page. You can download the generated eBook here.

Image Filters: CPU

Published March 24, 2013 Graphic Filters , Graphics , Image Filtering , Opensource Leave a Comment
Tags: Alpha Red Green Blue, ARGB, Image Blending, Image Filters, Image Manipulation, Image Transform, Sample Images, Swapping ARGB

The Original Image

The original image file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Download the original from Wikipedia.

The first set of images featured in this article were created from the original image by applying ARGB blending filters in a scenario where the source/base image and and overlay image were identical. An article explaining the technical details can be found at C# How to: Blending Bitmap images using colour filters

The last set of images featured were created was by swapping the original image’s ARGB colour channels. To read up on the technical details involved in Bitmap ARGB colour channel swapping you can browse to the following article: C# How to: Swapping Bitmap ARGB Colour Channels