Graphics Programming

Monday, June 5, 2017 by codewar65 | Discussion: Personal Computing

My current project is coming along nicely. I've been thinking about doing this one for years now. I just finally got around to finally getting around to it.

Backstory: My father has old books on lithography and printing from when he went to technical school back in the 50s. Some of the stuff in there is not even done anymore. I remember spending hours going through them and seeing stuff on color separations (done the old fashioned way lol) and stuff. The images of some of the halftoning really stuck with me.

I wanted to replicate some of these processes on the PC. I was normally developing in C# but have recently fell in love with Free Pascal / Lazarus. I like to think of it as the speed of C with the ease of .NET, plus I get to play around with inline x86 assembler again. 

I call the project Lithoize. It's a specialize layered halftoning application that can use various linear wave patterns or concentric circles with variable line width depending on the lightness of the source image under the line.  Currently it can save bitmap results (bmp, jpg, png, tif) and vector output to SVG so it can be imported into vector editors (AI / Corel) for further effects.

Here are some screenies:






I haven't decided what I will do with this program. I might see if I can find a publisher who handles this sort of thing. I am ill equipped to do my own marketing or sales.  Any ideas?

Thought I'd share what's been eating up my time lately.

First Previous Page 1 of 2 Next Last
codewar65
Reply #1 Monday, June 5, 2017 8:41 PM

Above image was rendered from this iconic photo from the National Explorer.

anotherside
Reply #2 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 5:45 AM

I don't know anything about this subject. It's always interesting when people are passionate about things. Especially odd things that not many people know about. Is there a practical/commercial value to this program? Or is it mostly in the realm of art? I mean art can also be very commercial, but it's nice to find a practical niche for a product.

Like WB is mostly about art, but not only, there are practical benefits of being able to change font size, colors etc.

Anyway, good job. Those who know anything about lithography will probably appreciate it.

codewar65
Reply #3 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 8:36 AM

anotherside

I don't know anything about this subject. It's always interesting when people are passionate about things. Especially odd things that not many people know about. Is there a practical/commercial value to this program? Or is it mostly in the realm of art? I mean art can also be very commercial, but it's nice to find a practical niche for a product.

Like WB is mostly about art, but not only, there are practical benefits of being able to change font size, colors etc.

Anyway, good job. Those who know anything about lithography will probably appreciate it.


I guess it's an art thing.    It's still used today (look at the portraits on US currency). I see a lot of other applications, from sandblast mask, etching, tattoo stencils, desktop publishing. Getting a '2 color' solution of a full color image suitable for different mediums (granite, wood, glass, skin) is rather tricky and having options for alternate styles is a good thing. I have not seen this style replicated (easily). I think this might be viable but maybe not.

Gaspershooters
Reply #4 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:04 AM

Have you consider it being a plugin for PS or the ilks?? It may commercially viable. 

codewar65
Reply #5 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:39 AM

Gaspershooters

Have you consider it being a plugin for PS or the ilks?? It may commercially viable. 


I do want to investigate creating a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint for bitmaps; Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, and AutoCAD for vector.

codewar65
Reply #6 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 10:34 AM
Gaspershooters
Reply #7 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 11:50 AM

yes,it's very artistic.   

Uvah
Reply #8 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 1:05 PM

Contact Adobe and see what they say. At worst they'll say no. Worth a shot.

gevansmd
Reply #9 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 7:42 PM

The screenshots are from a work in progress software application you're writing?

codewar65
Reply #10 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 11:38 PM

gevansmd

The screenshots are from a work in progress software application you're writing?


The top one is, yes. The second one is what output looks like in CorelDRAW. The software is approaching completion.

benmanns
Reply #11 Wednesday, June 7, 2017 11:59 AM

Dude this is amazing...
I did couple of skins here on wincustomize when i found myself more interested in photography.
Started out with a affordable camera and meanwhile use Pro gear.
Sometimes i wish to have a tool like this to play around with, that beeing said if you need someone for beta testing im here holding my arm up    gimme 

 

codewar65
Reply #12 Wednesday, June 7, 2017 7:49 PM

I will be looking for beta testers. Right now I'm adding as many halftoning effects that I can dream up. I figure the more things it can do, the better my chances are of actually selling it.

I tell my friends that I'm the guy who writes really cool software that no one would ever want. I am hoping to break out of that with this one.



gevansmd
Reply #13 Wednesday, June 7, 2017 10:04 PM

As far as I can tell, there is nothing out there that does this.  You can approach this in Photoshop but it's convoluted and tedious.

codewar65
Reply #14 Wednesday, June 7, 2017 11:57 PM

My biggest fear is that if I show these big guys some of the stuff it can do, they just go ahead and write their own, leaving me with nothing for all the work I've done.

A copyright would not cover this sort of thing. I would probably need to patent the process... and that costs a ton.

gevansmd
Reply #15 Thursday, June 8, 2017 1:13 PM

codewar65

My biggest fear is that if I show these big guys some of the stuff it can do, they just go ahead and write their own, leaving me with nothing for all the work I've done.

A copyright would not cover this sort of thing. I would probably need to patent the process... and that costs a ton.

That's a legitimate fear but if they had wanted to write a module like this themselves they would have already.  The plug-in idea someone suggested is a good one as it won't be seen as competition to the big guys.

codewar65
Reply #16 Thursday, June 8, 2017 1:53 PM

gevansmd


Quoting codewar65,

My biggest fear is that if I show these big guys some of the stuff it can do, they just go ahead and write their own, leaving me with nothing for all the work I've done.

A copyright would not cover this sort of thing. I would probably need to patent the process... and that costs a ton.



That's a legitimate fear but if they had wanted to write a module like this themselves they would have already.  The plug-in idea someone suggested is a good one as it won't be seen as competition to the big guys.



My intent from the beginning was for this to be a tool to be used in conjunction with Illistrator / CorelDRAW / CAD. The plug-in thing would be perfect, but also having it run stand alone would be a big plus.

I might see about selling it myself once enough polish has been added, and it's gone through a successful beta. Possibly on Amazon ( as I don't want to be bothered with all the mucking about with running an eCommerce website, handling CC payments, etc.). There are a lot of options. Finding the one that works best for me will be the hard one. I could sell the source / project out right for a big bag of money and be done with it, or let a publisher sell it for me and they send me my cut, or I could try to sell it myself.

anotherside
Reply #17 Thursday, June 8, 2017 2:58 PM

codewar65

My biggest fear is that if I show these big guys some of the stuff it can do, they just go ahead and write their own, leaving me with nothing for all the work I've done.

A copyright would not cover this sort of thing. I would probably need to patent the process... and that costs a ton.

-----------------Patent rant-----------------------

If they do the work themselves, you can't really complain even if it sucks that they stole your idea. Being inspired is fair play, in fact it's how progress happen. Patents do nothing but hamper innovation. Only the big guys can afford to defend patents. Microsoft gets 10-15 bucks for every Android phone sold, because they have a patent for scrollbars (or something stupid like that). Anyway, meaningless patents that should never have been approved in the first place. Microsoft chose to not tax desktop Linux for scrollbars, because it would just look bad. How can you own an idea? It just shows how mean this world is. Steve Jobs had his end-of-page-bounce-back-animation patent that Samsung "stole". Samsung did copy Apple and they paid for it. What's wrong with copying I say? What's wrong with using the knowledge that already exists?

Then there is pure evil. Companies that want to patent seeds (food), DNA (babies?). Air and water are probably next.

The only legitimate patents that I can think of are related to brand names because it's like identity theft. You can't make computers with the Apple logo, that would be purposefully wanting to deceive people. Software licensing is a different topic. I feel it makes sense as long as reverse-engineering is allowed. Like React OS is reverse-engineering Windows XP/Server 2003.

----------------End patent rant------------------

Anyway, secrets are fair play. Guard your source code if you want to make money. Sometimes people are naive. Like the Apple developer who wanted his application in the Mac store. He had figured out how to sync OSX and iOS through wifi, when Apple only had USB-sync.

He submitted his source code to Apple, but his app was rejected for some reason. Apple did get back to him saying that they were impressed and that he was welcome to apply for a position at Apple. The developer didn't start working for Apple. Instead he found himself in the audience half a year later when Apple introduced the new big feature (wifi sync). Since he didn't work for Apple he couldn't know if it was his code that was being used. I guess he won't submit source code anymore.

codewar65
Reply #18 Thursday, June 8, 2017 8:41 PM

anotherside


... stuff snipped ...

Anyway, secrets are fair play. Guard your source code if you want to make money. Sometimes people are naive. Like the Apple developer who wanted his application in the Mac store. He had figured out how to sync OSX and iOS through wifi, when Apple only had USB-sync.


He submitted his source code to Apple, but his app was rejected for some reason. Apple did get back to him saying that they were impressed and that he was welcome to apply for a position at Apple. The developer didn't start working for Apple. Instead he found himself in the audience half a year later when Apple introduced the new big feature (wifi sync). Since he didn't work for Apple he couldn't know if it was his code that was being used. I guess he won't submit source code anymore.



Fair point. I have zero intention of releasing code, or even mentioning algorithms, until I have a truck load of money. You've restored my calm.

codewar65
Reply #19 Sunday, June 18, 2017 10:56 PM

I've just spent the last few week coming up with a software activation system that I am happy with. I realize that no software is hacker proof, but I went to great lengths to make it a royal pain in the ass. lol.

I best describe it as a Rube Goldberg state machine interlaced into the workings of the application. haha.

benmanns
Reply #20 Tuesday, June 20, 2017 12:21 PM

codewar65

I've just spent the last few week coming up with a software activation system that I am happy with. I realize that no software is hacker proof, but I went to great lengths to make it a royal pain in the ass. lol.

I best describe it as a Rube Goldberg state machine interlaced into the workings of the application. haha.
that means you are ready for beta invites   send me one cant wait

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