ge·stalt /ɡəˈSHtält/: an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.
gestalt is a command line tool written in rust which allows a user to recreate an image by composing many smaller images. The algorithm runs for some number of iterations. On each iteration, it
- selects a random pixel from the source image
- finds the picture with an "average rgb" value closest to the selected pixels rgb value
- places the found image on a "canvas" in the same location as the selected pixel
To illustrate this, we compare the output of varying iterations:
| number of iterations | output |
|---|---|
| 50 |  |
| 500 |  |
| 5000 |  |
| 50000 |  |
| source image |  |
By varying the number of iterations, we arrive at different results. However, the number of iterations is only one of many parameters that gestalt allows the user to specify. For a more detailed discussion, see the usage section.
gestalt is a rust project, and as such the user must first install the rust toolchain on their computer. Follow the instructions here to get started.
after rust is installed, clone the repo, build the project, and view usage instructions
$ git clone [email protected]:trstruth/gestalt.git
$ cd gestalt
$ cargo build --release
$ ./target/release/gestalt --help
gestalt 0.1.0
trstruth
Generates an emoji vision image
USAGE:
gestalt [OPTIONS] <target_path>
FLAGS:
-h, --help Prints help information
-V, --version Prints version information
OPTIONS:
-e, --emoji-dir <emoji_dir>
-z, --image-size <image_size>
-n, --num-iterations <num_iterations>
-o, --output <output>
-s, --scale <scale>
ARGS:
<target_path>
The usage for gestalt follows the standard cli tool format:
./target/release/gestalt --<option 1 name> <option 1 value> ... --<option n name> <option n value> <target_path>
For example, to create an image from foo.png with 200 iterations and save the output to bar.png the following command would be used
./target/release/gestalt --num-iterations 200 --output bar.png foo.png
One can use the "short" name of the options as well. The equivalent abbreviation of the above would be
./target/release/gestalt -n 200 -o bar.png foo.png
gestalt allows the users to specify the following options:
| option | effect |
|---|---|
| -e, --emoji-dir <emoji_dir> | A path to a folder containing the subimages to be used when composing the desired image. Defaults to emojis |
| -z, --image-size <image_size> | The max width/height of the subimages when placed on the canvas. Sub images will be resized to meet this requirement, and aspect ratio will be maintained. Defaults to 20 |
| -n, --num-iterations <num_iterations> | The number of iterations to run before saving the output image. More iterations will result in better image quality, but will take longer to execute. Defaults to 500000 |
| -o, --output | A path to the output image. This should always end in ".png". Defaults to canvas.png |
| -s, --scale | A parameter that controls the scale of the output image to the input image. For example, if the resolution of the input image is 2000x1000, using a scale value of 2 will result in the output image with the resolution 4000x2000. Defaults to 1 |