This is the maximum resolution the pen is physically capable of achieving without overlapping strokes. With that information I calculate the maximum number of pen diameters the image will be in width & height. My program requires you to specify the desired physically drawn image size along with the pen stroke diameter. Basically I rescale the raster image until one pen dot = one pixel so I can work at a 1:1 scale. For an example that has more colors to begin with I tried to recreate the effect of the famous color reduced Obama campaign picture.ĭon’t put your personal signature on the internet folks.įor my DePixelizer software I came up with something original to solve this problem. (This is what I ended up drawing on a cup). In this example I’ve used a sharpening filter & allowed 1 shade of gray on David. From there any two colors can easily be compared using the distance formula, and voila we can figure out what parts of Obamas face are the most reddish green. We just pretend that Red, Green, & Blue constitute 3 perpendicular axes in space, then any color can be assigned a position in space based on its RGB components. The trick is to use a tiny bit of trigonometry. Is that brown pixel more reddish green or bluish red or greenish blue?) The question becomes, how do I compare the similarity of 2 colors on a 3 color scale? (i.e. With a 3 category mix, the linear white to black scale we used for thresholding won’t work. My software uses a Red/Green/Blue color model, which means that every possible color displayable on my screen can be quantified as some combination of those three colors. The only real limitation to drawing in color is having enough uniquely colored pens and our ability to determine how to properly consolidate the pixels into a select few colors (a process called “color quantization”). Because we can easily program the plotter to sequentially draw each color on the same job. We can also do some neat stuff if we remove the black/white limitation & allow for drawing with a few more colors. Lets say I found an image online I like enough to decorate my cup with or print out and hang on my wall. You wouldn’t judge a calligrapher primarily based on how many letters they can pump out per minute, because a more important aspect of appreciating their work is understanding the thought processes, skill, and effort that went into producing it. The efficiency of the process used to create the art has an inverse effect on how personal the result feels. The information conveyed may be the same but the value is different. The pen drawn aesthetic has timeless appeal, in the same way that a handwritten letter is more enjoyable than an email or mass produced pamphlet. The traditional pen plotting process is antiquated for that purpose, so why develop a new hardware platform with it?Ī pen plotter is fun to build & use, mesmerizing to watch, and there is something uniquely fun about pen-drawn art! In the world of printing tech, creating images on paper by tracing thousands of individual pen strokes cannot possibly compete with the efficiency and resolution of modern inkjet printers.Įven today’s architectural paper size “plotters” are in reality inkjet printers with a bigger frame. To them, a traditional pen plotter must seem like an odd choice of technology for me to choose to develop. The tool is quick for what it is, but thinking in terms of automation & cups per hour is not the best way to appraise its value & potential. Multiple well-meaning people have asked me how quickly the CylinDraw can pump out drawings, and if it can be made to automatically swap out cups & pens. But maybe this will inspire your curiosity to dig a little deeper and come up with some of your own. This article has a good bit of detail and I don’t want to discourage someone looking for quick solutions or a casual hobby, so Ill mention upfront that there are many free tools available that allow you to easily use the techniques mentioned here to make cool art without sweating all the underlying details. This time I want to dive a bit more deeply into appreciating some of the art you can produce with this type of machine. In my previous post I shared an introduction to a cup-specific plotter project I developed over the last couple years.
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