hi Basically my aim is to translate images into binary code. i dont know if this is possible, and im not sure where to start, but im interested in to capturing the information between image and printer.

If anyone can help it would be really appreciated

cheers

the binary information depends of the used format (.jpg,.bmp), so it is already in a binary code. But if you�re going for the information that is sent to your printer, have a look at .pdf files, it�s the same.

Not exactly sure what you are trying to do, could you please explain in more detail.

Currently, your pictures are in binary code. Picture files be it jpeg, gif, png, whatever are binary files. Those binary files have a structure or code to them that is read by a program such as Internet Explorer which then translates that code into pixel placement.

If you are trying to send the code for a picture to your printer, you wont have to modify the binary coding of the picture, you will have to learn the control paramaters for your printer, basically, you will have to learn how to write a most basic driver for your printer however, many printers can be run on a very very generic driver.

If thats not what you are getting at, please clarify your question.

sorry if i wasnt too clear, but i have very little knowledge that is technical, basically im an artists and im really interested in priniting my digital images as they appear on screen, and as the code which they are carried in - to be displayed side by side- if its about configuring drivers e.t.c i would really need some instructions too, thanks - hope u can help

side by side it wont work, but you can print the binary or hex code on a sperate sheet (or several sheets depending on the size of the pic. Here is why:

1 pixel (the smallest unit of display on a monitor) must be represented by a RGB (red, green, blue) number. That is 3 numbers each 8 bits to represent from 0 to 255.

R -> 0-255
G -> 0-255
B -> 0-255

I wont go into detail on why it takes 1 byte or 8 bits to represent because thats a whole new subject on the binary number system. You would require 24 bits to acurately represent one pixel. (This is, without compression, jpgs are compressed). If you picture is big and contains thousands of pixels (as many pictures do), then you will require thousands of pixels times 24bits.

This probably doesnt make cense (pun, again) to you but anyways... lets keep going.

now you have 2000 pixels times 24bits per pixel. That is 48,000 bits. A bit is represented by a 1 or a 0. So now you printer must print 48,000 1's and 0's to show what the image looks like. And chance are, it will wrap the lines at the end unless your image has very little width...

Ok, im sorry, that probably didnt help. One last clarifying statement. If I understand what you want to do with your photograph correctly, it cant be done by that method unless you have a massive plot printer, and even then Im not sure. It would be a cool art project tho.

[This message has been edited by cense (edited 08-03-2002).]

What about opening up the image in a hex editor? If all you want to do is print the data that is the image. Just open up the file in a hex editor. If thats not what you want to do i have no clue what you want.

now I got it, but how do you want to arrange the code and the picture? The code would need much more space than the colour it represents. Use pictures that end .bmp, because then is every pixel on his own and so his code. Or if you need the source in a creative way, use the Ascii text of a pic, it�s the code of the pic as if it was a text. It�s on the right when you take a look at it with a hex editor.

hi thanks for the replies, at the moment the final kind of presentation that the code must take is open to experiment, whether its just piles of coded paper, or finely ordered code- i really like the idea that the code could visually be oredered the same as the original picture- ie the height and the width take the same ratio- im guessing from what you have said that the code when presented will occupy much more space.

Like i said i know nothing in particular that is technical, but i have ideas such as feeding the captured code perhaps even only manually into controlling unrelated instruments/ equipment- e.g. controlling a certain amount of leds or tl lights - which could then be rephotographed and the code captured and compared e.t.c.

so my first problem is - what and where do i find a hex editor?

thanks again

ok ive found myself a hex editor- and wound up with a shit load of numbers, so im going to start printing and try and get my head around it, all suggestions are welcome

cheers

quote:

---

Originally posted by dcl:
and wound up with a shit load of numbers

---

welcome to our world ...

quote:

---

Originally posted by BSK:
welcome to our world ...

---

heh

I don't know but I just don't like hex. I'm fine with binary but hex pisses me off. Maybe it's the intermingling of numbers and letters. Long live binary. Stupid MAC addresses.

Oh god, the computer twists.

okay so im still confused- i tried copy and pasting my hex over to photoshop, and with over 3,4 million charachters it doesnt work- thats probably obvious, so is there a simple way that i can get this info into an image in photoshop.

Im also wondering how i convert hex into binary, and secondly what is the particular use in technical application of this code?

Apart from that im pretty amazed at all the insides of just an image, and hope to have some huge binary pirints soon.
\
thanks

You do realize that binary is just one's and zero's? A huge page of that or any other coding will be very boring and crappy.

Are you trying to get the binary or hex code for the image and then layer it over it? so it's like you drew the picture with binary?

look, take your monitor for example. Let�s say it has 1152 x 864 Pixel as your predefined resolution. Let�s say it�s at "True Color(32-Bit)". So you�ve got 995328 pixel altogether, and each one of them has a 32 bit information about his colour, makes it to 31850496 bits altogether. That�s 1990656 characters in hex (excluded the file type etc. declarations).

Maybe you find a formula that draws your pic in an abstract way and you take it�s hex information as a substitute for the whole pic.

Converting hex into binary is very easy. Every character in hex corresponds exacly to 4 characters in binary.

Now if your images are in 24-bit, you could possibly add a bit to be able to make a 5x5 square of numbers that would represent one pixel.

No i dont reallly want to attempt to layer the binary over the image- i just want the ones and zeros as an image, with a proportional width and length to the original image. The binary as a print may look boring, the artistic concept/ content lies in the image that is being translated.

But im guessing that with the scale of such a print- with the correct width e.t.c. that from a distance the pattern formed by the binary figures will create some kind of correspondence to the original- a bit like a newspaper print functions - from dots to image.

and back to the hex - binary difference- is there an automatic way for me to translate between the two?

quote:

---

Originally posted by dcl:
i just want the ones and zeros as an image, with a proportional width and length to the original image.

---

use a microscope. Don�t you get it?

Take a course in printing and graphic arts. I'm sure the teacher will be able to decipher what it is that you want to do.

Now you can view your jpeg, gif, or whatever picture under hex mode through a hex editor, right. So all you really need is a binary editor to be able to view your picture as a long string of zeroes and ones.

The only way to do what you want would be to write your own program, especially consithering the huge amount of binary data even a very small picture would represent.

Ill try to explain this as I see it whic may help or may confise things further.

This is for the totse people:
Take a screenshot of your desktop at 1024 X 768, on a monitor which has a 19" viewable screen. (dont confuse pixels with the actual size of the image). Then get the binary of that.

Next, fit that binary into the space that 19" of space that it took up on your monitor.

The artistic value lies in the contradiction that you are seeing the exact same thing as that jpeg of your desktop, except it's different. The same, yet different.

The problem begins when you forget how many ones and zeroes we are dealing with. He said 3.4 million characters in hex. Times 4 thats a bit under 14 million characers.

That printer needs to be VERY high resolution, because even at 1152X 864, you are still looking at only about .9 million units (pixels). The thing he wants to print has 14 times as many units. I dont know how big he wants it, but that is a pretty expensive printer.

ok now i understand a little- with the binary being far to big to print- then i will start off with afew pixels - and a little binary. but also i dont mind printing this on a smaller printer than needed- just to get the binary there is good enough for the moment.

thanks for the help so far

cheers