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PyMos Guide (Unix/Linux)


getting it command-line tool in your code
PyMos is a Python module/tool that helps you generate a mosaic poster of an image using a desired collection of thumbnails. By collection we refer to a directory where many thumbnail/images to be used as substitute are stored.


 

Getting PyMos

The easiest way - 

$ sudo easy_install pymos

or

From the source -

Step 1

Grab the latest version from downloads.
$ wget http://cloud.github.com/downloads/ideamonk/PyMos/PyMos-0.6.tar.gz

Step 2

Extract the files.
$ tar xvf PyMos-0.6.tar.gz

Step 3

Install dependencies
$ sudo easy_install pil
on Ubuntu you can simply do this instead - 
$$ sudo apt-get install python-imaging

Step 4

Install PyMos
$ cd PyMos-0.6
$ sudo python setup.py install
Test it - 
$ pymos
usage: pymos [-h] [-z ZOOM] [-ts THUMBSIZE] [-f FUZZFACTOR] [-v] [-nc]
             input output collection
pymos: error: too few arguments

 

Using PyMos

As a command-line tool

pymos [-h] [-z ZOOM] [-ts THUMBSIZE] [-f FUZZFACTOR] [-v] [-nc]
                    input output collection

        Creates mosaics of a collection of images to closely match a target image

        positional arguments:
        input                 Input file
        output                Output file
        collection            Directory holding images to be mosaiced

        optional arguments:
        -h, --help            show this help message and exit
        -z ZOOM, --zoom ZOOM  Zoom Level (20)
        -ts THUMBSIZE, --thumbsize THUMBSIZE
                                Size of the thumbnails (60)
        -f FUZZFACTOR, --fuzzfactor FUZZFACTOR
                                Amount of randomness in ouput (0)
        -v, --verbose         Show verbose output
        -nc, --new-colormap   Regenerate color map


    Notes:

        *   Input files can be any standard image file supported by
            PIL (Python Imaging Library) 1.1.6+

        *   a collection is just any folder that has many small images to build up
            the mosaic

        *   ZOOM is the number of times input file is enlarged to make the output
            file. Eg if input file is 800x600, a zoom of 10 would give you 8000x6000

        *   THUMBSIZE is the size of small pieces that would compose the output image.

        *   A colormap is generated and stored for a collection (directory) in order
            to save time in regeneration. If you add new images to a collection, you
            can fire pymos with -nc option to generate a new colormap which would
            include the newly added images.

        *   How to make a collection of images ?
            Well its upto you. We just saved some random thumnails from flickr.
            You could use twitter API as well to fetch display pics of your friends
            and make a mosaic using your followers :)
            
        *   What is fuzzfactor ?
            Fuzzfactor is the randomness in output color you wish to have. At times
            due to lack of shades in your collection, you might find huge areas in
            output uniformly filled with same thumbnail. To avoid that effect, try
            putting a fuzz of 20, etc. Default value for fuzz is 0.

Example - Lets say I have collected many photos of people in ./people
and I have myface.jpg which I wish to mosaic, I can go about in this manner - 
$ pymos myface.jpg output.png ./people/
It would give me a mosaic in output.png, I can also play with parameters like this - 
$ pymos myface.jpg output.png ./people/ -ts 100 -z 30 -f 20 -v
This would give me a more verbose debug log, thumb size would be 100px, and original image zoomed by 30x,
along with a fuzz factor of 20 in colors of output.

 

In your Python Code

Storing to a file -
>>> from pymos.core import build_mosaic

>>> build_mosaic(
        input_path="foo.jpg",
        output_path="bar.png",
        collection_path="/tmp/apples",
        zoom=20,
        thumb_size=100,
        fuzz=0,
        new_colormap=False
)

Getting back an image -
>>> from pymos.core import build_mosaic

>>> foo = build_mosaic(
        input_path="foo.jpg",
        output_path=None,                          # notice the None here
        collection_path="/tmp/apples",
        zoom=20,
        thumb_size=100,
        fuzz=0,
        new_colormap=False
)

>>> foo.show()