From pixels to characters

The photo is shrunk until each pixel is about the size of one character. Then every pixel is asked one question: how dark are you? Darker pixels get heavier characters, @ and #, and lighter ones get : and ;. Pixels that are nearly white get nothing, so the paper shows through.

A few things make the difference between a muddy picture and a readable one:

• Cut the subject out first. A busy background turns into noise. A clean cutout turns into paper.
• Boost local contrast. Push each character away from the average of its neighbours, so edges and veins survive the shrinking.
• Match the cell shape. Characters are taller than they are wide, so the picture is sampled on a grid of the same shape.

Springs

Each character is its own little object with a resting place. A spring pulls it home, the pointer pushes it away, and friction settles it again. Hold the pointer down and they scramble between characters of the same weight.

Once in a while one lets go and falls like a petal.

That's all of it. The rest is choosing a good photograph.

Posts are plain text files in content/posts/. Each one starts with a few lines of details between two rows of dashes, then the post itself.

Writing in it

You can use italics, bold, and inline code. Links look like this.

A quote sits apart, set in italics.

A list:

• one thing
• another thing
• a third

And a numbered one:

1. first
2. second
3. third

When you're ready, run python build.py and the site is rebuilt.