Automating Mug Layout

[rossdv8]

why not use photoshop action scripts or animator that already exist

1. Because I imagine one must have photoshop to use ps animator.
2. Because I like using free software and using tutorials to exercise my aging brain.
3. Because I already use imagemagick (it is free software) for command line work.
3. Because this works by dragging any image with a standard aspect (like 8x10 or close) into a folder and clicking once on an icon, then waiting about 30 seconds.

Because I've almost got these scripts combined so one operation produces:
2 copies of the 3 layout A4, one spaced to trim for ceramic and one spaced to trim for poly mugs.
PLUS
1 rotating gif - more for the amusement value than anything.
1 jpeg with an example of front and back layout 'on a mug'.

Like this.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1940[/ATTACH]

Still playing, but I've now reduced the manual intervention to dragging an image, and editing text, then dragging that image into another folder..

By monday I suspect it will be 1 - drag image, 2 edit text, 3 choose what you want from the output folder..

The blank mug images are lifted from googling coffee mugs.
The scripting was from reading various tutorials and ideas and then trying stuff (in the terminal/command prompt) to see what worked, then writing down what worked as parts of a program.

When I have it all working I can rewrite it in C or Java or something and compile it so it asks for text entry, font and colour. Maybe

But for now it is fast and so simple.

[Paul]

I cant understand how it works... what do you mean by "dragging to the folder"?
do you mean folder in your windows?
is it some kind of App?

[rossdv8]

lost cause

[smo]

It works with "hot folders" which are used all the time in commercial print. The script merely looks for new files in the folder, runs and outputs whatever is setup.

[rossdv8]

lost cause

[rossdv8]

lost cause

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Rossdv8

I appreciate your skills as a programmer and what you have done is very clever.... but... what is the point of it?

For example the three images and text scenario you have shown us in your you tube clip I could do within 1 minute using something along the lines of Adobe InDesign by setting up a template.

Am I not seeing the wood for the trees here mate or is it something you just did for fun?

[rossdv8]

Its not about skills as a programmer, this is a few simple lines not even compiled. It is partly about fun. It is a lot about people using free software rather than something that I have to sell a carton of mugs to buy, and more for people doing this as a hobby income or part time income, than those of you for whom it is the major source of income.

[socialgiraffe]

I see... I think

Free software is always good My only point was that no matter if you are doing it as a business or a hobby the end result seems to take longer than if you set it up manually.

It is clever though and presumably the script you are demonstrating will have a user friendly front end eventually which would finish it off nicely.

[rossdv8]

It won't have a user friendly interface, because it is not a 'product'.
Because I work exclusively with my own photos of various tourist locations, I just keep a copy of the script in each location folder with the text already edited. The script program complete takes less than 100 kilobytes, so if I have it in 100 folders it takes 10 megabytes. Not a lot of overhead and less than saving a template for each location. I actually only work with about ten locations regularly.
So the reality is that I can drag 3 photos onto the processing folders and click the make icon, and have a page of 3 mugs ready to print in less time than it takes to open illustrator.. I can download new images from my camera, dump them into a folder and see how they look in seconds, then decide what editing they need.
Optionally, one of the scripts not only outputs the images ready to print, but outputs them formed onto a mug, back and front, so I can see if I like what a mug might look like when it is printed. There's an example in my reply to another post somewhere. Often a print looks great on paper, but when it is curved around a mug I see something I don;t like and might decide to crop it.
It's fun, it's easy and something I though I would share with the less commercial minded people on here, or with the ones that like doing other things with their computers than just work and playing solitaire.