On Thu, 2009-01-08 at 15:26 -0800, Bernard Rankin wrote:

I'm sure this must be a common question, but I could not find any docs on this. Perhapse my google skills needs improvment.

It's common to need a feature like this but the solutions vary depending on the environment in which the image will be used. To my knowledge there are no off-the-shelf GIMP plugins/filters that provide the functionality you're requesting. That doesn't mean one doesn't exist. I've just not heard of any.

Basically, I've got a bunch of pictures from a party/event that I want to do several things to:

1) Resize to 4x6 @ 300 PPI 2) Add a sllightly transucent ~ 1" white bar on top of the image (accross the bottom). 3) Over the white bar, on the left, place a small 1"x1" logo. 4) Over the white bar, centered on the remainder, put the names of the people in the photo. (Reducing text size if needed to fit on one line.) 5) Over the white bar, centered on the remainder, put the name of the event on the next line. 6) Add a black border to entire image. 7) Export as JPEG.

There is a CSV file that contains the "names of the people in each photo" to file name mapping. (One line per image file.)

Can this be automated with the GIMP?

Yes, if you're familiar with one of the programming languages supported for GIMP Plugins (C, Python, Script-Fu by default - there may be others). You'll need to become familiar with the plugin API. In 2.6, look under the Help menu for "Procedure Browser". The way you use these is dependent on the language you choose.

If you intend to use these images on the web you might be better off using dynamic support for this feature, such as what you see with NextGen Gallery, a plugin for Wordpress (blogging software for the web). On the web you can use code to overlay text onto graphics without actually modifying the image itself. In this way you can edit the text displayed without having update the image. For an example of how this works you can view my Dept 56 Galleries: http://www.graphics-muse.org/wp/?page_id=119 (view these with the PicLens option to see the overlaid text in the upper right corner of each image).

Another option is to use an image management tool like f-Spot or similar. Many of these offer builtin options to do exactly what you're asking, though they may not be as flexible in how they composite the text onto the image as you require.

However, if you really do need to update the image itself and you want to program it yourself, you might find it easier to automate this with ImageMagick. The advantage to this option is that it's more scripted from the shell and doesn't require running a UI interface. GIMP can (I believe - I never use it this way) be run without the UI but I'm not sure it's particularly easier to script in this way.

That said, you'll get excellent results using the GIMP's plugin API. You'll end up writing a file browser of some kind to select files, specify the input CSV file and then have the plugin open, edit and save the files all without actually displaying them (to save time).

Hope that helps a little.

On Thu, 2009-01-08 at 19:53 -0800, Bernard Rankin wrote:

I'm kinda familiar with Python as a web scripting language, but I've never used it for a GUI or as a plug-in language.

How involved is writing a GIMP plug-in?

It's really easy. The main problem is to get the script into the right directory with the right permissions. ;-)

If I am allowed to plug my own stuff here - have a look at http://forum.meetthegimp.org/index.php/board,12.0.html for examples, http://forum.meetthegimp.org/index.php/topic,202.0.html for how to start and even at http://meetthegimp.org/episode-038-a-phython-in-a-barrel/ a video on a really beginner level. But as you know your way around Python you'll don't need that one.

Rolf