Post by PostmasterGS on Sept 6, 2016 8:23:22 GMT -5
For quite a while, there has been an excellent website -- RetroReveal -- where you could upload a scanned image, then see a variety of filters applied. It was useful in extracting postmarks and spotting flaws in stamps. However, the website is down, as it appears the domain name is no longer registered. There's a user on another stamp forum who's attempting to contact the operator about resurrecting the site, but in the interim, I've put together a small app to do something similar.
It's a JavaFX-based application that will run on Windows or OSX. I've linked two versions of each -- one with Java bundled and one without. If you already have Java installed on your computer, use the one without it bundled.
You can load an image, then cycle though a variety of different image manipulations. At this point, most are just various grayscale and single-color versions of the image. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast, and with non-grayscale images, the red, green, and blue color curves.
If you want to save the active image, just click the save button.
One known bug -- there's a bug in the save function which improperly sets the altered image's metadata to an incorrect print resolution (72 dpi), regardless of the real resolution of the image. This isn't a problem if you're only displaying the image on-screen, but it will cause problems if you attempt to print the image. I'm working on a fix. In the interim, you can manually change the print resolution in most photo programs (Photoshop, Gimp, etc.), or with free online tools such as this one (not an endorsement, just the first one that popped up on Google).
Downloads:
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Windows with Java bundled (49 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Windows without Java bundled (15 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Mac OSX with Java bundled (47 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Mac OSX without Java bundled (10 MB)
It's a JavaFX-based application that will run on Windows or OSX. I've linked two versions of each -- one with Java bundled and one without. If you already have Java installed on your computer, use the one without it bundled.
You can load an image, then cycle though a variety of different image manipulations. At this point, most are just various grayscale and single-color versions of the image. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast, and with non-grayscale images, the red, green, and blue color curves.
If you want to save the active image, just click the save button.
One known bug -- there's a bug in the save function which improperly sets the altered image's metadata to an incorrect print resolution (72 dpi), regardless of the real resolution of the image. This isn't a problem if you're only displaying the image on-screen, but it will cause problems if you attempt to print the image. I'm working on a fix. In the interim, you can manually change the print resolution in most photo programs (Photoshop, Gimp, etc.), or with free online tools such as this one (not an endorsement, just the first one that popped up on Google).
Downloads:
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Windows with Java bundled (49 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Windows without Java bundled (15 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Mac OSX with Java bundled (47 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Mac OSX without Java bundled (10 MB)