Approximate images using SVGs.
This is mostly a port of https://github.com/fogleman/primitive (written in Go), with a new thing or two. I encountered that project few years ago and recently used it to generate over a thousand SVG approximations as placeholders for an image gallery (while lazy loading the images). I decided I wanted to understand how it worked and I wanted to practice my Rust skills (this is my second project in the language), so I took about a week and wrote this.
Triangles and rectangles produce the best results by far. Cubics and Quadratics can either look really cool, or (more often than not), look like a toddler was let loose. And I haven't experimented much with ellipses, but I've had mixed results with the default settings for them so far.
Download a binary from here: https://github.com/samgoldman/primitive_image/releases/.
From a terminal:
| Argument | Usage |
|---|---|
| -i, --input | (required) Path to the image to approximate. JPGs and PNGs are tested. TIFs, GIFs, and BMPs are theoretical. |
| -o, --output | (required) Path to the output file. SVGs, JPGs, PNGs are tested. |
| -n | (optional) The number of objects to use in the approximation. Defaults to 100. Going about 1000 is pushing it. |
| --max-age | (optional) The maximum number of sequential failed mutations before adding an object. Defaults to 100. I have not tested above 500. |
| --scale-to | (optional) The number of pixels to scale the input image's largest side to before processing. Defaults to 100. Going above that really slows things down. |
| --seed | (optional) The seed for the random number generator. Defaults to 0, which sets the seed based on the time. If set, will result in repeatable outputs. |
| --shape | (optional) The shape to use for the approximations (TRIANGLE, RECTANGLE, ELLIPSE, QUADRATIC, CUBIC, MIXED). Defaults to TRIANGLE. |
| --background-color | (optional) The initial background color in RRGGBB format. Defaults to the average color of the input image. |
To start, I'd suggest you start with a run with these settings (the -v allows you to see progress):
primitive_image.exe -i path/to/image.jpg -o path/to/out.svg -v
For more detailed approximations (-n 500 will use 500 shapes):
primitive_image.exe -i path/to/image.jpg -o path/to/out.svg -n 500 -v
- When painted on images, ellipses (and probably rectangles) get cut off when rotated (if they're too close to the edge. I need to find a way to fix that.
- Add progressive image saving
- Add GIF output
- Add generic polygons as an option
- Allow specification of mixed-image proportions by the user
- Allow multiple image output
- General optimization work