Usage Tip: Specify a Canvas as a Single Argument

[anthony]

Many times you have a script (be it Fred's, or Snibgo's) that takes a base image as an argument.

For example a script that takes a input and output image and processes it in some magical way

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   do_some_magick  input.png  output.png

Many times I ask it to display the result on screen without saving to a file

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   do_some_magick  input.png show:

But it has always been harder to just give a 'blank' input image to the script, requiring you to do things like...

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   convert -size 400x300 xc:Salmon miff:- | do_some_magick  miff:- show:

Or modify the script to generate a blank starting image.

Well here is a tip for you... Supply a blank canvas image of any size or color as a single argument....

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   do_some_magick  'xc:Salmon[400x300!]' show:

NOTE the '!' is important as you are basically resizing a base xc: image, and without it the input will be a square 300x300 pixels (or something else if -size is set where it gets inserted into the IM command in the script).

I added the canvas generation technique to IM Examples, Canvas page.

Enjoy