Fonts, vectors & headache

I'm developing new 3D text effects, so I need to handle font data and vector calculations. There are some kind of conventions about how font metadata must be, so I can generate my vector data more easily. What happens if people create fonts regardless those conventions? I can't get my vector based info quickly enough.

If you have some knowledge about vector based calculations, for sure you have already heard about "normal vectors". Possibly you have even made some calculations with them.

Well, they are really important for many 2D and mainly 3D graphic algorithms, so I deal with these kind of vectors daily. They are so important that usually we use some conventions to get them as easy and fast as possible. That's the point: they must be fast to calculate. Below you see an transparent wire-frame letter "a" in Arial font. The normal vectors of interest are drawn in gray too. I got all these normals easily because our good old Arial font was made correctly.


Unfortunately, there are many non-professional fonts that are not so good as the Arial one. This really bothers me, because I can not get the vector based data for these bad fonts as fast as I need to use in complex graphic effects. I have already added a lot of complexity to some of my algorithms just to be able to use these fonts.

If people followed techniques, conventions and standards when doing tech tasks (like fonts creation), software development would not be such a mess. :(

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An easy image converter

Now you can convert your images among 50 of the most important file formats available in the market by using Picture to People Image Converter.

You can transform your favorite images into formats like BMP, DIB, GIF, JPG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIF, etc. It's very simple and easy to use: just set the input file to upload, choose the output file format and convert an image with one click.

If an image conversion tool can be useful for you, consider using this very handy Image Converter.

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Realistic rock texts - a new example

I would like to show you another example of stone text created with the last Picture to People tool. It uses state of art, complex procedural algorithms to generate the more realistic free stone/rock text effects ever.

Despite all complexity behind the scenes, the parameters you have to set are just the ones you could easily understand. It was never so easy to create realistic stone text effects.

Compared to the previous example, I changed the stone renderer, the guide font, the background color and the rock reference colors. The result is totally different (click to enlarge).


According to users testimonies, my new stone/rock renderer is one of the most useful and exciting tools I have ever made for Picture to People project. I'm very happy with the good feedbacks I have been receiving.

You can use this amazing tool at the Stone Text page.

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Realistic stone text effects

I worked very very hard to create the most recently published Picture to People tool. It's a stone renderer able to create astonishing texts made of rock/stone.

Now you can get very easily the most realistic rock text effects. Since this feature is very configurable, the amount of possible results is countless. Among the several parameters, you can select the background color and even influence the stone colors.

You can set a stone rendering type by choosing from a list with several options. The text images generated have a good 3D look and there are a good amount of useful shadow parameters too.

Below I show the kind of stone text effect you can get using this new Picture to People tool (click to see in real size).

Create your own stone/rock texts by using the Stone Text section at Picture to People official website.

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Another ice text example

Here you see one more example about what the new Picture to People ice text effects can do. There are some ice renderers, so it's possible to get several different ice or freezing styles. Below I show you a frozen text.

Anyway, I kept the best examples to present as tutorials at this blog about text effects. As the time goes, you will be able to see some realistic ice text effects there and also explanations about how to get them.


If you want to make some good ice text effects, just surf to this Text Generator Catalog and go to the "Ice Text Effects" section.

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New ice text effects

Now Picture to People project has 6 new powerful ice text effect generators.

Some of them are better to be used with thin font faces and others generate more interesting images with thick fonts. Usually all ice effects give even nicer results with black (or at least dark) backgrounds.

By choosing wisely the font face to apply, you can get amazing realistic ice texts. You can create several ice styles, and below I show you a frozen text example (click the image for a full size viewing).

These new text effects can be used by starting from the Text Generator Catalog, at the "Ice Text Effects" section.

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More than 200 new fonts for text effects

I have released new font faces to be used with most Picture to People text effects. Now you can get new impressive graphic text effects using more than 200 new fonts. There already are more than 400 cool fonts to choose from.

You should be patient and wait for the complete page loading when using a text effect, because now there are many fonts faces to show in the list. Anyway, usually a bigger delay happens just the first time if your browser cache is working well. It's important because, for all Picture to People tools, you get wrong results if you don't wait for the complete page loading.

The tools already improved with these new font faces are:

• Liquid Text;
• All the more than 150 text generators available from the Text Generator Catalog;
• 3D Text;
• Smoke Text.

Furthermore, all new Picture to People text effects and tools will be already created offering more than 400 fonts to choose from.

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Professional Photo Sketch

I would like to show at least one more example about how detailed Photo Sketch drawings can be. This tool is capable of generating really well calculated fine strokes.

You can choose among several drawing styles with different detail levels. When using it, if your input photo/image already has very well defined, high contrast regions, turn the "Use smart strokes" option off.

Below I show a photo and a pencil sketch created from it. You can click the images for a full size viewing. More examples can be seen at this Photo Sketch gallery.

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A very efficient color picker

I developed Picture to People with a very powerful log. Analyzing the log I saw that there were many errors configuring the colors when using the effects. I realized that I have really many dummy users that don't understand what a "color in HTML hexadecimal style" is.

I always tried to make P2P absolutely easy (in fact, the easiest ever), but I forgot about the colors setting. My fault. To solve this problem once for all, I developed my own color picker component in javascript.

I projected it very carefully to have all important colors and to be very direct, efficient and user friendly. You always solve a color problem with two clicks: one to call the color picker (clicking the proper icon beside any color item) and one to set the color you want. When you call the component, it appears just close to your mouse and, when you choose a color, it is just written in the related color field. Below I show you how the color picker window looks like.

I coded the picker to mark any color cell (highlighting its borders in red as you see in the image) as the mouse pass over it. It works perfectly in Firefox and Chrome. This feature doesn't work in IE because it lacks some properties as defined by W3C. Anyway, the overall operation works in all three browsers.

I will always work hard to take professional Computer Graphics the easiest way for all.

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New professional effects to make pencil sketches from photos

I have released some days ago a new tool called Photo Sketch. It has state of art, next generation effects to transform even the more detailed photos into very realistic pencil sketches or drawings (like the ones professional artists make by hand).

Below I show you the result of turning a photo into a pencil sketch. This tool has several sketch effect styles to choose from, and each result image is composed by thousands or even millions of carefully chosen strokes. Depending on the style you select, these strokes can be very delicated and detailed.

You can transform your photos into pencil drawings as well. To see many other awesome examples about the power of this new Picture to People feature, have a good look at the Photo Sketch Gallery.

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