CreativeApplications.Net reports innovation and catalogues projects, tools and platforms relevant to the intersection of art, media and technology. Read more here.

t f r

Search

GMLStenciler [Mac, Windows, oF]

Golan has just announced the immediate availability of GMLStenciler, an open-source software project for converting Graffiti Markup Language (GML) drawings into vector-art stencils suitable for laser cutting. This free tool solves the problem of transforming GML’s widthless linear strokes into adjustably-thickened stencil patterns with automatically bridged islands. GMLStenciler is built in openFrameworks and can be downloaded here (with complete source code) for Windows and Mac OSX.

If you are unfamiliar with GML, in January 2010 the F.A.T. Lab released a suite of XML specifications and open-source tools for recording and displaying handwritten marks, which they named Graffiti Markup Language (GML). Their flagship system is the Graffiti Analysis software by Chris Sugrue and Evan Roth, which allows GML drawings to be recorded with an iPhone, uploaded to an online database, and freely shared at the #000000book.com website. Users of Graffiti Analysis have contributed some 17,500 tags to date. As with Golan’s Robotagger project, the GMLStenciler software presented here offers a means by which these virtual handwritten marks can be given physical form, made multiple, and economically disseminated at a variety of scales.

The GMLStenciler software was entirely developed by Charlie, Golan’s 15-year-old (!!!)  intern, during June 2010. Using OpenCV, the system then automatically detects “holes” in the rendered tag (such as would be produced by the closed counters within characters like A, B, D, O, P, Q, R, etc.) The user can select one of several methods by which these holes will be automatically bridged. Options for this operation include: bridging at the top point of each counter, bridging at the nearest point to the counter’s enclosing stroke, etc. These can then be exported as an EPS and loaded into CAD programs or vector art editors like Illustrator or CorelDraw.

To read more about GMLStenciler see flong.com/blog/2010/gml-stenciler/

Related Posts with Thumbnails