Monday, August 22, 2005 6:19 PM
by
brian
Cropper Effect Plug-ins
I have wanted to add basic effects to Cropper’s output for a while now. Effects you may see in photo galleries that should not require the use of a full fledge graphic apps to produce, especially for repeatable, common effects like drop shadows or outlines.
I think subtle effects like these help your image stand out when you are trying to convey a message. Documentation for example can have a more polished look with a few subtle effects on an image that help it stand out.
The effect filters are applied using a separate interface and before being sent to the output plug-ins. This also makes it easier to create this type of plug-in, since you do not need to code the saving of the image.
Here is a capture and thumbnail using two early effect filters applied, outline and dropshadow. The effects may be chained together to apply multiple effects to an image before it is saved.
![CropperCapture[20]](/photos/brian/images/9225/original.aspx)
![CropperCapture[20]_Thumbnail](/photos/brian/images/9226/original.aspx)
I was hoping to get some feedback on how you may want to use the filters. I had some ideas such as an ability to output two thumbnails per image, for instance one with dropshadow and the other with gray-scale and dropshadow, possibly for use as roll-overs in an application.
Since I am still finalising the interfaces, it would be nice to get as many features in as I can.