Textaizer Pro - Help

Textaizer Pro Help

Welcome to Textaizer Pro, the fastest and most versatile text art creator on the internet.

Textaizer Pro is a freeware application to create fantastic effects with text and pictures. Check out our
website to see some great examples of the possibilities of Textaizer Pro.

Features of Textaizer Pro 5:

Seven different text art creators

text from pictures (Text Mosaics)
pictures from text (ASCII Art)
recreate a picture from words and sentences (Word Art)
draw random characters on a picture (Crazy Characters)
free drawing ASCII Art (Draw Art)
text made from characters (Text Art)
video clips from ASCII Art or Text Art from video clips (Video Text Art)
Each art creation method has a wealth of tuning
use extended ASCII block characters for full-body ASCII art pictures
apply textures to create a realistic 'canvas' surface
circular text art
colour tuning filters
density maps to control the font size
Crazy Characters has special functions to fully automate its creation
Extensive import and export capabilities
as picture (many file formats)
as plain text (e.g. editable in Notepad)
as HTML web page
as movie file ('avi' file extension)
as vector file (windows enhanced meta file)
printing on multiple pages
URL as text source for text mosaic
projects to repeat earlier session effects
as pdf file
text mosaic also in multiple parts (to create giant mosaics)
Tools and settings for
language (currently English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Simplified Chinese)
automated web-updates
help (via website)

Thank you for using Textaizer Pro.

Please visit our website www.apphelmond.com

Current version: 5.0.0.74

13 April 2018

Copyright © 2006-2018 APP Helmond

 Textaizer Pro - Help

What is Textaizer?
'Every picture tells a story' is taken very literally by Textaizer Pro

Textaizer Pro creates pictures from text. This method is usually referred to as 'Text Mosaics'.
Textaizer Pro creates text from pictures. This is widely knows as 'ASCII Art'.

Textaizer Pro creates text mosaic effects from a text file and a source picture.
Textaizer Pro can create true ASCII art. There are many programs on the web that can make ASCII
art, but we offer an application that also combines Text Mosaics with ASCII art.
With Textaizer Pro you can make video clips from text mosaic frames, directly read from a source
video clip.
Textaizer Pro has 7 different approaches to the creation of text art.
Textaizer Pro applies extremely fast algorithms, and surpasses comparable programs with great
distance with respect to speed, accuracy, versatility/settings and ease of use. With Textaizer Pro we
still believe that there is no similar freeware program that can compete.

For whom is this application?

For everyone who likes to create a surprising effects with text, this application can be of help. It can be
used for posters of your favourite picture, painted from the content of your favourite book. It can be used
for welcoming messages (see examples below), for advertising or just for fun; you can use Textaizer Pro
to paint your favourite artist with texts of your favourite songs. Here is a short Youtube video that shows
the features in more detail.

Some examples

Below: Shakira, drawn from repeating the lyrics of 'Siego Sordomuda', and slightly enriched by using the
'levels' filter with Adobe Photoshop.

Below: Shakespeare, painted from pieces of his own poetry.

Below: the text file contained only a short text: 'Happy birthday ! Congratulations ! Live long and prosper
!' and was repeated endlessly by Textaizer Pro to fill the entire picture.
Below: the emboss effect using one of the character-size-matching engine.

Here is some ASCII art: a simple example of the three balloons. Check out the website for more
examples, e.g. our all time favourite: superman!

Try this: extended ASCII characters ('block characters') allow creating truly realistic and remarkable
pictures. Ideal for creating novel styled websites.

Another great possibility: word art. Word art is simply creating a picture from words or (small) sentences.
Sounds familiar? The next picture shows this great new feature. This picture of Lene Marlin ("Sitting down
here") was made from all song titles of the Beatles.

Crazy Art? A next feature is to draw random characters on a canvas. It may sound silly, but great effects
can be achieved. Look at this example below. It's generated using an automated random character
placement engine on a canvas, where the colours are derived from a source picture. We have given it a
catchy name as well: Crazy Characters. By the way: the fluffy cat in the picture is called 'Moon'.

Finally, make your own ASCII-art-from-scratch with the drawing board, where the corresponding using
characters are generated from your drawn lines. Drawing the lines in the example below took about 8
seconds, while generating the corresponding ASCII characters took only a fraction of a second. It's highly
recommended to use a (Wacom) pen tablet for this type of art. Below you see a picture of 'Moon', the
fluffy cat.

Please visit our website for more information www.apphelmond.com

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 Textaizer Pro - Help

What's new
What's new?

5.0 Build 74 (13 April 2018)

Fixed an issue with the save menu

5.0 Build 73 (22 December 2017)

Fixed a bug of transparent parts

Improved the application intergrity check

5.0 Build 72 (13 September 2017)

Fixed a bug when closing the text editor

5.0 Build 71 (17 February 2015)

details now shown when saving as pdf (most recent result is saved only)
minor repairs in pop-up window (sometimes windows gets empty)

5.0 Build 69-70 (2 Jan 2015)

files history corrected (not a bug)

zoom controls mix-up corrected
PDF output corrected

5.0 Build 68 (23 Nov 2014)

bug solved when saving in one of the Windows 7/8 Libraries folders
updated Simplified Chinese language

5.0 Build 66-67 (20 Nov 2014)

fully new interface lay-out with more intuitive and cleaner look
'High Quality' option now includes anti-aliased characters
skin selection now with preview
grace days added to enjoy a month of fully unrestricted use
rotation of characters now improved
a fourth Text Mosaic engine: Density masks
accuracy of pdf and emf output has been improved
circular text mosaics now also possible with a centre offset

4.3 Build 54

bug solved with PNG files with fixed font size and blend with picture (colour engine) showing black
edges in semi-transparent part of the PNG source file

4.3 Build 53

error solved in some text files with WordArt

PDF save functionality now possible for all types of result (licensed versions only)
default values now better tuned to create a good initial result

4.3 Build 50-52

feedback flag now correctly set

small correction for save options (only show save options what can be saved)
on request: also the font can be stored in a project file

4.3 Build 49

provide a web page ('URL') and it will use that text for the text mosaic
output on multiple pages (allowing for giant text mosaics) in .pdf and .emf formats
4.3 Build 43

bug in WordArt removed (error with certain source files)

4.3 Build 42

an annoyance of the feedback request has been removed (it kept on asking)

4.3 Build 41

issue with WordArt improved (better text-length tuning)

4.3 build 40

improved interface: now each group of settings can be minimized or fully shown
added the option to create '3D' (shaded) characters in 'Crazy Characters'

4.2 build 37-39

bug removed in selecting a new .PNG files

bug removed in 'Crazy draw' when a new picture was loaded
bug removed in the project save function
small error removed in some radio-buttons
added a possibility to set the kerning of the 'Crazy Characters'

4.2 build 33-36

completely new skins, 100% Windows 7 compatible

major upgrade of the Crazy Characters engine
vector file output, allowing limitless and lossless resize of the resulting text art image
improved texture management

4.0 build 29

on request added a feature to also save the changed text

minor bugs removed (transparency of PNG files correctly kept intact, empty lines errors)

4.0 build 26

a new release of the software, fully redesigned

one new features added (Crazy Characters)
one feature greatly enhanced (Video now fully using all available codec possibilities)
much more stable and robust

3.0 build 24-25

a few remaining bugs have been solved

3.0 build 22-23

simplified interface at start, but customizable by user

improved web-update

3.0 build 21

the skinning can now also be turned off

compatibility with Windows 7 has been tested and 100% confirmed

3.0 build 20

new feature: printing on multiple pages: max. 100 pages (or in case of A0: 8 x 12 m)

3.0 build 18-19

new feature: changeable skins to personalize the interface

bug solved: Vista users won't get the error message on "S2" any more

3.0 build 14-17

 new feature: Font Art to create pictures from a large series of short lines
the number of input lines have been increased to 1024 (was 256)
a small bug in the spin buttons have now been solved
an indicator for the best font size (for A4 or letter printing) has now been added

3.0 build 13

new feature: Circular text mosaics are now possible

source and text files are now correctly remembered in the history list
improvement on the Text Art cropping calculations: now cropping the text- and HTML-files as well

3.0 build 10-12

Textaizer Pro has now language support (currently only English, Dutch and German)
minor bugs have been solved
Text Art result can now be previewed as a textile and in a browser
the chosen language is now more easily remembered

3.0 build 8

Textaizer Pro has been launched

a fully new GUI (Graphical User Interface)
2 new features: textures and presets

2.2 build 14

every bitmap can now be printed from within Textaizer

2.2 build 13

a small bug was solved in the font-size settings

2.2 build 4-11

a major bug was solved (font > 44pt crashed the application)
frame grabbing has been added (allowing to copy a frame to the Textaizer window)
text rotation now possible for video
automated effects for video
this help file has been restructured to provide a prominent place for the Videaizer

2.2 build 3

the Videaizer underwent a major upgrade

the user has now two engines to choose from (ASCII art or Text Mosaic)
the vid-window has now been improved (bitmaps are managed internally - not via de vid-
window)
all filter, font-size and background settings for ASCII art and Text Mosaic also apply to
Videaizer
improved video/media player controls
not only video files, but also a selection of multiple bitmaps can be taken as a source for
Videaizer
a CPU priority selector has been added
some minor inconveniences have been solved

2.1 build 11

the Free Draw ASCII art generation has been re-coded to increase speed and improve the user
interface
some bugs have been solved

2.1 build 5-7

now extended ASCII codes are available to create full-body ASCII art pictures ('block characters')
block characters can now be in colour too
request for feedback to the author is included after 50 times of use (disable via inifile by
setting '[settings] feedback=1' )
2.1 build 3

a major change was made to Textaizer 2: IntelliDraw capability was added

improved version update control and version recognition via the web
swapping between the different functional tabs without losing the work
some bugs were removed
background picture can now be hidden and shown again to improve result evaluation
more settings are added to the ini-file

2.0 builds 10-11

(automatic) update function added

some minor inconsistencies are now solved (syncing user-input changes internally)

2.0 build 9

a character palette feature was added to ease the choice of key in free draw mode

2.0 build 8

a bug was solved (when the draw pencil crossed the left or top border an error message appeared)

2.0 build 6

now the multi-regional settings are correctly taken care of

font size can be 'fixed', 'dynamic' or 'following the luminance of the source picture'
the screensaver feature is now documented and available

2.0 build 5

now the line spacing and dynamic font size are effectively aligned
the quality of the dynamic font size feature has been improved

2.0 build 4

avoid Quick Text limitations on the number of lines

2.0 build 3

minor bugs solved

new engine for colour management

1.1 build 24: minor bugs solved

now ASCII text also work with italic text

build-in a new limitation: max 255 characters for the ascii text string

1.1 build 23: Video functionality added ('Videaizer')

minor bugs solved

1.1 build 21: May 17, 2007

1.0 build 10-20: all kind of bugs solved (May 16, 2007)

1.0 build 09: First release of the software (May 6, 2007)

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 Textaizer Pro - Help

System requirements
System requirements

The minimum system requirements are:

- Windows XP
- 1.2 GHz Intel of AMD CPU
- 512 MB RAM memory
- 50 MB Hard disk space (for result files)

It is recommended to have the following system:

- Windows 7, 8 or 10
- 2.4 GHz i5 Intel or AMD equivalent CPU
- 8 GB RAM memory
- 250 MB Hard disk space

WARNING: When multiple tasks are done simultaneously (e.g. large mosaic bitmaps and ASCII art
bitmaps together) the RAM usage of Textaizer Pro can increase significantly to twice or four times the size
of each bitmap it is generating (50-100 MB is no exception).

Vista and Windows 7/8/10 users: you need administrator rights to install the software. It not only installs
the application in 'C:\Program Files\APP\Textaizer Pro' , but also needs to write in the Windows registry.
The application is tested in a number of Windows systems and is optimized to run in Windows 7/8/10,
both on 32 bit and 64 bit systems. You also need admin rights in Windows 7/8/10 to both install and run
the application. The application is installed for all users in the windows system.

The application also runs on Windows servers. For the Command Line Interpreter version of Textaizer
Pro please contact APP Helmond for the possibilities, e.g. to integrate the CLI version into a web page.

Acknowledgements

German translation: Wolfgang Landgraf

Slovenian translation: Jadran Rudec
Simplified chinese translation: ???~? (Anan)

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 Textaizer Pro - Help

The interface
The graphical user interface (GUI)

The user interface is given shown in the picture below. All the controls for text art creation are activated
by pressing the function buttons. Each active pop-up window only shows the current controls for the last
pressed function button. Only one control window will be opened at the time. There is a general function
called 'Tools' to manage a couple of generic functions, like font size and textures.

Each pop-up control window has a small 'hide/show' button on the right. This will de-clutter the window
with control sets that the user doesn't want to see, or are only distracting from the core controls for that
session. The settings for the hide/show are kept.

Below the menu bar are a couple of dedicated tabs, each of them showing the results (or more controls)
for the respective function. Only the 'Video' and the 'Density mask' tabs have a couple of extra controls
that are not shown in the pop-up window. At the top is the menu bar, mainly used for input and output,
and for printing, and some extra tools, such as web-update and language selection.

At the bottom a zoom bar is shown, with which the user can enlarge the resulting picture (max 200%) in
the viewer. The quality of the picture is dependent on the zoom factor at more than 100%
enlargement. Therefore for example at 200% some quality degradation may be seen. The result at 100%
is the final result quality, as if printed.

The Start button

The function of the Start button changes with the selected text art method. As illustrated in the picture
below, the caption of the button reflects what it will trigger when pressed.
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 Textaizer Pro - Help

The seven tools

We provide 7 tools to create wonderful text art pictures

Textaizer Pro has seven distinct tools to create wonderful test art pictures. These are:

Text from pictures (Text Mosaics)

Pictures from text (ASCII Art)
Recreate a picture from sentences of text (Word Art)
Draw random characters on a picture (Crazy Characters)
Free drawing ASCII Art (Draw Art)
Text made from characters (Text Art)
Video clips from ASCII Art or Text Art from video clips (Video Text Art)

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 Textaizer Pro - Help

1. Text mosaic
Text Mosaic: from text to picture

Text Mosaics are pictures made from text where the colour of each character is derived from a source picture. Any
picture can be used, and any text can be chosen. If a text is too short to cover the picture, it will be repeated.
Textaizer Pro has several options to refine the creation of the text mosaic, and a few basic bitmap filters to tune the
(colours of the) source picture to improve the results.

There are three control groups for text mosaic creation: the 'Text mosaic settings', the 'Text mosaic options' and the
'Circle settings'.

The Text mosaic settings

(Bitmap) size multiplier increases the size of the resulting bitmap. The maximum value is 16x, the minimum
0.5x. For instance when a bitmap has 89x46 characters and is 1.5 Mb in size, a multiplier value of 2.0x will
increase the size to 178x92, and a size of 5.5Mb 9 (so: the end result becomes 4x the size). With increasing
sizes, the calculation time increases accordingly. On slow systems, text mosaic creation may then take tens of
seconds.
Font size sets the size of the font. The font typeface is defined in the 'Tools' tab ('Font settings'). When the
font size is changed, the 'Line distance' setting follows the font size, multiplied by 1.6 (to create sufficient
visible space between lines). The coloured 'LED' to the right of the font-size box indicates the quality of the
print when printed on A4 or letter paper. Green means that the text is well readable, yellow is a danger zone,
and red is not recommended.
Line distance sets the distance between two lines of text measured in font size points. When changing the font
size, this value follows, but it can be changed separately while keeping the font size.
(Size) matching engines: there are three font size engines. Each engine has a different way to modify/adapt
the size for each character. These engines work closely together by a colour determining method, indicated in
the control box for 'text mosaic options'.
'Luminance' = the font size follows a predetermined formula to increase (or decrease) size with
increasing (or decreasing) luminance of the average colour of that part of the picture on which the
character will be put.
'Dynamic' = the font changes with the available white space that this character can possibly use, and
can therefore increase with increasing available space. The resulting text appears very dynamic, with
the smallest character size as the set font size. This way a better coverage is achieved and the effect
helps to cover 'holes' or 'spots' in the result.
'Fixed' = the font size does not change and is equal for all characters of the final text mosaic.
'Density mask' = the font size is determined by a grey-scale bitmap. More information is provided in the
special features chapter.
Chaoticness determines to what degree the character position is randomized (within a predefined boundary).
The character is placed very close to the intended position, and can vary as much as its own size.
Dynamics determines the degree of the effect of the 'chaotic' size engine. A high value of dynamics will try to
fully use the empty space of a character, while a low value will almost place the character as the 'fixed' size
engine.

The text mosaic options

 Font change is the probability that a font will change per word or per character. A value of 0 assures no font
change whatsoever.
When Dynamic words is checked the font will change per word rather then per character. The default is per
character.
When Keep words is selected, all words are kept as a whole, and not truncated at the end of a horizontal line.
The colour match engine determines how the colour is derived form the picture. This control is a selector.
From left to right: colours from the source picture; black and white (emboss effect); and blend with the
picture. In the last case a character may have different colours, while with the first engine each character has
only one colour depending on the corresponding position of the source file. In the picture below the
differences are shown, e.g. look at the colour(s) of the letter 'n' (in the word 'Woman', 2nd line, 4th word from
the end).

Random characters can be taken instead of the provided text file. In that case the text is made from randomly
selected characters of the alphabet, added with special signs, such as ()_+*&^% etc.
Use Quick Text. When checked the text in the box is used instead of the provided text in the input file. A
ticked box overrides the text file data. The limitation is 256 lines of text, and in case the number of lines
exceed 256, the 'Quick Text' will automatically be unchecked to avoid quality problems. It is advised to make
longer sentences of the input text to avoid a large number of paragraphs (or lines). The box 'Random
characters' must be unchecked to have this option working.

Using a web page content as text source

Text Mosaics can be made from a pre-loaded text file, but also using an URL of a web page. To activate that feature
simply provide the URL and check the tick box. This feature is only available for licensed users. The URL must
contain valid data. If the application doesn't find valid text (the web page source data is used) a warning is given,
and the text from the file is used (as normal text mosaic). You'll find the URL setting in the 'Tools' section (the tab
on the right side).

Since web pages usually contain unpredictable variations of content, there is no practical way to find out if the page
will be correctly loaded or not. In many cases this will be trial and error. For instance: http://www.google.com will
generate an error, but http://www.google.nl won't. Many common words are already filtered out, but HTML, css and
java script etc. is too elaborate to completely remove these kind of words automatically, so the content can be
exciting or pretty dull, depending on the page.

Circle settings

A regular text mosaic is made from text, from left to right. A circle text mosaic is built as one giant outward
spiralling text around the picture centre.
 Circle density sets the amount of spirals of the picture. A low value looks like a giant spiral, a high value may
generate a very densely packed picture. So, a low value increases the distance between the spiralled lines and
may lead to loss of picture integrity, while a high density may result in overlapping characters.
Kerning determines the actual distance between characters along the spiral. A high value will create a
detectable space between adjacent characters along the spiral.
When Don't rotate the characters is checked, the text on the spiral is not rotated along the spiral angle.

To activate the circular text option, the box 'Apply circular text' must be checked.

When you press the 'CTRL' key and left-click with the mouse somewhere in the picture, the centre of the circular
patter will move to that position. This new feature (version 5.0) allows therefore to create ex centric spirals. The
picture below shows the effect of this feature.

Note: Most fonts can be rotated: True Type Fonts ( ) as well as Open Type Fonts ( ) are possible. In the picture
below it can be seen that MS Sans Serif and MS Serif can both be used for text rotation. This feature applies to the
Videaizer as well.

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 Textaizer Pro - Help

2. ASCII Art
ASCII Art: picture from text

ASCII art has a very long history. ASCII art in its purest form consists of text that is made with a
monospaced font, like Courier (New) and Typewriter. Originally, ASCII art is made on a typing machine.
Today, ASCII art is the only type of graphics that is instantly viewable on any terminal, emulation, or
communications software. For examples and more information, please check out these popular websites:
http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ and http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/ and
http://www.chris.com/ASCII/

ASCII art is not easy to make, and time consuming to do it right. Usually a minimum of characters is used
to create a simple but graphically beautiful effect, e.g. for banner-text and e-mail stationeries. This is an
example from a popular website ( http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/t/tiger.txt):
_
( \ ..-----..__
\.'. _.--'` [ ' ' ```'-._
`. `'-..-'' ` ' ' ' . ; ; `-'''-.,__/|/_
`'-.;..-''`|' `. '. ; ' ` ' `' `,
\ ' . ' . ' ; .` . ' 7 \
'.' . '- . \ .` .` . .\ `Y
'-.' . ]. ' , ' /'`""';:'
/Y '.] '-._ / ' _.-'
\'\_ ; (`'.'.' ."/
' )` / `.' .-'.'
'\ \).' .-'--"
`. `,_'`
`.__) AsH/sk

With Textaizer Pro you can create basic ASCII art, and the effects can be great if the user takes time and
effort to prepare the original (source picture) and the chosen character set. Use our basic filters to tune
the source picture or properly prepare a picture with e.g. Adobe Photoshop or any other cheaper solution,
such as IrfanView.

The ASCII Art settings

(Bitmap) size multiplier increases the size of the resulting bitmap. The maximum value is 16x, the
minimum 0.5x. For instance when a bitmap has 89x46 characters and is 1.5 Mb in size, a multiplier
value of 2.0x will increase the size to 178x92, and a size of 5.5Mb 9 (so: the end result becomes 4x
the size). With increasing sizes, the calculation time increases accordingly. On slow systems, text
mosaic creation may then take tens of seconds.
Font size sets the size of the font. The font typeface is defined in the 'Tools' tab ('Font
settings'). With the choice of font size, the amount of characters per line is estimated. This is the
number of characters that is seen on one line of the ASCII art picture, in the web browser or in
Notepad. This is a useful indicator to check that the ASCII file does not exceed 80 lines, the usual
maximum characters on single line of an e-mail program (inherited from the old days of MS DOS...).
Open in Notepad or in Internet Browser: when checked the result is also shown in the default web
browser, and/or in Notepad.

Text options
Coverage is the degree of (surface) coverage by the ASCII characters. Moving this slider to the right
creates a very thick and 'filled' result. The ASCII result may look fully 'typed in' and details can be
suppressed. Moving the slider to the left creates a 'thinner' effect. The ASCII result will improve, but
the bitmap result may look worse. In the example below the effect is clearly seen.

Variance is the amount of character variation. Textaizer Pro calculates a 'top X' characters that may
fit with the target picture. To create a more vivid result, Textaizer Pro randomly selects one of these
top X characters. When the variance is low, the 'top X' is small (e.g. X = 3) and if the variance is
hight, the 'top X' characters is large (e.g. X = 27). As a consequence a high variance may lead to a
less fitting character, but can create a more vivid (variant) result. When the variance is set to 0 only
the best fitting character is chosen (no random selecting from the 'top X' - or: X = 1).
Cut-off is the luminance threshold below which the text will be placed. A low cut-off will result in a
full picture, while a high value will cut-off the highlights and leave only the darkest areas for the
ASCII Art picture. The example below explains the effect.

Use typewriter font selects a type-writing font (is part of the Textaizer Pro installation files). Like the
Courier New font, this font is monospaced, and therefore suitable for ASCII art. However, this font is
not or hardly used in HTML pages.
Use block characters will force to use the block characters from the extended ASCII set (only
applicable in HTML pages). These are the special characters ( ) and will create more solid
shaped pictures, that can not be made with plain alphanumeric characters. The big advantage of
block characters is a very short loading time of the HTML page, since it is not a picture, just plain
text. With block characters, pretty realistic effects can be achieved.
Black and white HTML removes the colour code of each character in the HTML file, resulting in the
black and white ASCII art. If left unchecked, the ASCII Art result is fully coloured, and it's
recommended to select the proper background colour. Black is usually a very good choice.
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3. Word art
Word Art: pictures from words and small sentences

A special kind of picture can be created using the Word Art option. The picture is built from a series of
little sentences or words. The example below shows what the effect of Word Art can be.

Word art controls

(Bitmap) size multiplier increases the size of the resulting bitmap. The maximum value is 16x, the
minimum 0.5x. For instance when a bitmap has 89x46 characters and is 1.5 Mb in size, a multiplier
value of 2.0x will increase the size to 178x92, and a size of 5.5Mb 9 (so: the end result becomes 4x
the size). With increasing sizes, the calculation time increases accordingly. On slow systems, text
mosaic creation may then take tens of seconds.
Font size sets the size of the font. The font typeface is defined in the 'Tools' tab ('Font settings').
When the font size is changed, the 'Line distance' setting follows the font size, multiplied by 1.6 (to
create sufficient visible space between lines).
Line distance sets the distance between two lines of text measured in font size points. When
changing the font size, this value follows, but it can be changed separately while keeping the font
size.
 Font change determines how often a word changes font. The values can be set between 0 (no
change) and 10 (maximum probability of a change font).
The Cut-off value is comparable with ASCII Art: the hight this value the more highlights will be cut-
off from the Word Art picture. In this case, a value of 0% may result in a very densely packed
picture where hardly any individual word is readable. A value of 100% usually leads to a very thin
result. The default is therefore 50%. Together with the Contrast value the amount and position of
the words is determined. It may take a few trial and errors to tune the setting to deliver a good
result.The example below shows the effect of both controls.

Density: the distance between words is controlled with this slider. A low density will result in less
words 'per square cm', and a high value of course the opposite.

Background and tips

The Word Art option prints the text lines at the darker areas of the source picture. The more lines are
printed, the darker the 'colour' impression will be. Some tips to create a good Word Art picture:

use pictures with a white background to assure that the subject of interest (e.g. a portrait) is cut
loose from the (lighter) background
use the pre-filters to tune the source picture to satisfactory grey-values using the two filters Cut-off
and Contrast.
to find the best setting for a good surface coverage: use a small font (e.g. 6-8) in combination with
a short line distance (e.g. 4-8) (the 'Cut-off' and 'Contrast' values can be very helpful here, see also
last tip)
to create a print quality result: increase the font size to 14-18 and keep the same short line
distance for the final picture and use the 'size multiplier' to counterbalance for the increase of font
size
do not hesitate to increase the output size to 3000x3000 pixels or higher (use the 'Size multiplier',
check the size in the status bar. Just make sure that the size does not exceed the capabilities of the
PC. There is a bitmap size limit: with 4GB of RAM this limit is appr. 300 Mb picture size.

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4. Crazy Characters
Crazy Characters: drawing with text

This is an exiting new feature in Textaizer Pro 4. It has been developed from a request of a class of students of
the Photoshop training at the SNT in Bruges, Belgium (Stedelijke Nijverheids- en Taalleergangen). Our special
thanks to our Belgian friends in Bruges to use and test the application and for suggesting improvements and additions.

What is Crazy Characters?

Crazy Characters draws text. In a different way and with a 'crazy' twist. The basic tool is the mouse (a Wacom pen
tablet is highly recommended). Basically there are two ways to use Crazy Characters:

Use the automated settings. Simply press the Start button and see what happens.
Use the mouse/pen as input and draw text by hand (=mouse/pen), and see what happens.

Restore a previous result

Each time an effect is created, either by pressing the Start button, or by drawing with the mouse/pen, a snapshot is
made of the canvas. By pressing CTRL+Z the previous snapshot can be restored. This is the normal Windows way to
Undo an effect. Only 10 Undo's are stored, then the first Undo is overwritten with the next one. There is no 'Redo'
available.

Font dynamics

Font size: the basic font size when drawing (pen or automated).
Font variation: size variation when drawing. At 100% the size varies from 1/3 to appr. 3x the basic font size.
Font angle: The angle of each of the characters that is drawn. When positive, the angle is clockwise, and a value
of 90 (degrees) means a quarter turn, and 180 degrees is upside down.
Angle variation: the degree of variation of the font angle.

Advanced settings (for the font dynamics)

Lumen effect: the characters become bigger with darker areas, and smaller with lighter areas. The degree of the
dependency of the darkness/lightness is set with this slider
Font change: the possibility (100% = always) that each new character will change font.
Use CTRL+SHIFT to write this text: when the keys CTRL+SHIFT are simultaneously pressed when 'writing', the
text in this box is written on the canvas. After release of the keys, the next line of the text is selected (in case of
text file input). The example below shows the possibility with this effect.
 To recall a previous line, press the Page Up button, or when the next line needs to be selected, press the Page
Down button. When at the end of the available test lines, the first line is drawn again.

colour source

There are three options for colour source:

From the picture (so: each colour of each characters is derived from the corresponding position in the picture)
Random: random selection from the 16777216 possible colours
colour select: select a colour from the colour diagram. The left side is used for the lightness and saturation, the
rainbow bar is the selector for the hue.

Shade settings

Each character is usually printed as a 'flat' character. This means that when characters of similar colour are printed,
the whole lot can become very fuzzy and it appears like one giant blur of characters is printed. The 'Shade' option
prints a hard shade under each character. It will create the illusion of a 3D shade. This way the characters will stand
out individually. There is a disadvantage: the shade also creates an explosion of dark spots. The use of the option is as
always a bit of trial and error and see what gives the best result. The colour of the shade is selected by clicking on the
colour patch. Only when the 'Apply shade' is ticked the shade is activated.

Shade angle: the angle of the shade, a value between -180 and 180 degrees. At 0 degrees the 'sun' shines at
it's zenith ('north'); 45 degrees creates a shade as if the 'sun' shines from left-top ('north-west')
Shade size : the size of the shade in percentages of the font size. The minimum is zero (no shade), the
maximum is 25%. A low percentage (1-3%) is usually enough to create a good shade.

Automation settings

The automated Crazy Character generator is triggered by pressing the 'Start Crazy Art' button at the top. It depends
on these settings what will be drawn.

Density: the amount of characters 'per square cm'.

 Luminance and Saturation limits: the Crazy Character engine can cut-off certain characters where the source
picture is dark and unsaturated, or the opposite: saturated areas are left out. In that case also check the box
'Invert limits'. The effects is demonstrated in the picture below. From L to R: 70% Lum and 70% Sat limit;
inverted; Lum 50% and Sat 100% inverted. The little rainbow picture in each picture shows the settings in a
visual way.

The effect base is a series of filters to apply before placing a characters. Each filter has certain effect, some
almost no effect (too light picture), and some very strange. In the picture below the filter effects on a source
picture are shown. Top row from L to R: dither 1, 3 and 8, posterize 1 and 3; Bottom row from L to R:
photocopy 1 and 3; sharpen 1, 3 and 8. To make these examples, the Start button was repeatedly pressed.

The filter intensity is an additional control to adjust the effect of each of the filters. This can be a
minor adjustment or a major effect, depending on the filter. The intensity varies from 1 to 8 (see example
above).

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5. Free Draw
Create ASCII Art from scratch

With this feature you can create your own ASCII art picture by simply drawing lines only. For convenience,
a background picture can be used and act as a guide to draw your own art. In the example below the
available viewing modes are shown. From L to R: all visible; only lines; grid + characters; characters. The
transparency of the background picture can be also be set.

Size settings

Font size sets the size of the grid. A large font size results in a coarse grid. The smaller the font, the
more characters are used and the more accurate the ASCII art will become. A too small size (<
10) may result in bad reading or printing quality.
Pen thickness sets the size of the pen/mouse when drawing lines. It is recommended to keep the
pen size appr. a quarter of the font size. When the font size is changed the pen size changes along
with this optimum ratio. This can be overruled by manually changing the pen size again.
Use these characters for drawing are the used characters by the matching engine. It is
recommended to keep the number of characters low, and preferably only use 'line-ish' characters.
We have already selected the most effective line-drawing characters. But any character will work.

Pen and eraser

Two controls are available: a pen and an eraser. The pen ( ) is the default action, drawing black lines on
a white canvas, where the background picture is shining through or not. The eraser ( ) is selected by
pressing the SHIFT button while drawing. Effectively the pen colour turns into white, and then acts as an
eraser with the same thickness as the pen.

Restore a previous result

Each time a line is drawn, a snapshot is made of the canvas. By pressing CTRL+Z the previous snapshot
can be restored. This is the normal Windows way to Undo an effect. Only 10 Undo's are stored, then the
first Undo is overwritten with the next one. There is no 'Redo' available. When the button 'Create draw
lines' is pressed, the characters are placed as a layer on the canvas (these characters can not be erased:
it's not the same drawing layer). When Undo is used and lines are undone, this layer of characters will not
be undone. Instead, ignore this layer and then press the button 'Create draw lines' again. The new
characters will now be correctly placed.

Layer and quality settings

 There are 4 layers: one for the background picture, one for the ASCII text characters, one for the
drawn lines and one for the grid. Each of these layers can be shown or hidden. Only the background
image layer has a smooth transparency control (from 0 to 100% transparent), the others can be
shown or hidden by ticking the corresponding check boxes.
The control for sharpness determines how much pixels of a line are taken into account in each cell
of the grid. A low sharpness will result in a very dense character image because every line pixel is
counted, and will be transformed into a character (even if one pixel is found in an adjacent cell).
The example below demonstrates the effect more vivid than words can do. From L to R: the drawn
lines + no sharpness; then in 5 steps an increase of sharpness: 0, 5, 10, 15 and 25. In the last
picture only very outspoken parts of the drawn lines are transformed into characters.

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6. ASCII Text Art

Create a text with an ASCII Art appearance

A very popular form of ASCII art is to create text from the actual characters themselves. With this feature
you can create any text of any shape of any font at almost any size. The only limitation is the number of
characters: 255. As demonstrated in the example below, a text is created from characters. The typeface of
the text 'Text' is called the 'macro font', the 'micro font' is the typeface of the small characters. When
Textaizer Pro starts, all available fonts of Windows are loaded in the two pull-down boxes.

Text Art settings

Type any text in the box 'Text for ASCII art transformation'. The result is immediately seen in the preview
window. The text can be tuned and changed with the following controls:

Use own characters to build the ASCII Art text from its own characters, or use the preset key
character. The preset key character is shown in the green box. Any key can be used, the default
character is 'x'.
There are two additional type faces: bold and italic.
When the box ASCII view is ticked the line distance is matched with HTML or text files (appr. 1.5
times the normal line distance).
The font sizes for both the macro and the micro font can be set. The micro font is what you finally
see in the browser or as text file in Notepad. The macro font is the typeface of the word itself. Two
important things to know:
Make sure when showing the text result in a web browser that the micro font is available
when showing the text as a text file (e.g. Notepad), make sure that the micro font is mono-
spaced to avoid that kerning of the characters completely destroys the effect. A mono-spaced
font has characters with the same width. The example below shows the effect of mono-spaced
(e.g Courier New) and kerning fonts (e.g. Arial)

x xxx xxx xxx x xxx xxx

xx xx x x x xx x x x
x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x
 x x x x x x x x x
x x x xxx x x xxx

x xxx xxx xxx x xxx xxx

xx xx x x x xx x x x
x x xx x x x x x
x x xx x x x x x
x x xx x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x
x x x xxx x x xxx

With the two buttons the result can be previewed as a text file ('Open in Notepad') or in the default
browser as HTML ('Open in browser').

"Can't allocate the DIB handle"

This is an error message indicating that the size of the generated bitmap can not be managed in the
available RAM of the computer. The RAM usage is indicated in the left bottom corner (e.g. 345 Mb / 2048
MB). The first number is the amount of memory that is used by Textaizer Pro, the other is the available
free RAM that is available for applications. In general when the RAM usage reaches 450 MB, the danger
zone has been entered. After this error message the application needs to be closed and restarted. To
avoid this error message carefully select the micro and macro font sizes. Both have a profound effect on
the RAM usage.

Tip: another ASCII art text generator

A very good (simple text) ASCII art generator is found here: http://www.network-science.de/ascii/. An
example of one of the more than 140 typefaces:

.__
____ ___ ________ _____ ______ | | ____
_/ __ \\ \/ /\__ \ / \\____ \| | _/ __ \
\ ___/ > < / __ \| Y Y \ |_> > |_\ ___/
\___ >__/\_ \(____ /__|_| / __/|____/\___ >
\/ \/ \/ \/|__| \/

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7. Videaizer
Make Text Video clips from video clips

With Videaizer you can create animated text art. You'll need a source video clip, load it in the program,
and create text art from each individual bitmap of the video sequence.

Limitations of Videaizer

The sound track is not copied. You have to edit the soundtrack separately (e.g. using Windows
Moviemaker).
Video frame rate of NTSC is 23.97 fps can not be copied correctly by Videaizer. Choose 24 fps
instead and correct the audio accordingly.

How does it work?

Textaizer Pro and the 'plug-in' Videaizer work together. The Videaizer decomposes the source video clip
('footage') into individual pictures. Textaizer Pro then takes each of these pictures to create a text art
picture. Each resulting bitmap is then used to build the video clip from these new pictures. The input video
clip can be of multiple kind, and except for High Density (HD) footage, almost every codec can be used, as
long as the codec is available in the windows system.

Note: users who have VLC player installed do NOT necessarily have the DivX, Xvid, H.264 etc. codes
on their systems. They must be installed separately and need to be present in the windows system
directory.

The videaizer interface

The Videaizer has an extended interface. The area for the other functions is now fully taken for the video
controls, the video windows and the codecs. On the right still the familiar control tabs are found. On the
top-right a miniature picture is seen from the video source. This picture is one of the frames of the source
video, and can be used to test the effect on the settings.

Video sources
The video source is selected via the main menu: 'Videaizer' 'Open source movie'. This movie is shown in
the left video window. When a movie is available, the controls of the video will work. The output video
after being 'videaized' is seen in the right video window. The size of the output video is equal to the size of
the input.

Workflow: Player Control

Each video window has its own player control. There are buttons for (left to right): play - pause - stop - 1
frame left - 1 frame right - 10 frames left - 10 frames right. The slider below the controls both indicate the
current position in the movie; and as a quick way to move to a certain position in the movie. Simply grab
the green indicator and drag the slider to the wanted position. The Position info follows the format
'hh:mm:ss,fraction of a second', the Frame indicator shows the current frame and the total amount of
frames.

Work flow: Type of artistic output

There are two possible types of movie art: Text Mosaic and ASCII Art. Both are controlled with their
respective controls are descibed here and here. Please assure that when the controls for the settings are
selected because the Start button also changes function when a different art creator is selected. You need
to click on the Video tab again to assign the Videaizer to the Start button.

Media info and settings

When a source movie has been opened, the resume of the movie is summarized here.

The values for frame rate are copied to the spin box and already set to the right value (in the
example above: 25 frames per second).
Also the frame size is relevant, because the output movie is equal to the input movie size.
The Begin and End frame is used to render only a portion of the full source. Here you can indicate
the start en end values. Make sure you don't select values beyond the available number of frames.
The default values are 0 and the last frame (in the example above: 333).

NOTE: If no source movie is loaded prior to starting the 'Videaizer', it will take the current still picture and
use that for each frame. The size of the video is the same as the original size of the source picture. So be
careful what you are doing... a large picture/video size may freeze your system. This feature is not well
tested, and might contain some unexpected issues. If so, please contact APP Helmond.

Create and save a Videaized movie

First select the proper codec into which the movie needs to be transformed. A codec is the compressor of
the movie sequence. Uncompressed movie takes several Gb, compressed can be a factor of 25 smaller.
For example: one frame of 720x576 is 1.19 Mb uncompressed, and 25 frames per second equals almost
30 Mb/s, so one minute equals 1.8 GB. In contrast: a good quality DVD stream can be 0.9 Mb/s in size, so
100 Mb for 2 minutes. The choice of codec depends on the availability of the codec on the computer
system. The available codecs are shown in the box (see picture below), the selected codec is indicated
above this box.
Warning: the list of available codecs also include those only for playback, and not for recording. You have
to manually find what the codec is capable of. There is no guideline for this (unfortunately).

When all is set, and the Start button shows the text 'Start Videaizing'. Press the Start button and watch
the progress roll on. In case you wish to abort the creation (slow, not the right range), press the Cancel
button. The resulting video file is now shown, but only what has been processed so far. This video is
temporarily stored. To save the file, use the menu: 'Videaizer' 'Save videaized movie'.

FX data points
The Videaizer has a built-in special effects generator. This generator replaces the static settings of the Text
Mosaic and ASCII Art settings. There are three types of dynamic effects. With each frame these settings
can be changed:

Font size change with each frame

Individual character rotation for each frame
Randomness of the position of each character

In the picture below an example of these dynamics is shown. The numbers correspond with the key
frames of the input file (the example of the data set is shown below the picture, only the first 6 from 9
data sets are shown).

To apply the effects the user has to prepare a special effects input file. This file can be prepared in
Notepad as a normal text file. The effects can be turned on and off using the check box 'Apply the effects'.
For easy tuning, use Notepad to change the parameters in the input FX (text) file, and press the 'Reload'
button to update the data.

This file has a specific structure. Deviating from the predefined structure will result in error messages. The
structure is (example):

1, 0, 24, 0, 0
2, 15, 38, 45, 10
3, 45, 62, 90, 20
4, 90, 126, 90, 30
5, 135, 90, 180, 40
6, 180, 36, 200, 30
7, 235, 12, 270, 20
 8, 270, 24, 300, 10
9, 350, 24, 180, 0

Videaizer uses the concept of Key frames: frames that have pre-defined values. The values between two
key frames are interpolated. This ASCII file has the following structure:

Each line has a series of data points for each key frame. The file contains a series of data sets
(here: 9). At least two data sets are required for a proper effect. Each next lines provide the input
data for each set. For better readability spaces can be used. Each data point must be separated by a
comma. Each set must be defined by a set number, followed by '='. From left to right:
<set no.> = <frame number> , <font size> , <angle> , <randomness>
The frame number must start with 0. The last set of data points does not necessarily be equal to the
available frames of the footage (or number of bitmaps). In case the number of frames of the last set
is smaller than the length of the movie, this last set is used for the rest of the Videaizing.
The font size must be larger than 4
One rotation is given from 0 to 360 degrees (positive value = clockwise rotating)
Randomness must be in the range from 0 to 100 (percentage of the font size).

The effects file is opened via the menu: 'Videaizer' 'Load FX file'. This file must be an ASCII file of type
ANSI. It is recommended to use the file extension 'txt' to easily edit this file in e.g. Notepad.
After loading the file, an echo of the data is shown in the table. This table cannot be edited (use the
Notepad file-edit instead).

Some tips for a proper FX handling:

when a font is larger than the bitmap size (width or height), the font size is clipped to the maximum
allowed.
the effects between two data sets are linearly interpolated.
to further rotate after 360 degrees, there are two options: 1. continue to increase the angle (e.g.
to 720 deg for a second rotation) or 2. create one more set with angle 0 degrees and for the next
frame. For example, to continue to rotate after set 3, an additional set 4 was defined:
1 = 0, 40, 0, 0
2 = 40, 40, 120, 0
3 = 80, 40, 360, 0
4 = 81, 40, 0, 0
5 = 100, 40, 60, 0
Please be aware that the Videaizer interpolates the values between two data sets. So from 360 to
60 (from set 3 to 5) would then result in an anti-clockwise sequence. If data set 4 would start with
frame 82, an interpolated rotation value of 180 would result in frame 81.
be aware that not all fonts can be rotated: only True Type Fonts ( ) and Open Type Fonts ( ) can
be rotated.

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Special features
With Textaizer Pro several additional options are available:

Exporting and printing the results

Using a textured surface to create a 3D effect
Projects to export (and load) the favourite settings
Automatic updates to periodically check for new versions
License

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Export and print

Saving the result

Each resulting picture, text or HTML can be saved. It depends on the type of result which files are
saved. The menu on top of the application contains save commands. Via 'File' the proper file format is
selected. Please make sure you don't select a file format that was never generated in the art creation.
From Textaizer Pro 4.2 onward the resulting text art can also be saved in the windows (enhanced)
metafiles format. The file extension is .emf and it is a native windows file format. This format can be read
by the windows explorer, and e.g. Microsoft Office, Adobe Illustrator (not Photoshop!), Irfanview and
Paintshop Pro.

One word of caution: when the result is saved as pdf or emf file only the latest run is saved. When you
switch between tabs when different runs were made, only the last one is saved. You will see a warning
pop-up to make sure you are aware what will be saved, and to avoid disappointments when opening the
resulting file.

Windows metafiles

The Windows Enhanced Metafile (.EMF file extension) is a very special format. It does not store the bitmap
result in pixels, but uses so-called 'vectors'. The really big advantage is that EMF files can be blown to giga
dimensions, because the vector approach (instead of a pixel approach) preserve the sharpness of the text.
EMF files can be used to create giant posters, meters in size, and preserve the sharp text as if it was a
high density megapixel bitmap.
This format is comparable with the pdf file format where text can be enlarged as big as you want. There is
a minor drawback: if the font with which the EMF is created is not on the system it will use a default font,
and the effect of the wordlet may be quite unexpected. For that reason, when saving in the EMF
format, the user is always asked to also copy the font in the windows system to open the EMF file while
Wordaizer is not active.

Some characteristics:

EMF files can only use one font, and the font can not be stored ('embedded') in the file itself
EMF files can be significantly smaller than (large) bitmaps because it only stores vector data, not
24bit pixels
EMF files are not always consistent and may vary per system (but in 99.99% is goes fine)
EMF files can not be read by every bitmap editors (not in Photoshop!), but can be read in e.g.
Firefox, Paintshop Pro, IrfanView, (Windows) Paint and of course Adobe Illustrator.

Portable Document File (pdf)

The pdf file format is a very practical export option. The result is saved with the fonts included, making it
a perfect solution to transfer the exact result from one system to another. Also the colour profile of the
result is stored, making this is a perfect method for professional printing. The colour profile is sRGB
IEC1966-1, 24bit RGB, 8bit per colour channel. Transparency however is not stored in pdf file format.
There is an additional option to export as pdf is connected to the feature to save in multiple parts, ranging
from 1x1 (as one file) to 6 x 6= 36 separate files (rows first, then columns). To create this multiple pdf
output is done in two steps: the user has first to create the full text mosaic, then save as pdf.
In the picture above these steps are highlighted: on the right the setting is shown to create huge sizes
('multiplication = 7.5'), the other will pop-up when the 'Save as Acrobat (pdf)' action from the menu is
clicked. A small window asks how many divisions should be made (default is 1). For large resulting files
this could be very useful to avoid the RAM limitation (about 250 MB on most systems). After providing
the number of divisions (in the example 'Divisions: 2 x 2'). The file name must be provided in the save
window. On the left the 'Save as Acrobat (pdf)' action from the menu bar is seen, after which 4 files (in
this example) are created. Reading theses files back in e.g. Photoshop will seamlessly recreate the now
giant mosaic again. In general the application generate a slight overlap between the divided parts, so
stitching them back together will be relatively easy to position. Because this is a truly professional feature
this option to save as multiple divisions and as pdf is only available for licensed users.

Print the result

Each bitmap can be printed from the main menu command 'File' 'Print'. When a print is requested, a
simple pre-set options menu appears with two basic options:

The page Orientation can be set to 'Landscape' or 'Portrait'

The position and size can be set: 'Page fill' means 100% fit in the current page and 'Centre the
picture' will put the result in the centre of the page. When 'Page fill' is unchecked, the slider
 becomes active and the user can determine what size must be chosen.
The number of page divisions can be set from 1 to 10, so the result will be printed on max. 100
pages. For an A0 this means a wall-size poster of appr. 8 x 12 meter.

The OK button activates the windows printer options. Select the printer you want to use (in case you have
more printers attached to your computer), make sure that paper size is correctly taken over from
Textaizer Pro (normally this should work well), and finally print the result.

Alternatively, you can use the printing command via the windows explorer (right-click > print).

Print the result versus print as pdf

The approach of printing over multiple pages ('Print the result') is slightly different from saving as multiple
divisions in pdf ('print as pdf'). In the first approach less large sizes can be saved, because the result is
just printed over several pages, where the size is limited to appr 250 MB.
For the pdf solution the maximum bitmap size of appr. 250 MB will apply for each of the pdf files. So the
pdf feature allows for appr.36 x 250 MB = 2.5 GB bitmap result.

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Density masks
Density masks

With version 5.0 a new Text Mosaic feature has been added: the font size is determined by a grey-scale
bitmap. The black parts represent a large font, the white parts will use a small font. The grey-scale values in
between will make a smooth transition between the small and the largest font.

When the following density mask is offered, the picture on the right shows how the font-size is affected.

In this example picture you can see the mask (left), which is basically drawn by hand using the mouse and a
'pen'. Simply draw with your mouse (or better: use a pen-tabled, e.g. the Wacom Bamboo). The original
picture is still visible to guide you drawing the areas of increased font size. The picture on the right shows the
extreme difference between white (smallest font size) and black (largest font size).

To create a density mask you first need to select the text engine 'Density mask' from the drop-down box:

Then a new tab will become available in the main working area (called 'Density mask'). When you select that
tab you will find an empty mask area (basically all area is white), and a couple of drawing tools at the bottom.

The three buttons on the left are the pen tools: pen (black), eraser (white) and bucket (area fill). The two
button next to these are used to undo the last action (maximum of 10 actions) and to fully reset the mask (all
white again).

The pen thickness can be set by the left slider; the blurriness of the mask can be set by the middle slider and
the font range between the smallest and largest font size is set with the slider on the right. A highly blurred
mask will create a smooth transition between black and white (so: between the largest and the smallest font).
A high range will create very large fonts at black and small fonts at white. Some examples are shown below.
When you are done creating the mask, simply press the 'Start text mosaic' button and wait for the result.
Picture below: very creative results can be obtained with this mask. Please be aware it only works with the
text mosaic engine.

Saving and opening existing density masks

When you have created a density mask you can save this mask and re-use it a next time. The save/open
option is provided via the main menu: 'File' 'Save mask' or 'Open mask' . Please be aware that the mask
which is opened this way will be resized to match the aspect ratio of the current source picture. So, if you
save a landscape mask and open it again for a portrait source picture the content will look distorted compared
with the last time you created it.

You can also open self-made masks, e.g. using a bitmap editor like Paint or Adobe Photoshop (Elements). The
format is usually jpg, and it's highly recommended to keep using this effective format. There are a couple of
pre-installed masks available in the default save folder: 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\APP\Textaizer Pro\Masks'
(Windows 7/8).

Technical note (for those who are interested): the blurriness is created using a gaussian blur filter prior to
using it as a density mask. This way a soft blurred transition is created between the black and white areas.
The more blurriness is needed, the more gaussian blur is applied internally. The grey tones that are now
created cater for the smooth font size change between large and small.

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Automatic updates
Automatic updates

Updates can be downloaded from the APP Helmond website. The application does not automatically look
for updates. To check for an update select 'Tools' 'Web update'. If a newer version is available the
download button becomes active. If the file is downloaded, the zip file will open and the user is asked to
make the next step (e.g. extract the update to hard disk, then execute the updated file via the windows
explorer).

NOTICE: You need to allow your firewall to let Textaizer Pro look on the internet to successfully search for
update information and to download the updated file.

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Tools
Textaizer Pro has 4 different tools

The tab 'Tools' contains 4 different generic tools. Each of which is explained here.

Font settings

The font settings will define the base font type for all art creators. The font type face (bold, italic) can also
be selected here. The font size will be overruled by the individual art creators. In some cases also the font
type is overruled when a random font is selected for a certain art creator. The underline and strike through
font faces are not active in Textaizer Pro.

colour correction

The colours of the source picture may not be good enough for certain art creators. Here you can modify
the source picture. There are three controls: brightness, contrast ans saturation. The effect is echoed in to
the miniature source picture top-right of the application. The colour correction is restored by pressing the
'Restore' button.

Textures

With the texture option each art creator result can be enhanced with a textured 'surface'. This way a 3D
effect is created where the resulting art creation will become photo realistic.

Available textures is a drop-down list of textures that are available in the '/Textures' subdirectory.
The user can add textures to this directory, where the name must start with 't_' (if not, the texture
file is not taken on board).
Transparency sets the visibility of the texture in the result picture.
b/w creates a black and white version of the selected texture.
Size sets the size of the texture. The texture is repeated as often as is needed to fully cover the
resulting picture, so with large size the repeating amount of texture 'cloth' is less.

By pressing the 'Apply' button the texture is activated on the current result in the viewer.

colour settings
The colour settings are generic colours for all art creators (including the Videaizer). Not all colours are
applicable in all art creators, such as the HTML colours. By clicking on the coloured box the colour selector
is opened and the appropriate colour can be selected and set.

HiQuality preview

When this box checked the text/characters are placed using a better quality rendering engine. This
options therefore determines the final quality, but also effects the rendering speed (it takes longer to
create a HQ result). So, it is a good option to uncheck to quickly see effects, and then re-check to render
the final quality picture. The effect is noticeable on slower systems; on modern and fast PC's the effect
may be negligible. In addition the HQ preview also renders the text in an anti-alias mode.

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Projects
Projects are memory files to capture a favourite setting

All settings are saved (exported) in a text file, called a project file. This file can be loaded again in
Textaizer Pro to reproduce the exact result from a previous session. Not all settings are stored, such as
used text file and used source picture.

A project is opened via 'Projects' 'Open project' and then select one from the list. This list is updated when
a new project is created, and at start of the application. Only the projects that are stored in the 'C:\My
Documents\<user name>\APP\Textaizer Pro\Projects' are read, and only if the file extension is mpr.

A project can be saved by 'Projects' 'Save project' and then select a name for the project in the pop-up
name box.

In case a project already exists, the user is prompted to decide to overwrite the existing project. The
projects are stored on a fixed location.

Note: if the 'Default' project is overwritten, all the default settings will change. The default file is always
read at application start. Effectively, the default project will reset all settings to the original (default)
values. This is a fast way to reset all controls. If no default project file is found, the 'factory-settings' are
taken.

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File locations
Default installation locations for the application

XP: C:\Program Files\APP\Textaizer Pro

Vista/Windows7/8/10: C:\Program Files\APP\Textaizer Pro

For 64bit installations the default folder is C:\Program Files (x86)\APP\Textaizer Pro.

Windows XP: Default location for the projects (*.mpr), textures (*.jpg) and sources (bitmaps, text):

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\APP\Textaizer Pro\Projects

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\APP\Textaizer Pro\Textures
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\APP\Textaizer Pro\Sources

Vista/Windows7/8/10: Default location for the projects (*.mpr), textures (*.jpg) and sources
(bitmaps, text):

C:\Users\Public\Documents\APP\Textaizer Pro\Projects
C:\Users\Public\Documents\APP\Textaizer Pro\Textures
C:\Users\Public\Documents\APP\Textaizer Pro\Sources

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License
Licenses

After the Grace Day period, some new features are only available for licensed users who have purchased
an unlock file. These restrictions are then lifted:

Export in .pdf and .emf format

Export the giant text mosaic in parts (creating giant text mosaics)
Videaizing not limited to 5 seconds
URL as text input
Density maps for font size

Grace days

To allow the users to experience the full range of features we have 14 'grace days' for the application. This
means that after installation no restrictions are put on any of the features. Fully featured and 100%
functional. After the grace period you are either convinced to purchase an unlock file (with or without a
commercial license) or decide to continue with the free but restricted version. The grace days are only
applicable after first install, and will not be offered with every update.

Purchasing a license

The Textaizer software is protected for illegal use. After the grace days have passed, certain features will
be locked, and will only become available with a purchased 'unlock file'. We use the word license in a two
ways: a combination of an unlock file and a commercial agreement that allows you to exploit the results
from the application commercially. If you only require an unlock file (thus for personal use), you only
receive this file. If you purchase a commercial license alongside, you will also receive a license agreement,
all put on your name.

The simplest way to purchase a (lifetime) license is to follow this link to the purchase web page.
Upon purchase you will receive an unlock file which unlocks the extra Textaizer Pro features. If you also
purchase a license you are also allowed to exploit the results from the applications commercially. We
only sell licenses that apply to all the APP Helmond applications, including Mosaizer Pro and Wordaizer. You
can select your kind of purchase, with or without an additional commercial license. For more information
about the possibilities, please send us an e-mail. We will inform you about our licensing possibilities.

Validating the license

Via 'Tools' 'Show license information' you can load the license file into the application. The license will be
in effect immediately. You'll notice a small '+' (plus) sign after the application's name. This indicates a
valid license. The license file is stored in the same folder as the executable, and in case more than one .lic
file is found, it will generate a warning and will ask you to only keep the correct .lic file, and delete,
rename or move any other .lic file from that folder.

Copyright © 2006-2018 APP Helmond