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Turias · 12:47 PM

Announcing Sigify -- The Signature Image Creator

I don't know how many of you have noticed this, but my signature doesn't rotate between a set number of images. Instead, it is a random crop of a single image with my username overlaid on top of that.

Well, I finally got my act together and polished up the script that produces this image, so I thought I would release it to my fellow MacNNers.

It does much more than just crop and overlay, though. With this script you can perform a large number of image manipulations including everything from altering the brightness and contrast of the image to making it look like a charcoal drawing or oil painting through the use of a number of filters.

In order to run this script you need to have access to a webserver with Perl, ImageMagick, and PerlMagick (a Perl interface to ImageMagick).

So, if you'd like to try it out, please do. I only ask that you reply here with your thoughts on the script and maybe a link to whatever signatures you have created. Also, please do not post links to this file on other sites as I don't have the bandwidth to spare.

That being said, go ahead and download Sigify 1.0!

d4nth3m4n · Oct 12, 2004, 03:55 PM

very very cool. not that i have a server to use this with, but still, very very cool.

ManOfSteal · Oct 12, 2004, 03:56 PM

Neato.�

dillerX · Oct 12, 2004, 03:56 PM

nice stuff

thanks for making it available.

ajprice · Oct 12, 2004, 04:01 PM

Looks nice, so which webservers can this be used with, .mac?

Turias · Oct 12, 2004, 04:04 PM

Originally posted by ajprice:
Looks nice, so which webservers can this be used with, .mac?

Nope, you can't run Perl scripts on .Mac.

It will work with any server that has Perl, ImageMagick, and PerlMagick installed on it. I use Dreamhost, but many other commercial hosting offerings will also work.

Turias · Oct 13, 2004, 12:57 AM

There was a small bug with adding multiple borders to images. I fixed the bug and uploaded the changed file. Be sure to download it again if you have version 0.50 instead of 0.51!

E's Lil Theorem · Oct 13, 2004, 03:14 AM

W00t! Thanks! I downloaded it but wont get try it until Sunday or so. I'll post my thoughts on it then.

Peter · Oct 13, 2004, 03:53 AM

whoaaa
Cool!!!!

Mastrap · Oct 13, 2004, 05:55 AM

I am getting an error 500 when trying to access it. Any chance for some installation and usage instructions? I use dreamhost as well, so it should work for me..

Peter · Oct 13, 2004, 07:15 AM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Any chance for some installation and usage instructions?

storer · Oct 13, 2004, 07:21 AM

Nice! Good on you for sharin it.

ambush · Oct 13, 2004, 07:49 AM

Isn't that Euler's Hand?

Turias · Oct 13, 2004, 08:23 AM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
I am getting an error 500 when trying to access it. Any chance for some installation and usage instructions? I use dreamhost as well, so it should work for me..

Most of the universal installation instructions are located right at the top of the file. Beyond that, it's really going to be different on a per-host basis. I know that Dreamhost has some special permissions issues, so they make you run 'chmod 755' on the file as well as the directory in which it resides.

Check out this Dreamhost page for more information.

If you are on a different host, I would recommend checking their help pages for running CGI files.

Here are some common debugging methods, which I'll also add to the file:

1) Make sure the file is executable. In a UNIX machine this can be accomplished by running:
chmod +x sig.cgi

2) If you are still getting errors, try running the file at the command line. If you see jumbled, incoherent binary output, then that means it is writing out an image file, which is good. You may, however, see an error message. This is probably due to a syntax error caused by whatever you changed in the script or by an incorrect path referenced by one of the image files. So read the error carefully and see if you can fix it.

MilkmanDan · Oct 13, 2004, 08:23 AM

Superfly!

MilkmanDan · Oct 13, 2004, 08:24 AM

PS: Where are you from in Minnesota?

Turias · Oct 13, 2004, 08:25 AM

Originally posted by ambush:
Isn't that Euler's Hand?

Close! But it's not Euler. The name is similar, though...

MilkmanDan · Oct 13, 2004, 08:26 AM

Duhhhh everyone. Its MC Esher. He's a great artist. Does nice hands. Freaky stuff.

Turias · Oct 13, 2004, 08:27 AM

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
PS: Where are you from in Minnesota?

Minneapolis.

MilkmanDan · Oct 13, 2004, 08:30 AM

Originally posted by Turias:
Minneapolis.

Ooooo big man from the big city. I usually go to school in Saint Peter, south of the Twin Cities. Its nice being so close to so many official apple stores.

Though its nice being near one here in Japan as well.

Turias · Oct 13, 2004, 10:44 AM

I just uploaded version 0.52 to the above location. The only difference between 0.51 and 0.52 is some extra documentation in the Installation and Troubleshooting sections.

turtle777 · Oct 13, 2004, 11:26 AM

Originally posted by Turias:
I just uploaded version 0.52 to the above location. The only difference between 0.51 and 0.52 is some extra documentation in the Installation and Troubleshooting sections.

Thanks a lot.
Gonna try it sometime soon.

Btw, Dreamhost ROXX !

-t

E's Lil Theorem · Oct 13, 2004, 11:31 AM

Well, I couldn't wait and decided to give it a go now. The verdict: It rocks my pants!

Works just as advertised. Thanks again for sharing.

BTW, the image I'm currently using is of Kristen Kreuk.

Turias · Oct 13, 2004, 11:33 AM

Originally posted by E's Lil Theorem:
Well, I couldn't wait and decided to give it a go now. The verdict: It rocks my pants! Works just as advertised. Thanks again for sharing.

BTW, the image I'm currently using is of Kristen Kreuk.

Nice! Thanks for the feedback.

And nice image choice. I had one of Jennifer Garner going for the last couple weeks.

Turias · Oct 14, 2004, 09:58 AM

I just updated the file to version 0.53. It's a minor update that gives more flexibility in defining random actions. So, if you wanted, you could make the colors of your signature be inverted 13.7% of the time.

Turias · Nov 9, 2004, 01:42 PM

So has anyone else gotten a chance to try this out? turtle and Mastrap, were you guys able to get it to work?

Feedback from anyone would be nice. Is it easy enough to use? I tried to make it as simple as possible without stripping out too much functionality. Is there anything it can't do that you feel should be added?

turtle777 · Nov 9, 2004, 01:57 PM

Originally posted by Turias:
So has anyone else gotten a chance to try this out? turtle and Mastrap, were you guys able to get it to work?

Sorry, I was too busy the last weeks.
Don't know when I will get to fool around with that...

-t

GoGoReggieXPowars · Nov 9, 2004, 04:33 PM

I'll give it a shot when I get home. I often have just a regular PHP randomizer.

Turias · Oct 16, 2005, 12:51 PM

I have just updated the archive with version 1.0 of Sigify. The new version should now work with the latest version of PerlMagick. Let me know if anyone comes across any issues!

OwlBoy · Feb 5, 2007, 07:03 PM

Nice Script!

Turias · 11:13 AM

Glad you like the script, OwlBoy.

bigo · Sep 17, 2007, 11:51 AM

Thanks

RAILhead · Sep 17, 2007, 01:05 PM

You're welcome?

Zombie?

turtle777 · Sep 18, 2007, 01:52 AM

Oh, thanks for the reminder.

I forgot going after this "project" since I had my sig rotation installed...

-t