Wordy Art: A Picture Worth 1000(+) Words

Wordy Art: A Picture Worth 1000(+) Words
This will show you how to make a picture worth more than a thousand words (literally). I've always been a fan of large scale art that takes a collection of small objects to make a large image, and so in high school I created this self portrait using the text of Thoreau's "Walden".
 
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Step 1Picture

Picture
First, you're going to need a picture. Anything will work, but those with high contrast work the best. In highschool, I took pictures of my face with a light bulb right next to it to increase the amount of shadow.

I'm sick of my face, so lets use my roommate's.
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27 comments
Jan 11, 2010. 5:59 PME D E N says:
(removed by author or community request)
Oct 17, 2008. 2:14 PMHeyentah says:
Okay, I've tried three of the ways mentioned here in the comments section and I've decided This one qualifies as "ART" the others qualify as "craft" and they all have their strengths! thanks for all the really good ideas!!
Sep 12, 2008. 2:50 PMtreehousee says:
I love Walden, and this kind of art.
Jun 25, 2008. 9:55 PMGenetastic says:
I tried this technique and added extra effects to make a signature tag for a forum. The effect isn't as good because of the small size and my lack of color judgement. =/
typography sig.png
Mar 2, 2008. 7:12 PMGrey_Wolfe says:
Lol, step 7. Fresh Prince of Belair. That's great.
Aug 15, 2007. 2:27 PMDarkaef says:
I know a better way to this effect, it's much easier and just uses Photoshop. To make it just open a document with 3 layers: your photo, a background and the text(must be the top layer, folowed by you photo). Then apply a mask to your photo with the text layer, delete the text layer and...tacham! Tips: Use a high resolution photo and document.
Aug 15, 2007. 2:29 PMDarkaef says:
uh and i almost forgot do this after you apply the desaturation and posterization...
Jul 23, 2007. 12:50 AMnetxtc says:
What a cool idea.....im gonna do my wife pix with a love poem(s).....because I love her.
Jun 28, 2007. 12:58 AMToulouse says:
the gimp can do this as long as you have the aalib package installed on linux. it's a direct export to text
Jun 24, 2007. 10:56 AMChanmachine says:
that websites not bad, but it's hard to print off the image
Jun 25, 2007. 4:34 PMbrian2012 says:
is there any way to get that photo shop for free? if u can tell me the website!
Jun 21, 2007. 10:18 AMTheCheese9921 says:
This is a sweet instructable, but I hate to burst your bubble, but http://www.text-image.com/ does the same thing and can even do color
Jun 22, 2007. 7:16 PMclimber_geek says:
I don't think the pictures that that website does are anywhere near as cool. The website just take your imagine and essentially pixelizes it, using characters instead of pixels. I think part of what makes this art is that the text is a poem or song or something else of significance to the person in the portrait, not just a bunch of '1s' and '0s' I'm sure that photoshop could convert any color photo to '1s' and '0s' in color if it wanted to, but that's totally lame if you ask me. I'd much rather have the original photo than an image made of '1s and 0s'. In fact, I'd sooner use any of the photoshop effects (cubism, pixelize etc.) on my photo than convert it into a bunch of colored numbers. That's not art, that's cheese. So, no, the website does not do the same thing and the color is a turn-off if you ask me.
Jun 22, 2007. 8:42 PMTheCheese9921 says:
no you can do text also, the 1's and 0's are only in the samples make one and you can change what it says, this can also do black and white and some other options I think
Jun 25, 2007. 7:38 PMAdamK says:
I'm going to have to agree with you. Text-image.com does not allow for blank backgrounds, and although you could use print screen and then delete all of the numbers, it's a ridiculously round-about way and won't give you the kind of quality that comes from manual labour.
Jun 21, 2007. 10:49 PMsandalian says:
that's cool but I'm thinkin' of using bmp2html application.
Jun 21, 2007. 9:30 PMbeckinacea says:
Thanks for the step-by-step! I've been doing alot of vector art recently and have been looking for a new style to try. I thought of doing this exact effect, but wasn't sure how to approach it. :)
Jun 21, 2007. 1:39 AMll.13 says:
nice.
Jun 21, 2007. 1:33 AMskeksil says:
Has anybody tried combining this the rasterbator?
http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator

I wonder if they would work together?
Jun 20, 2007. 9:54 PMCameronSS says:
Cool! Heh heh...I was looking at the wrong part of the finished picture and thought it was lousy, and then I stepped back, and wow! Awesome!
Jun 20, 2007. 6:20 PMnagutron says:
Neat effect! If Step 6 (manually changing the style of the text on each line mark the underlying regions of color) is too tedious, an alternate method would be to: 1. Create multiple layers of rasterized text in Photoshop, set to a low opacity. Put them above your grayscaled, equalized image. 2. Using the Magic Wand, select a region of color. Invert that selection and delete it from one of the text layers. 3. Repeat for each of your color regions (you'll need one text layer per color region) 4. Play with the opacity of each text layer so that it achieves a darkness that corresponds with the color region below it. Done! Of course, this method will create color regions that go through single characters in your text. You can go OCD on it again and modify your selections so that they go between characters. It may still be faster than selecting lines, but maybe not. If you use masks instead of selections in step 2, it might be pretty fast...
Jun 20, 2007. 5:52 PMclimber_geek says:
I really like it too! I'm going to give it a try, but I don't have much experience w/ photoshop and I don't have the program. But I do have the gimp. Can you maybe explain how to do the color selections and "invert" them to another layer? I've never done it before...I'm sort of a beginner at "the gimp". I do know how to do selections, but not sure how to "invert".
Jun 20, 2007. 6:46 PMnagutron says:
I've been meaning to learn how to use the GIMP, but I've been lazy. Maybe someone else will come across this and write up more detailed, GIMP-able instructions.
Jun 21, 2007. 8:13 AMPKM says:
My spider sense is tingling! Give me a while and I'll do an Instructable on how to do this with GIMP/Photoshop. I should probably do at least one non-photography-related Instructable at some point :)
Jun 20, 2007. 6:07 PMbumpus says:
this is so cool talk about getting an A+ in art class...

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