Introduction: How to Create GOURGEOUS Canvas With Google Image Search

By www.andreabiffi.it
About: I'm an Italian freelance structural engineer, graphic designer and photographer, now I'm teaching physics in Waldorf high-schools. I always investigate electronics, robotics and science in general, I'm a passi…

We all have to admit that Google is doing an impressive work devising and producing new ways to live the web.
Gmail works great, the Translator is becoming a real AI (all right... often a stupid AI...), Maps is wonderful with new 3D frame buildings, just to mentions a few...
As many of you already has noticed, the advanced image search is very powerful, it let you search where an image is on the web, and it also looks for similar images between billions of them. You can take advantage of this really powerful function in many ways, but the way I thought up some time ago may seem very original.

Step 1: The Star

Here I explain a simple way to make impressive posters to decorate your house. They could be personalized because you can choose the first picture to start with, and it could reasonably be a picture taken by yourself.
For best result it will be better if your start picture has some specific colours or shape. I've choosen the mandarin one from my old instructable for this example.

Step 2: The Agency

Before searching similar images set your monitor resolution at the high value. With a professional 2560x1600 PC monitor you'll have more detailed images, mine is 1920x1200px. The value which matters is the horizontal dimension, because for vertical one you can scroll the window.
Now go on the image search page on Chrome (it works also on Firefox or Explorer) and drag your image in the search form. Click then "similar images" to tell google to find lot of them, not only the few it shows at once.

Step 3: The Main Characters

After a while Google will find the first results and show them.
You can turn Safesearch on or off if you want your picture be much or less spicy ;-)

Step 4: The Walk-on Actors

Now you can choose the resolution and the number of the single little thumbnails keeping Ctrl key and rotating mouse wheel, or also Ctrl and "+" or "-" will work. When you are happy with the result scroll down and make Chrome loading much images it can. Be sure it has loaded all the images in the page, click at the bottom of the page on "show more results".
You have now a very long page, with a lot of interesting mini-photos and drawings.

Step 5: The Full Team

To save the full page with the hundreds of thumbnails at one time you need a tool which automatically scrolls the window and save it all. In Windows I use the FastStone Capture program, but there are other powerful tools which make the same thing.
Clicking the right command of the capture tool you'll obtain the very long image, save it in .tiff or .png, not in .jpg to reduce loss of quality.
If you're a Mac user you can try one of the two following methods:
1) you can use Snagit, which should "scroll capture" your window
2) you can print the page as .pdf and use it into PS

Step 6: The Poster

Now in Photoshop or other programs as The Gimp you can modify the image to reach your desired proportions and dimensions. You can also add your start picture over the first thumbnail if it's not already there. You can change white backgroud with a colour that better match with your house..
At the end print it the bigger you can and hang up in your living room to have amazing canvas! 

Step 7: A Rival

I show you another image which I obtained uploading my little planet photo from my Flickr gallery.
This is nice too, but remember: not always the results will be what you expected ;-)

A last note: you can also capture your instructables or your favorite ones from the beginning to the end of the page and print them onto a poster!