Useful Programs - Requests, Questions and Discussions

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by meshandlace

May I kindly ask what software to use in order to join pics?
I have tried Image Composite Editor, but I am not satisfied.

"Join" them how, exactly?

What are you trying to achieve?

To you mean create a composite image from two images? Or just to lay them out side by side?

If you used Image Composite Editor -- which is very good-- I'm guessing that you're trying to "stitch" multiple images into one panorama. Getting a good result from ICE is very dependent on the quality of the images, poor quality images may make it hard to get a decent stitch.

There are plenty of other software applications which will stitch a panorama, but until I understand your problem better I don't know if they'd be any help.

If you're _not_ trying to create a panorama, and you want to just blend two images together, in Windows you have lots of choices . . . but first I need to understand what it is you're trying to do.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by meshandlace

@deepsepia:
Thank you for your message.
I am not sure what you mean by the word "panorama".

My request is about a picture originally split in two different pages of a magazine.
I want to join the two parts of the picture into one, in a way that they seamlessly unite into one big picture, as intended by the photographer.

OK, that's NOT a problem for Microsoft's Image Composite Editor. That application is for "stitching" -- which is where you've taken a bunch of photos in a scene, and you blend them all into one broader image.

A panorama is something like this:



Trying to match two scanned pages is more difficult. People usually use an application like Photoshop or GIMP and do a lot of adjustments by hand.

Here's a link from a very good post here some years ago, which explains some of the techniques.

http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/sho...68&postcount=6

If you post the two pictures you're trying to combine, I can give you a few pointers.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by meshandlace

@deepsepia:
Thank you very much. I just read the post that you recommended.

So, it is Photoshop Elements that I need after all, right?
With your permission, here are the pics:

Not so hard

Here's the merged image, it will take some work by hand to adjust the colors where the two images meet so that you can't see the seam

[Note: this is a very simple example, you could do this in any image editor-- I used Photoshop, but you could use anything at all. I suspect you could do it in Microsoft Word. All you're doing is selecting the bit on page two, copying it, and pasting it next to the larger bit on page 1. It will require a bit of hand work to make the colors and shading of the two images consistent enough so that your eye doesn't catch the edge where the two images meet, it would be some work to get a perfect result, but what I've posted -- which I'd call "OK"-- took me less than a minute, just a select/copy/paste operation.

Merging photos scanned from magazines gets harder when the pages are folded into the binding, and when the printing varies from one page to the next-- but this is as easy as it gets, no folds, colors are basically consistent.]

[Rommelbommel]

Any recommendations for a free Windows tool to fix AVI errors? VLC just fixes them temporarily to watch the video, but I would like to fix them definitely.


This website reviewed some, but their verdict isn't that good:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-r...iew-avi-files/

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Rommelbommel

Any recommendations for a free Windows tool to fix AVI errors? VLC just fixes them temporarily to watch the video, but I would like to fix them definitely.

Let VLC fix the errors and then save the file, think this saved file has the corrections, but I might be wrong

Alternatively, re-encode it with Handbrake as an MKV, it will reindex.

[kelio]

Hello

Many image hosts used here at VEF seem to have an integrated plug-in which allows one to view an image when hovering over it with the mouse pointer. That's the case with Imagevenue, Imagebam, Imagebox, and a few others and I find it extremely useful & pleasant

Since the problem with Imagebam, I turned to Pixhost and ImgBB (for Gifs), and I'm wondering if someone knows of a plug in to enable the hovering zoom experience with these hosts?

Is it a matter of plug in to add to Firefox and something related to these specific hosts?

I'm using currently Imagus (after the defunct HoverZoom) with Firefox.


Thanks

[forfucksake]

Any chance that one of you clever little monkeys could write an addon for the current firefox so I can edit down the context menus?
I only use a couple of items in the menu and find it annoying that I have to roll down through a bunch of crap that I have no use for before getting to what I want.
There was one for the old version that worked very well and was easy to use.
I have checked several times and haven't been able to find what I need.

[Jism Jim]

Originally Posted by Rommelbommel

Any recommendations for a free Windows tool to fix AVI errors? VLC just fixes them temporarily to watch the video, but I would like to fix them definitely.


This website reviewed some, but their verdict isn't that good:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-r...iew-avi-files/

What kind of errors? Anyway, I would recommend Virtualdub and Avidemux.

[IC Hunt]

I'm sure I'll be told if this is the wrong forum for this question:

For years I have used Roxio to record my screen, a simple way to copy scenes without ripping dvd's or blu rays; then I edit the scenes. (only done this with up to 720 itunes vids, not full 1080 as I am now trying to do)

I am now having problems doing this with Blu Rays (maybe dvds too haven't tried)? It isn't working. Anyone familiar with this effort to record a scene, a scene I want to then edit?

-If not can someone point me to a program (hopefully free) to play and record my screen or to rip a blu ray to an editable file format.

[halvar]

There are multiple desktop virtualization solutions available for almost all operating systems. It is like a computer within your computer. The most common is VirtualBox, now owned by Oracle. It is free and open source. https://anonym.to/?https://www.virtualbox.org/

This is very useful for testing different operating systems or software without changing your main system.
Except for installing the virtualization software on your main system.

It also provides an environment to do things that would be considered too dangerous to do on your main system. Creating and deleting virtual systems
only requires a few mouse clicks.

While it might work with 8GB RAM, 16GB is highly recommend.

Here is a screen shot of my Linux desktop running Win7 in Virtual Box:

No I can enjoy the Internet Explorer again! How I missed it!

You can either download a fully prepared image to run in a virtual environment or install an operating system from scratch.

Here you can download Windows images with different IE/edge and OS versions:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...dge/tools/vms/
The IE11 on Win7 is about 4.6GB and expires after 90 days.

Here you can get a Win10 image (20GB):
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...rtual-machines

And of course there are pre-configured Linux Systems:
https://www.osboxes.org/virtualbox-images/

It is not easily possible to run Mac Os in a virtual system, due to license restrictions.

Security Considerations:
The isolation works very well, so the virtual system cannot harm your host system.
But nevertheless the virtual system usually has access to your local network and the Internet.

This might also be a solution for those who cannot leave Windows because of that one program they need.
Just run it in Virtual Box!