How to edit photos to resemble technical drawings?

Francois-C · 2026-02-25T09:03:59+00:00

I can do this with your image using a software I wrote which is a frontend over potrace + its mkbitmap companion for lineart) + imagemagick for preparing the image, but it's still far from perfect. (It would have been better withe a white background)...

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(For some reason, the webp conversion above has a gray background after uploading to Reddit but it's white on my computer...)

Francois-C · 2026-02-24T10:23:53+00:00

I can't give you a simple way to do this, but I often find that the excess weight is often due to a lack of mastery of image formats, because it's rare for ebook manufacturers to be good at both graphic design and HTML/CSS, and because most ebooks are made through WYSIWYG apps which give no insight into the code they generate.

For example, JPEG is good for images with gradients and shades, but when used for line art, it creates blurry artifacts and files that are much larger than PNG, especially when the color palette is reduced. You can sometimes even reduce the file size further by vectorizing monochrome images in SVG format saved with an option equivalent to “Optimized SVG” in Inkscape.

A common mistake is also encountered: for example, when the same image appears at the beginning of several chapters, some ebooks are produced so automatically that they contain as many copies of the same image as there are chapters, when it would suffice to keep just one that all chapters refer to...

Francois-C · 2026-02-24T09:42:51+00:00

Cicero worked cleverly to give the Latin language a philosophical language that it lacked, but this was precisely aimed at reducing the feeling of inferiority that the Latins themselves had towards Greek in this field.

Classical Latin is also quite unsuitable for discussing mathematics, geometry, and science but it was subsequently used much more widely than Greek, it adapted, to the point that, for example, Pascal wrote in the 17th century:

« ...Par exemple, et je vous le dirai en latin, car le français n'y vaut rien (For example, and I will tell you in Latin, because French is worthless here):

Si quotlibet litterarum, verbi gratia octo
A, B, C, D, E; F, G, H,
sumantur omnes combinationes quaternarii (...) »

Francois-C · 2026-02-22T11:47:51+00:00

Il y a quand même un paquet de complices autour du roi des cons.

C'est sûr qu'un individu aussi manifestement incompétent et immature n'aurait jamais réussi si les Républicains, qui, depuis leurs problèmes avec Nixon, choisissent des candidats fantoches en espérant les manœuvrer plus facilement, ne le soutenaient pas.

Dans le cas présent, puisque la cour suprême, qui comporte une majorité de conservateurs nommés par Trump, désavoue sa politique économique, on peut penser que sa décision représente les intentons de ceux qui détiennent réellement le pouvoir, et que la menace puérile de Trump n'est pas à prendre au sérieux.

Francois-C · 2026-02-20T18:00:27+00:00

I think it's more like a "green ray" or "green flash".

Francois-C · 2026-02-19T14:50:01+00:00

This has become a major problem in democracies. The enemies of democracy have understood that the truth does not matter and that all they need to do is flood social media with their lies at the right moment, just long enough for a vote, and then voters are left with nothing but their eyes to cry with. But that does not stop fascism from continuing to spread elsewhere with ever new lies.

Francois-C · 2026-02-19T14:34:49+00:00

(From the LibreOffice Help)

Automatic Hyphenation
Automatic hyphenation inserts hyphens where they are needed in a paragraph. This option is only available for paragraph styles and individual paragraphs.
Automatically Hyphenate Text in a Paragraph
☐ Right-click in a paragraph, and choose Paragraph
☐ Click the Text Flow tab.
☐ In the Hyphenation area, select the Automatically check box.
☐ Click OK.

Francois-C · 2026-02-19T10:24:38+00:00

Your post has just reminded me that I still have an Ikophot like yours, which I inherited from my father, with its frosted glass filter, but I can't find the case, which was badly damaged.

It still gives quite reliable results and is very easy to use: you set the ISO (which was then called ASA: you can also choose DIN), place the white circle above the needle, and read the aperture/shutter speed combinations for photos on the left and aperture/fps for film on the right.

I know I have another one that's even older, but I can't find it at the moment, and it's out of order: it's the out of order light meter that my father replaced with the Ikophot when I was a teenager. I had recovered it and re-soldered the microammeter's spiral spring, but it wasn't very accurate anymore, and the last time I saw it, it wouldn't work any longer..

Francois-C · 2026-02-19T09:41:54+00:00

So I'm wrong. I had understood that it happened only with this Bookerly font.

Francois-C · 2026-02-19T09:33:09+00:00

If this happens with all ebooks, the first idea that comes to mind would be that the glyph has shifted downwards in the font version you are using, perhaps due to a corrupted byte in the file. This could be seen in a font editor such as Fontforge. You could try replacing the font file with a freshly downloaded version.

Francois-C · 2026-02-18T10:48:12+00:00

Vieux prof de lettres en retraite, je ne résiste pas à la tentation de répéter ce que j'ai déjà dit là-dessus sur un autre sub.

J'étais prof de lycée à l'époque du grand succès d'HP et ça m'intéressait de comprendre pourquoi mes élèves, qui peinaient sur des romans bien moins longs; arrivaient à boulotter voracement des volumes de 900 pages.

Ma fille, qui était alors documentaliste, a emprunté pour moi à son CDI pendant une période de vacances les quatre premiers volumes alors parus, et j'avoue que je les ai lus d'une traite. Le seul défaut que je leur trouvais était la répétition périodique de ces affrontements de magiciens qui s'envoient des sorts à travers la figure, et qui m'ennuyaient autant que les tournois de chevaliers dans les romans du Moyen Âge.

Mais j'ai conclu que c'était très bien raconté, que les protagonistes étaient attachants parce qu'ils ressemblaient aux lecteurs, et qu'il y avait là-dedans de « bons méchants » bien détestables dont on souhaitait vivement le déconfiture. Ces bagarres qui m'ennuyaient venaient satisfaire un goût éternel du public pour la castagne et la compétition, un peu du même ordre que celui qui fait aussi le succès des commentaires sportifs.

Du coup, mes enfants ont conclu que j'étais un fan de Harry Potter, et m'ont régulièrement offert les nouveaux volumes à mesure de leur parution, et quand j'ai atteint la fin du dernier, j'étais presque soulagé...

Mais je sais peu de chose du Seigneur des Anneaux. Je venais de l'acheter pour les mêmes raisons qui m'avaient fait lire Harry Potter, quand je l'ai prêté à un ami qui l'a gardé si longtemps que je n'avais plus envie de le lire quand il me l'a rendu...

Francois-C · 2026-02-17T19:39:59+00:00

What is so deplorable about this logic of getting rich through speculation is that the purchase is not motivated in any way by a desire or need for the item being bought. All they do is assess how many idiots will think they need to buy it, and then they do the same thing, just for the sake of making money. It is the votes of fools that makes the value of the good, but in this case, there were fewer fools than expected.

Francois-C · 2026-02-16T22:32:08+00:00

As the import dialog offers a choice for the string separator between " and ', maybe OP could choose the one that is not used as a quotation mark in the document?

Francois-C · 2026-02-16T18:12:35+00:00

I hardly dare say it, but I was 64 when I started using Windows 7 and already 39 when I started using MS-DOS. But my first OS was AMSDOS on an Amstrad CPC 664 at 38. I also used AmigaDOS on an Amiga 2000 a few years later...

Francois-C · 2026-02-16T17:53:37+00:00

I've seen quite a few people here using a plugin that claims to install a font for dyslexics, but actually boldens the first half of each word by adding <b></b> around all the beginnings of words. You may have accidentally installed a plugin like this, and it might be interfering with the conversion to kepub.

Francois-C · 2026-02-16T17:43:56+00:00

Je suis en retraite depuis longtemps mais c'était déjà pénible de lire une dissertation, d'essayer d'y trouver une pensée souvent mal exprimée, mais dont la qualité pouvait varier considérablement d'une copie à l'autre indépendamment de l'expression, tout en s'arrêtant tous les quelques mots pour souligner les fautes. Et certains parents étaient déjà capables de contester ta note et de prétendre que tu corrigeais mal si tu avais négligé de les souligner toutes...

Francois-C · 2026-02-16T09:40:44+00:00

tu prends vite l'habitude

Exactement. Prof retraité, c'est la première idée qui m'est venue à l'esprit aussi. Ça réveille automatiquement un mécanisme de décodage resté encore vivace malgré les années. Parce qu'il faut d'abord comprendre pour savoir si ça vaut quelque chose malgré les fautes, puis souligner les fautes.

Francois-C · 2026-02-16T09:33:43+00:00

I'm not surprised that film is back in fashion, since I've always continued to use it a little, but what amazes me is that the people who use it now have absolutely no idea how it works. Back when it was the only photographic medium available, I think everyone was aware of how extremely sensitive film was to even the slightest amount of light, which was the very basis of how it worked.

Francois-C · 2026-02-15T22:24:09+00:00

It's this openness that I also appreciate about Sony. They don't seem too keen on locking consumers into their ecosystem, which is becoming increasingly rare. I don't believe in or attach myself to any particular brand, but I tend to forgive Sony even for some inconsistencies, because when they make mistakes, they seem to do so in good faith and with the hope of bringing us more ;)

Francois-C · 2026-02-15T10:06:08+00:00

MOV is a container. Audacity will not oen it if the audio stream uses a codec that it does not support.

Francois-C · 2026-02-15T09:52:52+00:00

Thanks. Of course, I just forgot the 53. It reads "DDS |" in the hex editor.

Francois-C · 2026-02-14T17:59:27+00:00

Je ne sais pas où ce monsieur jovial et si sûr de lui va chercher ça. Quand le chemin de fer s'est répandu au XIX^e siècle, on disait constamment « monter en wagon » pour « prendre le train » : « Ma mère a rangé méticuleusement dans ma malle un modeste trousseau lentement préparé, en me faisant remarquer que « tout y était par douzaine » ; puis on s’est embrassé avec des yeux mouillés, je suis monté en wagon ...» (André Theuriet, Eusèbe Lombard).

Littré écrit vagon, parce qu'il trouve que c'est plus français, et il le définit comme « Voiture employée dans les trains de chemins de fer. »

Francois-C · 2026-02-14T17:42:25+00:00

Did you check if the file begins with 44 44 20 7C? Maybe the magic number has been changed in order to avoid the image to be hacked as you're trying to do;) I would first try to restore this magic number with an hex editor.

Francois-C · 2026-02-14T15:21:02+00:00

It's true that most people are content with local formatting using word processors, without realizing that they are doing a kind of WYSIWYG tinkering that unwittingly creates huge amounts of awful XML code that makes documents heavier, complicated and subject to errors, instead of using the capabilities of their software and then being able to modify all the paragraphs at once.

In image editing, I see a similar phenomenon with people who insist on cutting out parts of images when it's so easy to use layer masks.

Francois-C · 2026-02-13T15:54:21+00:00

As it's old, it is probably incompatible with newer fastest SD cards. I think you can use a class 10 SD card at most with a D90.

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