(2014/05/20) The maintainer was changed to Joakim Soderberg. Go to https://github.com/JoakimSoderberg/imageclipper
It is often required to crop images manually fast for computer vision researchers to gather training and testing image sets, e.g., cropping faces in images.
This simple multi-platform (Windows and Linux were verified) software helps you to clip images manually fast.
- Open images in a directory sequentially
- Open a video, frame by frame
- Clip (save) and go to the next image by one button (SPACE)
- Move and resize your selected region by vi-like hotkeys or right mouse button
- Rotate and shear deform (affine transform) the rectangle region
- Download
- Application Usage
- Command Usage
- How to Compile on Linux
- How to Compile on Windows
- Creating a text file to locate clipped regions
Windows binary and source codes
Drag and Drop a folder (including pictures) or a picture or a video file on exe. You can also execute it on the command prompt. No installer is included for this simple software.
PS. It may be required to install [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package] (if you have never installed this or Visual Studio 2005 itself). I am looking for how not to require users to install it. Not to use VC++ 2005?
How to compile for Linux is written below.
- (Windows) Drag and drop a folder or an image file or a video file on imageclipper.exe.
- (Windows and Linux) Execute as a command line tool. See Command Usage section too.
Left (select) : Select or initialize a rectangle region.
Right (move or resize) : Move by dragging inside the rectangle.
: Resize by draggin outside the rectangle.
s (save) : Save the selected region as an image.
f (forward) : Forward. Show next image.
SPACE : Save and Forward.
b (backward) : Backward.
q (quit) or ESC : Quit.
r (rotate) R (counter) : Rotate rectangle in clockwise.
e (expand) E (shrink) : Expand the recntagle size.
h (left) j (down) k (up) l (right) : Move rectangle. (vi-like keybinds)
y (left) u (down) i (up) o (right) : Resize rectangle (Move right-bottom boundaries).
n (left) m (down) , (up) . (right) : Shear deformation.
The clipped images are saved as
<dirname>/imageclipper/<basename>_<rotation_degree>_<left_x>_<top_y>_<width>_<height>.png
such as
../myimages/imageclipper/lena.jpg_0359_0109_0093_0065_0090.png
where the original filename is
../myimages/lena.jpg.
A directory named "imageclipper" is created under the image file's directory and cropped images are stored on there.
This filename format can be configured via command line options. See [#Command_Usage Command Usage] section.
You can choose a rectangular region surrounding a continuous color region.
Middle or SHIFT + Left : Initialize the watershed marker. Drag it.
You can use Right mouse and hotkeys to move or resize the watershed marker.
ImageClipper - image clipping helper tool.
Command Usage: imageclipper.exe [option]... [reference]
<reference = .>
<reference> would be a directory or an image or a video filename.
For a directory, image files in the directory will be read sequentially.
For an image (a file having supported image type extensions listed below),
it starts to read a directory from the specified image file.
For a video (a file except images), the video is read.
Options
-f <output_format = imgout_format or vidout_format>
Determine the output file path format.
This is a syntax sugar for -i and -v.
Format Expression)
%d - dirname of the original
%i - filename of the original without extension
%e - filename extension of the original
%x - upper-left x coord
%y - upper-left y coord
%w - width
%h - height
%r - rotation degree
%. - shear deformation in x coord
%, - shear deformation in y coord
%f - frame number (for video)
Example) ./$i_%04x_%04y_%04w_%04h.%e
Store into software directory and use image type of the original.
-i <imgout_format = %d/imageclipper/%i.%e_%04r_%04x_%04y_%04w_%04h.png>
Determine the output file path format for image inputs.
-v <vidout_format = %d/imageclipper/%i.%e_%04f_%04r_%04x_%04y_%04w_%04h.png>
Determine the output file path format for a video input.
-h
--help
Show this help
Supported Image Types
bmp|dib|jpeg|jpg|jpe|png|pbm|pgm|ppm|sr|ras|tiff|exr|jp2
You may make a batch file (Windows) or a shell script or an alias (Linux) to setup default values. Use of -i and -v rather than -f would be useful in that case.
You need to install OpenCV and Boost libraries.
Download OpenCV source codes (.tar.gz)
root user
tar zxvf opencv-1.0.0.tar.gz; cd opencv-1.0.0
./configure
make
make install
general user
tar zxvf opencv-1.0.0.tar.gz; cd opencv-1.0.0
./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr
make
make install
export PATH=$HOME/usr/bin/:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/usr/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/usr/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH
export MANPATH=$HOME/usr/man:$MANPATH
root user and Red Hat (Fedora)
yum install boost
yum install boost-dev
root user and Debian (Ubuntu)
apt-get install boost
apt-get install boost-dev
general user
Download Boost source codes (.tar.gz)
tar zxvf boost_1_36_0.tar.gz; cd boost_1_36_0
./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr
make install
Reference: Boost Getting Started on Unix Variants
Unarchive imageclipper.zip. Go to src/ directory. A Makefile is attached. Modify as follows:
Modify -lboost_system-gcc41-mt -lboost_filesystem-gcc41-mt to yours. Find names by $ ls /path/to/yourboost/lib. If you find names as libboost_filesystem-gcc41-mt, then => -lboost_filesystem-gcc41-mt
I don't know why boost library uses different names under different system. It requires us to modify Makefile as above in different system.... anyway,
Finally
make
You should get an executable file "imageclipper".
A binary file for Windows is already attached. This section explains how to compile for those who want to modify source codes and create a modified software.
You need to install OpenCV and Boost libraries.
Download OpenCV installer and install it. I assume you have installed onto C:\Program Files\OpenCV.
Download boost installer and install it. I assume you have installed onto C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_35_0.
Reference: Boost Getting Started on Windows
I write details based on MS Visual Studio 2005. Change boost_1_35_0 if your version is different. Follow menus of MS Visual C++ window as:
- Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > VC++ directories >
- Show Directory for: > Include Files. Now add
C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_35_0
C:\Program Files\OpenCV\cv\include
C:\Program Files\OpenCV\cvaux\include
C:\Program Files\OpenCV\cxcore\include
C:\Program Files\OpenCV\otherlibs\highgui
- Show Directory for: > Library Files. Now add
C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_35_0\lib
C:\Program Files\OpenCV\lib
Unarchive imageclipper.zip and open src\imageclipper.sln, then Build for Release.
A text file containing locations of clipped region is sometimes required rather than clipped images themselves, e.g., as a ground truth text for testing experiments in computer vision.
Assume there exist files as follows:
$ \ls imageclipper/*_*_*
image.jpg_0068_0047_0089_0101.png
image.jpg_0087_0066_0090_0080.png
image.jpg_0095_0105_0033_0032.png
image.jpg_0109_0093_0065_0090.png
image.jpg_0117_0097_0052_0095.png
By executing the following command,
$ find imageclipper/*_*_* -exec basename \{\} \; | perl -pe \
's/([^_]*).*_0*(\d+)_0*(\d+)_0*(\d+)_0*(\d+)\.[^.]*$/$1 $2 $3 $4 $5\n/g' \
| tee clipping.txt
you can obtain a text file "clipping.txt" as follows:
image.jpg 68 47 89 101
image.jpg 87 66 90 80
image.jpg 95 105 33 32
image.jpg 109 93 65 90
image.jpg 117 97 52 95
I think this file format is a typical format for testing experiments in many computer vision tools.
Use haartrainingformat.pl as
$ perl haartrainingformat.pl clipping.txt | tee info.dat
where clipping.txt is the text file created at the previous section to create a OpenCV haartraining suitable format such as
image.jpg 5 68 47 89 101 87 66 90 80 95 105 33 32 109 93 65 90 117 97 52 95
Or you can generate a file without creating "clipping.txt" as
$ \ls imageclipper/*_*_* | perl haartrainingformat.pl --ls --trim --basename | tee info.dat
Note that clipped images themselves are enough and better for training phase
(See Tutorial: OpenCV haartraining).
Therefore, you may use this only for creation of testing data.
Usage
Helper tool to convert a specific format into a haartraining format.
Usage: perl haartrainingformat.pl [option]... [filename]
filename
file to be read. STDIN is also supported.
Options:
-l
--ls
input is an output of ls.
-t
--trim
trim heading 0 of numbers like from 00xx to xx.
-b
--basename
get basenames from filenames.
-h
--help
show this help.