how to save text as gif ?

[jite eghagha]

hi,

How could i save text i typed into a textArea as a gif.

Fisrt:
Imagine your typed up a report and saved it as a text file (.txt)
or you wrote and saved a java file (.java)

Now:
Imagine you wanted to open this file?
I want to view my file as a thumb gif and scroll into it, as the image gets big enough, it the reverts back to a (.txt file)

How can i capture the text image?
what option is more do-able:
1. capture the image when it is in a text area.(how do i do this)
2. convert the .txt file to a gif.(is this possible)

[D Rog]

Look in javax.imageio.*. You can capture your UI as an image and then store in formats like gif or png.

[Ilja Preuss]

So you actually don't want to create a gif, but you want have it painted at a screen at a different "zoom level"?

So wouldn't it suffice to paint the text area on the screen using a Graphics object with an appropriate AffineTransformation applied?

Moving to our Swing forum...

[jite eghagha]

thanks,

i'll work on those thoughts.

[David Wheeler]

Not really Swing, but I created a command line app to convert a text file into multiple .jpg (or .gif) for viewing on a Sony PSP. A cludged eBook reader :

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import java.awt.font.FontRenderContext;
import java.awt.font.LineBreakMeasurer;
import java.awt.font.TextAttribute;
import java.awt.font.TextLayout;
import java.awt.geom.Rectangle2D;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.text.AttributedCharacterIterator;
import java.text.AttributedString;
import java.util.ArrayList;
 
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.util.Vector;
import java.util.Date;
 
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
/*
 * Read in a text file and create PSP sized (480x272) JPEG images.
 * Rotate the text inthe images left by 90 degrees so that they can by read in portrait mode.
 * Long lines of text are wrapped to fit.
 * The images have a base name followed by 4 digits of increasing numbers.
 *  
 * @author David Wheeler [e-mail]
 *
 */
public class PSPeBook {
static      ArrayList images;
static int lineHeight;

static int     width   = 272;
static int     margin  = 5;
static String fontName = "Arial";
static int    fontSize = 12;
 
    static Date   ts;

public static void main(String[] args) {
if (args.length < 2) {
System.out.println("PSPeBook <Text File> <Image name base> [font name] [font size]");
return;
}

if (args.length < 4) {
System.out.println("PSPeBook <Text File> <Image name base> [font name] [font size]");
 
GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
String[] fontNames = ge.getAvailableFontFamilyNames();
        Vector v = new Vector();
        for(int i=0; i < fontNames.length; i++){
        System.out.println(fontNames[i]);
//           v.add(new Font(fontNames[i],Font.PLAIN,20) );
        } 
return;
}
else {
fontName = args[2];
fontSize = Integer.parseInt(args[3]);
}

ts = new Date((new Date()).getTime() - (24*60*60*1000));

Graphics2D        g, g1;
FontRenderContext fc;

String testText = "Testing";

int fileCnt = 0;
/*
 * Work out the height of a line of text
 */
Font font = null;

try {
font = new Font(fontName,Font.PLAIN, (int)fontSize);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error opening font file : "+e.getMessage());
}

BufferedImage tempBuffer = new BufferedImage(1, 1, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
g = tempBuffer.createGraphics();

g.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
g.setFont(font);

fc = g.getFontRenderContext();
Rectangle2D bounds = font.getStringBounds(testText, fc);
 
float wrappingWidth = width-margin;
lineHeight = (int)bounds.getHeight();
/*
 * Open the input text file.
 */
BufferedReader srcFile = null;

try {
srcFile = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(args[0]));
} catch(Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error opening file "+args[0]+" : "+e.getMessage());
}
 
images = new ArrayList();
int lineCnt = margin+margin;
/*
 * Process for each line in the file.
 */
while (true) {
String line;

try {
line = srcFile.readLine();
} catch(IOException ignore) {
break;
}
 
if (line == null) { // End Of File
break;
}

if ("".equals(line)) { // Still create an empty image line for a blank line.
line = " ";
}
 
AttributedString attribString = new AttributedString(line);

attribString.addAttribute(TextAttribute.FOREGROUND, Color.WHITE, 0, line.length());
attribString.addAttribute(TextAttribute.FONT, font, 0, line.length());

AttributedCharacterIterator aci = attribString.getIterator();
LineBreakMeasurer           lbm = new LineBreakMeasurer(aci, fc);
/*
 * Create an image for each line.
 */
while (lbm.getPosition() < line.length()) {
BufferedImage lineBuffer = new BufferedImage(width, lineHeight, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
g1 = lineBuffer.createGraphics();

g1.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);

TextLayout layout = lbm.nextLayout(wrappingWidth);
int y = (int)layout.getAscent();

layout.draw(g1, margin, y);

images.add(lineBuffer);
lineCnt += lineHeight;
/*
 * Check if a screen-full of lines has benn collect, and save a screen image if so.
 */
if (lineCnt+lineHeight > 480) {
try {
saveImage(args[1], fileCnt++);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Error writing image : "+e.getMessage());
}
 
images.clear();
lineCnt = margin+margin;
}
}
}
/*
 * Save the last image lines.
 */
if (lineCnt != 0) {
try {
saveImage(args[1], fileCnt++);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Error writing image : "+e.getMessage());
}
}
}
/*
 * Collect all the line images into 1 big image.
 */
static void saveImage(String fileName, int fileCnt) throws IOException {
Graphics2D g, g1;

BufferedImage buffer = new BufferedImage(272, 480, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
g = buffer.createGraphics();
g.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
g.clearRect(0, 0, 272, 480);

for (int i = 0; i < images.size(); i++) {
g.drawImage((BufferedImage)images.get(i), 0, margin+(i*lineHeight), null);
}
/*
 * Rotate the final image left by 90 degrees for a portrait view on the PSP.
 */
BufferedImage rotBuffer = new BufferedImage(buffer.getHeight(), buffer.getWidth(), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
g1 = rotBuffer.createGraphics();

double theta = -1.5707963267948966192313216916398;

g1.translate(0,buffer.getWidth());
g1.rotate(theta);
g1.drawImage(buffer, 0, 0, buffer.getWidth(), buffer.getHeight(), null);
/*
 * Save the final image.
 */
//StringBuffer fullFileName = new StringBuffer(fileName).append(addLeadingZeros(fileCnt, 4)).append(".png"); 
StringBuffer fullFileName = new StringBuffer(fileName).append(addLeadingZeros(fileCnt, 4)).append(".jpg"); 
OutputStream out          = new FileOutputStream(new File(fullFileName.toString()));
 
//ImageIO.write(rotBuffer, "png", out);
ImageIO.write(rotBuffer, "jpg", out);

out.close();

File imgFile = new File(fullFileName.toString());
imgFile.setLastModified(ts.getTime());
ts.setTime(ts.getTime() + (60*1000));
}
/*
 * Left zero pad an integer.
 */
static String addLeadingZeros(int value, int len) {
String strValue  = Integer.toString(value);
String retString = "";
 
if (strValue.length() >= len) { // Already longer than the padding length
retString = strValue;
}
else if (strValue.length() < len) { // need to add zeros
retString = "0000000000000000000000000000000".substring(0, len - strValue.length()) + strValue;
}

return retString;
}
}

[Scott Florez]

Here's some basic code I have used for option 1:

location = getLocationOnScreen();
dimension = getSize();
 
try
{
        Rectangle screen = new Rectangle(location, dimension);
Robot robot = new Robot();
BufferedImage image = robot.createScreenCapture(screen);
ImageIO.write(image, "jpg", new File("image.jpg")); //I think you can change this to GIF
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println(e);
}

[ December 11, 2006: Message edited by: Scott Florez ]