Bash substitution
Bash supports a surprising number of string manipulation operations. Unfortunately, these tools lack a unified focus. Some are a subset of parameter substitution, and others fall under the functionality of the UNIX expr command. This results in inconsistent command syntax and overlap of functionality, not to mention confusion. * This is a short explanation of...
Make pdf files
Two ways to combine existing pdf files stored in lists. pdfpages A simple solution to combine multiple pdf files is to use LaTeX respectively the pdfpages package. With this code you can layout pdf pages on a page according to some parametres. You need a working LaTeX installation, e.g. texlive on debian or ubuntu. You...
Make control files
To use GNU/Linux’s text processing abilities for graphic design, I needed to find a way to expand this world of plain text. My approach herefore is the automated generation of plain text control files, that serve as input for software, that extends the world of plain text. Lists are the most simple example for a...
Bash Fundamentals
This is a very short and incomplete introduction to the Bourne-Again Shell. On the commandline most programs follow the simple principle of creating and modifying plain text. To make this approach extremly productive the Bash offers some mechanisms. The so-called pipe character (|) acts like a plug to send the output of one program to...
Decrease JPG Quality
Ever wanted to save 100 jpg files with decreasing quality? INPUTFILE=test.jpg COUNT=100 while [ $COUNT -gt 0 ] do OUTPUTFILE=$COUNT.jpg convert -quality ${COUNT}% $INPUTFILE $OUTPUTFILE COUNT=`expr $COUNT - 1` done exit 0; Made with bash and imagemagick. These examples are probably super useless. They perform tasks that are normally not part of...
Save a jpg file 10000 times
Ever wondered what happens to the image quality if you save a jpg file 10000 times? Simple example for the use of automation. Code not tested! INPUTFILE=test.jpg COUNT=0 while [ $COUNT -lt 10000 ] do OUTPUTFILE=$COUNT.jpg convert $INPUTFILE $OUTPUTFILE INPUTFILE=$OUTPUTFILE COUNT=`expr $COUNT + 1` done These examples are probably super useless. They perform...
HTML in a loop
Editing HTML is normally the first time when graphic designers learn how to determine visual form or colors through plain text. What do you see if you read #FF0000? This is the first step towards a changing perception. Therefore HTML will serve as our first example how to make a simple script do some work...