Pixels and Punched Cards

I had chosen a template called “Dots.” As a background they were remeniscent of console lights on an older computer. What I really wanted was some punch card images. Fortunately, I have a few old decks hanging around the house, and I have a scanner.

I guess it is the sign of a true pack-rat. A couple of card decks for FORTRAN programs. Computers don’t have card readers these days, and few PCs need FORTRAN compiler. But I haven’t thrown the card decks out. [Like I said pack rat!]

The scanned images were ok, but going to be too large (250K). And if I used them for repeatable background images they would be extremely “busy.” The dots were bad enough.

Looking at the template for the blog, the background was 5 or 6 different versions of the dots. There was one light image that made up the bulk of the background. So, I decided to leave that.

I created a new top of the main page image, a strip of about 25 columns that showed the printed “9,” the column numbers, and a few of the 9s had been punched out. I cropped the image until it was roughly the same size as the 3 dot graphic I was replacing.

I also took a chunk of the whole card and used gamma correction (correction isn’t the best term here) to “wash” the heavy black numbers out. This became the graphic wallpaper for the main posts.

I uploaded the images to my own web server. Then I replaced the template’s URLs with pointers to my images. [I image I could use a free photo host but I already know how to upload and access images from my own pages.]

So, with a name like “9 Edge Down” a top banner is the 9 edge of a punched card seems appropriate. The background, if you look closely is a punch card number pattern that overlays some dots/console lights.

I’ve noticed the LCD screen in my back room is very sharp and shows the colors and patterns. The graphics aren’t as visible on my laptop or on the computer I’m currently sitting at to write this post. [Sitting in St. Louis airport on my way to Tampa.]

I may have gotten the graphics right. More by accident than skill.

On to Sitemeters and Technorati.