eXtensions: AMITIAE

AMITIAE - Sunday 13 January 2013

Swipe: An app for Easy Addition of Lettering to a Photograph

By Graham K. Rogers

Oscars

The iPhone in particular fascinates me with the ways in which I am able to use a variety of new tricks provided by the vast number of apps expressly designed to use the built-in camera and the photo library. Just when I think that, surely, there can be no more new ideas, a well-designed app like Swipe appears.

Introduction

Images are not much use if they stay inside a camera or are simply stored on a computer's hard disk. The real value in output from a camera depends on the transaction between photographer and viewer. A good image can be printed, but must be displayed before its real worth can be assessed. The arrival of digital imaging means that more photographs can be taken and there are far more devices, including smartphones and tablets that allow reasonable quality output.

How we use that output makes a difference. A simple image carries its own message. An image that has been changed using filters or other adjustments carries an interpretation as well. Many images are the basis of posters or may appear on announcements: words can help convey further information to the end user.

Swipe is a simple to use app that enables a user to apply lettering to an image, either from the camera on an iOS device or from the library. Its simplicity in use and its useful output are complemented by a degree of sophistication in controls and displays, making this $0.99 app a purchase of excellent value.

The developer, Dana Shakiba has a useful gallery of images on the Swipe website that will give a good indication of the wide range of possibilities that this app is capable of.

Swipe

Like many apps of this kind, Swipe opens with a screen that has some simple controls. There is a clear instruction: "Tap + to add photo". At the top of the screen is the + icon, while at the bottom are others that come into use later for editing, export and trash.

I tried first with a couple of images from the library. Once accepted, the user simply swipes a finger across the image where the text is to be. The keyboard appears and the word or message is typed. There are several tools available for adjusting the message and its position. I did try a downward swipe, but the text was displayed sideways. That may work in some cases.

Three alignment icons allow for text to be positioned center, left or right, within the text area (not the image). Sliders also allow for text to be made larger or smaller, and for the angle of the text to be adjusted. A careless swipe may mean that the text is at an angle. While this is fine in some cases, users may prefer the text to be horizontal. Among these controls is also a colour selector: a spectrum, as well as pure white and total black. Sharpness and transparency are also adjustable.

Exporting Options

Once changes are accepted, a checkmark icon accepts them and the image can be exported. A list of export options appears and the image is shown, but moving on the screen using the Ken Burns effect. Options are:

Save to Photos
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flickr
Tumblr
Postcard
Copy to Clipboard
Save Original Image to Photos

Saving to Photos produced images that when sent (via PhotoStream) to Aperture gave me sizes of 2318 x 1536 from both of the photos taken from the Photo Album on the iPhone. Their file sizes differed slightly (777 KB and 660 KB).

Exporting a photograph taken with the iPhone camera by email has 4 size options: small, medium, large and Actual size (50.3 Kb, 146 Kb, 721 KB and 1.8 Mb respectively). The image exported at actual size arrived on my Mac with a 1.9 MB file size with dimensions of 3624 x 2448 pixels. This opened in Graphic Converter with a size of 45" x 34". The image itself was sharp. The grey text was slightly blurred while white text I added later was not at all blurred and had clearly defined edges. In Aperture that image had an almost identical size.

I exported the larger of the two library images and the photo taken with the iPhone camera as 8-bit TIFF images. This produced images of 10.8 MB and 24 MB respectively. In Graphic Converter the TIFF images from the smaller (library) picture was shown as 32" x 21". The image from the camera was the same size as the emailed JPG. The size of each depended on the pixel count.

I began the Postcard export but while I was able to enter a good amount of text on the available space, continuing to the actual sending of the postcard required me to register with the service. I put this on hold for now. This is one of a number of apps that now provide this feature.

At the main screen, the magic wand icon allows a user to re-edit any image shown, while the cloud icon brings up the list of export options, so a user has the ability to export in other ways quite easily. Trash will delete any highlighted image, when confirmed with a checkmark at the top of the screen.

Comments

While I prefer the iPhone for this type of work, I was pleased to see that the app was optimized for the iPad, displaying full-screen. Like the iPhone it only works in portrait mode. It is identical in operation, so just as easy to use in terms of control, but easier with the screen size. I was, however, given no size options when exporting via email. For those who work with the iPad, this would certainly be a useful tool, for example when cataloguing.

The app is a useful addition to the toolbox of anyone who may need to add text to an image quickly and easily. The way in which the developers have made this not only simple to use, but an app that works nicely with a good set of features, both for working with images and for their eventual export make Swipe really good value at its low price ($0.99).

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.

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