Huge Posters Without the Huge Price

I always see these huge framed prints when I go to Ikea. But the prices sort of corresponds to the size, and I don't necessarily like the huge prints themselves, but just the fact that they're huge is...special.

So I came across this site called Rasterbater. It takes any picture that's on your computer (and if it was in your computer in the first place, THAT''s probably something you'd want as a huge print) and makes it as big as 20 meters in size. It enlarges the picture and cuts it in a way that you can print it out with your home printer. Think tiles, each piece making up the bigger picture.

Rasterbator (not to be confused with the other 'bator')

Confession time. I haven't used it myself (although you can check out their gallery to see how other people have done it) because my printer is always running out of ink, black or color, or both, or some weird combination of both so anything I print in color turns out to be puke green.

A picture in the Rasterbator gallery, the result covers the entire wall!

The next time my printer is full stocked, I'm going to try it with a NASA image, with the colors inverted, just for kicks. :D

That's Earth and the Moon!

Photoshop!Fail vs. Picnik!Sucess

I have Photoshop!Fail. On the best of days, it makes my eyes cross. I have to sort of settle down and let it flow over me, breathe. My relationship with Photoshop, well, it's complicated. Sort of dread and hope all mixed together. Complex.

But what's the internet without nicely cropped pictures with texts and glittery stuff? Text. Like early 90's WordPerfect text. The F# keys...those were the days. Technically, do we still need the F# keys? I mean, the last I heard Google was getting rid of the CAPS LOCK, what do we need the F# keys for?

Wait, I'm getting off track here.

Pictures!

So I find this picture (and many more free pictures here)...

...and Picnik takes my picture out for a 2 minute party, 
and we end up making beautiful & cheesy music together.

Picnik is what Photoshop is if I can get to him it anytime I'm online. He It doesn't take forever to start up and paying attention to me. He It doesn't get cranky if I use other computer programs or browse the Internet, in fact, it encourages you to post that finished picture right on to your blog, twitter, what-have-you. He It doesn't require a commitment either, you can go to www.picnik.com, upload a picture from your computer or your flickr, Picasa, Facebook, whatev., and start the party without signing up--just save to your computer or post to your social network when you're done.

He It just knows me and knows what I want to do with my pictures: flaunt them, yeah! And the main benefit is, of course, that Picnik is a cake walk compared to Photoshop when you want to crop, resize, add effects, text, shapes, etc. It's made me question my relationship with Photoshop. Especially since the best browser ever with the best extension ever, Firefox, has an extension for Picnik, so you don't even have to go to the website, just right-click on a picture you want to edit, it will open Picnik for you along with the picture you want to edit. 

This is the polar opposite of Photoshop!Fail.  

This is Picnik!Success.

Right-click on a picture and you get Picnik functions for that picture.

Photoshop, it's still complicated. 

But I've got Picnik on my right-click.