BugPic

Digital Image Processing

• crop images with a consistent, predetermined size (or manually).
• add text, either typed or chosen from list of fossils
• add scale bar
• adjust brightness and contrast
• save notes about the image
• add images and captions to Excel for formatted printing

Download "BugPic Setup.zip", copy it to a temporary folder on your PC, unzip it, then run "Setup.exe" and follow the instrucitons.  Please contact BugWare with questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement!

Operation:

1) Load file - click the "open folder" icon to browse for your image

2) If you expect to get more pictures from this folder, click the "Make this location default" button.  From then on, the browser will start in that folder.

3) If you want to import the newest picture taken without needing to browse, click the "Get Newest Picture" button.  It will retrieve the newest picture from the default folder listed next to "Default Path:"

4) Crop Size - choose one of the 'canned' sizes, or define your own from the Custom feature.  If the Manual button is selected, you must drag the cropping rectangle to the desired size.

If you have selected a canned cropping size selected, simply click the cropping button .

Then position the "cross hair" of the rectangle in the center of the fossil and left click the mouse.

Click the Undo button    to undo the procedure.

5) Scale Bar - Select one of the canned sizes or type in a numeric value for the size of the scale bar.  Due to the variability of resolution and magnification between users, you will have to use trial and error to determine the size of the scale bar that is right for you.

Choose the appropriate color for the scale bar, black or white, depending on the picture.

Define the Horizontal and Vertical offset of the scale bar to determine the position of the bar on the picture.

Change the Line Weight (thickness) of the scale bar as appropriate.

6) Adding Text - click the minimize/maximize button in the "Add Text" frame to expand the frame to access more features.

Text can be typed into the box, or chosen from the dictionary of fossils pop-down list at the bottom of the frame.  To populate the pop-down list, simply put a text file named "bugpic.dic" into the folder where BugPic is installed. This must be a text file, with one fossil per line in list format.

Select the position of the text on the picture, i.e. UL is Upper Left, LR is Lower Right, etc.

Select the appropriate text color and font size.

Click the "Add" button.

Minimize the frame with the small button in the upper right corner of the Add Text frame.

7) Brightness & Contrast - move the sliders left or right, then click the "Apply" button.  Repeat until the desired effect is achieved.

Click the Undo button to undo the last operation since the Apply button was clicked.

Alternatively, you can type in a numeric value into the box to achieve the same results.

8) Save the picture - make sure the filename is correct, then click the "Save As" button.  Pictures are saved into a subfolder of the folder where BugPic is installed.  The subfolder name is ...\BugPic Images\.  You can type in a different path if you prefer.

9) Notes - (optional) type in notes about the picture. There is no maximum for notes.  Notes are saved in a file which is named from the filename assigned to your picture, but the extension is ".not" instead of ".jpg".

If the picture is loaded into BugPic again, the notes will also be loaded again.

10) Send Pics to Excel - clicking this button opens MS Excel, and loads each pictured into a formatted page with the number of images per road determined by the user.

Captions for the pictures in Excel are derived from the filename minus the extension.