Experimenting with textorized images

As I mentioned in another post late last year, I've been experimenting with Textorized images since the end of last year, when I discovered the possibility on Flickr. I thought I'd share some of my favorite images so far, so you can see a little more of what's possible.

Textorizing works by defining edges and replacing those edges with strings of type, so that normally dark areas become hollow outlined edges. This poses an issue for many images, so many of the photos I've tried textorizing don't work well. It also seems to be important to use images that will make visual sense, so simple, recognizable shapes seem to work best, if you want recognition.

The length of the words used in strings also affects the final image. Surprisingly, I like longer strings sometimes, shorter strings other times. I thought I'd like all shorter strings when I began to experiment.

Overall light images seem to work well. I was surprised by the polar bear image. I thought there would be some detail inside the bear. Instead the ice field surrounding the bear shows most texture.

I'm hoping to find uses for the technique in my work. The only drawback is that textorizing only works well on a small percentage of images that I've tried. So, it might be hard to work it into a project. I'll let you know as time goes on.

I hope you enjoy these images. I've been toying with the idea of producing some posters or T-shirts if I hear that there is interest. Please let me know what you think.