Graphical Button Creation Automation

[lightnb]

Is there a way to automate the creation of graphical 'buttons'? I'm working on creating buttons for a website, and repeating the same process over and over again manually is extremely tedious- especially since they are all the same, save the text on them.

I'm looking for something that can take a base image, and a pair of arguments ('button name' and 'output file name', and then it takes the specified text and centers it over the image, and saves the file to the name you specify.

[RupertPupkin]

You should be able to do that with the gimp, using its scripting capabilities (Script-Fu). Don't ask me how, though, I've never done it.

[paul matthijsse]

Originally Posted by lightnb

especially since they are all the same, save the text on them.

Hello, as those images are al the same, why not load the base image in Gimp, as RupertPupkin suggested, and just change the text part? Computers are there to automate stuff!

Cheers, Paul.

[lightnb]

Originally Posted by paul matthijsse

Hello, as those images are al the same, why not load the base image in Gimp, as RupertPupkin suggested, and just change the text part? Computers are there to automate stuff!

Cheers, Paul.

How can I automate the changing of the text?

I have a list of labels (the text that goes on the button) and a list of filenames they need to be saved to.

[A.Serbinski]

Using graphical programs is NEVER a good way to automate procedures.

Fortunately for you, there is a GREAT program that can do EXACTLY what you are suggesting.

ImageMagick -- convert.

You might try a script along the lines of;

#!/bin/bash
convert inputfile.jpg -fill white -stroke black -font Fontname -pointsize 20 -gravity center -annotate 0 "$1" "$2"

This will take the image "inputfile.jpg", write in "Fontname" typeface with size 20 in the center of the image. It will write $1 (value of first command-line argument) text in white with a black border, and create a new file "$2" (second command-line argument).

Note:
ImageMagick will look for MS TTF fonts in the path /usr/share/fonts/default/TrueType/Fontname.ttf, so make sure that you have fonts there.

More information here: http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/text/

[paul matthijsse]

don't forget to install it first:
# yum install ImageMagick