Pixel-Sorter

Pixel sorting is a kind of photo editing, which is a subgenre of glitch art, the operation of which consists in reorganizing groups of pixels in a photo according to certain criteria. There are many programs whose task is to create the pixel sorting effect, but when creating my implementation in Go, I focused on optimizing this process in terms of time and creating a modular platform, thanks to which, implementation of new functionalities related to pixel sorting will be simple task.

There are two crucial stages in the sorting process, the first of which is the division of pixel rows into intervals, i.e. pixels that, according to certain criteria, have common features. The next step is to perform a sort by a certain pixel parameter in a given interval. Intervals can be determined based on the perceived brightness, hue and saturation of the HSL color space, by a mask which is a external black and white image showing which areas are to be sorted, or by performing edge detection. The sorting itself can also be performed on the basis of perceived brightness, HSL color space parameters, or instead of sorting, pixels can be arranged randomly. The sorting operation can be performed vertically and horizontally in any order once any number of times. It is possible to sort colors according to a given angle, it is also possible to set fixed length intervals.

Requirements and installation

Required software:

git - to download the source code from the repository
task - task is used as the main build tool
go (version: 1.19+) - to build the source code locally

Installation (Linux, Windows and MacOS):

git clone https://github.com/Krzysztofz01/pixel-sorter

cd pixel-sorter

task build

Usage

Commands

image - Perform a pixel sorting operation on the specified image file.
help - Print program help page.

Flags

input-media-path - The path of the input media file to be processed.
output-media-path - The path of the output media file to be saved. The path should end with one of the supported extensions.
mask-image-path - The path of the mask image file used to process the input media.
angle (-a) - The angle at which to sort the pixels.
cycles (-c) - The count of sorting cycles that should be performed on the image.
sort-determinant (-e) - Parameter used as the argument for the sorting algorithm.
- brightness - Use the perceived brightness as the sorting argument
- hue - Use the HSL color space hue value as the sorting argument
- saturation - Use the HSL color space saturation value as the sorting argument
- absolute - Use the product of all RGB components as the sorting argument (imprecise but classic approach)
- red - Use the RGB color space red channel as the sorting argument
- green - Use the RGB color space green channel as the sorting argument
- blue - Use the RGB color space blue channel as the sorting argument
direction (-d) - Pixel sorting direction in intervals.
- ascending - Sort ascending according to the sorting determinant
- descending - Sort descending according to the sorting determinant
- shuffle - Shuffle by the sorting determinant
- random - Randomly sort ascending or descending according to the sorting determinant
interval-painting (-p) - Parameter used to specify the interval color painting behaviour
- fill - The pixels are sorted according to the sort direction and painted on the image.
- gradient - The pixels are sorted according to the sort direction and a calculated gradient of the sorted colors is painted on the image.
- repeat - The first color appended to the interval is repeated throughout the whole interval length and is painted on the image.
- average - The mean of all colors appended to the interval is calculated, then the color is repeated throughout the whole interval length and is painted on the image.
interval-determinant (-i) - Parameter used to determine intervals.
- brightness - Use the perceived brightness to determine intervals
- hue - Use the HSL color space hue value to determine intervals
- saturation - Use the HSL color space saturation value to determine intervals
- mask - Use the external mask image to determine intervals
- absolute - Use the product of all RGB components to determine intervals (imprecise but classic approach)
- edge - Use a Canny edge detection algorithm to determine intervals
interval-lower-threshold (-l) - The lower threshold of the interval determination process.
interval-upper-threshold (-u) - The upper threshold of the interval determination process.
interval-max-length (-k) - The max length of the interval. Zero means no length limits.
interval-max-length-random-factor (-r) - The value representing the range of values that can be randomly subtracted or added to the max interval length.
mask (-m) - Exclude the sorting effect from masked out ares of the image.
order (-o) - Order of the graphic sorting stages.
- horizontal
- vertical
- horizontal-vertical
- vertical-horizontal
scale (-s) - Image size downscale percentage factor (can be used to generate a low resolution preview).
blending-mode (-b) - The blending mode algorithm to blend the original image with the sorted image.
- none
- lighten
- darken

Output of the help command:

Pixel sorting image editing utility implemented in Go.

Usage:
  pixel-sorter [command]

Available Commands:
  help        Help about any command
  image       Perform a pixel sorting operation on the specified image file.

Flags:
  -a, --angle int                               The angle at which to sort the pixels.
  -b, --blending-mode string                    The blending mode algorithm to blend the sorted image into the original. Options: [none, lighten, darken]. (default "none")
  -c, --cycles int                              The count of sorting cycles that should be performed on the image. (default 1)
  -d, --direction string                        Pixel sorting direction in intervals. Options: [ascending, descending, shuffle, random]. (default "ascending")
  -h, --help                                    help for pixel-sorter
      --input-media-path string                 The path of the input media file to be processed.
  -i, --interval-determinant string             Parameter used to determine intervals. Options: [brightness, hue, saturation, mask, absolute, edge]. (default "brightness")
  -l, --interval-lower-threshold float          The lower threshold of the interval determination process. Options: [0.0 - 1.0]. (default 0.1)
  -k, --interval-max-length int                 The max length of the interval. Zero means no length limits.
  -r, --interval-max-length-random-factor int   The value representing the range of values that can be randomly subtracted or added to the max interval length. Options: [>= 0]
  -p, --interval-painting string                Parameter used to specify the interval color painting behaviour. Options: [fill, gradient, repeat, average]. (default "fill")
  -u, --interval-upper-threshold float          The upper threshold of the interval determination process. Options: [0.0 - 1.0]. (default 0.9)
  -m, --mask                                    Exclude the sorting effect from masked out ares of the image.
      --mask-image-path string                  The path of the mask image file used to process the input media.
  -o, --order string                            Order of the graphic sorting stages. Options: [horizontal, vertical, horizontal-vertical, vertical-horizontal]. (default "horizontal-vertical")
      --output-media-path string                The path of the output media file to be saved. The path should end with one of the supported extensions. [jpg, png]
  -s, --scale float                             Image downscaling percentage factor. Options: [0.0 - 1.0]. (default 1)
  -e, --sort-determinant string                 Parameter used as the argument for the sorting algorithm. Options: [brightness, hue, saturation, absolute, red, green, blue ]. (default "brightness")
  -v, --verbose                                 Enable verbose logging mode.

Use "pixel-sorter [command] --help" for more information about a command.