This is an exiting new feature in Textaizer 4. It has been developed from a request of a class of students of the Photoshop training at the SNT in Bruges, Belgium (Stedelijke Nijverheids- en Taalleergangen). Our special thanks to our Belgian friends in Bruges to use and test the application and for suggesting improvements and additions.

What is Crazy Characters?

Crazy Characters draws text. In a different way and with a 'crazy' twist. The basic tool is the mouse (a Wacom pen tablet is highly recommended). Basically there are two ways to use Crazy Characters:

• Use the automated settings. Simply press the Start button and see what happens.
• Use the mouse/pen as input and draw text by hand (=mouse/pen), and see what happens.

Restore a previous result

Each time an effect is created, either by pressing the Start button, or by drawing with the mouse/pen, a snapshot is made of the canvas. By pressing CTRL+Z the previous snapshot can be restored. This is the normal Windows way to Undo an effect. Only 10 Undo's are stored, then the first Undo is overwritten with the next one. There is no 'Redo' available.

Font dynamics

• Font size: the basic font size when drawing (pen or automated).
• Font variation: size variation when drawing. At 100% the size varies from 1/3 to appr. 3x the basic font size.
• Font angle: The angle of each of the characters that is drawn. When positive, the angle is clockwise, and a value of 90 (degrees) means a quarter turn, and 180 degrees is upside down.
• Angle variation: the degree of variation of the font angle.

Advanced settings (for the font dynamics)

• Lumen effect: the characters become bigger with darker areas, and smaller with lighter areas. The degree of the dependency of the darkness/lightness is set with this slider
• Font change: the possibility (100% = always) that each new character will change font. 
• Use CTRL+SHIFT to write this text: when the keys CTRL+SHIFT are simultaneously pressed when 'writing', the text in this box is written on the canvas. After release of the keys, the next line of the text is selected (in case of text file input). The example below shows the possibility with this effect.

To recall a previous line, press the Page Up button, or when the next line needs to be selected, press the Page Down button. When at the end of the available test lines, the first line is drawn again.

colour source

There are three options for colour source:

• From the picture (so: each colour of each characters is derived from the corresponding position in the picture)
• Random: random selection from the 16777216 possible colours
• colour select: select a colour from the colour diagram. The left side is used for the lightness and saturation, the rainbow bar is the selector for the hue.

Shade settings

Each character is usually printed as a 'flat' character. This means that when characters of similar colour are printed, the whole lot can become very fuzzy and it appears like one giant blur of characters is printed. The 'Shade' option prints a hard shade under each character. It will create the illusion of a 3D shade. This way the characters will stand out individually. There is a disadvantage: the shade also creates an explosion of dark spots. The use of the option is as always a bit of trial and error and see what gives the best result. The colour of the shade is selected by clicking on the colour patch. Only when the 'Apply shade' is ticked the shade is activated.

Automation settings

The automated Crazy Character generator is triggered by pressing the 'Start Crazy Art' button at the top. It depends on these settings what will be drawn.

• Density: the amount of characters 'per square cm'.
• Luminance and Saturation limits: the Crazy Character engine can cut-off certain characters where the source picture is dark and unsaturated, or the opposite: saturated areas are left out. In that case also check the box 'Invert limits'. The effects is demonstrated in the picture below. From L to R: 70% Lum and 70% Sat limit; inverted; Lum 50% and Sat 100% inverted. The little rainbow picture in each picture shows the settings in a visual way.

• The effect base is a series of filters to apply before placing a characters. Each filter has certain effect, some almost no effect (too light picture), and some very strange. In the picture below the filter effects on a source picture are shown. Top row from L to R: dither 1, 3 and 8, posterize 1 and 3; Bottom row from L to R: photocopy 1 and 3; sharpen 1, 3 and 8. To make these examples, the Start button was repeatedly pressed.

• The filter intensity is an additional control to adjust the effect of each of the filters. This can be a minor adjustment or a major effect, depending on the filter. The intensity varies from 1 to 8 (see example above).