Image de-warping tool, and Multics/GCOS panels

[Paul Koning]

> On Oct 27, 2017, at 11:30 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> Hey all, I've been doing research on Multics front panels, which it turns out
> are slightly different from those on the Honeywell 6000 series machines which
> ran GCOS, and are often confused with them.
> 
> So, I've put together a Web page about them:
> 
>  Multics and Related 6000 Series Front Panels
>  http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/multics/MulticsPanels.html
> 
> and I've taken some new images, so make sure the captions are all readable.
> 
> 
> I'm having an issue with the images, though: taking a picture of a flat,
> rectangular panel with a camera usually produces distortion (even with the
> lens set to the narrowest angle possible).
> 
> Does anyone know of any freeware which will fix this? The image tool I
> normally use (ImagePals, sort of a poor man's Photoshop) does have a 'warp'
> function, but it requires setting up a grid of points, and is a pain to use:
> optimal would be something where you mark the 4 corners, and few intermediate
> edge points, and the image is automagically fixed.

GIMP has something that does this, after a fashion.  I've played with it a bit, to straighten out snapshots of book pages moderately.  It doesn't work all that well, but for modest distortion (pincushion, for example) of photos taken with some care, it's probably good enough.

If I want a good clean image, my solution is to take a decent photo or scan, then turn it into vector graphics.  By hand is often best; I recently discovered Inkscape which is pretty friendly.

	paul