{
  "id": 14954624,
  "title": "Making a 88x31 button book using ImageMagick",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/making-a-88x31-button-book-using-imagemagick",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-16T11:21:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Lobsters",
    "slug": "lobsters",
    "url": "https://k.sosnierz.me/08-11-24/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "An 88x31 button book was created using ImageMagick, a powerful image manipulation tool. The creator found that there is no limit to the number of frames in a GIF file, and the maximum resolution is 2^16 by 2^16, which is an enormous 4.295 megapixels. However, the focus was on creating a small 88x31 pixel (0.003 megapixel) book, which may not provide enough space for regular text fonts like Arial. The creator discovered that TomThumb, a font designed for extreme legibility at small sizes, was the ideal choice for this project. To obtain Moby Dick, the text was sourced from a plain text version of the book, which was stripped of any licensing information and cropped to remove preface material. The text was then formatted using cat, tr, and fold commands to create a single line of text with up to 22 characters per line. This formatted text was then converted into a GIF using ImageMagick, with each line of text becoming a separate frame. The creator experimented with different fonts and text formatting techniques, ultimately creating a unique 88x31 button book featuring Moby Dick.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}