# Colage foto's like the one for the film poster of the Truman Show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372 "2004-01-20T22:00:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aghris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@Aghris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aghris)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/1 "2004-01-20T22:00:35Z")
Turning to the Great Minds of all you Dopers out there; does anyone know how the collage foto’s like the one used for the Truman SHow film poster is made? An example of one can be found here: [http://www.art.com/asp/sp.asp?PD=10048157&RFID=554495&Aff=CONF&UI=273884C65E43491296743FC34CA25547](http://www.art.com/asp/sp.asp?PD=10048157&RFID=554495&Aff=CONF&UI=273884C65E43491296743FC34CA25547) The image of Jim Carey consists of hundreds of tiny photographs that correspond to the color code of the original picture. I doubt this is done by hand, something like this would take ages to get right. I’m aasuming that there is some kind of software package for this and I’d love to get my hands on it, but I have now idea how to look for something like this. An ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/2 "2004-01-21T01:53:06Z")
People have been doing that by hand for millenia. It’s called a “mosaic.” Using photographs to do it is a relatively new innovation, and one I suspect that made the process easier, since photos tend to come in a standardized size. There may very well be software out there that can do this for you, but its equally possible that whoever made that didn’t even use a computer. By bizarre conincidence, I happen to be listening to the soundtrack to _The Truman Show_ right now. Good stuff. Good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/3 "2004-01-21T07:18:43Z")
A better example: [http://www.apress.ru/pages/bg/compare/phototile\_adv\_span.jpg](http://www.apress.ru/pages/bg/compare/phototile_adv_span.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Kingspades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecae2f/32.png) [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/4 "2004-01-21T14:44:55Z")
Actually, it’s a reasonably new technology developed at the MIT Media Lab that makes those images possible. The software that does it, as well as the “look and feel” of the final image, are protected by patent. The technology is called “Photomosaic,” and the official web site is, you guessed it, [www.photomosaic.com](http://www.photomosaic.com) ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/5 "2004-01-21T18:00:31Z")
The poster for **The Truman Show** was a bit of a cheat, if you ask me. The creator took still photos from the movie and just tinted them to match whatever color was needed for the “bigger picture”. I spent some time analyzing it at the theater one day, and remember being very disappointed. YMMV. Pash ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/6 "2004-01-21T18:18:20Z")
Oh yes, **Photomosaics**. In the computing commons here at ASU there’s a poster of one of Barry Goldwater, made up entirely of photos taken by Goldwater. Have you ever seen the one of Yoda, made up of frames from the original _Star Wars_ trilogy? Very cool. [Photomosaics](http://www.photomosaic.com/rt/highlights.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/7 "2004-01-21T19:49:20Z")
> [@Aghris](#): > > The image of Jim Carey consists of hundreds of tiny photographs that correspond to the color code of the original picture. They have programs that will convert photos into [ASCII representations](http://www.geocities.com/Paris/9920/ascii_33.htm) thereof, which work on the same principle. However, without really knowing PhotoMosaics that intimately, I can tell that they select their “pixels” to get effective resolution better than the size of the pixels themselves. Let me explain what I mean. [Take a look at the zoomed-in image here](http://www.photomosaic.com/rt/6.htm). Notice the blonde girl with her head tilted has a bit of dark blue in the upper-right corner of her frame. And the woman above her has a light-colored background in the lower-left corner of her frame. Using images like this that aren’t all one color they make a very convincing diagonal line without requiring that the images be too small. That, I think, is the tricky part. ---
**Author:** ![Aghris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@Aghris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aghris)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colage-fotos-like-the-one-for-the-film-poster-of-the-truman-show/225372/8 "2004-01-21T22:25:57Z")
Yes! PhotoMosaic, that was the term I was looking for. Thank you very much. It appears that there is some shareware software out there that does the trick. Hopefully it’s as good as the patented software by Runaway. Well, I’ve got a start now, all that’s left to do is make a few thousand photographs… Thanks all…