# Have you ever Rasterbated? (Actually, safe for work). **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 13, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-rasterbated-actually-safe-for-work/284560 "2005-01-13T16:08:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-rasterbated-actually-safe-for-work/284560/1 "2005-01-13T16:08:45Z")
I was watching The Screen Savers last night and they had a little demo and a link to this site about [Rasterbation.](http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/) What is it? Glad ya asked: > [@](#): > > The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. The rasterized images can be printed and assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size. > How exactly does it work? > > When you upload the image to the server or after it has been downloaded from the web, it is converted to a preview jpeg image. The Flash application running in the browser then loads this preview image and allows you to crop and resize the image. The Flash application then sends the coordinates, desired paper size and desired size to the server. > > After you have set the options and the rasterbation begins, you may end up in a queue. Rasterbation uses a lot of memory, hence this conserves server resources and actually reduces the average time users have to wait. When your turn begins, the server examines the original image (preview image is not used here to ensure maximum quality). The image is divided into squares. Each square maps to a dot in the output. The average brightness and color values of the origin square determine the size (and color if desired) of the output dot - bright area produces a small dot. Vector representations of the dots are written into a pdf document. When the entire image is processed, your browser is sent to a different page, which will instruct it to download the pdf file. Here’s a link to their [“cool”](http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery.gas?cool) gallery. I’ve got a couple b/w images I’ve just rasterbated and will be printing them out (which will probably use up an ink jet cartridge or two.) ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-rasterbated-actually-safe-for-work/284560/2 "2005-01-13T20:59:03Z")
Work safe my ass! The hospital’s firewall/site blocking software labeled it as adult/mature content. Apparantly only parts of certain workds are needed to set this thing off. (I’ve also gotten lots of other ‘false positives’ from this software. I hope no one fires me for thinking I’m looking at porn while at work!) ---
**Author:** ![Domokun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Domokun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Domokun)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-rasterbated-actually-safe-for-work/284560/3 "2005-01-14T02:52:42Z")
What I wouldn’t give to see a photo of 20m2 goatse. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-rasterbated-actually-safe-for-work/284560/4 "2005-01-14T03:16:32Z")
I immediately converted one of my photos and printed it out…onto 28 pages (4 rows of 7 pages) in color. Came out pretty nice, but make sure you check the “shrink oversized pages to fit” box… (their instructions say to check the “fit to page” box).