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textz.com «pngreader» | Comparison of generative art and software art
textz.com, «pngreader»
Comparison of generative art and software art | © textz.com
 


 textz.com
«pngreader»

»pngreader« decodes specifically encoded PNG image files into other, like, for example, the text of a novel. This software works on the assumption that the digital zeros and ones of an arbitrary image - say, an abstract drawing or a portrait of Marilyn Monroe - could be the same zeros and ones of an ASCII text file, like (for example) Jorge Borges' short stories. pngreader scans any input PNG image and extracts, if possible, the ASCII text it correspondingly contains. Of course, this doesn't work with arbitrary PNG images, but only with specially encoded PNG images - which are recognizable by the textz.com shopping cart in the lower right corner. pngreader thus allows artists to create images which, accidentally of course, might also be read as certain pieces of literature. If an artist spreads a painting in the Internet which pngreader decodes as a copyrighted novel, the artist can't be held legally responsible since he or she created an image, not a text file, and can't be sued for the fact that the zeros and one of his files are also readable as text. pngreader does not only extract texts from png artwork, but also zip archives, other images, music, video and more. It has a corresponding module "pngwriter" which recovers the original png graphic artwork from any kind of file.