Text/annotation on a picture at arbitrary position...?

[Dan2000]

Hello guys,

I am not sure if this is the proper part of the forum to ask this question, but anyway here is my question:
How can I place an annotation (a short text) on the lower side of the captured image using python (picamera release 1.10)?
I use the example code below so as it is given in picamera release 1.10 documentation. This code prints the annotation only at the top center of the picture.

Code: Select all

import picamera
import time
 
with picamera.PiCamera() as camera:
    camera.resolution = (1280, 720)
    camera.framerate = 24
    camera.start_preview()
    camera.annotate_text = 'my Anottation!'
    time.sleep(2)
    camera.capture('myPic.jpg')

Can anyone help? Thank you very much for your suggestions. Please tell me also if I have to submit this question at Python's forum
Best regards

[6by9]

You can't is the simple answer.

The annotation feature is exposing what was originally a debug feature that was attempting to interrupt the image processing pipe as little as possible. It therefore always works from the top of the image to get the stuff it wants to do done as soon as possible (the whole pipe works on data as soon as it is available, not waiting until the end of the frame).

I did do a load of tweaks under viewtopic.php?f=43&t=97929, but they haven't all rippled through to picamera yet.
The only thing I can think of that could be added relatively easily is to move the text to be left or right justified instead of centred. Moving up or down probably doesn't warrant the effort involved.

[gordon77]

You could use pygame but the fonts seem to be limited to 1

[Dan2000]

You can't is the simple answer.

The annotation feature is exposing what was originally a debug feature that was attempting to interrupt the image processing pipe as little as possible. It therefore always works from the top of the image to get the stuff it wants to do done as soon as possible (the whole pipe works on data as soon as it is available, not waiting until the end of the frame).

I did do a load of tweaks under viewtopic.php?f=43&t=97929, but they haven't all rippled through to picamera yet.
The only thing I can think of that could be added relatively easily is to move the text to be left or right justified instead of centred. Moving up or down probably doesn't warrant the effort involved.

Thank you very much for the resolute answer. Then I have to just live with it or leave it, I think.
It would be very nice if it is possibility in the future version to put the annotation at any location of the picture with different font attributes.
Best regards

[Dan2000]

You could use pygame but the fonts seem to be limited to 1

I am not familiar with this one. Is there any tutorial how I can use pygame to capture an image with the camera and put annotation on it? Thanks in advance

[gordon77]

You could use pygame but the fonts seem to be limited to 1

I am not familiar with this one. Is there any tutorial how I can use pygame to capture an image with the camera and put annotation on it? Thanks in advance

Here's an example l wrote in a similar thread.

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=93300&p=650971#p650971

You could use pygame to capture an image or just save the image with picamera and reload it.

[jbeale]

If you don't mind the cpu/memory/time overhead of decompressing and recompressing the JPEG on the ARM cpu, then you could also use any of various image processing programs, that gives you complete control of font type, size, position, color etc. I have used imagemagick, which can do all that and much more.

See for example: http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/annotating/

[gordon77]

Here's your original Picamera code + mine to add the text, in this case the date and time, to a still.

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import pygame, sys
from pygame.locals import *
import picamera
import time
import datetime

width = 1280
height = 720
 
with picamera.PiCamera() as camera:
    camera.resolution = (width, height)
    camera.framerate = 24
    camera.start_preview()
    camera.annotate_text = 'my Anottation!'
    time.sleep(2)
    camera.capture('myPic.jpg')

pygame.init()

dgryColor = pygame.Color(64,64,64)
greenColor = pygame.Color(0,255,0)
yellowColor = pygame.Color(255,255,0)
redColor = pygame.Color(255,0,0)
blueColor = pygame.Color(0,0,255)
whiteColor = pygame.Color(255,255,255)
greyColor = pygame.Color(128,128,128)
blackColor = pygame.Color(0,0,0)
purpleColor = pygame.Color(255,0,255)
lgryColor = pygame.Color(192,192,192)

windowSurfaceObj = pygame.display.set_mode((width,height),1,16)
pygame.display.set_caption(' Text on Image ')

# load image
imagefile = ('myPic.jpg')
image = pygame.image.load(imagefile)
windowSurfaceObj.blit(image,(0,0))
pygame.display.flip()

# define time format and colors
now = datetime.datetime.now()
msg = now.strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S")
fsize = 16 #font size
textcolor = 5 # 0 to 9
backcolor = 0 # 0 to 9, -1 for no background
fx = 1  # x position of text
fy = height - fsize # y postion of text

# put text on image and save
colors = [dgryColor,yellowColor,redColor,greenColor,blueColor,whiteColor,greyColor,blackColor,purpleColor,lgryColor]
tcolor = colors[textcolor]
lt = (len(msg) * (fsize/2))
if backcolor > -1:
   bcolor = colors[backcolor]
   pygame.draw.rect(windowSurfaceObj,bcolor,Rect(fx,fy, lt, fsize))
fontObj = pygame.font.Font('freesansbold.ttf',fsize)
msgSurfaceObj = fontObj.render(msg, False,tcolor)
msgRectobj = msgSurfaceObj.get_rect()
msgRectobj.topleft =(fx,fy)
windowSurfaceObj.blit(msgSurfaceObj, msgRectobj)
pygame.display.update(pygame.Rect(fx,fy,lt,fsize))
pygame.image.save(windowSurfaceObj,'myPic.jpg')
pygame.display.quit()