Use of faces

Introduction to this document

This document describes some ways to generate, distribute and view faces (48x48x1 xbm bitmaps). Also, see http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/local/sys/unix/applications/exmh/ for an example use.

Displaying bitmaps

faces data (typically faces.xbm) can be displayed using the xv3 command, or the xbitmap command if one is available. Instructions for displaying faces included in email by X-faces: lines is available in http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/local/sys/unix/applications//exmh/

Generating faces data

Those with artistic flair can use command such as xbitmap to generate hand tailored 48x48x1 xbm bitmaps.

Alternatively, a package such as xv3 can be used to take an image, and manipulate it for reduction to 48 bits and 1 bit per pixel. In particular, the picture can be cropped to a square (middle button press and drag to select region, then click on `crop'), resized to 48x48 (`S' or `Set Size' in the `Image Size' pull-down menu), and then (`e' or `Color Editor' in the `Windows' pull-down menu).

Alternatively, the pbmplus package can be used PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/pbmplus /usr/lib/faces/filters/xbmsize48 optionally prefixing it with
giftopnm | [ ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | ] pbmtoxbm

Use compface to generate an X-face: (use uncompface -X to check it).

Note that when inserting an X-face line in replcomps, certain characters need to be escaped -- e.g. `%' should be replaced by `%%'.