Squiggle: squiggle art from a photo
Rows of waves that grow taller, then tighter, where the picture is dark, one continuous line per row. Suits single-line wave portraits.
Good for a single-line wave portrait.
Controls
- Row spacing · Distance between rows. Closer gives finer detail and a longer plot.
- Wave height · The tallest the waves get, relative to the row spacing. At 1 a wave reaches nearly halfway to the next row; past that the waves tighten instead of growing.
- Wave frequency · How many waves fit in one row spacing while they grow taller. Higher is busier.
More controls
- Flat in the highlights · Anything less dark than this draws as a flat line with no waves. Raise it to keep the lights calm.
- Tighter waves in shadows · At 0 the waves grow taller first and only tighten once they are full height. Raise it to pack more waves into darker areas from the start.
- Angle · Direction of the rows.
- Tone curve · Bends the tones before drawing. Above 1 lightens the mid-tones, which helps when a pen pools ink; below 1 darkens them.
One wavy line per row
Squiggle draws the picture in rows. Each row is one continuous line whose waves grow taller where the photo is dark and flatten where it is light, so from a distance the rows read as tone. Row spacing sets how many rows there are, Wave height how tall the waves get before they start to tighten, and Wave frequency how busy they are. Flat in the highlights keeps the lightest parts as plain flat rows, Tighter waves in shadows packs extra waves into the darks, and Angle turns the rows.
If you know SquiggleDraw
SquiggleDraw, a Processing sketch from Evil Mad Scientist, made this look popular with AxiDraw owners, and SquiggleCam brought it to the browser. Squiggle is Plotcaster’s own version: one line per row, SVG in millimetres with one layer per pen, and a plot-time estimate before you start. Pen plotter software compared covers SquiggleCam and the other photo converters.
