NANY 2018 Release: BaseImage

[BGM]

NANY 2018 Entry Information

Application Name	BaseImage
Version	1.0
Short Description	Small utility for easily creating base64 encoded images
Supported OSes	Windows 7
Web Page	Online Documentation
Download Link	Download Baseimage
System Requirements	Only works on Windows
Version History	Link to Version History
Author	Link to Author's Profile page on Stack Exchange

Description
This is a little gui to let you create base64 encoded images. You can drag-n-drop an image onto its window and then choose to either export to file or copy to the clipboard. You can copy just the base64 code, or an html img tag, or a full html page.

Features

• Generates base-64 encoded html img tags from a given image file
• Easy-to use, simple interface
• Drag-n-Drop
• Built-in demo
• Copy just the image tag or just the code
• Export to html file
• Export img tag to file
• Autonaming
• Use Custom HTML Template
• Tray Icon Support

Planned Features
Nothing yet.

Screenshots

Please visit the documentation page for more images

Usage
Installation
Just extract the zip file to a folder and run the exectuable.

Using the Application
Run baseimage.exe and select Run Demo from the Tools Menu.
Or, drag your own image onto the window and select Export html to file from the File Menu (html files normally open in your browser).  Then, in your browser, view source.

Uninstallation
Just exit the application and delete all the files.

Known Issues
No issues yet.

[mouser]

Great to see another NANY 2018 entry -- keep 'em coming!

[BGM]

Hey! Anybody try this out for me?  I guess nobody is interested in something like this?  I know it's a bit specialized.

[mouser]

I must admit I have never heard of base64-encoded html images -- but it looks neat.  I'm sure someone will find it useful!
Welcome to the club of writing programs and waiting a long time for your first user -- I've been there, I am there

[skwire]

I must admit I have never heard of base64-encoded html images -- but it looks neat.

-mouser (December 31, 2017, 02:23 PM)

Me, neither.  However, I did have a play with it and it works as designed.  I dragged an image, copied the img tag to a page on my website, and it worked perfectly.  Pretty cool, actually, when you think about it.  I could see using this instead of actual image files which would make it MUCH easier to move webpages that used static images.  I just might make extensive use of this when I move my current site to the new DC server.

Very cool, BGM.  Thank you for sharing.

[BGM]

Thanks for trying it out!  For webpages, bear in mind that the encoded image is *very* long.  It increases the page size but you don't have to load an external file.  The best use of this, I think, is for using html email signatures.

[skwire]

For webpages, bear in mind that the encoded image is *very* long.

-BGM (December 31, 2017, 06:22 PM)

Yep.  I am fully aware of base64 encoding (email attachments, etc.) but never realised that they could be used in a webpage like that.  =]  Quite slick.

[Tuxman]

The main advantage is probably one less request, resulting in resource optimization. 

[Deozaan]

For an example of this out in the wild: The Lastpass extension uses a Base64-encoded image to inject their little asterisk symbol (or whatever their logo is these days) into form fields for their autofill stuff.

[BGM]

Another place it is used - is by the Firefox Custom Buttons extension for the button icons - when you select an image for the icon, it base64 encodes it so it doesn't have to refer to a file location.

[fredemeister]

Also could be used for any external link images.

I tried the program using an image 307KB jpg at 1600x1067. The resulting code was 117 lines long (word-wrapped) at fullscreen on a 19" monitor. I do a lot of archival image galleries, with about 30 images per gallery and this would generate a humungous html file. So whether the loading time difference would be significantly less is uncertain. This would be on a local machine, as the galleries are not served to a website. Also encoding time would be significantly increased. I like the idea, but perhaps image galleries are not a practical use for this program.

Just a comment

[BGM]

Yeah, I wouldn't use this procedure for an image gallery.  I've used it to store images for buttons in certain javascript applications (like InDesign Extendscript or Firefox Custom Buttons) where you don't want external files, and I use it myself for images in email signatures.  The value of this is that you can store the image inside the code - so it would be best for smallish type icons. 

However, to avoid 117-line strings, you could always disable wordwrap in your text editor!  hahahaaa

[fredemeister]

However, to avoid 117-line strings, you could always disable wordwrap in your text editor!  hahahaaa

-BGM (February 12, 2018, 04:48 PM)

Imaginative transfer of a vertical problem to a horizontal one.

[BGM]

Any idea what this nice fellow said?

[tomos]

^ if you mean the previous post:

the scrolling problem (due to the '117-line strings') goes from being a vertical problem to being a horizontal one (once wordwrap turned off).

(With apologies in advance if you meant something completely different!)

[BGM]

tomos - thanks - no - there was a post all in Russian earlier today.  It must have been spam, and Mouser must have deleted it.

[skwire]

tomos - thanks - no - there was a post all in Russian earlier today.  It must have been spam, and Mouser must have deleted it.

-BGM (April 16, 2018, 03:53 PM)

Yes, it was spam, so I whacked it.   

[tomos]

. . . and me explaining the obvious

[CthulhuSaves]

Hi,


New member, here. Poking around and spotted this. Just wanted to say, this is incredibly cool.

With this, who needs attachments or external image hosts? Brilliant idea.

Love it!

Now, if a v2 could be made that could reproduce animated GIFs, as well, that would be the icing on the cake.