{"id":402,"date":"2012-10-25T13:39:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T17:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/?p=402"},"modified":"2012-10-25T13:39:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T17:39:36","slug":"coffee-pots-and-clipping-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/coffee-pots-and-clipping-paths\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Pots and Clipping Paths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In addition to photographing Special Collections materials for ongoing digital projects, or for patron requests for publication, Digital Production Services also digitizes items to be featured in library-produced promotional publications. In 2008, a <a href=\"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/find\/Record\/dc1269525998984375\" target=\"_blank\">coffee pot once owned by &#8220;Dr. Bob&#8221; (Rober Holbrook Smith)<\/a>, a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, was taken off the shelf and set against a simple white background to be photographed.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/tuvok.services.brown.edu\/adore-djatoka\/viewer.html?filename=1269525999796875.jp2\" target=\"_blank\">photograph itself<\/a> is a straightforward shot \u2014 at the time, captured using the John Hay Library&#8217;s Nikon Digital SLR camera. However, to remove the background for a publication layout, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/help.adobe.com\/en_US\/photoshop\/cs\/using\/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7715a.html#WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7713a\" target=\"_blank\">clipping paths<\/a>&#8221; were created in Adobe Photoshop. Clipping paths are a useful way to mask-out the background within a scene \u2014 in other words, clipping paths can be used to visually define the edge of an irregularly-shaped object which does not conform to a standard rectangle-based crop.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-439\" title=\"Coffee Pot Sequence\" src=\"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-content\/uploads\/coffee-pot-sequence.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1126\" height=\"1126\" \/><br \/>\n<cite style=\"font-size: 85%;\">Above, L\u2013R: detail of coffee pot digital image; detail of image with background removed via pixel-based selection; detail of image showing vector-based clipping path overlaying pixel grid; clipping-path-masked image as placed in final layout.<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>There are pixel-based methods of creating masks in Photoshop, although clipping paths offer a unique solution, storing resolution-independent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B\u00e9zier_curve\" target=\"_blank\">B\u00e9zier-curved (vector-based) edges<\/a> alongside the pixel-based image grid, particularly useful for layered layout designs. Curves used for clipping paths are the same vector-based curves now becoming more widely supported by web browsers, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/SVG\/paths.html#PathDataCurveCommands\" target=\"_blank\">part of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) specification<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.w3schools.com\/html5\/canvas_beziercurveto.asp\" target=\"_blank\">HTML5&#8217;s &lt;canvas&gt; tag scripting<\/a>. (For an example of resolution-independent, vector-based curves implemented solely via web-based technologies, see this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.victoriakirst.com\/beziertool\/\" target=\"_blank\">proof-of-concept site by a Google employee<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In addition to photographing Special Collections materials for ongoing digital projects, or for patron requests for publication, Digital Production Services also digitizes items to be featured in library-produced promotional publications. In 2008, a coffee pot once owned by &#8220;Dr. Bob&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/coffee-pots-and-clipping-paths\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,25],"tags":[34,35,36],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-chester-h-kirk-collection-on-alcoholism-and-alcoholics-anonymous","category-image-processing","tag-bezier-curves","tag-clipping-paths","tag-masking","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":86,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/dps\/curio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}