Conversion

Bitmaps tend to have noise and imperfections, especially if they’ve been generated by AI. Vector graphics, on the other hand, trace the outline of elements with elegant curves. Converting from the real world of bitmaps to the ideal world of vectors requires ignoring the actual pixels and seeing an idealized structure instead. That is not something automated conversion tools can do today, at least not those I’ve tested. Instead of converting a PNG to SVG you should, therefore, recreate it in a vector graphics image editor. This article shows how to do that in the free Inkscape.

This is an update to my post on how to convert Quicktime videos in MOV format to MPEG-2. Recently a friend of mine asked me how my conversion script could be used for a slightly different camera model. While I use it for the videos from my Lumix LX3, he owns a TZ7, which uses slightly different parameters that make it necessary to tweak the script. Luckily those changes are small.

My simple yet effective batch file-based solution for converting digital videos in Quicktime MOV format from Panasonic Lumix and other cameras to MPEG-2, MEncode.cmd, now supports wildcards, too. Now you can run the following command to create MPEG-2 versions of all MOV files copied over from your camera:

Updates: Update 1: Fixed bugs in the batch file and made it available for download Update 2: Wildcards are now supported Update 3: Timestamps are now copied from source to destination files. For this, touch.exe is needed. Update 4: File names with spaces in them are now handled correctly I recently bought a new compact digital photo camera, Panasonic’s Lumix LX3. Although I acquired it solely for its still image capabilities, I quickly discovered that it records video in very high quality, especially when compared to my digital video camera, a JVC model equipped with a hard disk on which video files are stored in MPEG-2 format in DVD resolution.