PNGarray is a project I've been working on over the past few days. It's a "gem in the rough" that allows one to create and manipulate arrays of RGBA color values, and encode/save them as 8-bit PNG images with full alpha transparency. Right now the functionality is basic, but it can produce some interesting results.
After programming the basic shell of PNGarray, which uses the "png" gem to encode and save images, I wanted to quickly generate images with it to test its functionality. I first used an array of only 4 x 4 pixels. This allowed me to enter the image by hand, and do a fast check on the program. However, the small grid was limiting in terms of seeing what the program could do, so I wanted to create some other data sets to probe the ability of the tools
Considering that even a 16 x 16 pixel image (the size of a favicon) has 1024 pixels, hand entry was not an option. I realized I would have to find a way to programatically assess the color values of an image file and output those values as a nested ar