The texture images of black and white photographic paper were made using Paul Messier’s reference collection of photographic paper. Inkjet texture images were made using The Wilhelm Analog and Digital Color Print Materials Reference Collection.
Paul made all photomicrographs according to specifications available here.
The texture images were used for the Historic Photographic Papers Challenge (2011-2013) organized by Rick Johnson and hosted by the conservation department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (see the movie).
Four teams accepted the initial challenge and produced successful classification schemes based on diverse approaches. A publication describing this work has been submitted to JAIC . The teams:
- Patrice Abry, Nelly Pustelnik, Stephane Roux (Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon), Stephane Jaffard (University of Paris) and Herwig Wendt (Institute de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse)
- Andy Klein, Anh Hoang Do, Chris Brown, (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), and Phil Klausmeyer (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
- Eric Postma, Nanne van Noord and Laurens van der Matten (Tilburg University)
- Bill Sethares (University of Wisconsin
The success of this project prompted the realization that other teams may be interested in taking up the challenge and developing their own algorithms. This site was created to promote this goal and provides non-commercial entities free and open access (see Terms) to unique sets of texture images.
This site provides access to texture images made from photographic paper. These image collections can be used to develop automated classification and sorting schemes as well as other related signal processing applications.
Each set of images is divided into four categories based on anticipated levels of similarity. The four similarity categories have three subsets of ten images each for a total of 120 images per set. The categories:
- Same sheet of paper (10 images X 3 papers)
- Same package of paper (10 images X 3 packages)
- Same manufacturing standards over short time intervals – papers in this category share the same manufacturer and surface texture designation but were taken from different packages brought to market at different times (10 images X 3 manufacturer surfaces)
- Randomly selected papers, showing a fuller diversity of textures (30 images)
The images are intended for scholarly, non-commercial use only. Use of images is governed by Terms and Conditions.
- 120 texture images of black and white photo-paper
- 120 texture images of inkjet paper and canvas
Acknowledgements:
- Jim Coddington, Lee Ann Daffner, Hanako Murata (Museum of Modern Art)
- Henry Wilhelm (Wilhelm Imaging Research)
- Sally Wood (University of Santa Clara)
- Mark Messier (Indiana University)