This application lets you create up to eight flipbooks at a time from videos, GIFs and other animated image formats!
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GIF2Flipbook is a tool enabling you to create up to eight flipbooks at a time from videos, GIFs and other animated image formats, such as WebP files. Simply place you files within the designated folder and run the code, and you will soon have a PDF document ready for printing!
A neat feature of this app is that you can "pair up" two different animations of your choosing on opposite sides of the flipbooks, so that you can continue on flippipng on the other side!
Also, check out the 3D anaglyph flipbooks (and GIFS!) that you can generate with this app:
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It is important that the file names of the animated files that you will add to the "GIFS" folder within your working folder only contain letters, numbers and hyphens, without any special characters or spaces (except for videos, more on that later), to enable the code to properly extract the file names.
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The flipbook frames are printed in the corners of 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages, with a default margin measuring 0.25 inch. The first four animations that you generate simultaneously will be created in the four corners of a sheet of paper. However, when "pairing up" two different animations on opposite sides of a flipbook, you would need to print at least five animations at a time, such that they would be printed on both sides of the sheet of paper. Simply add a prefix consisting of the same letter and a hyphen at the start of the two paired animation file names (for example: "A-file1.gif and A-file2.gif"). You should then print your flipbooks in duplex mode, flipping on the long edge of the paper. Should you print double sided flipbooks on an inkjet printer, I would recommend using 24 lb or heavier grade paper, in order to limit ink bleeding to the other side of the sheet.
The following instructions will be provided in great detail, as they are intended for a broad audience and will allow to run a copy of GIF2Flipbook on a local computer.
The instructions below are for Windows operating systems, but the code runs very nicely on Linux as well.
Start by downloading the zipped working folder, by going to the top of this github repo and clicking on the green "Code" button, and then click on the "Download Zip" option. Extract the zipped folder to your desired location. Next, hold the "Shift" key while right-clicking in your working folder, then select "Open PowerShell window here" to access the PowerShell in your working folder and enter the commands described below. Make sure that you keep the "GIFS" folder within your working folder, in which you will place between 1 and 8 videos, GIFs or other animated image files that you wish to convert into flipbooks.
Step 1- Install Pillow (Python module to handle the GIFS and other animated image files) using the following command:
py -m pip install --upgrade Pillow
Step 2- Install OpenCV (Python module to extract the frames of a video):
py -m pip install opencv-python
Step 3- Install pypdf (Python module to handle PDF documents):
py -m pip install pypdf
Step 4- Install NumPy (Python module handle the video frame timestamp data):
py -m pip install numpy
Step 5- Install alive-Progress (Python module for a progress bar displayed in command line):
py -m pip install alive-progress
Step 5- You're now ready to use GIF2Flipbook! 🎉
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As mentioned above, videos may also be converted into flipbooks and typically give more reliable results, as they likely have a high number of frames per second (fps). It is recommended to either select very short videos (less than 10 seconds, ideally five seconds) or a subclip of your favorite scene, as the number of frames adds up very quickly the longer the animation is. The default number of frames per second is set to 25 fps, and you can change it by inputting the fps of your choosing after the "fps:" argument when running the code (ex: 'py gif2flipbook.py "fps:20"' for 20 frames per second). Should you only wish to convert a subclip of a video into a flipbook, you would then need to specify the starting and ending points of the clip by including them within parentheses in the video file name. The number of hours, minutes and seconds need to be separated by hyphens within these parentheses. For example, a MP4 video starting at 1 hour 35 minutes and 5 seconds and ending at 1 hour 35 minutes and 10 seconds would have the following file name (note the parentheses): "A-YourVideoName-(1-35-5)(1-35-10).mp4". As such, you should refrain from using parentheses in the file names, other than when indicating the additional parameters such as start and end timestamps, 3D anaglyph mode and brightening percentage values (the latter two being covered later). Should you have a video animation (ex: MP4 files, as opposed to GIF files) but no parenthesized start and end timestamps in their file names, the first 5 seconds of the videos will be selected to make the flipbooks.
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Simply place between 1 and 8 animation files that you wish to convert into flipbooks into the "GIFS" subfolder within your working folder and enter the following in the Powershell within your working folder:
py gif2flipbook.py
Depending on the number of frames of your animations, it may take several minutes for the code to generate your PDF file, which may be very large in size. The PDF document for your flipbooks will be saved in a subfolder within your working folder, with the current date in the subfolder's name (ex: "2023-08-31 flipbook").
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The animation with the maximal number of frames will be selected to determine the numbert of pages in the PDF document, with the shorter animations looping over and over until the longest one completes. You can also input the number of frames that you wish the flipbooks to contain if you want a truncated or prolonged flipbook. Simply pass in the number of frames after the "number_of_frames:" argument when running the code.
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For best results, generate flipbooks from 5 to 6 second video clips, with an fps of 25. This results in flipbooks of a thickness of around 1.5-1.8 cm (0.6-0.7 inch) when printed on 24 lb multipurpose paper, which is a manageable thickness for optimal page flicking. A minimum weight of 24 lb should be used when printing on inkjet printers, so as to minimize any ink bleeding onto the other side of the page, as the flipbooks are to be printed in duplex mode when more than 4 flipbooks are generated at a time. Also, when printing flipbooks on laser printers, the toner density setting may need to be decreased to avoid printing too dark.
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The size of the border (default of 0.25 inch) may be changed to another value. Simply pass in the number of inches (in decimal form and without units) after the "border:" argument. For borderless printing, enter "border:0" when running the code. As the white border is already included in the PDF document, make sure to print without the "page scaling" setting set to none.
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The frames are automatically resized (either shrunk down or blown up) so that they could fit within the available space in every quadrant of the page. Should you not wish for their size to be increased, pass in the following argument when running the code: "no_size_increase".
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The default resolution of the PDF file is set to 200 dpi to keep the generated file reasonable in size, but you may change this by passing in the "resolution:" argument, followed by the number of dpi (ex: 'py gif2flipbook.py "resolution:300"' would generate the PDF document with a resolution of 300 dpi).
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By default, the extracted frames of the animations are not brightened in creating the flipbooks. You may specify a brightening value applied to all frames of all animations by passing in the percentage value after the "brighten:" argument (ex: "brighten:20%" to brighten all frames of all animations by 20%), or indicate the brightening value for a specific animation in its file name (ex: "my animation (-10%).gif", in which case this specific animation would be darkened by 10%, the darkening being a result of the negative sign). Please note that the brightening value specified in the animation file name trumps any brightening value specified in the "brighten:" argument. For example, if you had eight animations and wished to brighten them all by 20%, but one of them was especially dark and needed to be brightened by 30%, you would run the code as follows: 'py gif2flipbook.py "brighten:20%" and the file name of the darkest animation would be along the lines of "my animation (30%).mp4".
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Two orthogonal central lines are drawn on one side of every sheet of paper to facilitate cutting the pages when you are assembling your flipbook. Make sure to line up the pages nicely along the precut edges (long and short sides of the 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages) so that the flipbook pages flip smoothly. Should you be using perforated printing paper, effectively dispensing you from needing to use scissors, you could then remove these lines by passing in the "no_lines" argument when running the code.
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Here are some instructions on how to print 3D anaglyph flipbooks (you will require red-blue 3D glasses):
- Pass in the "3d" argument in order for the code to generate all of your flipbooks in 3d format (ex: 'py gif2flipbook.py "3d"'). The default 3D settings should work well in most cases and additional parameters are described below. The code generates anaglyph images from the frames of your animations, by splitting the red and cyan channels of the frames and spacing them out by a certain number of pixels horizontally (15 pixels by default, with the cyan channel being on the right). This allows you to see the images in 3D with red-blue 3D glasses.
- To change the number of pixels in-between the red and cyan layers of the anaglyph frames for all flipbooks, pass in the desired pixel value after the "3d:" argument, followed by the "r" (red) or "b" (blue) letter indicating which color will be found on the right of the frames (cyan is on the right by default). For example, 'py gif2flipbook.py "3d:25r"' would generate all flipbooks in 3D format, with 25 pixels in-between the cyan and red channels, with the red layer on the right.
- Should you only want specific animations to be converted into anaglyph flipbooks, with the other ones being standard flipbooks, include "(3d)" in the file name (ex: 'my_animation_(3d).gif').
- Similarly to what was mentioned above, you can specify the number of pixels in-between the red and blue channels on a file to file basis directly in the file name. For example 'my_animation(3d25r).gif' would give the same results as 'py gif2flipbook.py "3d:25r"', but just for the file 'my_animation(3d25r).gif'. Once again, please keep in mind that any parameters included in the file names trump those passed in as additional arguments when running the code. For example, were you to run the code with the following command: 'py gif2flipbook.py "3d:25b"', and should you want one of these animations to have 50 pixels in-between the red and cyan channels instead of 25 px and the red layer on the right instead of the blue one, the file name of that animation would run along these lines: 'my_animation(3d50r).gif'
- A GIF will be created for each animation, allowing you to view it, in order to make sure that the settings are right before printing your flipbook.
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Make sure that you include a space in-between arguments, and that you place each argument within quotes when running the Python code (for example: py gif2flipbook.py "border:0.5" "number_of_frames:100" "no_lines").
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Flipbook page numbers are provided to help you assemble the flipbooks. Please keep in mind that the first page should be at the bottom of the flipbook, facing up, as it is the first frame that you will see when flipping the pages.
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Please be careful not to confuse the PDF page numbers with the frame numbers printed on the flipbook pages when printing your document.
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Be sure to select the "flip on long edge" option for duplex printing when printing your flipbooks in protrait mode.
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Once you are done printing and cutting your pages, you can perforate the pages and bind them with 1 inch plastic binder rings. Despite my shoddy scissor work, the flipbooks still turned out great! For smoother page flicking though, I would suggest actually binding your flipbooks using PVA glue (see the figures 9 to 26 of my other github PrintABook for more details on this: https://github.com/LPBeaulieu/Book-Generator-PrintABook)
Figure 1. Simply bind your perforated page with binder rings for very nifty looking flipbooks!
And there you have it! You're now ready to convert your favorite videos and animated images into analog flipbook format! You can now enjoy your favorite animations when your phone's battery is dead or your internet connection is down! 📽📇
- 👋 Hi, I’m Louis-Philippe!
- 👀 I’m interested in natural language processing (NLP) and anything to do with words, really! 📝
- 🌱 I’m currently reading about deep learning (and reviewing the underlying math involved in coding such applications 🧮😕)
- 📫 How to reach me: By e-mail! LPBeaulieu@gmail.com 💻
- Hat tip to @kylelobo for the GitHub README template!