Specktre

Specktre is a tool for generating low-contrast desktop wallpapers from tiling patterns. Here are some examples of the sort of pattern it produces:

It can be used as a Python library, or invoked from the command-line.

What's in the repo?

The most interesting parts are in these files:

tilings.py -- draw regular tilings of the plane with Pillow.
colors.py -- a generator of random colour shades.
specktre.py -- a bit of drawing code (and lots of argument parsing code) that ties both files together, and presents a command-line tool for using them.

These files contain the core drawing logic, and are the most carefully written and reviewed parts of the repo.

The flaskapp folder contains some hacked-together code used to serve the live demo. I'll clean it up at some point, but there's probably nothing very interesting in that folder.

What’s in the name?

The word "speckled" came to mind when describing this pattern, and I wrote the first version shortly after the James Bond film SPECTRE had been released.

Installation

Clone this repository, or download the ZIP:

$ git clone git@github.com:alexwlchan/specktre.git

You need to have Python installed (should work in 2.7 or 3.3+), then you need to install the two Python dependencies, which are Pillow and docopt. I recommend using a virtualenv:

$ cd specktre
$ virtualenv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

There's also a Flask app you can use, if you prefer a graphical interface. You need to install some extra dependencies:

$ pip install -r flask_requirements.txt

Usage

The file specktre.py is the main runner. To see a help message:

$ python specktre.py --help

The three demo images were generated as follows:

$ python specktre.py --size=400x400 --start=178,26,16 --end=136,25,17 --squares --name='demo_sq.png'
Saved new wallpaper as demo_sq.png

$ python specktre.py --size=400x400 --start=255,204,0 --end=255,238,56 --triangles --name='demo_tr.png'
Saved new wallpaper as demo_tr.png

$ python specktre.py --size=400x400 --start=56,56,255 --end=0,0,194 --hexagons --name='demo_hex.png'
Saved new wallpaper as demo_hex.png

The --start and --end arguments indicate the colours that will be used to generate the pattern. It's a tuple of R,G,B colours. I recommend HSL Picker as a free tool for finding RGB colour sets you like.

Alternatively, you can use the Flask app:

$ python manage.py

and use it at http://localhost:7007 in your browser.

The images are randomly generated, so each run will create a new pattern of colours.

License

The code is licensed under the MIT license.

Lowell130 / specktre