Adding Copyright (C) symbol to an image using Image::Magick

leighsharpe has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi All,
Having a devil of a time with this one.
I am trying to add a line of text to a JPEG image using Image::Magick. Where I am coming unstuck is that I want to use the copyright symbol. The following almost works:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Image::Magick;
my($image, $x);
$image = Image::Magick->new;
$x=$image->Read('SV000360.JPG');
warn "$x" if "$x";
my($xSize, $ySize) = $image->Get('width', 'height');
print "Width: $xSize\t Height: $ySize\n";
my $text = chr(hex (0xa9));
$text.="© Some person.";
my $yPos=$ySize-50;
print "Text:$text\n";
$x=$image->Annotate(font=>"/usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/verdana.ttf"
+, pointsize=>40, weight=>10, fill=>'yellow', text=>"$text",strokewidt
+h=>10, undercolor=>'green', x=>50, y=>$yPos);
warn "$x" if "$x";
#$image->Draw(stroke=>'red', primitive=>'rectangle', points=>'20,20 20
+0,200', x=>100, y=>100);
$x=$image->Write('SV000360_II.JPG');
warn "$x" if "$x";
[download]

If I leave off the "$text=chr(hex(0xa9))" line, the "©" symbol comes out as garbage. If I put that line in, I get the "©" symbol, but it is preceded by another garbage symbol. What am I doing wrong here?

Comment on Adding Copyright (C) symbol to an image using Image::Magick Download Code

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Re: Adding Copyright (C) symbol to an image using Image::Magick by Joost (Canon) on Dec 03, 2006 at 13:25 UTC
Note that hex() expects a hexadecimal string, while 0xa9 returns a number: 169. In other words, lose the hex() call. update: You can also do "\x{a9}" to get the character you want with the advantage that you can use it inside string literals: `print "Some program \x{a9} 2006 - Joost\n";` [download] prints (provided your encoding is all right): `Some program © 2006 - Joost` [download] "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Adding Copyright (C) symbol to an image using Image::Magick by leighsharpe (Monk) on Dec 04, 2006 at 11:02 UTC
Looks like it well may be encoding, unless my fonts are all shagged. I have printed $text to the command line and it comes out as the © symbol. The text on the image has a square, indicating that the font doesn't recognise the symbol. I can't download Encode to this box, as it's running an old version of perl (5.6.1), and Encode needs a later version. I tried on my Fedora Core 2 box, which has an updated perl, but it won't install Image::Magick, so I'm still none the wiser. For the purposes of now, I think I'll just create a jpeg of the © text I need and overlay it as a watermark. Thanks for your input.	[reply]
Re: Adding Copyright (C) symbol to an image using Image::Magick by shmem (Chancellor) on Dec 03, 2006 at 12:37 UTC
If I leave off the "$text=chr(hex(0xa9))" line, the "©" symbol comes out as garbage. If I put that line in, I get the "©" symbol, but it is preceded by another garbage symbol. What am I doing wrong here? You can just say `$text = chr 0xa9;` - no need for hex and lispishness. Then, `chr 0xa9` is the copyright symbol in iso8859-1, so I suspect an encoding problem. See Encode. Mind to post the garbage you get with and without the `$text=chr(hex(0xa9))` line? --shmem _($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo. G°\ / /\_¯/(q / ---------------------------- \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."· ");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Adding Copyright (C) symbol to an image using Image::Magick by MaxKlokan (Monk) on Dec 04, 2006 at 11:50 UTC
0xa9 is already an HEX number, you should not try to convert it with hex(). For example: `perl -e "$text=chr(0xa9); print $text"` [download] outputs: © while the following: `perl -e "$text=chr(hex(0xa9)); print $text"` [download] outputs: Wide character in print at -e line 1. ┼©	[reply] [d/l] [select]