Forum Signature Generator Reborn!

A few people who've been on the forum for a while may remember the Forum Signature Generator that I made, originally inspired by @Poofiemus' post. In the end it didn't seem to get much traction. I guess a shell script was probably a bit too fiddly or intimidating for most users.... 😢

That's why I've been hard at work, and now I'm able to present to you:

DDsiggen - Tierparkzone's Forum Signature Generator

A standalone program to turn your favourite doll photos into images for your forum signature.

<GitHub Link>

The program currently offers the same functionality as the basic version of my old script, 
plus a graphical interface and several quality of life improvements. 
I plan to add additional functionality / customization options in the future.

 

Fow Windows users:
   - Grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip" and use the Windows executable (.exe) inside.

For Linux users:
   - Grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_linux.zip" and use the Linux executable inside.
   - Alternatively, grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip". The Windows executable (.exe) inside should run without issue under Wine.

For Mac users:
   - I don't currently have a Mac machine available to pack a MacOS executable. If someone is willing to pack a version for Mac, feel free to fork the GitHub repository.
   - If you have Wine installed on your Mac, grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip". The Windows executable (.exe) inside should run under Wine (untested on Mac).
   - Alternatively, you can run the source script directly in Python (see below).

Run directly in Python (any OS):
   - Grab the Source code and run "DDsiggen.py" in Python
   - Requires an installation of Python on your system
   - Also requires the additional Python packages "nicegui" and "pillow" (future versions may require further packages).

 

How to use (Windows example):

• Extract the "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip" file.
• Copy the doll photos you want in your signature into the same folder as the extracted "DDsiggen_<version#>.exe" file. (The program will recognize .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .JPG, .JPEG and .PNG files.)
• Run "DDsiggen_<version#>.exe" by double clicking 
  • On first launch, you will most likely get the warning shown in the images below, since the application is not Microsoft certified.
  • You can click on "More Information", then "Run Anyway" to start the program
  • During beta testing, some users also had their anti-virus software throw an alert and quarantining the .exe. - Packed Python scripts can sometimes get tagged as false positive from overzealous anti-virus software because some malware is packaged in a similar way. If you're uncomfortable running the executable because of this, you can always try to run the script directly in Python (see above). That should not cause any issue with anti-virus programs.

 

• A terminal window will open.
• Shortly afterward, your browser will open a new tab displaying the application.
  • On first launch, you may get a firewall alert. The current version of this application should work without impairment, even if the communication request is denied.

• Follow the instructions in the browser tab to generate your signature images.
  • Currently, only the "Quick Sig" functionality is available.
• There is no enforced limit to how many photos you can put into a signature, but when using too many, you may run into slowdowns and a bug during photo import (check the known issues in the "README.txt" included in the .zip file).  The exact number of photos depends on the image's sizes and your PC's specs: typically, the bug starts showing when you try to import about 60-100 photos. 

• Exported signature images can be found in the "signatures" subfolder.
• How to exit:
  • If you use any of the "Exit Application" buttons in the browser tab, the terminal window will close automatically. You may now close the browser tab.
  • Closing the terminal window will terminate the application and your browser tab will display a "Connection lost" message. You may now close the browser tab.
  • Simply closing your browser tab will not terminate the application! By reopening the tab (e.g. by using your browser's reopen recently closed tab functionality) you may continue where you left off.

 

Examples:

Here are a few sample signatures created with DDsiggen:

 

If you use this to create your own signature, why not show it off here?

Feel free to let me know about any issues you might encounter and I'll try to help you get this running.

You can also post ideas for additional features, but I cannot promise I'll be able to implement them. (Text and customizable number of rows/columns is already planned.)

<reserved for updates>

4 hours ago, Tierparkzone said:

A few people who've been on the forum for a while may remember the Forum Signature Generator that I made, originally inspired by @Poofiemus' post. In the end it didn't seem to get much traction. I guess a shell script was probably a bit too fiddly or intimidating for most users.... 😢

That's why I've been hard at work, and now I'm able to present to you:

DDsiggen - Tierparkzone's Forum Signature Generator

A standalone program to turn your favourite doll photos into images for your forum signature.

<GitHub Link>

The program currently offers the same functionality as the basic version of my old script, 
plus a graphical interface and several quality of life improvements. 
I plan to add additional functionality / customization options in the future.

 

Fow Windows users:
   - Grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip" and use the Windows executable (.exe) inside.

For Linux users:
   - Grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_linux.zip" and use the Linux executable inside.
   - Alternatively, grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip". The Windows executable (.exe) inside should run without issue under Wine.

For Mac users:
   - I don't currently have a Mac machine available to pack a MacOS executable. If someone is willing to pack a version for Mac, feel free to fork the GitHub repository.
   - If you have Wine installed on your Mac, grab "DDsiggen_<version#>_win.zip". The Windows executable (.exe) inside should run under Wine (untested on Mac).
   - Alternatively, you can run the source script directly in Python (see below).

Run directly in Python (any OS):
   - Grab the Source code and run "DDsiggen.py" in Python
   - Requires an installation of Python on your system
   - Also requires the additional Python packages "nicegui" and "pillow" (future versions may require further packages).

Users of Linux should have Python installed by default as part of their operating system, but it may be outdated depending on what version of Python @Tierparkzone's script was written in and whether it uses features exclusive to a certain Python version. Since updating the system Python may break things, I recommend using something like pyenv (which lets you use multiple Python versions on the same system easily) if it turns out DDsiggen.py needs a very new Python.

For macos, it depends on the age of your Mac. Apparently newer ones don't include python in the base OS install anymore. But see https://docs.python.org/3/using/mac.html 

As for the executable generation, apparently it's possible to generate executables for systems you don't own using Github Actions.

This is amazing, thank you!