Handwritten Photo Annotations
Hand it a photograph and it annotates it by hand — each thing you name gets an outline, a leader line and the note you wrote, joined to the object rather than floating near it. Two fields.
We made two examples, from two different photographs: a workbench annotated in white ink, and a picnic blanket in dark ink, with three notes each. They differ in one way, and that is the useful part of the pair: on the workbench each note includes the object's name, on the blanket only the words after the colon.
Outlines follow the real edges of the objects and each leader line lands on the thing its note is about. Still, follow every line from its writing before you use the image: one may fork and end on an object you never named. If you write the field as `the thermos: filled at six`, the name may or may not appear in the note, so write each note exactly as you want it to read.
Generated for this library
Input
Annotate the hand plane: still my grandfather's ·
the coping saw: cuts everything but
straight · the twine: never enough
Pen a fine white line, one weight, and the same
white for the writing
Photograph workbench.png (1254 x 940)
Returned 1 image · 4:3 · the photograph, annotated
photo untouched - same crop, same light, nothing
retouched underneath
notes three things named, three annotations - and
none on the bench, the window or the floor
joins two land cleanly; the twine's leader forks and
one branch ends on the tin of nails, which
was never named
outlines traced along real edges - the tin's rim, the
saw's frame - not circles drawn near them
words the three notes as typed, and this run set the
thing-name too: the hand plane: still my
grandfather'sYou fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The things to annotate, and the note for each
- 2The pen it is drawn and written with
Handwritten Photo Annotations
What this makes
Hand it a photograph and it annotates it by hand — each thing you name gets an outline, a leader line and the note you wrote, joined to the object rather than floating near it. Two fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Attach your photograph and paste the template in the same message.
- Replace the two FIELDS lines. Write each thing and its note as one pair — the pairing is what stops a note drifting onto the wrong object.
- Check the joins before shipping: follow each line from its writing and see whether it lands on the thing the note is about.
- Write the notes in whatever language you like. They are set exactly as you typed them, so nothing arrives in a language you did not choose.
What you swap
- The things to annotate, and the note for each
- the hand plane: still my grandfather's · the coping saw: cuts everything but straight · the twine: never enough
- The pen it is drawn and written with
- a fine white line, one weight, and the same white for the writing
Before it runs
- An actual photograph, attached to the message. There is nothing to annotate without one.
- Objects with space around them. Every note needs somewhere to sit that is not on top of something else, so a frame packed corner to corner has nowhere to put the writing.
- Your own words for every note. The template writes nothing: a thing named with no note after it comes back with an outline and a line to nowhere.
- Three or four things, not ten. The source's own restraint clause is the word restraint, and it annotates everything it can find; the count here is however many you name, so name few.
When to reach for it
When a picture has to explain itself: a kit laid out, a recipe's ingredients, a desk someone wants to talk about, a shop's own how-it-works. Templates in this genre draw the lines beautifully and then write the captions themselves, so the notes on your photograph are a stranger's diary in a language you did not pick.
What changes
- One photograph in, one out — the photograph untouched, annotated over the top.
- Every note is joined to its object by a line that actually touches it, so nothing is left to be guessed at.
- The outline traces the object's real edge rather than a circle drawn near it.
- One note per thing you named, and none for anything you did not — the source annotates everything and calls it restraint.
- The words are yours, verbatim, in whatever language you wrote them.
Pairs with
- Backlit Silhouette EffectHand it a photograph and it comes back as a cut silhouette lit from behind — no interior anywhere, so every part that has to be recognised must reach the edge and show itself against the light. Two fields.
- Chalkboard Drawing EffectHand it a photograph and it comes back drawn in chalk on a black board — where the darkest thing in the picture is bare board, because chalk adds light and there is no way to draw a dark line. Two fields.
- Contour Line DrawingHand it a photograph and it comes back as contour lines — every line a closed loop at one depth, none of them crossing, none of them stopping in mid-air, with the spacing doing all the shading. Two fields.