Casasoft.CCDV.Common 22.8.9

Casasoft Contemporary Carte de Visite Tools

The photographic "carte de visite"

The history

In 1854 the Parisian photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disderi, owner of a studio on Boulevard des Italiens since 1848, found the method to obtain eight different negatives on a single plate, probably inspired by stereoscopic photographs, taken with dual-lens cameras and already in use since 1850.

The camera designed and patented by Disdéri incorporated four lenses and a sliding plate holder frame, which allowed the positioning of the negative to be able to impress it several times. There were ten shots envisaged and described in the 1854 patent, eight, in reality, those received intact on the uncut sheets.

In this way it was possible to impress, develop and print many small images at the same time and reduce the production costs of each single photograph.

A sort of serial production of images was thus conceived that brought notable changes in the world of photography. The dimensions of a visiting card were around 54 mm (2.125 in. = Inch = inch) at the base and 89 mm (3.5 in.) in height for vertical images, vice versa for horizontal ones.

The image was printed on thin, compact paper, usually albumin. It is possible to find ancient copies printed on salted paper, but they are very rare and precious.
More recent was the use with collodion, aristotype or other procedures.

These prints were then mounted, on a rigid paper support. Card stock dimensions were approximately 64 mm (2.5 in.) by 100 mm (4 in.)

The difference between the printed paper and the support on which it was glued created a sort of passepartout where it was possible to insert the imprint of the stamp, in ink or dry, of the photographic studio, the place of shooting, the title of the image or other indications.
The reverse of the card was also used to indicate these data, printed or handwritten. Usually the medals and prizes won were also indicated on the reverse.

The carte de visite have an enormous success involving a lot of people: men and women of even modest social extraction, are immortalized surrounded by an apparent wealth thanks to the furnishings present in Disderi's studios. In a short time, the fashion of collecting visiting cards of personalities from politics, culture and current affairs became established: in Victorian environments, the portrait of the Queen Mother opens albums dedicated to celebrities, albums with more or less precious finishes, but all equally conceived to host the magical format in series.

The contemporary carte de visite

The idea of ​​a photographic business card, on permanent physical support, remains revolutionary today, in the current era of images and fluid information.

The ambition of the "Contemporary Carte de Visite" contest is to re-propose their relevance in its function of communication and social testimony, in its role as a tiny instrument of artistic expression: pocket-sized, practical, economic; concrete and persistent sign of presence in an era of ephemeral figures.

The first world competition for Contemporary Carte de Visite, Gianluigi Parpani Prize “Il Mondo in Tasca”, Lodi, 2019 revealed that there is still ample room for innovation and wonder in the photography of the future that knows how to reinvent the past.

This is confirmed by the reinterpretation of ancient processes, from oleotype, to bichromate gum, to salt, to cyanotype ... The contemporary artists who today creatively reinterpret the Carte de Visite take up the challenge of a tiny space to create something great and innovative.

About these tools

Print services use standard formats, larger than those needed to produce a carte de visite.
We will therefore have to combine the prints on a single support, exactly as it happened for Disderi's plates.

For my first series I had organized myself with templates for the DTP Scribus program, but besides the inconvenience of having to manually add pages and images, I forgot to insert references for the cut.

So I dusted off ImageMagick, but instead of driving it in javascript I decided to take advantage of the brand new Net 6.0 and the Magick.NET library which already incorporates ImageMagick and therefore allows you to create ready-to-use executables.

A more long story is (in Italian) on the my site «The Strawberry Field»

The Contemporary Carte de Visite Tools common library

This library contains the kernel of the Casasoft Contemporary Carte de Visite Tools suite

Classes areas

ImageMagick related classes

• Colors
  Handles conversions from string with rgb values or mnemonic names to MagickColor class
• Formats
  Hosts formats for input and output images
• Images
  Predefined empty images
• PaperFormats
  Enum with predefined output formats
• Utils
  Static class with spare utilities

Command line handling

These classes handle the command line interface for each tool using Mono.Options

• ICommandLine
  Interface for all command line related classes
• CommandLine
  Base command line class
• BaseBuilderCommandLine
  Scatola and Cartella command line handling
• CreditCardCommandLine
  CreditCard command line handling
• MontaggioDorsiCommandLine
  MontaggioDorsi command line handling
• MontaggioFotoCommandLine
  MontaggioFoto command line handling

Json handling

In order to save parameters from GUIs there are these classes that can be serialized / deserialized in json

• IParameters
  Interface for all json serializable classes
• CommonParameters
  Class with the parameters common to all tools
• BaseBuilderParameters
  Scatola and Cartella parameters
• CreditCardParameters
  CreditCard parameters
• MontaggioDorsiParameters
  MontaggioDorsi parameters
• MontaggioFotoParameters
  MontaggioFoto parameters

Tools engines

These classes do the dirty work for each tool; Scatola and Cartella, before a refactory, had their engines, named "builder" so there are "engines" that are only wrappers for the pre-existing "builders"

• IEngine
  Interface for all engines
• IBaseBuilderEngine
  Extended interface for Scatola and Cartella
• BaseEngine
  Common engines class
• BaseBuilderEngine
  Common wrapper for Scatola and Cartella builders
• CreditCardEngine
  CreditCard core engine
• FolderEngine
  Cartella builder wrapper
• MontaggioDorsiEngine
  MontaggioDorsi core engine
• MontaggioFotoEngine
  MontaggioFoto core engine
• ScatolaEngine
  Scatola builder wrapper

The old "builders":

• IBuilder
  Interface for Scatola and Cartella builders
• BaseBuilder
  Common builder for Scatola and Cartella
• FolderBuilder
  Builder for Cartella
• ScatolaBuilder
  Builder for Scatola

Scripting

• Compiler
  This class compiles at run-time the c# scripts; there are other classes that wraps the scripts in a class specific for any tool.
  These classes are listed below.

• IScripting
  Interface for script wrapping classes

• BaseScripting
  The base script wrapping

• BaseBuilderScripting
  The script wrapping for Scatola and Cartella

• CreditCardScripting
  The script wrapping for CreditCard

• MontaggioDorsiScripting
  The script wrapping for MontaggioDorsi

• MontaggioFotoScripting
  The script wrapping for MontaggioFoto

A companion package offers Test templates to help in writing and testing custom scripts

Requirements

.net

The library is compiled for .net 6.0

Packages

The following packages are required:

• Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common Version=4.1.0
• Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU Version=11.0.0
• Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp Version=4.1.0
• Mono.Options Version=6.12.0.14