Welcome to Merge

This product is made to merge raster files together to compose one new image. The raster files must be on TIFF format. They can have different color models (binary, RGB). They will normally come from a scanner. The images need not to be georeferenced. They should be of the same scale, for practical use (mapping). The result from Merge is a TIFF file that may be used for further processing by ProCaptura products or just be used as is. The process of accurately merging the different images together can be done interactively by the operator. Each tile can individually be scaled, rotated and moved to its correct position.

The different tiles may be split into different layers or be on the same layer in the resulting TIFF file. The tiles might freely be moved around on top of each other or side-by-side. There is no practical limitation on the maximum size of the resulting image, but obviously larges images takes a long time to make. The operator may also determine the priority of the different tiles. Along the edge of a tile there may be a background color (mask color). This can optionally be made transparent to allow just the defined image area for each tile to be visible in the resulting image

What can you do with Merge

With Merge you can make one image from a set of images.

Working with Merge involves two major steps: 1) align the images correctly 2) generate the composed image. If the images already have a transformation  associated (TFW file), the first step have already been done. However, with Merge you can interactively position the different images where you want them. This does not require any transformation.

The positioning may involve moving (translate), rotation and scaling. Both rotation and scaling can be done individually along the x-axis and y-axis. The image will then be re-sampled. If the images have been re-sampled, georeferencing should be done afterwards using ProCaptura's GeoRef application.

An alternative way to position the images is to apply match points. Given to images covering entirely or partly the same area. Identify at least two matching points in the common area of the two images. Merge will then automatically position the images correctly to each other.  

Merge offers the feature of setting the priority of images and of putting them on different layers. The latter is useful when merging binary images since the layers may have different colors. This makes it easier to distinguish between the binary images for positioning.

With Merge can handle both color images as well as binary one. If binary images are merged a binary composed images can be generated. However, if different colors on the binary images are desired, the result is a color image.

Generating a composed image may take some time. Merge therefore offers the possibility to generate the new image outside the interactive application as a batch job. This may be run outside normal working hours to avoid slowing down the computers during daytime