Have a frequency analysis done with Audacity - it's an audio editing package.
The graphic of this is a 'mountain range' over the actual graph. To save the actual graphic you have to use screen capture, so it ends up as a GIF, etc.
What I'd like to do is generate an outline so that can be superimposed over a second GIF, to easily see the differences.
Sounds like a job for tracing paper. Unless you want a much steeper learning curve.
Just as easy to trace round the outline on the computer. I'd like something to do this for me instantly. ;-)
I saw something like it on a TV drama the other day - they had a map of the UK on their laptop and produced an outline at the touch of a key. That's the sort of thing I need to do.
Gimp, edge detection filter?
if it's a one-off, manually paint 'transparent' on one image so you can see through it, then layer it on top of the other.
Owain
Advance from one Powerpoint slide to the next :-)
Owain
Gimp will also easily layer one image over the other, thus providing all that is needed here. It is a very powerful program, it just takes a bit of getting used to, to fully use its abilities.
Paint.net (if the OP is on Windows) also supports layers and might be worth trying first as its takes less getting used to.
Haven't tried it but importing the plot into the drawing package in Word might allow you to change the colour and superimpose one plot on another. Too busy at the moment to try, maybe someone else may like to?
I doubt this comment will help, but it seems to me that you're really looking to reverse the (normal) process of taking a table of data and producing a graph. You want an automated way of getting the numbers from the graph.
With two graphs and hence two sets of numbers you could draw something else to represent the differences.
I googled for "automate extract numbers from graphs" and found useful looking hits, not least:
which lists some free tools at the end.
Sorry if I am missing the plot but the v v few times I have used Audacity (v2.03) for freq analysis I have used Analyze>Plot Spectrum. There is then an option in the pop-up window to export to a text file. That text file has a table frequencies and levels which can be pasted into eg Excel to produce a graph in any format you like. I think.
Of course if your second GIF came from the same source.........
It's a long winded way of doing it - or was when I tried it.
But if you can get two text files, with a list of numbers, it should be easy to write a program (if you can program, that is) that subtracts one set from the other to produce a set of differences.
Or alternatively to prepare a merged file for import to the graphing utility of your choice.
Photoshop could do this with Layers .. new layer .. then paint out all you don't want leaving your outline.
setting high contrast, B&W and edge detection will make it easier.
The daft part is that back in the days of the ZX Spectrum, you could do that kind of thing in Basic, albeit very slowly, using theXor ing. The problem these days is that graphic file modes are so complicated it would need an expert to know what to be looking for in the screenshot!
Brian
Another way that doesn't involve getting to grips with any new software is to open the GIFs in two windows, one exactly over the other. Then use Alt+Tab repeatedly to alternate between them. Any differences will quickly be apparent. (I'm assuming you're using Windows.)
Of course if the objective is to learn new graphics techniques, that won't be of interest to you.
It would be much easier for my purposes to have something which produced an outline. ;-) The 'correct' one could then simply be overlaid to any subsequent screen capture to show up differences instantly - rather than faffing about with numbers.
No easier than simply drawing round the outline. I'd say.
Fair enough. Different strokes and all that.
Write a program? Well if you wish but paste the first lot into Excel (or other like app) sheet, paste the second lot alongside, stick the differences between levels into another column and plot both levels, the difference or whatever. 5 minutes end to end if the files to be analysed are small. But it is a matter of choice.
How do you envisage doing that "Overlay"? You're not going to be able to drag one picture frame over another... unless you forget the outlining and just set the first image semi-transparent. (I don't know if that works in RO but it might in eg Windows, where some - usually message windows - pop up over the top of other things which one can read through them.)
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