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There are many images in which letters/text appear when you stare hard into them, called Autostereograms. I want to know how they are created. This is an example (here's the hidden image):

I want to create an album cover, so what steps are taken to create such an image myself?

fixer1234
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Kartik Godawat
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    Uuu I saw a shark! Too bad I'm one of those people who see these images only when I cross my eyes, and I see the images "carved" not "bumped". Good question. +1 –  Apr 10 '12 at 20:07
  • Let me see if I understand your point, you are asking about steganography? – Diogo Apr 10 '12 at 20:20
  • Steganography is the more general concept of embedding hidden images within something else. But yeah. @DiogoRocha – slhck Apr 10 '12 at 20:22
  • no not exactly steganography. the aim is to stare hard to see beyond the visible. – Kartik Godawat Apr 10 '12 at 20:22
  • So, take a try on this site. It is a online steganography generator. – Diogo Apr 10 '12 at 20:24
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    @DiogoRocha No, that's not what he wants. The "secret" message should be a 3D stereogram visible to the human eye, not a digital watermark. Just like the image in the question — it's a shark if you look closely. – slhck Apr 10 '12 at 20:30
  • lol, I looked from all the different angles and saw nothing beyond color points........ I thought Kartik was looking for a way to hide a image inside another... now I understand the point... – Diogo Apr 10 '12 at 20:33
  • http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/Optics/play/TIM/index.html http://www.swiftgear.com/stmaker/features.html http://wmi.math.u-szeged.hu/xaos/doku.php?id=documentation:manual:stereogram http://www.aolej.com/stereo http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=stereograph – Tamara Wijsman Apr 11 '12 at 12:10
  • @TomWijsman Why did you not post that as a answer? – Scott Chamberlain Apr 11 '12 at 13:38
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    @ScottChamberlain: Why should I be copying Google results into answers? Links only are discouraged. I found these in under a minute, now I wonder "what problem the OP has with using these"... – Tamara Wijsman Apr 11 '12 at 13:45

2 Answers2

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I've known these previously as Single Image Random Dot Stereograms (SIRDS) or 3D Stereograms and if you are simply looking to create them rather than know the process (which Wikipedia will helpfully teach you about) then I've found a couple of options.

Mokubai
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The only program that can generate autostereograms I know of is a program called TIM. It's java, however I think the colors it uses is fairly ugly. However it is GPL so you may be able to use the source and edit it to a better pallet.

Scott Chamberlain
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