Palette Generator - Free tool to create thermal palettes for FLIR Tools

[MyThermalWorld]

First of all I'll introduce my self. I'm a software developer with a high interest in thermography. I'm working on a few private projects with this thermal interest (Lepton raspberry pi camera, thermal analytic tool...) and I'm sharing one of them here now - the Palette Generator.

The Palette Generator is a tool to make it intuitive to create thermal color palettes to use in FLIR Tools. It started with that I wanted more palettes than what FLIR Tools provided and started to create a simple tool to make this.  When implemented FLIR Atlas SDK, the functionality increased. The first BETA was released in March 2016, and version 1.0 was released December 2016. Version 1.1 was just released now.

Download: https://bitbucket.org/napalmy/palette-generator-binary/downloads/


Instagram feed: https://www.instagram.com/mythermalworld/
Demo video from beta stage:

(note: it's changed a lot since then)


So what is the Palette Generator and what can it do?
It's primary task is to create custom thermal palettes for use in FLIR Tools. You simply adds colors to the color list and setts the colors position in the palette in % where 0% is the coldest and 100% is the warmest. The program then calculates all colors in between each color added to the list so the colors gradually transitioned between each added color. Example adding black to 0% and white to 100% will create a grayscale palette. Adding red to 50% will make the palette gradually transit from black -> red -> white.

To make it easier to fine tune the colors, I created the Graph Editor where the colors are added and modified by modifying the RGB channels as graphs. This is a very useful tool to tune, smooth the color transition and play with different colors.

Of course to be able to see how the palette works, a radiometric FLIR image can be opened and is updated live with every palette change. This image can be saved as a radiometric image again, or as a image file (.jpeg, .png and .bmp).

When finished designing the palette, it can be exported directly to FLIR Tools by clicking the "Generate" button. When FLIR Tools is opened the next time, the palette will be available to use.

Existing FLIR palette files (.pal) can be imported, or the palette from a radiometric image can be imported directly from the image. This helps to do changes in existing palettes as a template. And of course the palette can be saved as a Palm Palette Generator file (.ppg) for later changes or to be shared.

The MSX Aligner is the latest tool added to the program. As I often see that the MSX layer is not aligned with the thermal image or the area of interest, this tool let's you correct this after image is shot.


Function list:
- Add, change and remove colors
- Modify the red, green and blue color channels
- Open and save radiometric image
- Save image as PNG, BMP and JPEG
- Export palette to FLIR Tools
- MSX Aligner
- Graph Editor
- Import palette from palette file (.pal)
- Import palette from radiometric image
- Import CSV image
- Undo/redo functionality
- Automatic Update


Please share any thoughts of this program and I'm open for new ideas to make it more intuitive.

Download: https://bitbucket.org/napalmy/palette-generator-binary/downloads/Palette%20Generator%20v1.1.1.zip
Documentation: https://bitbucket.org/napalmy/palette-generator-binary/downloads/Palette%20Generator%20-%20User%20manual%20v%201.1.pdf

For me this is a useful tool that I use a lot for creating palettes and also for a more artistic and creative use. Please check out my instagram feed for more updates and thermal images https://www.instagram.com/mythermalworld/

[Fraser]

Excellent work.

Thank you for sharing 

Fraser

[Vipitis]

I am really excited for this version! I planned to use it for my 12 days but only came to use it a single time.

For me the features to realign MSX, and change histrogramm stretching to linear or signal helps to make a visual representation more consistent over a an image series.

I used the software to finetune palettes and creation some custom, fun palettes for artistic use. Even for my low resolution imager I can create some interesting effects and I am still improving. This will be best for high resolution thermal cameras with no interpolation.

My current feature requests are for once an easier control for the graph editor. Like mouse1 for moving points, mouse2 for adding points and mouse3 or removing points so you don't have to switch modes; an smoothing tool.

Some kind of batch processing option, so I can create a palette and parameters(min/max temperature, palette scaling) I like and then apply it to a bunch of individual images and export those as .PNG s for example.

It's a great tool and I am glad you shared it with this community, I believe that we got a wide set of tools from different users that vastly improve the usage of thermal cameras over OEM software.

[MyThermalWorld]

Thanks for your feedback and ideas for improvements.

I'll add the mouse 3 button as a suplement to existing. Today mouse1 moves the point, mouse2 adds/removes point from selection. To easily cycle between add/remove modes, shortcuts has been assigned. Press A- key to activate add mode, and press D-key to activate delete mode. But using third mouse button can be an option. As third mouse button isn't available on all mouses, it has to be an option.

For a full shortcut list, check the user manual. Press F1 in the program to open the manual.

An improvement that I'll add to the next version regarding the Graph Editor is to allow using Ctrl-key to select multiple individual points. Today to select multiple, you have to hold and drag to select them.

Thanks!

[dmendesf]

You touched in something I tried sometime ago. Most displays have 8 bits per chanel (R,G,B). If you plot a 256 level grayscale (from 0,0,0 to 255,255,255) you will notice that most can´t even show all variations accordly. My idea was to use a pallete to show more bits.. My record was about 11 bits. At first I tried a procedural method like yours... then I switched to ploting a lot of squares in different collors inside photoshop and manually matching them to find good colors transitions. I also made a collection of nice palletes I found at Internet. Have you thought something along these lines?

[Spirit532]

As third mouse button isn't available on all mouses, it has to be an option.

Mouse3 is a scroll wheel click - I've yet to see a mouse that doesn't support that(even some laptop trackpads do).

[MyThermalWorld]

Most displays have 8 bits per chanel (R,G,B). If you plot a 256 level grayscale (from 0,0,0 to 255,255,255) you will notice that most can´t even show all variations accordly. My idea was to use a pallete to show more bits.. My record was about 11 bits. At first I tried a procedural method like yours... then I switched to ploting a lot of squares in different collors inside photoshop and manually matching them to find good colors transitions. I also made a collection of nice palletes I found at Internet. Have you thought something along these lines?

I'm not sure I completely understands it fully. Theoretically a palette have the potential to have a transition over 24 bits depending on the composition of the palette. Theoretically you can actually have more bits if all colors are used multiple times in the same palette, but it's limited to the 32-bit float that linearizes the temperature range.

The lack of color range in the screens is a limitation in the screen and is most often individual even with the same product series. I don't see how increasing color channel resolution above 8-bits per channel will improve the color transition for this use?

[MyThermalWorld]

Mouse3 is a scroll wheel click - I've yet to see a mouse that doesn't support that(even some laptop trackpads do).

Yeah I know. My trackpad only have two mouse buttons (I think) and I'm obviously in posession of a collection of old mouses 

[MyThermalWorld]

I have now added the third mouse button mode that was requested, and I also added a different mode for use with two buttons that's different from the original. Description of modes in change list under. The mouse mode can be selected in the settings window.

If you have the Palette Generator installed, the update will be installed after next time the program is opened. To download the program, click here to download.

This update includes:
        - Fixed issue with undoing changes in parameter list after Drag & Dropp of parameter
   - Added this "What's New" list
   - Added option for mouse modes used with Graph Editor
      - Manual: Select and delete modes must be selected manually on GUI buttons or shortcuts
         Left mouse button moves and selects points
         Right mouse mutton add/deletes points
      - Two Buttons:
         Left mouse button moves selected points and add point when clicked on a line.
         Right mouse button deletes points
      - Three Buttons:   
         Left mouse button moves and select points
         Right mouse button add points
         Mouse wheel delete points
   - Settings file moved to "Program Data" folder so settings will not be lost during software update

[Vaklin]

Hi!

Can I download it from somewhere? The original link is broken...

[Phoenix6478]

Hello

You can still download the software from the instagram bio if you click on the instagram link in the first post.

Best
Phoenix