Passport photo sheet tools?

Hi-

Balked at paying $8/pair for ID photos. I needed three pairs, so it
was going to get a bit pricey. I also hate it when the shot looks
bad; even if they offer to retake it, I typically feel bad about it.
Thankfully most US government agencies have gotten rid of their
requirement for three-quarter profile and adopted the State Dept's
passport photo standard. So I whipped out my Canon PowerShot S3 IS
and we took some shots against a white wall.

I thought I'd try a freeware tool called "DIY Passport Photo", but
there was no documentation, and I couldn't figure out how it worked.
I guess there were a few shareware tools, but some were free trial
with a watermark. I thought about using a photo editing tool (I have
Graphic Converter for Mac OSX) to lay out different sections on a
"sheet" (designed for a specific print size), but it seemed like I'd
have to cut a square with our faces, resize, and paste several times.
I'd done something similar on a PC with photo printing tools, but the
colors were all off with that printer.

So I found ePassportPhoto.com. Seemed really simple. I just uploaded
the photos and dragged a box around our heads with green boxes placed
on the top of the head and the chin. Then it produced a sheet of six
identical 2x2" photos designed for a standard 4x6" photo print. Just
made three (18 total sections) real wet-process prints for less than
75 cents at the Kodak kiosk at a local Target store and cut them.

In the future, does anyone know of a simple passport photo editing
tool (Mac OSX or Vista), just in case they discontinue their service
(seems mostly advertising based). Perhaps something where the print
size can be specified and maybe it's slightly oversized with a border
around each. The 4x6" sheets produced by ePassportPhoto.com had thin
black lines, and I had a little difficulty trying to trim them away
without cutting away too much. I've seen other shareware tools with
sample results showing a white border. I think the Kodak photo kiosk
at Target also can make sheets of ID photos, but I'm not sure if
there's an extra charge for it.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:26:49 -0800 (PST) in rec.photo.digital, y_p_w
<y_p_w@hotmail.com> wrote,
>So I found ePassportPhoto.com. Seemed really simple. I just uploaded
>the photos and dragged a box around our heads with green boxes placed
>on the top of the head and the chin. Then it produced a sheet of six
>identical 2x2" photos designed for a standard 4x6" photo print.

I don't know about the green boxes, but once you have your 2x2 crop
here is an ImageMagick command to paste six copies into a 4x6 sheet.
(%1 represents your file name.)

convert %1 +clone +clone +append +clone -append multi_%1

..

On Dec 29 2007, 10:05*pm, David Harmon <sou...@netcom.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:26:49 -0800 (PST) in rec.photo.digital, y_p_w
> <y_...@hotmail.com> wrote,
>
> >So I found ePassportPhoto.com. *Seemed really simple. *I just uploaded
> >the photos and dragged a box around our heads with green boxes placed
> >on the top of the head and the chin. *Then it produced a sheet of six
> >identical 2x2" photos designed for a standard 4x6" photo print.
>
> I don't know about the green boxes, but once you have your 2x2 crop
> here is an ImageMagick command to paste six copies into a 4x6 sheet.
> (%1 represents your file name.)
>
> * *convert %1 +clone +clone +append +clone -append multi_%1

The embedded application places the uploaded photo so that the
eventual 2x2" box can be selected. I clicked on one corner, and as I
expanded the square, it had translcuent green rectangles that are
supposed to target the top of the head and the chin. I guess it's
supposed show the State Dept's 1 to 1-3/8" vertical height for the
head. Once the size of the box is laid down, the box can be dragged
around to place the head within the box. Nice tool, and I'm sure
something similar can be done on a local computer's software. This
one finally produces an 1800x1200 that downloads to the local computer
or gives options to send to a third party to print.

Thanks for the suggestion. So I'd have to produce a square image
first, right? ImageMagick looks like a command line tool and not
something with a high-level GUI.