Z-Anaglyph : Turn 2D Images into a 3D Picture

These days 3D images and movies are a craze. Every other movie is available in 3D vision that has to be watched with the special red-blue glasses. Newer digital cameras are coming with ability to capture pictures in 3D. But if you do not have a 3D camera, then you can use the free Z-Anaglyph program to convert two of your 2D pictures into one 3D picture.

You can download Z-Anaglyph from the website of Rosset, the developer of this software. The download is available in form of an installable application. After the installation, you can run Z-Anaglyph from its desktop shortcut. It shows a very simple user interface where you have to select two of the 2D pictures and some other options.

Z-Anaglyph : Turn 2D Images into a 3D Picture

You should select pictures of the same dimensions, same color depth and with only a slight difference of angle. Z-Anaglyph accepts only JPEG pictures because most of the digital cameras save pictures in the JPEG format. There are some other options like choosing whether you want color or gray-scale 3D picture and selecting either red-green or red-blue anaglyph methods. Once you have selected the pictures and the basic options, click on the red-blue icon that says Generate Composite Image. You can also create an inverted composite image by clicking on the blue-red icon.

Z-Anaglyph : Turn 2D Images into a 3D Picture

As you click on the red-blue or blue-red icons, a new window opens up showing you the generated 3D picture. The toolbar buttons do not show up in this window until you resize it by dragging its lower-right corner. You can choose the toolbar buttons to save this pictures to your hard disk either in JPEG or TIFF format. You can also copy it your clipboard or print it on your printer.

So if you do not want to spend a fortune on those new fashioned 3D cameras, then you can just use a regular digital camera to take two pictures at a slightly different angle and join them together into a 3D picture using the free Z-Anaglyph program.

You can download Z-Anaglyph from http://rosset.org/graphix/anaglyph/zanag_en.htm.