10. Content-Aware Image Resizing

The present chapter generally relates to content-aware image resizing and image inscribing into predetermined areas. The problem consists in transformation of the image to a new size with or without modification of the aspect ratio in a manner that retains the recognizability and proportions of the important features of the image. Closest solutions cover image cropping, image retargeting, seam carving, and some special image manipulations such as types of image retouching, as well as the standard image linear scaling, including downsampling and upsampling. The present approach provides a method for digital image retargeting by means of erasing or adding less significant image pixels. The retargeting approach can be easily used also to shrink images. However, for image enlargement there are some limitations such as stretching artefacts. A history map with relaxation is introduced to avoid such drawbacks and overcomes some known limits of retargeting. In the proposed approach, special methods are considered for the preservation of important objects. This leads to significant improvement of the resulting quality of retargeting. Retargeting applications for different devices such as display, copier, facsimile, and photo-printers are described as well.