Getting Started

Welcome to the Mosaic Art Generator! This guide will help you get up and running quickly with creating your first mosaic artwork.

What You'll Learn

In this getting started guide, you'll learn how to:

• Install the Mosaic Art Generator on your system
• Quick Start with basic commands and examples
• Create Your First Mosaic with a step-by-step tutorial
• Troubleshoot Common Issues that you might encounter

Overview

The Mosaic Art Generator is a command-line tool that transforms any image into a mosaic composed of thousands of smaller images. It uses advanced algorithms to:

1. Analyze your target image and divide it into a grid
2. Calculate colors for each grid cell using perceptual color space
3. Match materials from your collection based on color similarity
4. Optimize placement to avoid repetitive patterns
5. Generate the final mosaic with optional color adjustment

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Rust 1.88.0+ installed on your system
• A collection of material images (PNG, JPG, JPEG formats)
• A target image you want to transform into a mosaic
• Basic command-line knowledge

Quick Example

Here's a preview of what you'll be able to do:

# Basic mosaic generation
./target/release/mosaic-rust \
  --target photo.jpg \
  --material-src ./materials \
  --output mosaic.jpg

This command will:

• Use photo.jpg as the target image
• Source materials from the ./materials directory
• Generate a 50×28 grid mosaic (default)
• Save the result as mosaic.jpg

What's Next?

Ready to get started? Follow these steps:

1. Install the Generator - Set up your development environment
2. Quick Start Guide - Run your first command
3. First Mosaic Tutorial - Detailed walkthrough
4. Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions

Need Help?

If you encounter any issues:

• Check the Troubleshooting Guide
• Review the CLI Reference for parameter details
• Visit our GitHub Issues for support

Let's get started with the installation!