Photos to e-ink, over NFC

Hold the phone to the frame.

Pic2Ink prepares your photo for one particular e-ink panel — its exact pixels, its few inks — and sends it from your Android phone over NFC. A battery-free frame like TapMora takes its power from the phone; nothing goes through a server.

Which frames work How it works

Pic2Ink is in a closed test and not yet on Google Play.

Three steps

Device, picture, tap.

That is all of Easy mode, the default. The picture is prepared on the phone at the frame’s exact resolution and in its own colours; how is on How it works.

  1. 1

    Choose device

    Pick your frame by brand and model. The app remembers the last one.

  2. 2

    Choose picture

    Open a photo in Android’s photo picker, or share one to Pic2Ink from another app. If its shape differs from the frame’s, it is cropped to fill the frame: drag the preview to choose what stays in view, and turn the layout by 90° for a frame mounted the other way round.

  3. 3

    Send via NFC

    Tap Send via NFC and hold the phone to the frame. Progress is shown, and the result is reported as confirmed or as sent, not confirmed. Nothing is retried behind your back.

Easy and Advanced

Three steps, or every setting.

Screens from version 0.1.0, with the TapMora profile and a drawn test picture.

Easy (the default)

Exactly the three steps above: device, picture, Send via NFC. Crop is the only fit, and you drag the picture to choose it.

Advanced (in Settings)

  • Fit the whole picture with white or black padding, or stretch it, instead of cropping.
  • Fit to visible area, once a frame’s bezel has been measured.
  • Dithering: Floyd–Steinberg, Atkinson, Jarvis, Ostromoukhov or none, and how colours are matched.
  • Export the exact prepared picture as a PNG file.
  • Diagnostics, and Auto-detect (experimental).
  1. Easy mode: the Picture card with a dithered landscape for a 304×400 Spectra 6 frame, Change picture and 90° buttons, and the Send via NFC button.
    Easy mode: the picture as the frame will get it, 304×400 in six inks.
  2. Advanced mode: a black-and-white dithered landscape, Crop, Stretch and Fit buttons, and a Dithering card set to Natural.
    Advanced mode: fit options and the Dithering card.
  3. The Dithering sheet: a preview, Inspect pixels and Show ink colours buttons, style chips Natural, Soft, Crisp, Vivid, Flat and Custom, and the method Natural (Atkinson + Jarvis).
    Dithering settings, with the default method: an Atkinson and Jarvis hybrid.
  4. The Measure this frame’s bezel sheet: it sends an exact 304×400 edge ruler, then reads the hidden pixels per edge from one photo of the frame.
    Measure bezel: an edge ruler on the frame, then one photo.
Honest about what won’t work

What it handles, and what it does not.

Pic2Ink can only be as sure of a frame as its tests. So far that is one frame.

Handles

  • Frames and displays in its catalogue: 31 NFC entries and 21 devices that take a picture file instead (the list).
  • Any photo shape: crop it to fill the frame, or in Advanced mode fit it with padding or stretch it.
  • Bezels that hide pixels: Measure bezel reads how many each edge hides, and pictures are then placed in the part you can see.

Does not

  • Promise that a frame works before it has been tested. Only a TapMora Spectra 6 frame has been tested with Pic2Ink; every other entry is marked not tested.
  • Send without NFC. Devices that take a picture file get a PNG export instead.
  • Retry a failed send by itself. If the frame does not confirm, the app says “sent, not confirmed” and leaves the next try to you.
Privacy

The picture goes to the frame.

  • Pictures are prepared on the phone and sent only to the frame you tap. Preparing and sending need no connection.
  • No account, no advertising, no analytics software, and no automatic reports.
  • The only upload is feedback you send. Its screenshot is ticked by default and shows your picture if it is on screen: untick it to leave it out.
Privacy at a glance and full policy

Pic2Ink is based on DITHR by redphx (MIT licence), which supplies the device catalogue, the dithering and the NFC protocols. Brand names belong to their owners; Pic2Ink is not affiliated with or endorsed by any frame maker.