Pix Clock

A clock that shows the time by showing photos with the time on it. Sure, this can be done by a robot, but it’s much more fun to do it by hand.

Here’s a working example of this Pix Clock

Every minute it will show an image with a clock of this exact timestamp. If this image does not exist, it shows the next image. It’s either right on time, or it’s (a bit) fast. If there are more images for one timestamp it will pick one randomly.

Contributing

You can add your own pictures if you want to (and if you agree with our chosen licences). Guidelines (not rules) for pictures:

• No (recognisable) people on it
• A clock is seen
• The time can be read
• It’s interesting to look at
• Unique pictures are preferred (i.e. don’t take the same picture every minute)

Pictures must be your own and you must agree to publish them under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.

You can add pictures by making a pull request. Make sure you understand how the files should be named. If you don’t know how to make a pull request you can also send the images via email to pixclock at vasilis dot nl. Make sure to use a service like Wetransfer.

Naming files

It’s rather simple. Files are named as follows:

hh_mm_whatever.jpg

So for instance, a clock that points at half past seven can be named like 07_30_made-by-me.jpg. In most cases this should be fine. Make sure that you use 07, and not 19. Except when it’s a unique clock.

A clock can be unique for a single time stamp, or a clock can be shown for both AM and PM. See the Is it AM or PM section for a better explanation.

When a clock is unique, for instance when a digital clock reads 19:30, the naming scheme is a little different:

hh_mm_whatever_1x.jpg

Note the _1x before the JPG extension. This tells the script to only use this image for the unique timestamp. So in this example the file would be called something like 19_30_i-woke-up-at_1x.jpg.

Please optimise your images

If possible, please use a tool like JPEGmini to optimise the file size of your images.

Srcset

If an image is rather large you should consider making multiple versions of the file. There are three so called srcset directories: 1600, 2400 and 3000. These numbers look at the longest side of the image. So please resize your images to versions with a longest side of 1600, 2400 and 3000.

Please add an alt text

When an image cannot be displayed, an alternative text is read. The major use case for this feature is for people who use a screen reader, mostly people who are blind. I believe the web should be optimised for everybody, so it should work as nice for people who depend on screen readers as it does for you.

In a good alternative text you describe the image as if you’re explaining what you see over the phone, but just assume you’re in a bit of a hurry. So no endless observations about details, unless those details are what matter. What matters here is at least the time.

If you don’t add an alt text, the default alt text will be: It is 13:37 (if it is 13:37 on that image, of course).

You can add an alt text manually in the clock-pix/ directory. Just give them the same name as the image, but with an extension of .txt. So 00_00_00.jpg becomes 00_00_00.jpg.txt.

Is it AM or PM?

Sometimes it is unclear if a picture is taken before or after noon. In that case it’s possible to duplicate it. Rules of thumb for duplication:

• We use the so called Civil Twilight zone of the Netherlands, which means that from ±4:30 AM till ±22:58 a clear sky may be visible, and from 16:27 till 08:09 a dark sky is possible.
• If no sky is visible it could also be another light source.

Contributions

This is based on an idea by Erik van Blokland. Code, and (almost) all alt texts are written by Vasilis van Gemert

In chronological order, pictures are contributed by

• Erik van Blokland
• Vasilis van Gemert
• Florian Hardwig
• Kiki
• David Krooshof
• Simon Thiefes
• Maarten P. Kappert
• Ryan op de Weegh
• Katrien Vermeulen
• Sylvia Verkroost
• Jeroen Verkroost
• Colin Potts
• Frank van Ree
• Thecla Krooshof
• Annie Wright
• Nadir Luijten
• Dennis Verschoor
• Robert Jan Verkade
• Stephen DiRado
• Nick Sherman
• Edgar Walthert
• Echo Luijten
• Alex Neri
• Esmée Lacle
• Bas Jacobs
• Christiaan Ensing
• Kaj Janssen

Installing

Download everything, upload it to a server that runs PHP and visit the URL. It’s that easy.

Licences

• The code in this repository is licenced under the Unlicence
• The content (the images, photos, texts) in this repository is licenced under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.