ContributorAvatars

A .NET console application that creates a visual mosaic of contributor avatars for .NET Core releases. This tool downloads GitHub profile pictures of contributors to a specific .NET Core version and arranges them into a beautiful mosaic image.

What it does

ContributorAvatars:

1. Fetches contributor data for .NET Core 8.0.0 from Microsoft's official contributor JSON
2. Downloads GitHub avatar images (200x200px) for each contributor
3. Creates a mosaic image arranging all avatars in a grid layout
4. Automatically calculates optimal grid dimensions to create a 16:9 aspect ratio

Features

• Smart Grid Layout: Automatically calculates the optimal grid dimensions (width × height) to create a visually appealing 16:9 aspect ratio
• Progress Tracking: Uses Spectre.Console to display download progress in the terminal
• Intelligent Caching: Skips downloading avatars that already exist locally
• Random Arrangement: Shuffles avatar positions for unique results each run
• Error Handling: Validates downloaded images (minimum 1800 bytes) to filter out placeholder images
• Image Size Optimization: Automatically adjusts the number of avatars to fit evenly into the calculated grid

Prerequisites

• .NET 10.0 SDK or later
• ImageMagick (optional, for manual image manipulation)

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jongalloway/ContributorAvatars.git
   cd ContributorAvatars

2. Restore dependencies:

   dotnet restore

3. Build the project:

   dotnet build

Usage

Run the application:

dotnet run

The program will:

1. Display the total number of contributors found
2. Show a progress bar while downloading avatars
3. Generate the mosaic image
4. Display statistics about the generated image
5. Save the final image as contributors.png in the project directory

Output

• Individual Avatars: Downloaded to the images/ directory
• Final Mosaic: Saved as contributors.png in the project root

Manual Customization

The program outputs an ImageMagick command that you can use to manually adjust the mosaic:

magick montage -geometry 200x200+0+0 -tile {w}x{h} images/*.png contributors.png

Technical Details

Dependencies

• Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU (v14.9.1): .NET wrapper for ImageMagick, used for image processing and montage creation
• Spectre.Console (v0.53.0): Library for creating beautiful console applications with progress bars and status displays

How it Works

1. Data Retrieval: Fetches contributor information from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/blob-assets/json/thanks/core.json
2. Filtering: Extracts contributors specifically for version 8.0.0
3. Avatar Download: Downloads profile pictures from https://www.github.com/{username}.png?size=200
4. Grid Calculation: Computes grid dimensions to approximate 16:9 ratio using the formula:
   • Height = √(total_avatars / 1.7778)
   • Width = Height × 1.7778
5. Mosaic Creation: Uses ImageMagick's montage functionality to arrange avatars with:
   • Geometry: 200x200 pixels per avatar
   • Border width: 0
   • Background: Transparent

Example Output

Total contributors: 627
Downloading... [████████████████████████████] 627/627
Removing 3 random avatars to fit an even multiple.
Generating image...
Total avatars downloaded: 627
Image written to contributors.png
Use the following to tweak and generate a mosaic:
magick montage -geometry 200x200+0+0 -tile 33x19 images/*.png contributors.png
Press any key to quit.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE.txt for details.

Acknowledgments

This project celebrates the amazing contributors to .NET Core. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making .NET better!

Resources

• ImageMagick Montage Documentation
• Quick & Easy Mosaics with ImageMagick