IPhotoMEASURE is a Cool Measuring Program

Take Digital Photos and Measure the Dimensions!

What if you have to measure a building exterior to figure out how many gallons of paint you'll need to paint it? It's very difficult to do this with a tape measure. The iPhotoMEASURE software comes to the rescue.

The iPhotoMEASURE program works by taking digital photos of exterior and interior walls, gates, windows, refrigerators, etc., using what they call a DigiTarget. The DigiTarget is a square shape (7.5 by 7.5 inches, or 15 by 15 inches) that you place in the area you photograph. The target is later used by the program to get the measurements you require.

For a digital camera, the company recommends a minimum of 1 Megapixels for close-up photos, 2 Megapixels minimum for normal-distance photos, and 4 Megapixels for photos taken more than 15 feet away. Set your digital camera to the highest resolution for best results.

You load the photo into IphotoMEASURE. The first thing you do is zoom into the spot where you see the DigiTarget. You highlight it with a box that covers the target area. Then you zoom back out, and use the mouse to measure various areas in the photo. In testing the software (and using a regular tape measure afterward), I found its measurements to be quite accurate.

The iPhotoMEASURE software measures down to 1/32nd of an inch (or in metric units). However, you must be careful to get accurate measurements. You have to shoot at a straight, 90-degree angle, and you have to highlight the target precisely in the program. Also, after measuring with the mouse, you zoom into that area and adjust the measurement to make it better.

When you save the photo with your measurements, the iPhotoMEASURE actually saves a project file (containing the measurements) while your original photo stays unchanged. At this time, you can't save the photo with measurements as a JPG or similar file. I found a workaround by using the PrintScreen method, and then loaded the photo into Photoshop for enhancement.