Since its 2004 launch, the free image data processing program Gwyddion has drawn the attention of philatelists for its powerful ability to uncover some of a stamp’s hidden elements. Czech researchers David Nečas and Petr Klapetek developed the program – free to download on gwyddion.net – which can transform engraved and embossed stamps into three-dimensional images. It uses scanning probe microscopy (SPM), which can determine “surface morphology and other local physical quantities with very high resolution,” the researchers wrote in a 2011 Open Physics study reviewing Gwyddion’s special features. “Its main task is to provide fast and reproducible data-processing routines for SPM users. It allows users to perform all basic operations necessary for a successful evaluation of the data obtained using an SPM,” added Nečas and Klapetek, whose work is supported by the Central European Institute of Technology. Continue reading →
The Province of Canada’s 17-cent Jacques Cartier stamp, issued in 1859, features three-dimensional analyses produced by the freeware Gwyddion.
