--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/core/image.py	Sat May 05 17:10:48 2012 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+"""
+This file contains common utility functions for manipulating images for
+the rest of the applications in the project.
+"""
+from PIL import ImageFile
+from PIL import Image
+
+
+def parse_image(file):
+    """
+    Returns a PIL Image from the supplied Django file object.
+    Throws IOError if the file does not parse as an image file or some other
+    I/O error occurred.
+
+    """
+    parser = ImageFile.Parser()
+    for chunk in file.chunks():
+        parser.feed(chunk)
+    image = parser.close()
+    return image
+
+
+def downscale_image_square(image, size):
+    """
+    Scale an image to the square dimensions given by size (in pixels).
+    The new image is returned.
+    If the image is already smaller than (size, size) then no scaling
+    is performed and the image is returned unchanged.
+
+    """
+    # don't upscale
+    if (size, size) >= image.size:
+        return image
+
+    (w, h) = image.size
+    if w > h:
+        diff = (w - h) / 2
+        image = image.crop((diff, 0, w - diff, h))
+    elif h > w:
+        diff = (h - w) / 2
+        image = image.crop((0, diff, w, h - diff))
+    image = image.resize((size, size), Image.ANTIALIAS)
+    return image