anki decks: add multiple-choice shapes variant; add real element photos to periodic table

shapes_mc (tools/anki-deck-visual.py) is the same shape images as
"shapes" but multiple choice instead of type-the-name, matching the
plain-text A/B/C/D pattern anki-deck-periodic.py's "category" deck
already uses (no clickable UI, since that needs a desktop-only Anki
add-on and breaks on AnkiDroid/AnkiMobile).

periodic prehs/hs (tools/anki-deck-periodic.py) now show each element's
real sample photo alongside every card, fetched once from Wikipedia's
own MediaWiki pageimages API and cached under tools/periodic_images/ —
the one part of this tooling that needs internet access at generation
time; --no-images restores the old text-only cards. Elements 100
(Fermium) through 118 (Oganesson) are excluded, since none has ever
existed in a photographable quantity — every fetch is otherwise
per-element and non-fatal, with progress printed so failures are visible.

This fetch logic could not be exercised against the real Wikipedia API
from this sandbox (no route to en.wikipedia.org here) — --dry-run-tts
now also substitutes a placeholder image so the pipeline is at least
structurally tested end to end. Real-network behavior needs verifying
on an actual run.

Added tools/*.apkg, tools/media_*/, tools/periodic_images/, and
tools/__pycache__/ to .gitignore — all generated/cached locally, never
meant to be committed.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014DyceEVVeQ33EeS6C1PDv5

.gitignore

@@ -1,2 +1,10 @@
 # Vanilla Tweaks ZIP files placed for automatic install — never commit these
 extras/datapacks/*.zip
+
+# tools/anki-deck-*.py output and caches — generated locally, regenerable,
+# never meant to be committed (periodic_images/ especially: fetched
+# element photos, not source)
+tools/*.apkg
+tools/media_*/
+tools/periodic_images/
+tools/__pycache__/

README.md

@@ -300,8 +300,12 @@ account has no content — `tools/anki-deck-math.py`,
 `tools/anki-deck-periodic.py`, and `tools/anki-deck-visual.py` generate
 ready-to-import `.apkg` decks (multiplication/division/addition/
 subtraction/fractions/decimals, the periodic table, and shapes/clocks/
-coin-counting) with Anki's built-in type-the-answer input and offline
+coin-counting) with offline neural TTS audio (Piper) on every card. Most
-neural TTS audio (Piper) on every card. All three are standalone Python
+cards use Anki's built-in type-the-answer input; a few (periodic table
+categories, `--deck shapes_mc`) are multiple choice instead, shown as
+plain-text A/B/C/D options — type the letter rather than tapping, since a
+clickable UI needs a desktop-only Anki add-on and would break on
+AnkiDroid/AnkiMobile. All three are standalone Python
 scripts, unrelated to the `services/*.sh` installer framework — run them
 on any machine with Python, not necessarily the server itself. Full setup
 (a venv, `genanki` + `piper-tts`, downloading a voice) and every deck's
@@ -317,6 +321,15 @@ because AnkiDroid has long-standing, still-open bugs rendering SVG
 `<img>` tags on mobile; see `tools/anki-deck-visual.py`'s own docstring
 for more on both tradeoffs.
 
+The periodic table `prehs`/`hs` decks also show each element's real
+sample photo (fetched once from Wikipedia's own MediaWiki API and cached
+under `tools/periodic_images/`) alongside every card — the one part of
+this tooling that needs internet access at generation time; pass
+`--no-images` for the old text-only cards. Elements 100 (Fermium) through
+118 (Oganesson) are skipped, since none has ever existed in a
+photographable quantity. See `tools/anki-deck-periodic.py`'s own
+docstring for the details and its caveats.
+
 ## Layout
 
 ```

tools/anki-deck-periodic.py

@@ -16,33 +16,130 @@ Decks:
                 superheavy elements whose category is still officially
                 unconfirmed)
 
+Element photos on prehs/hs: every card (symbol->name, name->symbol,
+number->symbol alike) also shows a real photo of the element, fetched
+once from Wikipedia's own MediaWiki API (the same "pageimage" shown in
+that element's infobox — the well-documented, standard
+`action=query&prop=pageimages` endpoint on en.wikipedia.org, not a
+guessed URL) and cached locally under tools/periodic_images/ so reruns
+don't re-download. This is the one part of this repo's Anki tooling that
+needs internet access at generation time — every other deck (math,
+shapes/clocks/currency, TTS audio) is fully offline. Pass --no-images to
+skip this and get the old text-only prehs/hs cards back.
+
+Elements 100 (Fermium) through 118 (Oganesson) are hard-excluded from
+this — every atom of these ever made has been produced (or claimed) one
+at a time in a particle accelerator and never existed in macroscopic,
+visible quantity, so no real sample photo exists to fetch; anything
+Wikipedia's pageimage API returned for them would be a diagram or a
+scientist's portrait, not the element. A couple of element names collide
+with a more famous Wikipedia topic under the same plain title (Mercury
+the planet, for one) — TITLE_OVERRIDES below is the fix-up list; if a
+generated card shows an obviously wrong photo for some element, that's
+almost certainly another one of these collisions — add it there.
+
+Caveat: this fetch logic was written and dry-run tested without live
+access to Wikipedia (sandboxed here with no route to en.wikipedia.org),
+so it's exercised structurally (see --dry-run-tts) but not against the
+real API response shape or real image content. Skips are per-element and
+non-fatal — one bad/missing photo won't abort the rest of the deck — and
+every fetch attempt prints what it did, so check that output the first
+time you actually run this deck for real.
+
 Element data: Bowserinator/Periodic-Table-JSON (a widely used, actively
 maintained public dataset), fetched and spot-checked against known facts
 before being embedded below — not typed from memory.
 
-Usage (run with the venv from anki-deck-math.py's docstring activated):
+Usage (run with the venv from anki-deck-math.py's docstring activated;
+also needs `pip install pillow` for resizing fetched photos):
     python3 anki-deck-periodic.py --deck prehs
     python3 anki-deck-periodic.py --deck hs
+    python3 anki-deck-periodic.py --deck hs --no-images
     python3 anki-deck-periodic.py --deck category
 (add --voice en_US-amy-medium etc.; --model-path if a voice isn't found
 automatically; --dry-run-tts to test the deck-building logic without any
-voice model at all, using silent placeholder audio)
+voice model OR network access at all, using silent placeholder audio and
+a placeholder image)
 """
 import argparse
 import hashlib
+import io
 import genanki
+import json
 import os
 import random
 import subprocess
+import urllib.error
+import urllib.parse
+import urllib.request
+
+from PIL import Image
 
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
 parser.add_argument("--deck", required=True, choices=["prehs", "hs", "category"])
 parser.add_argument("--voice", default="en_US-lessac-medium")
 parser.add_argument("--model-path", default=None)
 parser.add_argument("--dry-run-tts", action="store_true")
+parser.add_argument("--no-images", action="store_true",
+                     help="prehs/hs only: skip fetching element photos, keep the old text-only cards")
 args = parser.parse_args()
 
 SCRATCH = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+IMAGE_CACHE = os.path.join(SCRATCH, "periodic_images")
+os.makedirs(IMAGE_CACHE, exist_ok=True)
+
+# Elements with no macroscopic sample ever produced — see the docstring.
+NO_PHOTO_NUMBERS = set(range(100, 119))
+
+# Element names whose plain Wikipedia article title is a different, more
+# famous topic — see the docstring. Add to this if a generated card shows
+# an obviously wrong photo for some element.
+TITLE_OVERRIDES = {"Hg": "Mercury (element)"}
+
+
+def fetch_element_image(symbol, name):
+    """Downloads (once, cached under periodic_images/) the real sample
+    photo Wikipedia itself shows for this element — its page's
+    'pageimage', the same image used in the infobox — via the standard
+    MediaWiki query API. Returns the cached local path, or None if no
+    image exists on the page (normal for some elements, not a bug)."""
+    cache_path = os.path.join(IMAGE_CACHE, f"{symbol}.jpg")
+    if os.path.isfile(cache_path):
+        return cache_path
+
+    if args.dry_run_tts:
+        # No real network call in dry-run mode — a flat placeholder lets the
+        # rest of the pipeline (HTML wiring, media_files list, .apkg
+        # packaging) still be exercised end-to-end without it.
+        Image.new("RGB", (100, 100), (190, 190, 190)).save(cache_path, "JPEG")
+        return cache_path
+
+    title = TITLE_OVERRIDES.get(symbol, name)
+    api_url = ("https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json"
+               "&prop=pageimages&piprop=original&redirects=1&titles="
+               + urllib.parse.quote(title))
+    headers = {"User-Agent": "anki-deck-periodic.py (personal Anki deck generator)"}
+    try:
+        req = urllib.request.Request(api_url, headers=headers)
+        with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=15) as resp:
+            data = json.load(resp)
+        pages = data.get("query", {}).get("pages", {})
+        page = next(iter(pages.values()), {})
+        image_url = page.get("original", {}).get("source")
+        if not image_url:
+            print(f"  (no photo found for {name})")
+            return None
+        img_req = urllib.request.Request(image_url, headers=headers)
+        with urllib.request.urlopen(img_req, timeout=15) as resp:
+            raw = resp.read()
+        img = Image.open(io.BytesIO(raw)).convert("RGB")
+        img.thumbnail((300, 300))
+        img.save(cache_path, "JPEG", quality=85)
+        print(f"  fetched photo for {name} ({title})")
+        return cache_path
+    except (urllib.error.URLError, urllib.error.HTTPError, OSError, ValueError) as e:
+        print(f"  (photo fetch failed for {name}: {e})")
+        return None
 
 _CANDIDATES = [
     args.model_path,
@@ -257,6 +354,7 @@ def build_model(deck_key):
         css="""
 .card { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; text-align: center; }
 .prompt { font-size: 40px; margin: 20px auto; white-space: pre-line; }
+.elem-img { max-width: 220px; max-height: 220px; display: block; margin: 0 auto 10px; }
 """,
     )
 
@@ -267,6 +365,20 @@ def build_deck(deck_key, deck_title):
     return genanki.Deck(deck_id, deck_title)
 
 
+def element_image_html(number, symbol, name, media_files):
+    """Returns an <img> tag for this element's cached/fetched photo, or ""
+    if --no-images was passed, the element is in NO_PHOTO_NUMBERS, or no
+    photo could be found/downloaded for it."""
+    if args.no_images or number in NO_PHOTO_NUMBERS:
+        return ""
+    local_path = fetch_element_image(symbol, name)
+    if local_path is None:
+        return ""
+    if local_path not in media_files:
+        media_files.append(local_path)
+    return f'<img class="elem-img" src="{os.path.basename(local_path)}">'
+
+
 def add_note(deck, model, prompt, answer, qtext, atext, media_files, tag):
     qfile = f"q_{tag}.wav"
     afile = f"a_{tag}.wav"
@@ -294,12 +406,13 @@ def gen_prehs():
     random.seed(50)
     random.shuffle(cards)
     for kind, number, symbol, name in cards:
+        img = element_image_html(number, symbol, name, media_files)
         if kind == "symbol_to_name":
-            add_note(deck, model, symbol, name,
+            add_note(deck, model, img + symbol, name,
                       f"What element has the symbol {symbol}?", name,
                       media_files, f"prehs_s2n_{number}")
         else:
-            add_note(deck, model, name, symbol,
+            add_note(deck, model, img + name, symbol,
                       f"What is the symbol for {name}?", symbol,
                       media_files, f"prehs_n2s_{number}")
     return deck, media_files, len(cards)
@@ -318,16 +431,17 @@ def gen_hs():
     random.seed(51)
     random.shuffle(cards)
     for kind, number, symbol, name in cards:
+        img = element_image_html(number, symbol, name, media_files)
         if kind == "symbol_to_name":
-            add_note(deck, model, symbol, name,
+            add_note(deck, model, img + symbol, name,
                       f"What element has the symbol {symbol}?", name,
                       media_files, f"hs_s2n_{number}")
         elif kind == "name_to_symbol":
-            add_note(deck, model, name, symbol,
+            add_note(deck, model, img + name, symbol,
                       f"What is the symbol for {name}?", symbol,
                       media_files, f"hs_n2s_{number}")
         else:
-            add_note(deck, model, f"Element #{number}", symbol,
+            add_note(deck, model, img + f"Element #{number}", symbol,
                       f"What is the symbol for element number {num2words(number)}?", symbol,
                       media_files, f"hs_num2s_{number}")
     return deck, media_files, len(cards)
@@ -382,4 +496,4 @@ out_path = os.path.join(SCRATCH, f"{deck_key}_{args.voice}.apkg")
 package.write_to_file(out_path)
 
 size_mb = os.path.getsize(out_path) / (1024 * 1024)
-print(f"\nDone: {out_path} ({size_mb:.1f} MB, {count} cards, {len(media_files)} audio clips)")
+print(f"\nDone: {out_path} ({size_mb:.1f} MB, {count} cards, {len(media_files)} media files)")

tools/anki-deck-visual.py

@@ -28,6 +28,12 @@ Decks:
                 plus 5 quadrilateral types (image->name: square, rectangle,
                 rhombus, trapezoid, parallelogram — each one's geometry is
                 genuinely distinct, not just differently labeled)
+    shapes_mc   same shape images as "shapes", but as multiple choice
+                (A/B/C/D shown as plain text below the image — not a
+                clickable UI, since that needs a desktop-only Anki add-on
+                and would break on AnkiDroid/AnkiMobile — same approach as
+                tools/anki-deck-periodic.py's "category" deck), type the
+                letter
     clocks      analog clock faces, all 144 hour/5-min combinations,
                 type the time as H:MM (the hour hand moves fractionally
                 with the minutes, e.g. 6:30 sits halfway between 6 and 7 —
@@ -39,6 +45,7 @@ Decks:
 
 Usage (run with the venv from anki-deck-math.py's docstring activated):
     python3 anki-deck-visual.py --deck shapes
+    python3 anki-deck-visual.py --deck shapes_mc
     python3 anki-deck-visual.py --deck clocks
     python3 anki-deck-visual.py --deck currency
 (add --voice en_US-amy-medium etc.; --model-path if a voice isn't found
@@ -56,7 +63,8 @@ from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont
 import subprocess
 
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
-parser.add_argument("--deck", required=True, choices=["shapes", "clocks", "currency"])
+parser.add_argument("--deck", required=True,
+                     choices=["shapes", "shapes_mc", "clocks", "currency"])
 parser.add_argument("--voice", default="en_US-lessac-medium")
 parser.add_argument("--model-path", default=None)
 parser.add_argument("--dry-run-tts", action="store_true")
@@ -160,6 +168,8 @@ def build_model(deck_key):
 .card { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; text-align: center; }
 .imgwrap { margin: 10px auto; }
 .imgwrap img { max-width: 260px; max-height: 260px; }
+.mc-choices { display: inline-block; text-align: left; margin-top: 14px; font-size: 22px; }
+.mc-choices div { margin: 4px 0; }
 """,
     )
 
@@ -363,6 +373,48 @@ def gen_shapes():
     return deck, media_files, len(jobs)
 
 
+def gen_shapes_mc():
+    """Same shape images as gen_shapes(), but multiple choice instead of
+    type-the-name — A/B/C/D distractors drawn from every other shape name
+    in the pool (polygons and quadrilaterals share one distractor pool, so
+    a polygon question can pull "square" as a wrong answer and vice versa)."""
+    deck_key = "shapes_mc"
+    model_id, model = build_model(deck_key)
+    deck = build_deck(deck_key, "Shapes: Polygons & Quadrilaterals (multiple choice)")
+    media_files = []
+
+    jobs = [("polygon", n, POLYGON_NAMES[n]) for n in range(3, 11)]
+    jobs += [("quad", qname, qname) for qname in QUADRILATERALS]
+    all_names = [name for _, _, name in jobs]
+    random.seed(63)
+    random.shuffle(jobs)
+
+    letters = ["A", "B", "C", "D"]
+    for kind, val, name in jobs:
+        if kind == "polygon":
+            png_path = polygon_png(regular_polygon_points(val), f"mc_poly_{val}.png")
+            tag = f"shape_mc_poly_{val}"
+        else:
+            png_path = polygon_png(QUADRILATERALS[val], f"mc_quad_{val}.png")
+            tag = f"shape_mc_quad_{val}"
+        media_files.append(png_path)
+
+        distractor_pool = [n for n in all_names if n != name]
+        distractors = random.sample(distractor_pool, 3)
+        choices = distractors + [name]
+        random.shuffle(choices)
+        correct_letter = letters[choices.index(name)]
+
+        choice_html = "".join(f"<div>{letter}) {choice}</div>"
+                               for letter, choice in zip(letters, choices))
+        image_html = (f'<img src="{os.path.basename(png_path)}">'
+                       f'<div class="mc-choices">{choice_html}</div>')
+
+        add_note(deck, model, image_html, correct_letter,
+                  "What shape is this?", name, media_files, tag)
+    return deck, media_files, len(jobs)
+
+
 def gen_clocks():
     deck_key = "clocks"
     model_id, model = build_model(deck_key)
@@ -431,17 +483,15 @@ def gen_currency():
     return deck, media_files, len(combos)
 
 
-if args.deck == "shapes":
+deck_key = args.deck
-    deck_key = "shapes"
-elif args.deck == "clocks":
-    deck_key = "clocks"
-else:
-    deck_key = "currency"
 
 MEDIA_DIR = os.path.join(SCRATCH, f"media_{deck_key}_{args.voice}")
 os.makedirs(MEDIA_DIR, exist_ok=True)
 
-GENERATORS = {"shapes": gen_shapes, "clocks": gen_clocks, "currency": gen_currency}
+GENERATORS = {
+    "shapes": gen_shapes, "shapes_mc": gen_shapes_mc,
+    "clocks": gen_clocks, "currency": gen_currency,
+}
 deck, media_files, count = GENERATORS[args.deck]()
 
 package = genanki.Package(deck)