Photo Organizer

Introduction   (#intro)

The generated HTML is not very good, but with the use of templates you can modify things to make them work more or less in a better fashion.

Light Table   (#sorter)

Templates   (#templates)

The templates end with .html some things to keep in mind.

• Keep filenames in lowercase so can be put on a web site.  Not possible with this software but keep this in mind.
• The substitute names are easily identified with braces.  The following substitutions allow reference to copies of the original full size pictures.

  <DT><B><FONT SIZE=+1>{PictureTitle}</FONT></B></DT>
  

  change usage in Summary and Gallary templates so that the original name assigned by digital camera can be referenced in the folder named Originals.  Distrubuted on a CD this allows one to look at the full size pictures when interested.

  <DT><B><FONT SIZE=+1>
  <a href="../originals/{PictureTitle}.jpg">
  {PictureTitle}</a></FONT></B></DT>
  

• The templates as distributed are full of HTML syntax errors so could use some cleaning up.  Many of the errors involve misuse of <DT>.

Moving Data Base to another computer or Hard Drive   (#db)

Some considerations in general for backing up your computer files are on my backup page.

File structure for users   (#albums)

c:\program files\photo organizer\templates\default 

c:\albums\
   GroupOne\
	    Originals
			  copy from permanent files to here
			highres
			  generate files here

    c:\albums\GroupOne
		  base:  highres      (or medres, or low res}
			Title:  Group One Pictures
      Comment:  Use PF11 for full screen viewing 

Needed generate additional files   (#generate)

There does not appear to be the ability to just make up new templates to generate these cards.  Nor an easy way to change the template in use -- but will look into it.

{Title}  {Comments}  {PictureTitle} {PictureComment}     Photographed by: {PictureAuthor}  Photograph taken on: {PictureDate} Please send e-mail to {SiteAuthorName} to provide feedback about this page.  Gallery page [Summary] [Title Page] This page last updated on {CreationDate}.

Some file extensions   (#ext)

• In order to view max files you need to download from the free Visioneer PaperPort Viewer or from visioneer.com or from the Archives.  See How to View Max & Tif Files -- Maryland State Archives Finding Aids & Indexes [http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/refserv/indexes/html/howto.html]
   
  Shortcut to Paper Port scanner, if installed , the program came with my Visioneer 4400 USB Scanner.  See free viewer above.

Stripping off EXIF and IPTC   (#strip)

• Stripping off EXIF and IPTC information seems to be essential before one can use the Kodak print machines in drug and discount stores if you bring them in on a CD.  To avoid this problem copy your pictures to a CompactFlash™  card or whatever media you use.  Another reason to use a CompactFlash is that the photo machines will not accept DirectCD formatted directories until closed to read on any CD-ROM drive which means you can't add any more pictures to the CD.

Retaining EXIF and IPTC   (#exif)

Not much point to Kodak CD formats anyway.  The EXIF data is important to retain.

When using IrfanView within options: keep original EXIF/IPTC/JPG.comment, and withing advanced Save files with oriinjgal date & time.

When using XCOPY make sure you include /s /d /h (subdirectories, date, hidden).

Related     (#related)

Several of the following have been installed on my computer, and if installed in the same diretory on your c: drive as mine have been, you can simply click on those shown as “.exe” or as marked with /\ using Internet Explorer to invoke the program; or if you are using Firefox you can invoke using the Launchy extension, and then choose Explorer if you have set up the launchy.xml as I have shown on my Firefox customizations page.

• IrFanView « (version 3.98), by irfan skiljan, is the best for viewing raw images (everything but .max files).  You can toggle full screen (enter) and as Thumbnails(T).  You can rotate temporarily (R | L) or permanently via Shift+J, and zoom in (+) and out (-).  Be sure to download both the program and the plug-ins.  To convert to send as email or smaller pictures: Batch conversion, input directory: C:\camera_..., (select images, add), output directory: C:\temppix\, batch conversion, advanced options: width 800, 50% width & height, 75 DPI, 16.7 million colors, START.   Some usage notes: (cheat sheet).  If installed you can run IrfanView from here  (i_view.exe}

  Original	size	colors/16M	picture size		Copy	method	Quality	size	colors	picture size
  972 KB	2592x1945	89,962	36"x27"		39.83 KB	lanczos	80%	680x480	25,272	8.89"x6.67"
  973 KB	2592x1946	89,963	36"x27"		54.93.KB	lanczos	80%	800x600	30735	11.11"x8.33"

  
  Thumbnails with IrfanView: File, Create Thumbnails, in order to print 4x6 inch print choose the following dimensions and options: 960 x 640 pixels, 6 col by 4 rows, spacing (30H 30V pixels), Margins (30 and 30), save all pages, file info with Exif created date ($F |$E36867)
   
  
• Media Purveyor « (version 2.9.1), free for non commercial use, this software probably fits the requirements for use in a camera club competition.  Interesting that it has left handed and right handed keyboard shortcuts, but has no BACK or FORWARD button; otherwise, seems to have everything to run a competition (assign points to a picture), or to create albums.  click-search keywords, user defined fields, EXIF and IPTC data and, for the advanced user, even an optional SQL-like media query language.  Image formats can be edited without losing the original (both non-destructive and lossless). Create an unlimited number of revisions or versions (called a View) for each image file with modification stored in the original file for portability between computers. (/\)
   
  
• Picasa: Photo management software, free from Google. Find, edit, share photos., A free software download from Google.  Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC.  Allows you to crop «4x6, 5x7, 8x10 or manual dimensions and ability to adjust and move cropping frame, plus crop to fit and Shrink to fit.  To crop a picture, Import (File, Import from).  Undo/Redo:  Does have: Crop, Straighten, Redeye, Auto Contrast, Auto Color, Fill Light, Neutral Color Picker (for gray scale) is on Tuning. Picasa never saves over your original files, so you'll never ruin or damage a picture by editing it.  Picasa preserves your original photo as a digital negative, so every edit you make is fully undoable.  Changing the "to Location" is under Tools, Options,Save In.  Does  NOT  have cloning, which is strange since this software used to sell for $100.  Objectional -- don't install:  Don't like that it insists on going through all pictures on your system so that you can see them all (big delay) and leaves footprint in each directory with pictures.  Repeating process is fast because it only reworks directories that have changed.  But that makes it difficult to work on a machine with limited resources.
  To save a modified picture, you must export.  Like many other utilities that convert picture data, this one changes the directory timestamps to restore date and time timestamps see "THE Rename" below.  [http://www.picasa.com/picasa/] /\
   
  
• THE Rename, Rename Image Files by Hervé Thouzard.  Use to replace created and modified date timestamps by the picture's Exif datetimestamps.  Can include prefix and suffixes with additional file information such as dimensions, but I wanted it to change directory dates as follows:  /\
    Select a folder in Windows Explorer
    Right click choosing THE Rename, you will then see a list of files in the folder
    Ctrl+A, to select all files in the folder for directory changes
    Ctrl+D, Change file Date & Time information, select EXIF tab
    Ctrl+F6, preview (won't really show much since not changing the name
    Ctrl+F5, to Rename (commits the rename with Start)
   
  
• Lupas Rename, the DOS Command Rename does not allow you to rename all of your CRW_*.jpg files to ims_*_crw.jpg so this is where you can use Lupus Rename.   /\ so that you can maintain the directory in the order that the pictures were actuallhy taken.
    Path: C:\camera-canong3\25pct\     Filemask:  crw_*.jpg
    after the filelist on the right side: [x] Only rename selected files
    choose the name tab ignoring the Ext tab and the AutoNumber tab.
    [x] Replace the text CRW_ with the new text img_
    [x] Insert after the filename _crw
   
• Exiv2 - Exif and Iptc metadata manipulation library and tools, Andreas Huggel. (doesn't appear to show summary line for each file in a directory)
• FastStone Image Viewer 1.7 FREE, screen capture utility, image browser, viewer, converter and editor that supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA. Other features include a batch image converter / resizer, a full-screen image viewer with Select-Zoom support, a crystal-clear magnifier and a slideshow with 60+ transitional effects.  LG 5stars [not downloaded yet, am using Irfanview (free) as viewer, and Snagit (payfor, from TechSmith) for captures].
• Extract EXIF information from image files, Revisions: Nov. 12/03 - P. Harvey, unfortunately this is a PERL program.
• Photo Prints, best pricing for digital photo prints.  [LG 2005-01-19]
   
• JPEGCompress, Dreamscape Software, Inc.
• Touch and WinTouch programs can be used to update the file dates, since cheap digital camera does not fill in that information.
• Excel to HTML can be used to generate some HTML.
• NetSlideshow Version 1.1 (910 KB), allows you to show pictures full screen, and to create a slideshow on a CD.  For automatic viewing minimum time is 1 second.  (Run Installed Program)
• Sundaysw is a freeware program that will generate thumbnails and allow you to view the pictures within a folder.  From the link http://www.sundaysw.com look for sundaysw then for v or for image viewer (Run Installed Program) -- also download Dir2HTML (Example), icontest, also of future interest for addressbook (.wab) is vbwab
• Context ThumbView provides a right-click ThumbView menu to view a thumbnail part of Explorer so is available from directory.  You do get something similar with plain directory.
• SlowView is a free multimedia viewer. Working on all Windows platforms, it supports more than 50 image, video, and audio formats.
• Bulk Rename Utility, renames files.
• PhotoFantasy LE v2.0 [2.3M] 9x/2k/XP FREE, for wierd manipulations.  [LockerGnome]
• Create a virtual product package, create a virtual software package box.
• UnderCoverXP is a program you can use to easily print CD covers. It supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP formats
• ThumbHTML, looks interesting -- creates thumbs, pictures of various resolutions, includes EXIF information you select on the generated HTML files.
• Visualizer IB - Photo & Web technologies, Visualizer Image Browser v2.0 [2.6M] W9x/2k/XP Free   [LockerGnome]
• Resize strictly untested, haven't found anything to do a directory of directories for .jpg in batch, don't want any of that drag and click, it takes too long
  • Easy Thumbnails Software -- Free thumbnail utility from Fookes Software
  • Walkerware Main Page, Resize (Coming Soon), found on web search for -- pictures batch free resize directory
• Create a Photo Album in Word, Dian D. Chapman (MouseTrax,)

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