Messages

61

ThumbsPlus v10 Questions / Update with v10 Build 4003 not detected

« on: 2015-10-19 14:52:34 »

Due to many complaints over the years, we do not allow a detection every time there is a new build, especially if is a small update quickly following another.

If this is an issue let me know and we will consider your suggestions.

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

62

ThumbsPlus v10 Questions / METADATA/IPTC/EXIF/XMP #2

« on: 2015-10-14 18:03:39 »

ThumbsPlus uses the XMP format, which stores all metadata an an XML tree, and Adobe's XMP library, to store and maintain metadata. ThumbsPlus has its own internal list of "supported" XMP fields, but can display metadata not on that list.

ThumbsPlus allows you to modify or add many fields, but for compatibility with other applications, only those on its supported list, and only those which make sense to edit. For example, it doesn't allow you to edit the Exposure Time, since that is static information about how the image was created.

The Metadata panel shows the metadata for the current file. When you have selected a single file, you may edit the supported metadata in that file directly within the panel. To edit the metadata in multiple files, use the Batch Edit Metadata function on the Image menu.

Metadata in the ThumbsPlus database

ThumbsPlus automatically imports metadata for several items so they may be used to quickly search for images based it. These database items are handled automatically:

Date Taken

ThumbsPlus loads the Date Take in the database from the XMP/EXIF field Original Date Time.

Rating

ThumbsPlus will load Rating from the XMP rating field (xmp:rating) or the Microsoft rating field (MicrosoftPhoto:Rating). The Microsoft rating is converted from its 0-100 range to the standard 0-5.

Keywords

Database keywords are automatically created from XMP keywords, based on the XMP Keywords setting in Keyword Preferences. (For historical reasons, these are stored in the XMP bag named dc:subject. ThumbsPlus and most other software always refer to them  as keywords.)

Annotations

Subject to the option in the Metadata Preferences, ThumbsPlus copies the XMP Caption (also known as Description and Comment in some software) to the database Annotation field.

User Fields

You can also create User Fields for any metadata item, and if it has the exact same name as an XMP field, ThumbsPlus will automatically populate the field from the metadata item. All metadata fields in the database should be stored as Text, rather than numeric or date/time. You may disable this behavior in Metadata Preferences.

63

ThumbsPlus v10 Questions / METADATA/IPTC/EXIF/XMP #1

« on: 2015-10-14 18:03:18 »

Metadata is information stored about a file, usually stored within it. For example, metadata about an image may include such things as:

· Who created it.

· A description of the image.

· When was it created.

· What were the camera settings.

· Who may  use it.

Overview:

Metadata is known as and includes various types of information, including XMP, File Info (Photoshop), EXIF and IPTC.

The most common file metadata formats and names are:

XMP:

An extensive, rich, and extensible standard for storing all kinds of metadata in files of many different formats. It encompasses and effectively supersedes many earlier format-specific metadata standards, including EXIF and IPTC.

EXIF:

Information from a digital camera or scanner when the image is created (or modified manually). EXIF is the name for a metadata standard originally based on tags from the TIFF file format, with extensions, that could be stored in TIFF and other file types. Today EXIF is most often stored as XMP.

IPTC:

Information supplied by a news agency or source and included with the image to make it easy to find who created it, why it was created, how it may be used, and so on. IPTC was originally stored in a block of information with its own format. Because IPTC included many fields applicable to wide use, and because it was the first real codified and supported standard, it was adopted widely for other uses. Today, like EXIF, it is stored as XMP.

Photoshop:

Photoshop has always had a File Info function which allows you to set up metadata. Most of its original fields were based on the original IPTC standard.

64

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / METADATA/IPTC/EXIF/XMP #2

« on: 2015-10-14 18:02:23 »

ThumbsPlus uses the XMP format, which stores all metadata an an XML tree, and Adobe's XMP library, to store and maintain metadata. ThumbsPlus has its own internal list of "supported" XMP fields, but can display metadata not on that list.

ThumbsPlus allows you to modify or add many fields, but for compatibility with other applications, only those on its supported list, and only those which make sense to edit. For example, it doesn't allow you to edit the Exposure Time, since that is static information about how the image was created.

The Metadata panel shows the metadata for the current file. When you have selected a single file, you may edit the supported metadata in that file directly within the panel. To edit the metadata in multiple files, use the Batch Edit Metadata function on the Image menu.

Metadata in the ThumbsPlus database

ThumbsPlus automatically imports metadata for several items so they may be used to quickly search for images based it. These database items are handled automatically:

Date Taken

ThumbsPlus loads the Date Take in the database from the XMP/EXIF field Original Date Time.

Rating

ThumbsPlus will load Rating from the XMP rating field (xmp:rating) or the Microsoft rating field (MicrosoftPhoto:Rating). The Microsoft rating is converted from its 0-100 range to the standard 0-5.

Keywords

Database keywords are automatically created from XMP keywords, based on the XMP Keywords setting in Keyword Preferences. (For historical reasons, these are stored in the XMP bag named dc:subject. ThumbsPlus and most other software always refer to them  as keywords.)

Annotations

Subject to the option in the Metadata Preferences, ThumbsPlus copies the XMP Caption (also known as Description and Comment in some software) to the database Annotation field.

User Fields

You can also create User Fields for any metadata item, and if it has the exact same name as an XMP field, ThumbsPlus will automatically populate the field from the metadata item. All metadata fields in the database should be stored as Text, rather than numeric or date/time. You may disable this behavior in Metadata Preferences.

65

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / METADATA/IPTC/EXIF/XMP #1

« on: 2015-10-14 18:00:24 »

ThumbsPlus v10 supports Metadata which includes IPTC.

The IPTC dialog boxes HAD to change as METADATA grew the dialog had to grow. The METADATA support in ThumbsPlus v10 far surpasses the IPTC support in ThumbsPlus v7. In fact ThumbsPlus v7 is far from up to date and should NOT be used for METADATA editing.

So, we need to know what it is that v7 is doing that v10 is not.

Please read the following and visit here for the fixes in v10:
http://www.cerious.com/release_notes10.shtml#sp3_meta

Metadata is information stored about a file, usually stored within it. For example, metadata about an image may include such things as:

· Who created it.

· A description of the image.

· When was it created.

· What were the camera settings.

· Who may  use it.

Overview:

Metadata is known as and includes various types of information, including XMP, File Info (Photoshop), EXIF and IPTC.

The most common file metadata formats and names are:

XMP:

An extensive, rich, and extensible standard for storing all kinds of metadata in files of many different formats. It encompasses and effectively supersedes many earlier format-specific metadata standards, including EXIF and IPTC.

EXIF:

Information from a digital camera or scanner when the image is created (or modified manually). EXIF is the name for a metadata standard originally based on tags from the TIFF file format, with extensions, that could be stored in TIFF and other file types. Today EXIF is most often stored as XMP.

IPTC:

Information supplied by a news agency or source and included with the image to make it easy to find who created it, why it was created, how it may be used, and so on. IPTC was originally stored in a block of information with its own format. Because IPTC included many fields applicable to wide use, and because it was the first real codified and supported standard, it was adopted widely for other uses. Today, like EXIF, it is stored as XMP.

Photoshop:

Photoshop has always had a File Info function which allows you to set up metadata. Most of its original fields were based on the original IPTC standard.

Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

66

Announcements / These Cerious Software Forums

« on: 2015-10-14 17:34:53 »

Thank you for your support of Cerious Software!

These Cerious Software forums are available due to customer request. They are intended for ThumbsPlus users to help each other.

Cerious Software offers Technical support for any Cerious Software product via e-mail.

Any questions, bug and crash reports or suggestions should all be sent to support@cerious.com

When you send e-mail to support@cerious.com it is assigned a case number and the system keeps this individual correspondence in a manageable order.

These forums are here for ThumbsPlus users to share ideas and give advice. They are not a support route. I will try to stop by to lend a hand but please note that in order to receive personal help from Cerious Software you need to e-mail support@cerious.com

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

67

ThumbsPlus v10 Questions / These Cerious Software Forums

« on: 2015-10-14 17:34:09 »

Thank you for your support of Cerious Software!

These Cerious Software forums are available due to customer request. They are intended for ThumbsPlus users to help each other.

Cerious Software offers Technical support for any Cerious Software product via e-mail.

Any questions, bug and crash reports or suggestions should all be sent to support@cerious.com

When you send e-mail to support@cerious.com it is assigned a case number and the system keeps this individual correspondence in a manageable order.

These forums are here for ThumbsPlus users to share ideas and give advice. They are not a support route. I will try to stop by to lend a hand but please note that in order to receive personal help from Cerious Software you need to e-mail support@cerious.com

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

68

ThumbsPlus v10 Questions / ThumbsPlus v10 database size information

« on: 2015-10-14 16:29:11 »

The default ThumbsPlus database is an MS Access database with a .tpdb8 extension.

Out of the box the ThumbsPlus v10 database has a 2Gb size limit. For quite some time there have been many ways to configure and/or use other database options that will allow for a larger size capacity even when using this default MS Access database.

Configuring a new database using the option to "store thumbnails in files" increases the size capacity giving you the room to thumbnail millions of image files!

This option, instead of storing the thumbnails in the database itself, stores the thumbnails in a file that resides in the same folder that houses the database. This does increase the amount of space needed for the thumbnail/data storage, but gives the ability to manage much larger quantities of thumbnails in a single database.

In the first releases of ThumbsPlus v10 the default database settings (WITHOUT the option on to "store thumbnails in files"), allowed for approximately 200,000 thumbnails.

In ThumbsPlus v10 build 4004, the following database settings will allow for approximately 400,000 thumbnails if you do NOT use the database option to "store thumbnails in files".

160 x 160 sized thumbnails
True color (24-bit)
JPEG quality 80%



Note that making smaller thumbnails will increase the amount that a single database can store. Using the option to "store thumbnails in files" increases the capacity to store millions of thumbnails.

In ThumbsPlus v10 there is also the available option to increase your current database size by running a Python script that Cerious Software will provide upon request. This means that if you have a default database that is nearing the size limit of 2 Gb's, running this script will increase the available space to allow for storage of millions of thumbnails and their associated data! I will be glad to post the script and instructions here if that is requested.

You can also use other databases with ThumbsPlus that are virtually limitless in size. You can read more about these client/server databases here:
http://www.cerious.com/databases.shtml

I hope that this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

69

Announcements / ThumbsPlus v10 FAQ

« on: 2015-07-24 16:24:19 »

Please see our new FAQ for many of the answers to your questions about installation and Windows permissions:

http://www.cerious.com/faq_thumbs10.shtml

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

70

ThumbsPlus v10 Questions / ThumbsPlus v10 FAQ

« on: 2015-07-24 16:23:59 »

Please see our new FAQ for many of the answers to your questions about installation and Windows permissions:

http://www.cerious.com/faq_thumbs10.shtml

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

71

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Can't uninstall TP9 after TP10 install

« on: 2015-07-22 12:44:21 »

After you run the new installer you will be able to install/uninstall v9 successfully.

It is up on the pages now:
http://www.cerious.com/

Laura Shook
Cerious Software

72

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Can't uninstall TP9 after TP10 install

« on: 2015-07-21 12:30:33 »

Thank you for your support of Cerious Software.

Yes, the v10 release installer has problems!

We have built another installer that will fix all of the issues for anyone that has run into problems with saving preferences and issues uninstalling v9. This installer will not allow ThumbsPlus preferences to be put in folders that Windows does not allow write access to.

This new installer has a lot of information, an express install and an advanced install.

There are a couple of other small bugs that are fixed in this new build as well.

I hope to be sending a message about its availability this afternoon or tomorrow morning. There will be more information about the installer issues and bug fixes in the release notes.

Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

73

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / ThumbsPlus Sorting should work for everybody now!

« on: 2015-07-16 11:16:35 »

YAY!

74

General Discussion / Cerious Software Forums

« on: 2015-07-14 15:21:32 »

ThumbsPlus Users,

Thank you all for your support of Cerious Software!

These forums were created and are housed so that ThumbsPlus users can help each other and talk about the products.

Cerious Software is a very small software shop. We have a support system that must be used when you need technical or sales support. The forums are here as a support system between ThumbsPlus users. Cerious doesn't officially monitor or staff these groups.

When you have ThumbsPlus questions or problems please e-mail support@cerious.com

If there is a BETA in progress you need to send BETA reports to support@cerious.com

When you send a message to support@cerious.com you will be assigned a case number. This is very helpful to me as when a case is opened and correspondence begins I have the total picture from beginning to end. I don't have to look anywhere else except in that particular case history. So if there is something that is being discussed here and you want our input, take it to support@cerious.com. Everyone should also feel free to e-mail me personally at lshook@cerious.com at any time.

On only a few occasions have I removed a post from these forums. I do have the right and will exercise this right if I think that a post is not suitable.

Please try to be fair to Cerious Software so that we can keep these groups here for you. I want ThumbsPlus users to be able to correspond with each other in these forums. Obviously negative posts are inevitable. I tolerate them. We learn a lot from them! However, I will remove excessive Cerious Software flames as well as any inappropriate posts.

We are working very hard to improve our software and we hope that you will LOVE ThumbsPlus v10!

Please let me know if I can ever help with sales or technical support by e-mailing me at support@cerious.com

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software, Inc.

75

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / ThumbsPlus Sorting should work for everybody now!

« on: 2015-07-14 14:26:18 »

> This works in version 10.
>
> Try this:
> Don't go to options and preference window. For some reason it does not work (for me anyway). I have changed it in the bar displayed on top of the thumbnails. 1st Column = Name, 2nd Column = None, gives me old classic sorting like TP7. If I change the 1st Column to Numeric Name, it gives me the modern number order.

Thank you for posting the work around for using the toolbar instead of the preferences to address the sorting changes!



If anyone has trouble with sorting please ask. I think that we have finally made this work for everybody!



Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software
support@cerious.com