Messages

916

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / 2nd computer

« on: 2011-09-25 16:26:38 »

Hi David,

I'm sorry for not being more clear -- how she accesses the database doesn't matter. But once in ThumbsPlus, the way that you browse to your image files is important. Both users should go to these shared image folders through Network Places in the tree panel (or, use the same UNC path, or, both computers could have a drive letter mapped to the same network folder, I guess).

What should be avoided is that one user (you) sees the photos as regular local files and the other has to go through the network. Remember, you're sharing the database. So, if you make a thumbnail for an image named "C:\mypix\holidays\nycity.jpg", that will only work for you. When ThumbsPlus on the other computer sees that record, it won't work because there is no \mypix\holidays\nycity.jpg on ITS drive C: (and if by chance there were, it would still not be the file that's on YOUR drive C:). So, always use a common method of accessing those shared images.

Regards,

-Daan-

917

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / 2nd computer

« on: 2011-09-25 09:38:38 »

If multiple computers share a database, they have to access their image files using the same paths, in this case presumably through Network Places in the tree. If David has been creating the thumbnails for these images through their local (to him) paths, for instance 'D:\MyPhotos\Holiday.jpg' and Debra tries to view them by that same path from her machine, it won't work correctly. I think that is what is going on here.

918

General Discussion / Can TP8 write iptc captions to a border under every photo?

« on: 2011-09-12 11:59:59 »

> Keeping the original image width and height and quality [..]

..should not be a grave concern if you use the 'rebuild thumbnails at printer resolution'-option. It won't re-sharpen the images, but rebuilding them should go a long way towards preserving their quality. So, maybe this catalog idea has some merit after all.

btw, to use the Print Catalog dialog in a regular tabbed (non-wizzard) fashion, see Options | Preferences | General and turn 'use wizzard dialogs' off.

919

General Discussion / Can TP8 write iptc captions to a border under every photo?

« on: 2011-09-10 14:44:29 »

Yes, I was afraid it wasn't going to be easy. I just wanted to be sure that you knew which tools are available.

One thing that may help is to first bring all images to the same size using the Add Border command, preferably in a lossless format like PNG or LZH-compressed TIF. When you've done that, you can run a second batch that adds an additional border at the bottom (which is then at the same position for all images) hopefully making it easier to stamp the IPTC data into it in a consistent manner.

920

General Discussion / Can TP8 write iptc captions to a border under every photo?

« on: 2011-09-10 13:34:01 »

> I need to batch write iptc captions to every photo at the bottom of the picture.  Images vary in size but I usually add a 600 pixel white border below every image as it is large enough to contain my largest captions, then placing the top of my left aligned text at x=0, y=-590 (y must be negative to measure from the bottom up) so it fits nicely 10 pixels under the image. Software that can place the text just where I want it on any size image as above, can't word wrap, arg!  I crop excess border in batch mode with Irfanview since it can figure out what is all white and crop the edges to that. I have TP7 Pro and can't find a way to do this.

TP7 has the necessary functions but if they will all work the way you want, I don't know. The devil is usually in the details..

In steps..:

[*]Resize images
[*]Use Transform | Crop/Add Border to add a border (use To a certain pixel size, or By a negative number of pixels)
[*]Use Image | Stamp to stamp the desired IPTC field in the border (click the small button to the right of Text to get to the IPTC fields). Fiddle with the positioning and sizing options to (hopefully) get the desired result. I doubt if text will be wrapped - didn't try..
[/list]

You can do all this from batch commands too.

921

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Tip Of The Day! help!!

« on: 2011-08-22 16:32:08 »

To download older versions, go to: http://www.cerious.com/archive.shtml

922

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Create PDF Thumbnails in TP8 Windows 7 64bit

« on: 2011-06-28 23:10:25 »

Well, the use of plug-ins requires a licensed copy of the Professional edition. If you have the standard edition, it will show that message instead of a proper thumbnail.

Some (not many) PDF files have a built-in preview image, and if I recall correctly ThumbsPlus can create a thumbnail from those without requiring the Ghostscript plug-in.  To give that a try you can right-click on a PDF file, choose 'Configure Type' and set the 'Load Using' value to 'Poly Image' (or if that doesn't work, to 'Internal'). Still, the odds that your particular PDFs can be thumbnailed that way are rather small and if you also want to really open or convert PDF's, you'll still need the plug-in (it's great to have though - I often use it to open PDF's and save them as high-resolution TIF files which I can then edit with very little loss of quality).

923

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Create PDF Thumbnails in TP8 Windows 7 64bit

« on: 2011-06-28 22:23:12 »

You can download the 32-bit version of GhostScript from http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/GPL/gpl902.htm

924

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Create PDF Thumbnails in TP8 Windows 7 64bit

« on: 2011-06-28 17:36:05 »

Assuming that you have installed Ghostscript as required, you may still have to enter its location under Options | Ghostscript PS/EPS/PDF.

925

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Offline Disks

« on: 2011-06-20 18:01:49 »

> Is there a way to remove my offline disks information in 7.0 SP2?

Yes - just right-click on the name of the volume in question (in the tree panel) and pick 'Remove Thumbnails'. When they're all gone, the volume should disappear from the tree too (or press Ctrl-F5 to refresh it).

btw, to regain the space that the thumbnail records of these volumes occupy in your database (even when they have been 'deleted'), you'll also have to run File | Database | Compact.

926

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Can I install Python on my Windows 7 PC?

« on: 2011-06-20 11:34:30 »

ThumbsPlus is using a file python27.dll that is stored in its 'Bin' subfolder, where the Thumbs8.exe program itself also resides. If you create a separate Python installation, it should not affect ThumbsPlus at all.

Theoratically, if ThumbsPlus for any reason cannot load its own Python.dll, it may invoke another one if that other Python dll is in the Windows folder, in the System folder or anywhere on the Path. That seems unlikely though.

For more information on Dynamic-Link Library Search Order in Windows, see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682586(v=vs.85).aspx

927

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Configuring DNG Files

« on: 2011-06-14 23:15:16 »

My pleasure! As for the speed, I now suspect that the DigiRaw 'quick interpolation' option is something different altogether than the 'use embedded preview image' option for Digicam. Have you tried using the latter? It really should be much faster - approximately as fast as thumbnailing regular JPG's!

928

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Configuring DNG Files

« on: 2011-06-14 21:14:11 »

.DNG files are supported through the Digicam plug-in, which is actually two plug-ins: Digicam and Digiraw. In the .DNG file type configuration, instead of defining it as identical to .PEF, you'd set Load File Using to Cerious Plug-in, with in the field to its right either plug_digicam or plug_digiraw. That would allow you to choose the other plug-in for DNG files if you don't want to change the one that is being used for your Pentax files.

To fine-tune how either plug-in works, see Options | Digicam Plug-in and Options | DCRaw Plug-in (the latter is actually for Digiraw).

One of the options there is if (instead of developing the full raw data, which takes time) you want to use the embedded preview image for thumbnail creation, slideshows, viewing, etc, to speed things up. In the Digicam settings, this option is called 'Load embedded JPEG or thumbnail for..' on the General tab. In the Digiraw settings, it's named 'Quick Interpolation for'. Use that for thumbnailing and it should work much faster.

The exposure equalization that you are seeing is probably due to a DCRAW feature that causes it to develop raw images such that none of their pixels are clipped (even if they really should be, due to over-exposure). I'm not sure which of its settings affects this.. it could be 'load 16 bits per channel' or (if that's inactive) 'automatic brightness level'. You may want to experiment with those, or try plug_digicam instead of plug_digiraw for the 'Load File Using' setting.

929

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / SOLVED: Stupid user: Why isn't ctrl-enter viewing?

« on: 2011-06-14 20:08:29 »

The thumbnails may load faster if you configure TP8 to not show any user fields beneath them.

930

ThumbsPlus v7-v9 Questions / Stupid user: Why isn't ctrl-enter bringing up large view?

« on: 2011-06-13 13:20:57 »

Options | Preferences | General | Default Action may not be set correctly. Or it may be a file that ThumbsPlus cannot open.