|
What is Viewer2?Viewer2 is a free image viewer and a searchable image database that tries to do things a bit differently, combining the freedom of the real world and the power of computers. Viewer2 does not leave the user or the computer out of the equation, using the best features of both. Viewer2 is also very powerful for quickly sorting uncategorized images. Why would you choose Viewer2 over other well-known image viewers?Viewer2 is both lightweight and robust. It provides a modern user interface that is well suited for quick organization of files based on their physical location on the screen. Just like you would pile photos on the workdesk in real life. As any modern catalog should, Viewer2 supports tags. Tags are fully searchable and adding them is quick and simple. Viewer2 has a database which allows you to track and search your images with similar queries you use to search the web every day. The search is simple but very powerful. You can search for files based on their file name, location, size and so on. How does Viewer2 help you to organize a lot of images?You are not restricted to a normal list-style view of the images. You will see all of the folder or all the search results at once. You are free to navigate and zoom in the view to take a closer look. This allows for a very fast way to pick images with your own eyes. You can treat the images as you would handle photos in the real world: move images of similar subjects into one pile for quick tagging and move interesting images in their own pile for later examination. Viewer2 helps you by automatically creating groups of images it thinks are related somehow. Images can be grouped by their features, including name, location and color. 86 responses to "Viewer2"Leave a Reply |
||
KurtOfConspiracy says:
May 13, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Looks very interesting.
Fix some flaws and it will be
great.
Xygen says:
May 23, 2007 at 1:57 am
Do you have plans for a Vista-compatible version?
kometbomb says:
May 23, 2007 at 11:59 am
Xygen: Absolutely. The main obstacle is that I don’t have access to Vista. Vista seems to block any traditional remote debugging quite efficiently by randomizing the base address of the program, so I can’t see where it actually crashes based on crash reports sent by other people.
EDIT: It works on Vista now (actually the bug that caused the crash was not Vista related per se, though I think Vista is much more strict when trying to read outside arrays etc.). Will update the installer tomorrow.
Matthias Ratzel says:
Jun 02, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Hello, I like your program very much, but I miss one feature.
Is it possible to write the tags in IPTC or XMP-Tags directly in the image and read IPTC or XMP-Tags from the image and synchronize them with the database?
kometbomb says:
Jun 03, 2007 at 1:41 am
To Matthias:
I have been experimenting with reading tags from the IPTC data. The IPTC build of the database tool simply looks for the existing Viewer2 tags in the IPTC data and adds them (which of course can lead into completely wrong tags etc.). I think I’ll add some kind of experimental reading of tags to the actual image viewer in case you and the other users want to test it (and suggest changes! :).
I’m not sure if I’ll add writing of tags (at least automatically) because of how I keep track of things: every file is recognized by it’s data and if I change the data even just a little bit, the same file looks like a completely different file.
Juergen May says:
Jul 12, 2007 at 7:43 am
Thank you for this fantastic program. I like it very much. But I’m missing the possibility to rotate a picture (90 degrees left or right) . Some photos I took in upright format. It would be nice if this feature would be integrated in an further version. It would be nicer, if the information would be stored in the database. It would be just great, if the rotation would be done automatically by the information of the photos exif data.
kometbomb says:
Jul 13, 2007 at 11:31 am
Rotation of images actually is in the code already but I haven’t added a button for it because I was too lazy to add code for saving the rotation angle in the database. :) Or, rather I was planning more comprehensive translation such as showing only a part of the image and some kind of bookmarks inside the image (think of automatically zooming in on details in a large picture) and of course something for adjusting the usual brightness, contrast etc.
I’ll include at least the rotation in the next release.
hans oosterholt says:
Aug 08, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Hello,
it seems to be a nice program but:
- at first a tried a file from magazine “Computer BILD”from Germany; does not work
- i tried to install different editions from the internet site but it does not work also,
- I only get a blue start screen,
- in the folder only is an xx.exe program, not an program-icon or a file with which I can start the program
- I every time unstalled the program and started again from the beginning; never a succesfull installation.
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??
Thanks for answering if possible.
Hans Oosterholt
Holland
Braun says:
Aug 08, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I am happy
Braun says:
Aug 08, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Windows XP
kometbomb says:
Aug 10, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Hans: That is perfectly normal, after installing the program, try double-clicking an JPEG file (e.g. on Windows desktop) and it should open in Viewer2. The installer makes Windows open all supported files in Viewer2 (currently only JPEG files).
Check out the video demos and you’ll hopefully get an idea how to use the browser (I agree things are a tad hidden and you just have to know where to look for them, sorry for that but Viewer2 is mostly made for me ;)
Fanky says:
Aug 23, 2007 at 10:35 am
First: Great!
But:
Missing one important thing (or not finding??):
- How to write the Tags given in viewer2 directly into the picture (maybe keywords IPTC).
Otherwise i am not able to use the tags in other programms and have a benefit from viewer2 in my daily work.
Thanks
Fanky
kometbomb says:
Aug 23, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hi Fanky,
Writing data directly in the image files is something I want to avoid (as long as possible). Which other programs do you use? I’m planning writing an export/import tool for other databases but I don’t really know which other programs people are going to use. And it is of course possible to make that tool simply write the tags to the IPTC data.
Fanky says:
Aug 23, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Kometbomb,
my steps are the following:
take the fotos
copy to PC, folder structure by year – month
Now i will put in further information into the iptc fields. For this i am searching for a program. At the moment i am trying: Irfanview, XNview and MS-Photoinfo to write the tags and imagequery to find the tagged fotos. Than i copy the found pictures (e.g. tag “beaches”) to a new folder and from this folder i am able to create an album for printout very fast.
While trying these programs i am not satisfied at all, everything is very time consuming.
What satisfied me most is your viewer2 because this is the way i have sorted my pictures in the non-digital age.
But i can use it only to view the pictures on screen, i am not able to use the given tags in other programs just to crate a photobook, etc.
kometbomb says:
Aug 23, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Well, if you can wait a bit I’ll add this feature (since there are at least two people that have use for it :)
Do you also need something to move the files physically?
Fanky says:
Aug 23, 2007 at 11:38 pm
This would be great :-)
For me it is only important to store the information within the picture. I am not sure what is easier to realize (IPTC or EXIF), but to store the tags within the jpg comment field will fulfill my needs totally. Because then i can search the tags within Irfanview, Xnview and do there all copy, rename etc. operations.
So if this feature is realized i have no need for something to move the files. This could be done very good with the programs mentioned above – so no need to invent something again.
Maybe the IPTC/EXIF tagging could be realised very easy with just a command line tool like exiftool (or maybe irfanview has implemented a command line option to save tags in future)
I have worked today 4 hours with your prog, unbelievable how easy photo sorting could be. Amazing!
Fanky
kometbomb says:
Aug 23, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Perfect, I’ll add that feature to dbtool. No need to obfuscate the viewer even more :) Also, I like the idea that there is not one huge program that is to be used for every operation, I prefer multiple smaller programs (as long as they play well along!). I myself still move images by hand in Explorer (or rather I have some automated things).
Glad that you like my program.
George says:
Oct 08, 2007 at 12:46 am
Nice interface reminds me on Apple software, i have only one question, can you program something like that to explore all my files on my computer checking emails and launching programs, like a shell replacement?
kometbomb says:
Oct 08, 2007 at 3:13 pm
George,
That is possible, at least the launcher is. I’ll try add a feature to the next version that simply loaded all files (and not only *.jpg) and if Viewer2 didn’t know how to view the file, it would launch it like Windows Explorer. Probably not that useful, but would give some insight how to improve it.
When I rewrite the software (it’s still a prototype, albeit an elaborate one), I will keep it completely open for all filetypes.
Andreas says:
Jan 15, 2008 at 12:45 am
I love this tool. I just miss a delete, move or create folder feature.
@George Hey great idea. This would help a lot to clean my 1,8 GB HDD.
Richard says:
Feb 13, 2008 at 9:25 pm
why arent my animations as smooth as in the demo video? . my animations are VERY fast ! O_O.. make a animation speed option? O_O
kometbomb says:
Feb 15, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Well Richard, you have a too good computer. :) I’ll address that problem in the next version.
achim says:
Mar 04, 2008 at 8:12 pm
works fine together with “wine” on ubuntu 7.10
thanks
Brainface says:
Mar 05, 2008 at 1:29 am
Very nice but although I’ve checked the “synchronize tags and ITPC keyword” box, Viewer is not able to find my with Windows Vista created IPTC keywords. A more reliable and simple tagging which works together with my other ITPC Softwares and Viewer2 would be perfect. Another desireable feature to me is the support of colour management.
But so far a really good program and I enjoy using it!!
kometbomb says:
Mar 05, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hmm, sounds like the data is in a different format. Could you send me an example of an image that has Vista IPTC data that doesn’t work in Viewer2?
Btw, I’ll get back to Viewer2 development very soon.
kcgoh says:
Mar 26, 2008 at 5:39 pm
cool! it’s build 4044 now and have its own icon now! i installed the build 2840 last few days ago (so u know how long i been with viewer2) and it’s not working with my tablet pc when it is in tablet mode. but now i have no problem with 4044, even in tablet mode, even with windows vista. thanks man, really appreciate it. keep up the good job!
Joe7 says:
Mar 28, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I have a collection of images in a directory where some files have the same name except of a leading underscore, e.g. IMG_3540 and _IMG_3540.
Neither fast find nor deep find are able to find the images without underscore. Search patterns like *35* or IMG* always select _IMG.. images only. Bug or feature? :-D
Philipp says:
May 08, 2008 at 3:08 am
Nice tool, I’m just starting to explore it and are really amazed! Thanks so much for making it free!
It would be awesome to have a gui for the IPTC exports as well….
Just one question: Maybe I’m too stupid, but I really found nothing about this in the manual: what are “file masks” for (the ones you get automatically asked for if you just start typing without hitting STRG+F before)? I don’t see any effect and have not found information about it…?!
kometbomb says:
May 08, 2008 at 9:34 am
Hi Philipp,
The file mask simply selects all files in the current view that have the text anywhere in the filename.
You can use Viewer2 itself to edit all the IPTC data if you enable synchronization in the config. After that, tags should equal IPTC keywords so you can in effect edit the keywords by adding removing tags (not perfect, I know).
anthex says:
May 20, 2008 at 9:26 am
http://www.digitoday.fi/page.php?page_id=66&news_id=200813682
..How about adding histogram based ‘find similar’ search to viewer2 ;)
kometbomb says:
Jun 16, 2008 at 9:05 pm
@anthex: “Soon”. ;)
maximillan says:
Aug 12, 2008 at 8:12 pm
any plans of update ?
phluxx says:
Aug 16, 2008 at 1:28 am
hi there!
this is the software i was looking for a loong time….thanks!
but i can’t really use it in a productive way. because:
i want to run it on my second monitor, while i’m using another prog on my main monitor. but neither switching the fullscreen knob off nor setting the resolution down to sth like 800×600 helps. it stays on fullscreen!
i’m using win vista x64.
would bei nice, if you could reply, cause this piece of software rocks!:)
kometbomb says:
Aug 16, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Hello people,
I’m currently busy being employed to work on a similar application so I haven’t been really interested doing the same on my spare time… So, sorry for no updates.
The black screen on the other monitor issue is something I can’t do anything about, since it’s caused by SDL not handling multiple screens properly. So, as long as SDL does that I can’t do much about it.
anonymous says:
Sep 19, 2008 at 2:42 am
I just found this neat program and am interested in using it as my image viewer but the installer didnt associate any filetypes although I asked it to.
Im on Vista btw.
Any ideas?
kometbomb says:
Sep 19, 2008 at 11:13 am
@anonymous: It could have something to do with Vista, maybe the program is not permitted to set filetype associations. You can try again on the command line (or the “Run…” prompt): viewer2.exe -assoc
If that fails, you can simply right click on a image file (only jpeg or png, currently) and coose “open with…” (or whatever it’s in Vista, and select Viewer2 from there. Be sure to check the checkbox that says something like “always open files in this program”.
Viv says:
Dec 18, 2008 at 12:19 am
This is indeed an amazing app… Well done dude…
If you get it to work closer to how the cooliris addon works for firefox then it would be way better though. Just like the controls and the movements in the cooliris addon.
Thanks
Valentin says:
Jan 25, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Hi there, this application looks really cool. I love the way images pop around.. still, there’s one thing that seems odd to me: can’t I look at the content of more than one folder at a time? I got many pictures sorted ok, but still I’d love to have an overview of all of them.
Keep up the good work :)
Valentin
kometbomb says:
Jan 25, 2009 at 9:05 pm
@Valentin:
Yep, that’s the case with the file system browser. However, you can achieve the same functionality using the search. Basically, you have to use the path: prefix for searches to find files using the path.
Here’s an example on the user manual page comments:
http://kometbomb.net/projects/viewer2/manual/#comment-385
Let me know if that didn’t help.
Wokoloko says:
Feb 11, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Hey,
a time ago I had a well working installation of Viewer2 on my computer. Then I moved the programm dir to a network drive, configured the paths and it worked fine. Now I´m in vacation and wanted to install a new local version.
But I have a problem running the “updatedb.exe”. Everytime the exe is started the following message appears:
“Caught teh exception
sqlite3_open fails”
Yes, it says “teh” ;-)
I tried several builds (4044, 3664 …).
All files were uninstalled before new installation.
Any idea what to do?
Greetings from Columbia
Woko
Wokoloko says:
Feb 11, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Hey again!
I fixed it. I had to remove the registry key under “current_user | software | viewer2″ manually.
Now I could run a complete installation.
Great program! Thx!
Ciao
Woko
kometbomb says:
Feb 11, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Great! As you might have guessed the software couldn’t open the database file and for some reason also couldn’t create it (missing path and such). I thought it would handle such situations but I have to look into it.
Btw, the “teh” is intentional, the error message in general is pretty uninformative so I went for the extra mile there… ;)
Volker says:
Jun 08, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I am having trouble installing Viewer2 on Windows XP. I get this message: “The installer you are trying to use is corrupted or incomplete.
This could be the result of a damaged disk. a failed download or a virus.
You may want to contact the author of this installer to obtain a new copy.” Got the same message with different versions of Viewer2 (2484, 4044, 4044-IT)
kometbomb says:
Jun 09, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Sounds like the file wasn’t downloaded completely, especially since all the installers say the same. Maybe you could try using a download manager.
Hawk says:
Jul 23, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Hey Komet
I found this program this weekend and I really love it. Thanks. Please keep developing :)
I’ve written a GUI replacement for the current dbtool. It’s not quite as fast, but it gets the job done.
It’s a work in progress ;)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=07UL0DHJ
If anyone has any bugs or suggestions they can mail me at hawksdev@gmail.com
(kometbomb if you don’t want this here feel free to remove the post)
Hawk says:
Jul 26, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Hey
Is it possible to remove the limitation of 2500 results from a search?
Maybe just make it an option if configuration to set the max amount of search results?
kometbomb says:
Aug 13, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I think I put a hard limit because of some performance issue. It most likely don’t work too well if the limit is raised (and so it’s not possible to change it), sorry. The new version doesn’t have this limitation, I hope to get something releaseable ready soon-ish.
CracKeRR says:
Aug 24, 2009 at 12:47 am
That’s best image viewer that i have ever seen in my life… Thanks.
HitMe WithIt says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 1:06 am
I just wanted to say this really is an amazing piece of software you’ve created! I haven’t even installed it yet! hehe!
I just sawit posted on freeare genius and watched a video of it in action.
Looks great so I’m downloading now and just wanted to say thanks.
(Of course I might return to tell you how it messed my whole PC up and etc etc…)
:)
Thanks.
HankD says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Hej!
Love this program, I’m tagging all my photos, works like a dream. Maybe a stupid question but can I export these tags so I can see them in i.e. Picasa? Best /Hank
kometbomb says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I’ve been planning to write a better tag exporting tool, now it’s only possible to export the Viewer2 tags as IPTC tags (i.e. they are written in the file and Picasa then probably reads the tags from the IPTC data).
See this for more help: http://kometbomb.net/projects/viewer2/manual/#toc-syncing-tags-and-iptc-keywords
HankD says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Ha! I was right, I was stupid. I see the tags in Picasa. I must say this program is really really good. I will now look for a donation button….
Best /Hank
Gerwald says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Hi!
This is da bomb… I hope you will develope furter.. I f i grow up i want to be just like you (i`m 32 though.. hmmm)
Alas i can not yet use it on my vista 64 machine… does anybody know a way around it… i`m a photographer and manipulation guy.. and this is simply the smartest thing i`ve ever seen…
kometbomb says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Thanks (but you would need to grow a bit younger… ;) ).
I don’t know about Vista but apart from file extension association (so that images open in Viewer2) it should install and run on a 64-bit Windows. I’m running Windows 7 x64 myself.
I’m working on a “2.0″ Viewer2 at the moment, in a leisurely pace so hang in there. The light table is a bit different, mostly aimed for quick tagging of files based on groups that you can create ad hoc (basically what it does now but a bit more automatic). Search results, directories and such open in a traditional file view with thumbs and then you can take a selection of images to the light table. So, I’m definitely developing it further (again, based on what I think it should do). I’ll try to post a preview video when I have made it a little less ugly-looking. The good news are that I think most of the really technical things are solved and I just need to revamp the GUI.
Gerwald says:
Sep 17, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Tnx a lot.. i will find a way
Stein says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 12:06 am
I came across your software today, and I really love it – it could be the best image viewer I have ever seen :)
As it seems like you are still developing (any schedule?:) ), can I come with a couple of wishes?
1) To set the background color
2) Somehow to set Viewer 2 to open in with a specific directory or filter?
Zevel says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 3:47 am
I saw the video that showed how the program works.
I have a hard time imagining how it would scale to a very large number of images – couple of hundred thousands.
Can it?
kometbomb says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 11:21 am
1) This seems to be quite important so I guess I should add color customizing
2) The new version already does this, at least for directories
My schedule is very loose but since I use the program myself there’s constant progress. I’ll try to post a preview of the new version soon.
kometbomb says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 11:34 am
A hundred thousand images may be something that is simply not possible to manage visually (not to mention running out of memory etc.). That is if you have every image on the light table at the same time.
What I’m doing with the new version is that even if you have thousands of images, you will work only with a subset of it. For example, you would first search for images with your pet’s name, then take untagged images on the light table and start grouping by a very broad basis — images with what the pet is doing (playing, sleeping) — and then take each of those subsets on the light table and group again (sleeps on the couch, sleeps on the floor, plays with a ball, plays with other animals). It’s also much faster to tag if there’s already some information with the images such as when the photo was taken or in which directory is it.
Shekhar says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Hi Kometbomb: I came across your software today and really like it. Does your software work on Vista 64-bit version? Have you been able to test it on that platform? I would appreciate if you could comment. Thanks.
Shekhar says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Please ignore my previous post about the 64-bit question. I didn’t read the earlier posts and I have my answer. I will install it on my vista 64 and start using it today
Paul says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I came across your app after it was featured on freewaregenius.com, and
I’ve got to say it seems to be the best image tagger/viewer I’ve come
across. Very well done.
Some bugs and suggestions – I don’t know how many of these will still
apply if you’re revamping the interface.
General
* Menu bare needs more opacity – hard to make out icons when there’s
stuff underneath.
* It would be nice to be able to open an image in an external program
(F4 to open in external program? not sure how you’d handle having
multiple images selected).
* When using the tag/find popups the enter key on the numeric keypad
isn’t recognised properly.
* When adding tags viewer2 doesn’t trim leading (and possibly trailing)
spaces in the tag.
* Deleting a file deletes it permanantly rather than respecting the
system setting of sending files to the recycle bin.
Tags Sidebar could be more intelligent
* Add “Visible Tags” category – Tags on currently visible images.
maybe it appears only when some thumbnails are offscreen.
* Add “Selected” category – Tags on currently selected images.
* Remember which categories are collapsed/expanded.
Image View
* Can’t delete tags using the sidebar in the image view.
* Allow middle click to drag the image around the screen.
* Pressing escape to go back to the thumbnail view rather than quit
the app?
* Someway to see image information (move the mouse to the bottom of
the screen?)
* Filename, filesize, modified, tags, etc.
* Mouse sensitivity in the filmstrip feels a bit low
Thumbnail view
* If you zoom in so that the thumbnail is scaled to be larger than
it’s real size (i.e. viewer2 is set to use 64px thumbnails and
you’ve zoomed in to the point where the thumbnails are being
displayed at larger than 64px) and then hover the mouse over it
and wait for the file info to popup the thumbnail is shrunk which
looks odd.
* It would be nice to be able to scroll around using the keyboard
(shift+cursor keys perhaps).
* Maybe group folders seperatly to files (already happens when you use
the parent button on the toolbar).
* On an image with a lot of tags the popup can be so wide one end is
off the screen.
RIck says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Tried it, but gave up after not being able to figure how to to import my pictures. Something even the documentation skips over. #fail
kometbomb says:
Sep 18, 2009 at 7:03 pm
You don’t have to import anything unless you want to search for images.
To add entire directories: http://kometbomb.net/projects/viewer2/manual/#toc-adding-complete-directories
Antony says:
Sep 22, 2009 at 9:45 pm
very interesting program)
but it will be more useful if author think about some options for mouse buttons for example. maybe it necessary for somebody to zoom picture by left-click-red-line (don’t know how it called originally), but program can zoom by mouse scroll wheel and +- keys at numpad also. so i think that for somebody like me scroll zoomed picture by LMB instead of MMB is more useful.
sorry for my english, i taught it very bad.
K. V. says:
Sep 25, 2009 at 4:46 am
For one, the top menu (or main menu) would be nice if you could rearrange. Currently it is conflicting with my RocketDock … :) Overall nice app and runs pretty smoothly on a old P4 pc. ;)
SCA says:
Sep 28, 2009 at 7:42 am
Looks like something I could use (being a photographer). But…I can’t get the cursor to be visible. It only kind of flickers in and out of visibility, sometimes disappearing altogether. Looks NOTHING like the video. Cursor shows clearly on the right side monitor, vanishes or flickers briefly on the left monitor where your app runs.
I have a dual monitor, quad processor, 4GB RAM, 1.8TB disk space system. XP PRO SP3
alex says:
Sep 28, 2009 at 4:59 pm
1. uncomfortable unfriendly interface
2. hard guided
3. buggy
4. looks cool :)
Fritz says:
Sep 29, 2009 at 12:56 am
When will the new version be finished? I hardly can’t wait!
InTheater says:
Sep 29, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Is any option to get a portable version that I can copy into my portable hardisk used for pictures ?
Martin says:
Sep 30, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Hi!
First: Congratualations – very intuitive surface! It’s fun to work with!
Wish: I want to work with the pictures I found by Tag. E.g. to copy them or to use them in other software. Question: Is (or will – when yes, when?) there a possibility to copy (not move!) the files physically to another location or to copy them to the clipboard?
Jason says:
Oct 07, 2009 at 11:29 am
i love this software, it is cool! but it runs slow in windows7.
luca says:
Oct 10, 2009 at 5:23 pm
simply thanks
mike chiao says:
Oct 13, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I’m very happy to see that the asian characters are shown properly, but the picture name (Chinese) under viewing shown in the window title is messed up, any idea?
donald says:
Oct 28, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Two requests/recommendations;
1. Need a shortcut key for returning UP to parent folder. Sorry can’t find it if already there.
2. Maybe create a simplified version (a ‘viewer2_lite’ perhaps), smaller foot print, for speedy browsing and viewing only. Without tagging DB etc.
Other than that, this bloody brilliant! I use this on Vista 32bit, slowed down a couple of times and a crash. I prefer this to Piclens/Cooliris on Firefox mainly because of the easy shortcut keys.
Menu wise, this reminds me of FaststoneMax, I can understand how it may bemuse people – i.e. Its just a blue screen!
Any chance of letting us change the menu icons? – as there’s not much to skin.
I saw this originally at freewaregenius.com :-)
Very nice work!
Fred says:
Nov 18, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Hi,
I’m pretty impressed by the tool. Is there a description (even just sketchy) of the algorithm used to render the “parallax scrolling” display of pictures?
kometbomb says:
Nov 18, 2009 at 5:16 pm
It just basically starts from the center of the screen and draws to the left and right from the current selected thumbnail. The starting position is adjusted by mouse X movement. When the next thumb would be drawn outside the screen, the position is wrapped just like text line wrapping works (reset X, increase/decrease Y) and the thumb size is scaled a bit smaller. There’s some fine tuning involved but that’s basically how the algorithm works.
I suggest you first create a simple line wrapping thumbnail view (from top to bottom, left to right) and then start experimenting with starting from top-left but not from the first thumbnail, the starting thumbnail index being controlled by the mouse X coordinate. Then move the first thumbnail to the center and draw thumbs to the left and then to the right and there you have it. :)
Fred says:
Nov 19, 2009 at 3:03 pm
thanks.
Is the speed and the scaling purely linear, or is it something more smooth, to please the eyes?
kometbomb says:
Nov 19, 2009 at 4:10 pm
It’s smooth, generally done like this: value = value * 0.9 + target_value * 0.1
It makes it easy to “animate” parameters because you just set the target value. Similarly, you get a good looking animation since there’s a curve (when target_value is close to value, the change is slower).
Sven says:
Jan 02, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Works great – simple and easy to use – I am really impressed (especially in comparison to some other commercial offers :-) !
I choose to use it as the standard viewer, so there is one question left: Program seems to read all image files in a directory at startup (association of filetype to viewer2 and double-click), i.e. before “clicked” file is displayed. No problem for fast disks, but usability goes down drastically for slow media with many files per directory.
I already tried all (? – I hope) settings in the configuration, switches work as described, but this behaviour does not change …
Any plans to get the first image displayed faster and do the rest in the background while the first pic is being watched ?
Again: Really good tool !!
kometbomb says:
Jan 02, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Yep, it’s not possible to change that but if I ever get the next version ready, it works better in that too (it loads stuff fully in the background after the clicked image is displayed). However, if you let it finish the next time will be quite fast since the program sees the same files are there.
Oliver says:
Jan 08, 2010 at 8:01 am
any mac-version planed in the future?
thank you and kind regards,
oliver
kometbomb says:
Jan 08, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Sorry, no. Have you tried it under a Windows emulator?
Taras says:
Jan 30, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Remove bugs, change the “beautiful” icon, change the background of the program and add options to optimize – and your program will surely be in leaders (at least I would have enjoyed it for sure).
Sorry if incorrect translation.
Dave B says:
Feb 04, 2010 at 11:15 pm
kometbomb, Very nice app, good concept, a couple comments from someone who spent a fair amount of time today looking for a solid ‘Tagging’ app (So far you have it if it were a bit more forgiving for large numbers of photos)
There are a few things I would personally like to see in the app to help with dealing with larger numbers of untagged/sorted pictures
Additional sorting options would be great:
More control over the Directory sort, to allow you to sort by directory depth, IE: Group by strict single directory, by parent, by grandparents, etc… this may be possible with just a slightly different visual organizing scheme (Nodal tree pyramid type view? who knows) however it could be done, it would help a lot for breaking down large directory trees for useful tagging.
A sort by ‘color’ would be nice, just a rough color taken from a mipped thumbnail would be sweet once you get past the overall general tagging.
I’d like to see the ability to ‘Break up’ larger clouds of pictures further without disturbing the non-selected items, ex: sort only the Selected items by directory/view/name/etc.
Make it a little easier to remove tags from images, after a certain number it seems like they stop getting highlighted red? so control-clicking wont remove it
dbtool options:
Add tags by directory/path also with the -fuzzy instead of just the filename?
Can you add tags with the commandline?
a way to display tags, used tags, maybe a Tag Cloud itself, where you could combine and associate tags with each other
I’ve had a few crashes while saving the layouts after changing tags on larger layouts.
Overall pretty damn sweet, little more polish and idiotproofing and it would be a good sell to quite a few people! ;)
kometbomb says:
Feb 04, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Some of that is already implemented in the next version, for example the tag cloud thing. Also, the tagging is done a bit more cleverly in that you can have groups inside groups which makes it possible to “subgroup” groups like you described. I think I described that in an earlier post if you want to know more.
Alt+C should still sort and group by color, it’s an unofficial feature but should work nonetheless.
I’m indeed trying to make the new version a bit more idiot-proof and polished, which is probably 95 percent of the extra work needed before I can release even a preview… you can do stuff quick and dirty only for so long. :) So far I have had to create a simple dialog system from scratch but it should make it easier to add new things.