Thumbnail Index Generator for JPEG Images under RISC OS
Generates HTML index pages and corresponding thumbnails for a gallery of JPEG images
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Searching Albums by Key Words
Now Pic_Index uses the jpgs file and the comments file to allow searching of albums and sets of albums by key words. There is also a comment editor built-in to Pic_Index to allow easy entering/editing of keywords and comments.
Key words may be added to the comments string in the comments file after a separator character. This character is user-definable, but is set by default as the hash character (#). A suitable alternative could be the pipe character (|).
Any words added after the separator character in a comment are ignored by Pic_Index, but are be available in the comments file to be searched by the search application. The limit is a total comment length of 255 characters.
Thus my picture of a diving duck with the comment "Bottoms up!" could also have other appropriate keywords added:
Bottoms up!#duck dive reflection waterSearching for any of the words in the comment field will find this image - duck, bottom, water and so on - as well as any other matching images.
Pictures containing people might not have their name in the actual comment caption, but including name(s) after the separator would allow all images with that name in the keyword field to be found.
The search program recurses through directories, allowing, for example, a whole CD of albums to be searched in one action.
It works reasonably fast, but it must be faster than searching 'by hand'!
How useful it will be to you depends how consistent you are in using sensible keywords!
For example, the sample album available on this web site, when searched for the word 'reflect' finds the following images for which it has created the following linked results album. You will see the entire comment string below the image with its absolute path reference.
Clicking on the thumbnail will load the original in the real thing (this is only a picture!).
A new feature where notes in text form can be associated with an image and linked from the image page also allows the search feature to optionally search these notes in addition to the comments files.
This new links feature is shown in the sample album.
The Comment Editor
The comment editor displays a thumbnail of the main image, has left and right navigation arrows, a comments and key-word editable fields, and a Cancel and OK button.
Double-clicking on the thumbnail, which is derived from the main image on the fly, and is therefore independent of the album thumbnail, sends a Filer_Run command which can load the main image into a suitable JPEG display program for more detailed examination. A suitable program is David Thomas' PrivateEye, or, for Iyonix use as it's compatible, SwiftJPEG from Hipposoft, linked from the links page.
In version 1.20e and later, rotation arrows allow lossless rotation of images provided sufficient free memory is available.
Master Indexes
Versions from 1.11i onwards also have a master index making facility which will construct a text-link index from a directory containing a directory of albums. By starting at the lowest level and working up the hierarchy, linked index pages can be made for a complex structure of album directories.
Auto-control of Text Anti-aliasing
From 1.11h on, a utility has been added which can automagically predict a suitable background colour, against which RISC OS can anti-alias its text, by examining a chosen background texture tile. I am indebted to Richard Murray for this bespoke utility.
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a random user-quote:
"A potent piece of software." Lyndsay Gallon
page accessed: Saturday, July 5, 2008