Very Computer

scan hdisk for images and create thumbnails

Does anyone know of a program that can scan the hdisk for all image
files and then produce a browsable interface with thumbnails?

i would like to index my images by category for future reference and
Postscript document creation.

What tools would anyone recommend?

will it be necessary to copy the images into a database and then
manually categorize them?  if so, has anyone with experience doing
this anything to recommend?

and TIA

I believe it was gaius.petronius who said...

Quote:> scan hdisk for images and create thumbnails

> Does anyone know of a program that can scan the hdisk for all image
> files and then produce a browsable interface with thumbnails?

> i would like to index my images by category for future reference and
> Postscript document creation.

> What tools would anyone recommend?

> will it be necessary to copy the images into a database and then
> manually categorize them?  if so, has anyone with experience doing
> this anything to recommend?

> and TIA

 I got 40 hits when I searched Freshmeat with 'image index'.

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8:55pm  up 58 days, 23:37,  6 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.00

I have used Zgal gallery generator with good results, but it only works on
files in the current directory, though if you know a bit of perl, you could
modify it yourself, or ask the author nicely

feh. http://www.linuxbrit.co.uk
And use the image script he uses to generate the thumbs for the
website.

Quote:> i would like to index my images by category for future reference and
> Postscript document creation.

> What tools would anyone recommend?

> will it be necessary to copy the images into a database and then
> manually categorize them?  if so, has anyone with experience doing
> this anything to recommend?

For more stuff on this, http://www.photo.net
There's a guide on web-publishing, it tells how to store images(in pcd
format). You would like to go in for a storage format that is
lossless.

cheers
-z

Well, Konqueror can do that, for one.  I'm not sure what format the
thumbnails are stored in...

OK, they're stored as JPG images, in .kde/share/thumbnails.  I don't
immediately see any rhyme or reason to the series of oddly-named
subdirectories you have to wade through to get to them, but they are indeed
on disk, and in a format viewable with the GIMP.  I could not get any of
them to display with Image Magick for some reason.

Quote:> Does anyone know of a program that can scan the hdisk for all image
> files and then produce a browsable interface with thumbnails?

Don't know about that right off.  Using what's readily available, one
solution might be to write a script to find all image files, then put
symlinks to them in one common place, and then use Konqueror to thumbnail
them.  That would probably have limitations in terms of number though.

Quote:> will it be necessary to copy the images into a database and then
> manually categorize them?  if so, has anyone with experience doing
> this anything to recommend?

Manually categorizing them is the only way to go unless they have meaningful
filenames.  What sort of classification depends on what you need to do with
them.

I'm currently cataloging about 15,000 images.  It's slow going, but I've
picked up the pace thanks to an invention that I conceived and kind folks
here helped me figure out how to realize.  It's many times faster than
viewing thumbnails and dragging them around by hand.

I have a series of scripts that work with each other.  The sort script takes
a directory and a delay factor as arguments.  It runs  a for/do loop on the
directory, then passes each filename to the classify script.

The classify script uses Image Magick via the display command to throw each
image up on-screen, then it delays for the assigned delay factor, then
kills the display program, giving the focus back to the console.  Then the
classify script scans the keyboard for a keypress and passes that to a case
statement which then moves the image just displayed to a new directory
based on the key pressed.  The arrangement works well, though it's not very
flexible, as all of these keypresses and target directories are hard-coded
into the classify script.  When I run into something that could fit into
multiple categories, I have to just pick the closest one and move on, or
else stop and hack the classify script and the target directory structure
to add a new category.

I'm finding that almost all of my categories are too broad, and I'm going to
have to go back and refine each of the intermediate holding areas with a
new hard-coded script, or else develop some more flexible way of handilng
that whole aspect of the process.  Be that as it may, as least they're
loosely grouped now, instead of being an enormous hodgepodge.

It would be better if the image could remain on-screen until you're ready to
classify it, but I couldn't find a way to give the focus back to the
console.  The delay is a kludge, but it's workable.

All in all, it's about the best I could do short of having a program that
handled the keyboard input internally, then returned it to the calling
program as its exit status or some such.  Perhaps a hacked version of Image
Magick or the like, but that would be involved.

My solution is something short of elegant, but I only have about 9,000
images left unclassified.  It's at least getting me there.

--
Michael McIntyre  zone 6b in SW VA
Silvan Pagan
umount /mnt/windows&&mke2fs /dev/hde1
www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/index.html

You might want to try a program called Compupic.  It should do what
you're looking for ... even across networked computers.  Go to
http://www.photodex.com and download.  There is a charge for the
"Professional" version but they allow downloads of the fully functional
program for home use.
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In what language are these written?

Quote:> The classify script uses Image Magick via the display command to throw each
> image up on-screen, then it delays for the assigned delay factor, then
> kills the display program, giving the focus back to the console.  Then the
> classify script scans the keyboard for a keypress and passes that to a case
> statement which then moves the image just displayed to a new directory
> based on the key pressed.

i get it.

Would you be willing to post the scripts?

Quote:

> All in all, it's about the best I could do short of having a program that
> handled the keyboard input internally, then returned it to the calling
> program as its exit status or some such.

if you post the scripts i will recode them in C and see if i can fix
that problem.  but i will need to understand ImageMagick first

Quote:> My solution is something short of elegant, but I only have about 9,000
> images left unclassified.  It's at least getting me there.

Seems like a good idea.
I'd like t give it a try.