<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html><head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"><title>fotoxx quick guide</title></head><body>
<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Fotoxx Quick Guide</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
</small>
<table style="width: 100%; font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 180px; font-weight: bold;">File menu</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">File Management<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Image Gallery<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show window of thumbnail images -
files in the current directory (<a href="#navigation">more</a>).</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Open RAW File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Open a RAW file from a
digital camera and convert to tiff (<a href="#open_raw">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Open Image File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>File open dialog - open
an image file to view or edit (<a href="#open_image_file">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Open Recent File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Choose from a list of the most recent files opened.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save to Same File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save current image file back to itself, with no overwrite confirmation.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save to New File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save current (modified) image to a selected file</small><small> (<a href="#save_file">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Print Image File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Arrange images and text
in a layout for printing (<a href="#print">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Trash Image File<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Move an image file into
the fotoxx trash bin (<a href="#trash">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Rename Image File</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Rename (series of) image
files, add sequence numbers (<a href="#rename">more</a>).</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Quit fotoxx<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Exit from fotoxx.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Area menu</span><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Sub-areas within images where edits can be confined <small>(<a href="#area_functions">more</a>)</small>.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Select Area -mouse</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Outline an area for
subsequent editing using the mouse (<a href="#select_area_mouse">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Select Area -color<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Select an area by color and range (not implemented).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show Area<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show outline of current area (<a href="#show_hide_area">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Hide Area<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Remove outline, for better visibility of edit results (<a href="#show_hide_area">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Invert Area<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Replace an area with everything outside the area (<a href="#invert_area">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Delete Area<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Remove the selected area (<a href="#delete_area">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top; font-weight: bold;">Edit menu</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">These functions modify
image files <small>(<a href="#edit_procedure">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Select Area</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Outline an area for
subsequent editing using the mouse (<a href="#select_area">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Clear Select Area</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Remove area - subsequent
edits apply to the entire image.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Flatten Brightness</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Flatten the brightness
distribution to enhance detail (<a href="#brightness_distribution">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Tune Image</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Edit brightness, color, saturation (<a href="#tune">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Remove Red Eyes</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Click on a red-eye to
remove it (<a href="#red_eye">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Blur Image<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Blur an image (smoothen
skin) (<a href="#blur">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Sharpen Image</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Sharpen a blurred image</small><small>
(<a href="#sharpen">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Reduce Noise</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Reduce noise (speckles)
in low-light images</small><small> (<a href="#reduce_noise">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Trim Image</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Cut out a rectangular
portion of an image</small><small> (<a href="#crop">more</a>)</small><small>.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Resize Image</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Scale an image up or down
(<a href="#resize">more</a>).</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Rotate Image</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Rotate an image (level a
tilted image or turn in 90° steps)</small><small> (<a href="#rotate">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Unbend Image</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Fix perspective problems (<a href="#unbend">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Warp Area</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Distort image within a
selected area by
pulling with the mouse </small><small>(<a href="#warp_local">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Warp Image</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Distort entire image by
pulling with the mouse (<a href="#warp_global">more</a>)</small>.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Color Depth</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Reduce color depth (posterize) (<a href="#color_depth">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Simulate Drawing<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Transform a photo into a
simulated pencil or chalk drawing (<a href="#drawing">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Simulate Embossing<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Transform a photo into a
simulated metallic embossing (<a href="#embossing">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Simulate Tiles<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Transform a photo into tiles (make large pixels) (<a href="#tiles">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Simulate Painting</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Transform a photo into a simulated painting (<a href="#painting">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Edit Pixels<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Edit pixels
and paint lines or areas using the mouse (<a href="#edit_pixels">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Make HDR Image</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>HDR = high dynamic range</small><small>
(<a href="#HDR">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Make HDF Image<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>HDF = high depth of field (<a href="#HDF">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Panorama</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Combine overlapping
images to make an ultra-wide image</small><small> (<a href="#panorama">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tools menu</span><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Utilities and setup functions.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Check Monitor<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Display a color palette
for tuning your monitor (<a href="#check_monitor">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Index Tags and Thumbs<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Re-index tags and
thumbnails after file rearrangements (<a href="#synch_tags_thumbs">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Brightness Graph<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show brightness
distribution graph of current image (<a href="#brightness_graph">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Clone fotoxx<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Open a new window (e.g.
to compare two images) (<a href="#clone">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Slide Show<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show images full screen
(no menu or toolbar) (<a href="#slide_show">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show RGB<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show RGB values at
position of mouse click (<a href="#show_RGB">more)</a>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Lens Parameters<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Edit parameters for your
cameras and lenses (<a href="#Lens_Parameters">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Change Language</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Change the GUI language (<a href="#language">more</a>).</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Create Launcher</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Create a desktop icon / launcher for fotoxx (<a href="#launcher">more</a>).</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Convert Multiple RAWs</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Convert multiple RAW files to tiff with a single command (<a href="#multi_raw">more</a>).</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Burn Images to CD/DVD<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Select images and write them on a CD or DVD (<a href="#burn">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="font-weight: bold;">Tags menu</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Manage tags
(keywords) / star ratings / dates <small>(<a href="#tags_menu">more</a>)</small><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Edit Tags</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Add or change image
date / stars rating / tags (keywords) (<a href="#edit_tags">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Search Tags</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Find images with
desired tags / star ratings / dates (<a href="#search_tags">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>View EXIF Data</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>View image EXIF data
(date, exposure data, tags) (<a href="#view_exif_data">more</a>).<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="font-weight: bold;">Help menu</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>User guide, README,
change log <small> </small>(<a href="#help">more</a>)</small><small>.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-weight: bold;">Toolbar buttons</span><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><img style="width: 462px; height: 42px;" alt="" src="toolbar-en.jpeg"></span><br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Gallery</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Show window of thumbnail images -
files in the current directory (<a href="#navigation">more</a>).</small>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Open</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>File open dialog - open
an image file to view or edit.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Prev<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Go to previous image in
the current directory.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Next<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Go to the next image in
the current directory.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save current image file back to itself, with no overwrite confirmation.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save As</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save current (modified) image to a selected file</small><small> (<a href="userguide-en.html#save_file">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Undo<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Undo (reverse) the
results of the previous edit function.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Redo<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Redo the previous undo.
Undo/redo depth is 50 edits.</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Zoom+</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Magnify the image. A left
mouse click also magnifies.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Zoom-</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Reduce the image. A right
mouse click also reduces.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Trash</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Move an image file into
the fotoxx trash bin (<a href="#trash">more</a>).</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Quit</small><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Exit from fotoxx.<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"> </span><a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="kb_shortcuts"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Keyboard Shortcuts</span></span>
<table style="text-align: left; width: 593px; height: 333px; font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">main window</span><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>left / right arrow keys<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>previous / next image<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>plus(+) / minus(-)
keys<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>zoom bigger / smaller<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Z key<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>zoom to 100% / fit to
window<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>R / L keys<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>rotate 90° right /
left (temporary)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>G key<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>open image gallery window (thumbnails)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Delete key<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>move image to fotoxx trash<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Escape key<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Exit slide show mode or show RGB mode<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Control + s<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save to original file (no questions asked)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Control + S<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Save-as: dialog to choose a target file<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Control + q or Q<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Quit fotoxx<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">image gallery window</span><br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>up / down arrow keys<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>move up / down by one row
of thumbnails<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>left / right arrow keys<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>move to previous / next
page of thumbnails<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>plus(+) / minus(-)
keys<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>bigger / smaller
thumbnail image size<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>Escape key<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>close image gallery window<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">
License and Warranty</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">fotoxx is licensed
under
the GNU General Public License v3 (Free Software
Foundation). <br>
fotoxx is not warranted for any purpose, but if you find a
bug, I will try to fix it.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">
Origin and Contact</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">fotoxx originates from
the author's web site:<small> </small><a href="http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx">http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx</a></small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Other web sites may
offer it for download. Modifications may have been made.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">If you have questions,
suggestions, or a bug to report, contact kornelix@yahoo.de</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
Some additional <span style="font-weight: bold;">technical notes</span> can be found <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="#technical_notes">here</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="navigation"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Navigation</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Press the [gallery] toolbar button to get an image gallery window (thumbnails) showing
image files in the current image directory. Use this window
to scroll around the directory and select files by clicking thumbnails.
The buttons at the top allow scrolling forward or back by rows or
pages. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Use the file and folder buttons to navigate
elsewhere if wanted. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Make the window bigger to show
more thumbnails, or use the [bigger] and [smaller] buttons to change the thumbnail size and the number of visible
thumbnails. Pressing the [gallery] button in the fotoxx main
window will bring the gallery window forward with the current file's
thumbnail in the upper left corner. Clicking on a thumbnail will bring
the fotoxx main window forward with the selected image.<br>
<br>
<a name="open_raw"></a><big style="font-weight: bold;">Open RAW File</big><br>
This is a dialog for opening a RAW file from a digital camera. The
selected file is converted to tiff-48 format (16 bits per RGB color),
using the program "ufraw". This may need 20 seconds or more to
complete. When the converted image appears, you can proceed to edit or
save the image in a normal jpeg or tiff file.<br>
<br>
<a name="open_image_file"></a><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Open Image File</span></big><br>
This function starts a standard file open dialog, allowing you to
select an image file or navigate to another directory and select an
image file. The selected file is opened in the fotoxx main window where
you can view or edit the file using the menus and toolbar buttons. Drag
and drop can also be used to open a file: drag the file from Nautilus
(or another browser) to the fotoxx window or to the fotoxx desktop
launcher, and fotoxx will open the file. If text is dragged from gedit
(or another editor supporting drag sourcing), fotoxx will assume the
text is a filespec and try to open it. Thus you can make a list of
filespecs within a text file and use this list with fotoxx.
Effectively, you can use Nautilus or text files to navigate a
collection of images as an alternative to the fotoxx navigation system.
<br>
<br>
<a name="save_file"></a><big style="font-weight: bold;">Save Image File</big><br>Menu:
File > Save to Same File, or toolbar button [Save]: saves the
current
image file back to itself without confirmation. If the file is a JPEG
file, the default quality (90) is used. Menu: File > Save to New
File, or toolbar button [Save-as]: uses a dialog to save the current
image
file to a selected file, which can be the original file, another file,
or a new file. The file type (format) and JPEG
compression quality can also be selected. An edited image file can be
saved in two formats, "tiff" and "jpeg".
"jpeg" is
normally the best option, since files are compressed to
reduce space. You can choose a jpeg quality value in the range 1-100.
Lower values give greater compression of file size and less image
quality. Values above 70 are generally hard to distinguish from
100 (highest quality, large file size). Files
may be saved in tiff format with 24 or 48 bits per pixel. The 48 bit
tiff format (16 bits per color) only makes sense for files converted
from a RAW format supporting more than 8 bits per color. Camera RAW
files are typically 12 bits per color. It is rare that the difference
between 8 and >8 bits per color can be seen with the eye.<br>
<small><small> <br>
</small></small>File sizes for a 10 megapixel image are roughly as
follows (depends on amount of detail):<br>
</small>
<table style="text-align: left; width: 492px; height: 27px; font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>tiff-48<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>tiff-24<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>jpeg-100<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>jpeg-90<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>jpeg-80<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>jpeg-70<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>jpeg-50<br>
</small></small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>60 MB<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>18 MB<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>7 MB<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>2 MB<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>1 MB<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>0.6 MB<br>
</small></small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small><small>0.4 MB<br>
</small>
</small></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<big style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><big> </big></big><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="print"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Print Image File</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The print menu starts the program printoxx (if installed) with the
current image loaded into the printoxx layout window. Printoxx allows
you to add images and text to the layout window, change their size,
move them around, and print or save the final layout. Printoxx is
available at <a href="http://kornelix.squarespace.com/printoxx">http://kornelix.squarespace.com/printoxx</a>.
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><a name="trash"></a><big style="font-weight: bold;">Trash
Image File</big><br>
There is no standard location for the trash folder in Linux, and in
practice it varies. fotoxx puts discarded images into a desktop folder
named "fotoxx-trash". You can delete it or move
it to your distro-specific trash folder.<br>
<br>
<a name="rename"></a></small><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Rename Image File(s)</span><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br style="font-weight: bold;">
This function can help automate the process of renaming a series of
files using a root name (e.g. an event or place name) and a
sequence number. It is good for renaming a series of files from a
digital camera. Open the first file in the series, input a new name,
and press the [rename] button. The next file is then opened. You can
use the same name again by pressing the [previous] button and then add
a suffix or sequence number. If you are using sequence numbers, press
the [ +1 ] button after the [previous] button to get the next sequence
number added to the name.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="edit_procedure"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">General Editing Procedure</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The
image in the main window can be operated on with the edit menu
functions. You can use these
functions in any
order, and the changes are accumulated for the current image and shown
in the main window. The [undo] and [redo] buttons can be used to review
the before/after results for the last 50 edits of the current image.
These buttons do not work during an image edit function, but some of
these functions have their own method to undo and redo changes during
the edit. When finished with an image, use [save] to replace the
original file or save to a new file.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;"><a name="area_functions"></a>Area Functions</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">It
is possible to modify part of an image while leaving the rest
unchanged. Edit functions normally apply to
the entire image. If a smaller image area has been selected, then the following edit functions will be carried
out within the selected area: all brightness and color functions, warp area,
sharpen, blur,
reduce
noise, and all art functions. The warp area function works only
within a selected area, and the warp image function works only on the whole
image. Other
functions (trim, red-eye, rotate, resize, HDR, HDF, panorama, unbend) ignore a selected area.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"> An
area may be selected before starting an edit function, or while an edit
function is active. The selected area is immediately active, prior
edits are retained, and future edits (those listed above) will apply
only to the area. If another edit
function is started, the selected area remains active, so it is
possible to carry out a series of edits on one area, or one edit
function on a series of areas.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
You can leave the select area function with the [OK] button and
resume it later. When the select area function is started and an area
already exists (finished or not), you are asked if you want to delete
the existing area and start over. If you select NO, the existing area
may continue to be edited.<br>
<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><big style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="select_area_mouse"></a>Select Area -mouse</big><br></small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Start with the [start] button. Use
the mouse to outline the target area. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Click the
left mouse button to define the end points of a series of connected lines.
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Continue
around the target area until it is surrounded with
connected lines. When a new line segment is added with a left-click,
dragging the mouse from the same position will drag the end of the
line. To remove a point, right click on (or very near) the point. The
connecting lines will be erased and re-drawn to omit the point. To add
a point, drag the mouse from a point on (or very near) any existing
line. A new point is added and the lines redrawn to meet it. To move a
point, drag the mouse starting at (or very near) the
point. When the polygon is nearly closed, click the [finish] button to
close the last gap. The selected area is now active and subsequent
image edit
functions will operate within the area. The [suspend] button temporarily stops editing and releases
the mouse to zoom or scroll the image to a new position. The button
changes to [resume] and can then be used to resume editing. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The [Hide]
button removes the dotted lines outlining the area </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">(for
better visibility of image edits)</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">.
The button
changes to [Show] and can then be used to show the dotted lines. The
[delete] button removes the area, allowing another area to be started
if desired. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"></small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The
[blend width] sliding control defines the width
of blending into the surrounding image. Edits made within an area
are blended with the surrounding image over this width.
The leftmost slider position gives a hard edge (zero blending), and the
rightmost position blends the changes over a width of 300 pixels. This
control can be adjusted interactively while editing an area, with rapid
visual feedback. The select area dialog can be exited and
started again later. The blend width can
then be revised, affecting current and future edits to the area.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
<br>Calculations: determining
which pixels are
inside a selected area, and how far they are from from the nearest edge
(for the blending calculation) is very processor intensive. If you have
enclosed a large area using hundreds of separate lines, 10 or more
seconds may be needed. This calculation is done only once, when
finishing a selected area. Subsequent movements of the blend width
slider are processed very fast.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="show_hide_area"></a>Show Area and Hide Area</span><br>
</big></small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The show
function refreshes the dotted lines outlining the current area. The
hide function suppresses the dotted lines, which can improve the
visibility of image edits within the area.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br>
<br>
<big style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="invert_area"></a>Invert Area</big><br>
This function inverts an existing area: the entire image
is selected except for the existing area. Using the function two
times returns the original selected area. Inverting a selected area may
take a long time for the calculations to complete (explained above).</small><br>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
<big style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="delete_area"></a>Delete Area</big><br>
This function permanently deletes a selected area.
You can temporarily disable an area by starting the select area
function and leaving it without using the [finish] button. <br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
</small>
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="brightness_distribution"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Flatten Brightness</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This
is a fast and easy way to compensate for a common limitation in photos:
there is not enough
range in the brightness to show good detail in all areas. This function
finds where there are too many pixels with nearly the same
brightness and spreads them apart, compressing other areas to make
room. Technically, the brightness distribution is made more uniform
(flatter).
Move the slider and watch the image, which may lag a moment. Some
images will show good results, others not. </small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="tune"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Tune Image </span><small><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">(brightness/color menu)</span></small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function is used to change brightness, color intensity,
color saturation, and color balance (relative RGB levels). You can adjust all of these items as a
function of the original image pixel brightness. To illustrate, you
could increase color saturation in darker image areas and leave it
unchanged in brighter image areas. <br>
<br>
There are 7 response curves for the 7 image attributes of brightness,
whiteness, color intensity, color saturation, and color balance (levels of red,
green, and blue). The radio buttons select which curve is active and
displayed. The curve represents a value (Y-axis) for each level of
image brightness (X-axis). The middle Y-value is neutral (no change
from the initial value). Higher and lower Y-values represent
corresponding higher and lower settings for the 6 attributes. The
initial curves are flat at the middle value.<br>
<br>
The buttons [+++] etc. can be used to shift the whole curve in various ways. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The curve can also be dragged up or down with the
mouse. An anchor point (black dot) is added to the curve wherever it is pulled, and this becomes a constraint for
subsequent pulls: the curve will continue to go through this point as
other parts of the curve are pulled. Anchor points can be dragged, or
deleted by
right-clicking them.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
The image changes in real-time as the curves are moved. Simply move the curves and observe the image until you are satisfied. <br>
<br>
Changing brightness moves all RGB values by the same factor. Defog
changes "whiteness", defined as the lowest RGB level in a pixel - this
amount can be removed or added to each RGB color. Changing color
intensity moves all RGB levels by the same factor within a pixel (no
color shift), and the factor is greater for darker pixels. Changing
color saturation changes the dominant RGB color(s) within each
pixel and moves other colors in the opposite direction, so that overall
brightness does not change.<br>
<br>
Note about using defog: this can be used to reduce fog or haze.
Initially, pull the center of the curve down to remove "whiteness" from
the middle of the brightness spectrum, and push the middle of the
brightness curve up to restore the brightness level, if needed. This is
only a suggested way to start. It is likely that better results can be
obtained by further manipulation of the defog, brightness, and
saturation curves.<br>
<br></small><a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="red_eye"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Remove Red Eye</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function reduces the red-eye effect from electronic flash photos.
Two methods are provided. The first is faster but will not handle
difficult cases (e.g. the eyelids are just as red as the pupil, making
the boundary unclear). The second method is more robust but also needs
more time and care. <br>
<br>
To use the first function, left-click on a red-eye one or more times
until satisfied. If a red-eye cannot be fixed correctly, right-click to
undo the change, and then use the second method.<br>
<br>
The second method can better handle difficult cases where the red-eye
is only slightly red and the color difference with the eyelids is too
little for the automatic algorithm to distinguish. Place the cursor
over the center of the red eye. Hold the left mouse button and drag the
cursor down and to the right. A dotted circle will appear enclosing the
red eye. Repeat if needed to get the red eye centered in the circle
(roughly). Left-click inside the circle repeatedly while watching the
red eye darken, and
stop when it is dark enough. If you go too far, the eyelids may start
to darken. Right-click to undo and repeat if necessary.<br>
<br>
</small><a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="blur"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Blur image</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function can be used to blur or un-sharpen an image. Each pixel is
mixed with neighboring pixels to reduce the differences, making edges
fuzzy. Enter a value for blur radius and press [apply] to see the
results. A small value mixes each pixel with its nearest neighbors and
larger values mix more distant pixels. The contribution from each pixel
decreases with distance, so the nearest pixels have the greatest
contribution. This function is useful to smooth mottled skin tones. You
can use "select area" to limit the blur to a face or part of a face.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="sharpen"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Sharpen Image</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function sharpens a blurry image. Three methods are implemented:
edge detection, unsharp mask, and Laplacian. Edge detection is a simple
algorithm: find adjacent pixels with the largest brightness difference
and increase the difference. This is repeated for several cycles, with
the threshold for brightness difference decreased each cycle. Unsharp
mask is a traditional method also found in Gimp and other tools. It is
fast and effective (a technical description can be found via Google).
The edge detection method gives sharper edges where the contrast is
high and softer edges elsewhere, making it good for portraits (sharp
eyes, smooth skin). For images that are partly sharp and partly blurred
(e.g. depth of field or motion problem), the edge detection method will
affect only the blurry areas, whereas unsharp mask may put "halos"
around edges that are already sharp. The Laplacian method is very
similar to unsharp mask, producing slightly better results in some
cases and slightly worse in others. The radius value limits the
distance over which pixels around an edge are changed. It should be
small (1-2) for images that are slightly fuzzy and larger for poorer
images. Threshold suppresses changes to low-contrast pixels: a higher
values reduces the amplification of low-level irregularities.<br>
<br>
For the edge detection method, enter the following parameters:<br>
</small>
<table style="text-align: left; width: 524px; height: 49px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> cycles<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>number of iterations<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> reduce<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>brightness reduction threshold per cycle, 80 means 0.80<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> threshold<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>brightness change low cutoff threshold<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>For the unsharp mask or Laplacian method, enter the following
parameters:<br></small>
<table style="text-align: left; width: 542px; height: 43px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> radius<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>distance pixels around an edge are changed<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> amount<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>amount of correction, 100 = normal<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> threshold<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>brightness change low cutoff threshold (unsharp mask only)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
Press the button for the method selected and wait a few seconds to see
the result. The default values are suggested starting points. Make
changes and repeat the process until satisfied. You can go back and
forth among the methods to compare which is best for a given image.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="reduce_noise"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Reduce Noise</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function reduces the noise present in photos taken under poor
lighting conditions, making uniform surfaces appear speckled. Choose one of
the three methods described below. Press the
[reduce] button repeatedly while watching the image. If you go too far,
sharpness and detail will be lost. The radius input determines the area
around each pixel that is compared. A default radius is set when a
method is selected, but
other values may work better in some cases. For a large image, these
algorithms may run a minute or longer. To save time, select a small
area and experiment with the different methods and radius settings
until you make a decision, then clear the selected area and apply the
chosen method to the whole image. <br>
<br>
The following algorithms are applied
to each RGB color independently.<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">(1) Flatten
outliers by
color: extreme pixels
(outliers) within a radius are moderated.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
(2) Set median brightness by color: pixels are set to the
median value of their neighbors.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
(3) Top hat: detect outliers by comparison with
a band of pixels at some distance away. Distance is increased in steps
from 1 pixel to
radius limit.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
<br>
</small>
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="crop"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Trim Image</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The HDR and panorama
functions will leave some black margins around the
edges where the images did not overlap. Use the trim function to remove
these areas, or any other unwanted margins. An initial selection
rectangle is drawn, encompassing about 60% of the image. Areas outside
the rectangle will be cut off. Click or drag near any corner of the
rectangle to move that corner. When done, press
the [trim] button in the dialog box. The dialog box shows the
current width/height ratio of the selection rectangle. If the box "lock
ratio"
is checked, then moving one corner of the rectangle will also move the
opposite corner to keep the same ratio. You can also drag from the
middle of
the rectangle to shift the whole rectangle without changing its
dimensions.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="resize"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Resize Image</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Sometimes called "rescale", this function allows setting a new image width and height in pixels, or
as a percent of the original size. You can input the new width and
height directly. Buttons are present for setting the new size to 3/4,
2/3,
1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 of the original size. Using one of these ratios will
minimize loss of resolution. If the lock ratio box is checked, the
original width / height ratio will be preserved, meaning that if one
dimension is changed, the other dimension will be changed to match.
After setting the new dimensions, use the [apply] button to perform the
rescale. The window may look the same, but the image behind it is
rescaled. The status bar shows the new dimensions. The file size is not
updated until the modified image is saved.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="rotate"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Rotate Image</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The rotate menu function starts a dialog to rotate the image clockwise
(+) or counterclockwise (-) in steps of 0.1, 1, 10, or 90 degrees. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">For
a tilted image, use the mouse to drag the right edge up or down until
the image looks level. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Use
the 90 degree steps to convert an image taken in vertical format to
horizontal. No resolution is lost with 90 degree rotation. For other
angles, the loss of resolution varies up to about 1/2 pixel. The output
image is increased to accommodate the rotated input image without size
reduction - e.g. a 100 x 100 image rotated 45 degrees will be inside a
new image box of 141 x 141 pixels, and the unused areas will be black. Use the [trim] button to remove these expanded margins. <br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="unbend"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Unbend Image</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Panoramas of nearby subjects (typically buildings or
interior rooms)
may show straight lines that are curved, or buildings that are slanted.
Bending of the images is necessary in the panorama process in
order for the images to fit together. For remote subjects (esp.
landscapes) this is not noticeable. The unbend function can be used to
straighten curved lines and remove the slant from vertical lines.
Vertical and horizontal dotted
lines are drawn over the image, showing the unbend axes. Click or drag
the
mouse near the end of a line to move it. Input values for horizontal
and vertical unbend and watch the effect on the image. Increase or
decrease the values and
repeat until satisfied. Move the axes to change the
centers of unbending. See also "Warp Image" for another method of
correcting perspective problems.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="warp_local"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Warp Area</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function can be used to make distortions within an image.
You can select an image area and drag the mouse to stretch this area
with respect to the rest of the image. The image reacts as if made of
rubber. The movement is maximum at the mouse pointer and
declines to zero at the edges of the selected area. Many mouse drags of
different lengths and directions can be combined to achieve the desired
results. The [undo] button will remove the most recent
stretch
(up to the last 100). When finished, you can select
another area and do some more warping, or select [done] to exit the
function.<br>
<br>
<a name="warp_global"></a></small><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Warp Image</span><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
This function is useful to correct perspective problems (see also
"Unbend"). Drag the image from any edge, using the mouse. The entire
image will be pulled or pushed in the direction of the mouse, but areas
near the mouse are moved more than more distant areas.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="color_depth"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Color Depth</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function changes the normal 16 bits per RGB color (red, green,
blue)
to
any value between 1 and 16 bits per color. At 8 bits per color, there
are 16.8 million total color combinations. At 4 bits per color there
are only 4096 total colors. Use 1-4 bits for an interesting "poster"
effect.<br>
<br>
</small><a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="drawing"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Simulate Drawing</span><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
This function transforms a photo into a black and white high-contrast
image or into a line drawing where only the edges of objects are shown
as black lines on white background or white lines on black background.
The sliding control "contrast" will deepen dark areas to black. The
sliding control "threshold" will convert the image from gray-scale to
black and white. The sliding control "outlines" will highlight
high-contrast pixels (edges of objects) and suppress low-contrast
pixels. This can be black on white or white on black, depending on the
selection of the radio buttons "pencil" and "chalk". Manipulate both
"threshold" and "outlines" to find the best balance. </small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="embossing"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Simulate Embossing</span><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
This function transforms a photo into a simulated relief or embossed
image. The "radius" setting determines the feature size or level of
detail. The "depth" setting determines how deep the features go into
the surface.<br>
<br>
<a name="tiles"></a></small><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Simulate Tiles</span><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
This function transforms a photo into an array of large monocolor
tiles. You can control the tile size and the thickness of the space
between tiles (caulk, grout).<br>
<br>
<a name="painting"></a><big style="font-weight: bold;">Simulate Painting</big><br>
This function transform a photo into something looking more like a
painting. It reduces the number of colors, maps each contiguous pixel
area having the same color, and then consolidates smaller areas into
adjacent larger areas having the best color match. Four user settings
control this process: "color
depth" sets the number of colors to be used (bits per color). 1 = 8
colors, 2 = 64 colors ... 5 = 32768 colors; "target group area"
sets a lower limit for areas that will have their
own color: areas smaller than this number of pixels will be absorbed
into an adjacent area with the nearest color match; "req. color match"
sets the minimum color match required for a smaller area to be
consolidated into an adjacent larger area: 0 = don't care (maximum
consolidation), 100 = perfect match required (no consolidation);
"borders" determines whether the colored areas will be delineated with
a
thin black border, like irregular tiles in a mosaic. After using this
function, using the "emboss" function can add interesting texture to
the image.<br>
<br>
<a name="edit_pixels"></a></small><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Edit Pixels</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function changes
individual pixels. There are three modes of
operation:
pick, paint, and erase. Pick mode: click anywhere on the image to set
the current color. Paint mode: click or drag anywhere on the image to
paint with the current color. Erase mode: click or drag anywhere on the
image to restore modified pixels to their original color. The button
[color] allows you to pick a color using a color wheel, and it always
shows the current color. The "brush radius" control sets how large an
area of
pixels will be
changed with each mouse click or drag. The "transparency" controls
determine how intensely the color is applied at the center and edges of
the brush. Zero transparency applies the full color immediately whereas
a high transparency (90-99) applies a little color and allows you to
gradually change the color using many clicks or drags (analogous to
spray painting from a distance). Erase also works this way: use
zero transparency to immediately erase, and high transparency to erase
gradually. The [suspend] button releases the mouse so you can use the
mouse to scroll or zoom the image. The button changes to [resume]. The
[undo_last] button removes the last edit (modifications from the last
click or drag operation), and this can be repeated to remove many
recent edits. The memory for undo operations is limited to 100
megabytes, which can be reached if you make many edits using a large
brush (every change to every pixel is saved). It is useful to save the
image after each satisfactory change to free this memory. The amount of
memory available is displayed in the dialog, so you can see when the
limit is approaching. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">NOTE:</span> zoom the image to 100% or
more when using this function. If the mouse steps are larger than the
image pixels and a small brush is being used, some pixels may be skipped by the mouse and cannot be
painted. </small><br>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br>
</small>
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="HDR"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Make HDR Image (high dynamic range)</span><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
HDR combines (overlays) two images of the same subject with different
exposure levels (underexposed and overexposed). The combined image has
improved visibility of detail in both the darker and brighter areas, in
effect using information from the brighter image for the darker areas,
and from the darker image for the brighter areas. Many digital cameras
do exposure bracketing: take multiple shots in quick succession with
different exposure levels. You can combine two such images to make a
better one. If the camera is adjusted manually between shots, take care
to keep it level and aim at the same point. Some misalignment of the
two images can be tolerated. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">If things move between the
two shots
(people, windblown trees), fuzziness and ghosting cannot be avoided.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br>
<br>
Open the 1st image file with the [open] button, then select the HDR
menu function. A file open dialog is started to select the 2nd image
file. The two images are aligned and combined automatically. When done,
the
combined image is shown, along with a dialog for manual fine
adjustment. The contribution from each image can be adjusted
independently for different brightness levels in the combined image.
The initial ramp causes the darkest areas to be taken mostly from
the brighter image, and the brightest areas mostly from the darker
image. Use the mouse to pull the curve and change the contributions
from the two input images. This will also add an anchor point that will
not move when other parts of the curve are moved. An anchor point can
be dragged or deleted with a right-click.<br>
<br>
<a name="HDF"></a><big style="font-weight: bold;">Make HDF Image (high depth of field)</big><br>
HDF combines (overlays) two photos of the same subject with different
focus settings, near and far. The near-focus image has close objects
sharply in focus and far objects blurred. The far-focus image has the
opposite condition. The idea is to combine the images so that both near
and far objects are sharp. <br>
<br>
Making the two photos: choose a point for the center of the image. Aim
the camera at a near object and depress the shutter button 1/2 way, to
set the focus on this object. Hold the button at the 1/2 position, aim
the camera at the chosen center, and snap the photo. Now choose a far
object and do the same. The camera position should be nearly the same
for both photos, which can be a challenge when the subject is very
close. Camera movement can cause scaling and parallax problems (nearer objects
shifted against farther objects), which may or may not be fixable
within fotoxx. <br>
<br>
Processing the photos: in fotoxx, open the first image file, choose the
HDF menu function, and you will be asked to select the second image.
The two images will now be aligned as well as possible. The output
image is a 50/50 mix of the aligned input images. A small amount of
camera movement between the photos is compensated, but this is limited,
and parallax shifts are not compensated at all. When the alignment is
complete, a dialog opens. You can select either input
image and "paint" with the mouse on any area of the output image. This
converts the 50/50 mix to the selected input image for the area being painted. The
radius of the paintbrush can be 1-200 pixels, so you can paint large
areas quickly and control fine detail when needed. If you have
overlapping
near and far objects, time and patience will be needed to make all of
them sharp. The examples in the <a href="http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx-gallery/">fotoxx gallery</a> took about 5-10 minutes each, but the object overlaps are also minor.<br>
<br>
</small><a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="panorama"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Panorama</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function stitches two images together to make a wide image or
panorama. The images must overlap by 10% or more, so that the program
can find where they coincide and put them together.<br>
<br>
Open the left image file first. Select the
panorama menu function. A file open dialog is started to select the
right image file. The two images are initially joined with a small
transparent overlap. A dialog pops up asking you to move the right
image into rough alignment with the left image. Do this with the mouse,
dragging the right image leftwards until it is within a few pixels of
the best match with the left image. Rotate the right image if needed,
by dragging the right edge up or down.<br>
<br>
The images should be correctly curved and fit together well. If they do
not fit, you need to set the lens parameters as described under "Lens
Parameters". You
can adjust these parameters within the dialog until the images fit
reasonably well, and this may be good enough for most panorama jobs.<br>
<br>
Press [proceed] when rough alignment is finished, and the program will
do fine alignment and join the images. Internally, the images are
shifted and rotated and the degree of match is evaluated. This is done
with increasing image sizes until the best match is found within a
fraction of a pixel. The process needs 10 seconds to 3 minutes,
depending on
CPU speed and image size. A 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 processor with 10 megapixel images needs about 30 seconds.<br>
<br>
When fine alignment is complete, the combined image is displayed. A
dialog pops up for fine adjustment of brightness and color match. You
may see a sharp border because the two images do not have the same
brightness and color balance. The [auto] button can be used to perform
an automatic color match, which is usually the best starting point.
This button toggles the auto color match on and off. The other controls
allow you to make additional changes to better match the two images.
Changes are made to both images, in opposite directions. Change the
values for brightness and color and press the [apply] button to see the
results. The "blend width" input governs how the two images are blended
together: the color balance is gradually shifted over this many pixels,
to mask imbalances that cannot be fully corrected. The default is 1
pixel, which makes any brightness or color differences look obvious.
When done, you can use unbend, image warp, rotate, trim, and other
functions
for final adjustments.<br>
<br>
Panoramas of three or more images can be done as follows: After joining
the first two images, Start the panorama function again to open and
join a 3rd image. In this manner you can string together several
images. New images are always joined on the right.<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br>
Vertical Panoramas</span><br>
Rotate the images 90° to make them match as a left-right pair.
After doing the panorama, rotate them back.<br>
<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Panorama Limitations</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
Panoramas including nearby objects can be tricky: when
the two photos are made, be careful to turn the camera on a vertical
axis through the lens, with minimum lateral movement, otherwise the
images may align poorly due to movement of foreground objects
against the background (parallax). This is not an issue when the
subject is 50+ meters away, since a small lateral movement has little
impact on the image.</small><br>
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="check_monitor"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Check Monitor</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Eight color bands are written across the screen with brightness from
zero (black) to 100%. You can use this to adjust the brightness and
gamma of your monitor. The left end of each stripe should be as black
as possible, but you should start to see some color within a few mm
from the left edge. If the completely black portion is wider than this,
adjust the monitor. There are 255 brightness steps from black to 100%
(8 bits per color). The steps are too small to distinguish with the
eye. This evaluation
should be done
in a darkened room (no external light falling on the monitor screen).<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="synch_tags_thumbs"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Index Tags and Thumbs</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">You need to do this after first installing fotoxx, or if you
move or reorganize image files and directories. Nothing is lost when
image files are moved around, but
tag searching will not work, and the image gallery (thumbnail) windows will be slow. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The
index function regenerates the tags index file and the thumbnail images
that make the gallery windows fast. A dialog will ask
for the topmost directory of your image files. That directory and any subdirectories containing images will be
processed </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">(if you have multiple directories not in the same hierarchy, make one directory with links to all the others)</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
The time required depends on computer speed and average image size. My
(fast) development computer does about 800 images / minute.
Once the images have been indexed,
searching them using tags is almost instantaneous. Starting with v.8.4,
this function works incrementally (after it has run one more time). If
only a few images have been added
or moved (unknown to fotoxx), then only these images are processed. The
indexing should complete in seconds instead of minutes. The index is
built in memory and then written to disk (at ~/.fotoxx/assigned_tags).
There is a limit of 100K images. If you want to force a complete
re-indexing of all files, delete this index file first. <br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="brightness_graph"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Brightness Graph</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function opens a small window that shows a brightness
distribution graph of the current image in the main window. This graph
updates immediately as edit functions change the brightness. </small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="clone"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Clone fotoxx</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">Start a new instance of fotoxx in a new window, starting with the
current image file. This is useful to compare images or to work with
more than one image at a time.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="slide_show"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Slide Show</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">The image window is
enlarged to the whole desktop, and the menu and
toolbar are removed. A dialog pops up to ask for the time duration to
show each slide. You can also use the keyboard for navigation (<a href="#kb_shortcuts">more</a>). Use the escape key to get out of slide
show mode. If a tag search is done before a slide show, these images are shown.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="show_RGB"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Show RGB</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This function changes the mouse mode. When a point on the image
is left-mouse clicked, the RGB values
are shown in the status bar at the bottom. The values have the format
xxx.ddd, where xxx is the upper 8 bits of the color value, with range
0-255, and .ddd is the lower 8 bits, with range .000 to .999. The lower
8
bits are zero unless the image has been edited. Only the edit functions
for color and brightness affect the lower 8 bits, and this data is
preserved only if
the image is saved in 48 bit tiff format. A right-mouse click restores
the
normal mouse mode (click to zoom), or the escape key can also be used.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="Lens_Parameters"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Lens Parameters</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">This is a dialog for setting and saving the two lens parameters,
lens_mm and lens_bow, which must be set for each camera/lens used for
panoramas. These parameters govern how fotoxx "bends" the two panorama
input images so that they can fit together accurately. Enter a name for
the lens/camera and the two parameters. Up to four lens/cameras may be
entered. Lens_mm is roughly the focal length of the lens (35mm film
equivalent), and lens_bow is a factor for edge-curving distortion. How
to set these parameters is described here, but you
should read the section on making panoramas first, in order to better
understand the following instructions.</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br>
<br>
Setting Lens Parameters Automatically</span><br>
The [search] button in the panorama pre-alignment dialog initiates an
automated
search for optimum lens parameters. Use a suitable image pair: the
subject is 50+ meters away, the images have a low horizon
difference and little relative rotation, and there is plenty of
high-contrast detail in the overlap area. Input your nominal lens focal
length
for lens_mm. Use zero for lens_bow. After doing a decent pre-align,
press the [search] button and wait a while for the results. Do this a
second time and observe the changes. If the values remain consistent,
you can use them for your panoramas. The search function steps through
a range of values for lens_mm,
lens_bow, and the image alignment offsets for x, y, and theta. It
searches for the lens values that give the best alignment results for
the given images. The process needs a minute or more, but you only
need to do this once to characterize a given camera lens. Be sure to
save the results using the lens parameters menu. <br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Setting Lens Parameters Manually</span><br>
Make a panorama image of a brick or tile wall with about 40% image
overlap. Within the panorama pre-align process, adjust lens_mm and
lens_bow until the overlapping bricks or tiles coincide.
When making the two images, be sure to turn the camera on a vertical
axis through the lens, minimizing lateral movement and rotation in
other axes - otherwise the images may fit poorly and your factors may
not be optimum.<br>
<br>
<a name="language"></a><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Change Language</span></big><br>
This function allows you to change the GUI to one of the available
languages. If your language is not available and you know enough
English, consider making a translation, which is not difficult (<a href="#translations">more</a>).<br>
<br>
<a name="launcher"></a><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Create Launcher</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
</big>
This function puts a fotoxx icon / launcher on the desktop and enters
fotoxx in the menu system in the category "Graphics". Your system must
be LSB compliant (Linux Standards Base).<br>
<br>
<a name="multi_raw"></a><big style="font-weight: bold;">Convert Multiple RAWs</big><br>
This function converts multiple RAW files within a single directory to
tiff-48 format, using the program "ufraw". First, navigate to the
directory containing the RAW files, then start this function. Input a
filespec with one or more wildcards to match the RAW files you want to
convert, e.g. *.RAW for Panasonic or *.ORF for
Olympus. You can specify more wildcards to further restrict the files
processed, e.g. *RICHOH*.RAW, which matches RAW files from some Richoh
cameras. The files are converted one at a time and displayed in the
main window. Depending on the number of files, this can take a long
time (my 2.4 GHz processor does about 10 files per minute).<br>
<br>
<a name="burn"></a><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Burn Images to CD/DVD</span></big><br>
This function enables you to choose image files and burn them into a CD
or DVD. When the function starts, a dialog is started and an image
gallery window (thumbnails) is displayed. The dialog shows a list of
images for
burning which is initially empty. To select an image, click its
thumbnail and it will be added to the list. You can navigate the image
gallery window to other directories and choose images randomly. Click
on a file in the list to show its thumbnail in the dialog and also set
the current position for subsequent adds and deletes. The next image
added will be inserted at this position. If the [delete] button is
pressed, the current image will be deleted, and if the [insert] button
is pressed, the last deleted image will be inserted at the current
position. To move an image to a new position in the list: click the
image file (its thumbnail will be shown), press [delete], click another
image and press [insert] - the deleted image will be inserted before
the selected image. The list can also be edited directly: you can use
cut and paste to get the sequence you wish, but be careful to always
cut and paste entire lines only. The [add_all] button will add all the
files in the current image gallery. Thus you can use the Search Tags
function to create an image gallery, add them all, and than make
adjustments if wanted. The [burn] button will send the list of files to
Brasero to burn a CD or DVD.<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
</small><a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="tags_menu"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Tags</span><big style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;"> - </big><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">General
Principles</span><br>
</big>Image files can have classification tags (categories, keywords)
assigned to them. These can be used to search a large image library for
those images having desired tags. Typical tags: the main subject of a
photo, the associated event, the location, the person(s), etc. Tags
reside
inside the
image (in the EXIF data) and are independent of its file name or
directory location. You can use a directory hierarchy to
make a physical organization of your images, e.g. directory names
corresponding to year or location or other scheme. You can use file
names for the main subject of the image. Such physical organizations
are useful but optional: you can also put all your images in one giant
directory and keep the numeric file names that come out of the camera.
Regardless of the physical organization, "tags" can be used to create
other organizations, e.g. label all the images of one person over all
years, events, locations, etc. All images having a desired tag or tags
can be found quickly and displayed
in a pageable image gallery window (thumbnails), where you can further review
the images and choose those for viewing, editing, or changing their
tags. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">If you have used directory and file names in a
meaningful way,
you can keep using these, and you can also search for images
using these names as well as tags.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
Images may have a date which is pulled from the image EXIF data,
if present, or manually set. Images may have a "star rating" for the
importance of an image. Dates and star ratings can also be used as
search criteria. <br>
<br>
The package "exiftool" must be installed for tag editing. This program
is
used by fotoxx to read and write the EXIF data within image files.<br>
<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Limitations and
Practical Tips</span><br>
The following are the default limits for tags. These are compile time
constants which can be easily increased if needed, although I believe
they are large enough to exceed practical limits:<br>
o max. tag length: 30 characters<br>
o max. tags for one image file: 300
characters<br>
o max. tags for all images: 1000 unique
tags up to 20000 total characters<br>
o max. tags in a search: 200 characters<br>
The practical limit for the overall number of tags is in the range
100-200. Exceeding this range is possible but will lead to some
practical problems: The window showing available tags will be large and
tags will become hard to find (although ordered alphabetically), and
the point and click method of adding tags will become more cumbersome.
Typing the tags
manually will work, but this may lead to typos and other tag
redundancies. This is a bigger problem when tags are initially being
defined for a library with thousands of images, and less of a problem
afterwards when new images are added in small batches. Searching tags
is also more cumbersome if the window of available tags is huge. If the
tags are broadly defined and fewer in number, the search results will
be larger, but using the search results (image gallery windo) to find a
smaller set of images is also quite fast. Physical file organization is
also preserved in the gallery window (files located together in their
directories will also appear together in the gallery window). All in
all, my recommendation for the casual photographer is to use fewer and
broader tag categories. Tag search speed is thousands of images per
second on a modern PC with adequate memory.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><big><a name="edit_tags"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Edit Tags</span></big><br>Open
an image file and then select the edit tags menu. Existing tags
are shown in "current tags". Available tags are shown in the "assigned
tags" window below. One of these tags can be added by pointing and
clicking with the mouse. A tag can be deleted by pointing and clicking
within the current tags. Tags recently added are shown in "recently
added". This is a convenience to make adding tags to a new batch of
images easier, assuming that many of the same tags will be used
repeatedly. Point and click the same way. New tags that have never been
used before (and do not appear in the list) can be added by typing them
in and pressing [create tag]. The date of the
image, if available, is shown as "image date". This may be entered if
missing, or changed. You can enter a full date in the format yyyymmdd
or a shorter format yyyy or yyyymm. A missing month or day is logically
equivalent to "01" for search purposes. The [use last] button fills-in
the date from the last date entered or shown. This is to allow easy
dating of a series of images. You may enter an optional "stars" rating
in the
stars field. Use numeric values, e.g. 5 for a 5-star rating. The dialog
remains open if you navigate to a new image, and the current tags are
filled-in from that image.<br>
<br>
<big><a name="search_tags"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Search Tags</span></big><br>
Use the search tags menu to find images having desired tags. Available
tags are shown and can be chosen with point and click. Use the radio
buttons to select "match all tags" or "match any tag". Press the
[search] button to perform the search. Matching images are displayed in
a pageable image gallery window (thumbnails). Choose images to view or
edit by
clicking the thumbnails. The set of matching images will remain in
effect for image navigation (the buttons [prev], [next], [next page],
etc.)
until you use the [file] or [folder] buttons to establish a new image
gallery set, which will be all images in the same directory as the
chosen file. <br>
<br>
A
date range may be optionally entered, to further restrict the search to
images within the date range. The format is yyyymmdd. Images
are selected which have a date on or after the first date, if present,
and on or before the second date, if present. Missing mm or dd default
to 01. <br>
<br>
A pair of star ratings may be
optionally entered to restrict the results to images having a star
rating within the given range. A missing low value implies zero, and a
missing high value means unlimited. <br>
<br>
Directory and file names may also be searched, with simple wildcard
matching. Example: in the input field labeled /path*/file*, enter
*egypt*cairo* to select all files with "egypt" and "cairo" in the
directory or file names. The matching rule is simple: * matches any
sequence of characters anywhere in the full /pathname/filename.
Example:
the file /home/jack/aaa/bbb/xxx.jpg would match *aaa* and
*xxx* and *aaa*xxx* but would not match aaa* or *xxx or *aaa/xxx*. You
can enter multiple file search strings separated by blanks, and files
matching any of the strings will be selected. Name matching is not
sensitive to case: both *aaa* and *AAA* would match the previous
example. Note: only the files that have been indexed (menu: tools >
index tags and thumbs) are searched. This is NOT a general file search
function that covers the entire file system. <br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
To find all images with no tags,
search with all-blank tags, stars, dates, and file names.</small><br>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><big><a name="view_exif_data"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">View EXIF Data</span></big><br>
If the package exiftool is installed, the View EXIF menu will display
EXIF
data in the current image file, if available. EXIF data contains the
date and time of a photo, shutter speed, focal length, pixel
dimensions, etc. Most cameras store this data inside the image. If the
image is edited and then saved, the EXIF data is updated and stored
with the new image. <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>NOTE THAT
THE EXIFTOOL PACKAGE IS REQUIRED IF YOU WANT TO RETAIN EXIF DATA WHEN
AN
IMAGE IS MODIFIED AND SAVED.</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<a style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;" name="help"></a><span style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans; font-weight: bold;">Help Menu</span><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">About</span><br>
This displays a short message about the fotoxx version number, license,
home page, and credits.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">User Guide</span><br>
The user guide (this document) is displayed (created using the WYSIWYG
HTML editor SeaMonkey).<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">README</span><br>
Displays the README file distributed with fotoxx, which may contain new
information about installation or dependencies. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">When
you install a new release of fotoxx, you should look at README and the
Change Log to check if there is anything special you need to be aware of.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Change Log</span><br>
Displays the change log file distributed with fotoxx, containing details
about functional changes, additions, or bug fixes for the current and
previous releases.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Translate</span><br>
Displays a short text file which explains how to make a new translation
or change an existing one. This involves editing a text file that
contains English text messages with corresponding translations (<a href="#translations">more</a>).<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Home Page</span><br>
Shows the fotoxx home page from the Internet. Look here for program updates.<br>
</small><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<big style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><a name="technical_notes"></a>Technical Notes</big><br style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="translations"></a>Translations</span><br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">See the menu
Help > Translations or the text file
TRANSLATIONS for
guidance on how to modify an existing translation or make a new one.
This is a fairly simple process: edit a text file with English text
strings followed by their corresponding translations. See one of the
existing translations as an example: /usr/local/share/fotoxx/locales/fr
(the French translation file). A new translation for language code xx
would be saved at /usr/local/share/fotoxx/locales/xx. After making such
a file, you can test it by starting fotoxx on the command line: $
fotoxx -l xx. </small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hardware and Software Requirements</span><br>
Fotoxx works best on a fast computer (2+ GHz) with at least one
gigabyte of memory. Multiple CPU cores are utilized for compute
intensive functions (e.g. sharpen, rotate, warp). Smaller computers
(notebooks, netbooks) will work, but will be quite slow for some
functions. Screens smaller than 1200x800 will feel confining for some
functions. The typical notebook screen with poor brightness and color
should not be used to adjust color and contrast.<br>
<br>
Fotoxx uses the following software:<br>
</small>
<table style="text-align: left; width: 624px; font-family: monospace; height: 130px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> libfreeimage<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>read and write jpeg, tiff, and other image file formats<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> xdg-utils<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>open text or html files with user's assigned application<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> exiftool<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>read and write EXIF data, including user-defined image tags<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> ufraw<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>import raw image files from a digital camera<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> brasero<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>burn a CD or DVD with selected images<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> g++<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>GNU C++ compiler (to compile fotoxx from source)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> libgtk2.0-dev<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>GTK/GDK/Pixbuf development files (to compile from source)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> libfreeimage-dev<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>(to compile from source)<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small> printoxx<br>
</small></td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;"><small>fotoxx sister application for making or printing a collage of images<br>
</small></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;">See the README file for instructions on compiling fotoxx from source. <br>
<br>
</small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Command Line Options</span><br>
The following command line options can be used in launchers to simplify
startup:<br>
<span style="font-family: monospace;"> fotoxx
/.../imagefile.jpg
# initial image directory or
file to
open</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;"> fotoxx -l lc
# language code to use for GUI (de, fr ...)</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;"></span><span style="font-family: monospace;">
fotoxx
-v
# output version and build date and exit</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Status Bar Information</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
The status bar contains information relevant to the current activity:<br>
<span style="font-family: monospace;"> navigation:
1234x987x24 0.45MB 56% edits: 3</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;"> HDR/pano: align: 2345 offsets: +12.3 -23.4 +0.0023 +1.2 -2.3 match:
0.91234</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;">
1234x987x24 image width x height x depth (bits per
pixel)</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;">
0.45MB image file size (updated
when a
modified image is saved)</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;">
56% zoom status,
image
% size</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;"> edits:
3 3 prior versions are saved in the
undo stack</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;">
2345 HDR or panorama
alignment cycles done (progress indicator)</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;"> +12.3
etc.
alignment offsets: x, y, theta, two y-stretch values</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<span style="font-family: monospace;">
0.91234 image match (creeps up as
alignment improves, reset each stage)</span><br style="font-family: monospace;">
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alignment
Algorithm</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
5000 high-contrast or "edge" pixels are selected to control
alignment in HDR and Panorama. The actual
pixels used are shown in red during the alignment process, which is
also entertaining.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Alpha Channels</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
Images having alpha channels (transparency information) can be
processed, but the alpha channel is lost when the processed file is
saved.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Image Deterioration From Repeated
Editing</span><br>
If you save an edited image file and then use this file later to
perform additional edits, pixel resolution may be lost. It is better if
you do all edits when the image files are first processed, to minimize
image deterioration (or go back to the originals if you still have
them). The following edit functions reduce resolution about 1/2 pixel,
and this error can accumulate from repeated edits: rotate (other than
90 degrees), HDR, panorama, unbend, warp. Resize to a smaller size will
of course reduce
resolution, but using the fraction 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 gives the best
results. The following functions do not reduce resolution: flatten,
brightness/color, red eye, sharpen, reduce noise, trim, all art
functions.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></small><small style="font-family: Bitstream Vera Sans;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Source
Code</span><br style="font-weight: bold;">
The C++ source code is heavily commented in the hope that others can
understand and use the code for their own projects. If you have a
technical question about how something works, or a better idea to pass
along, you can write to me at kornelix@yahoo.de.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Questions
and Problems</span><br>
If you have a question or run into a problem, you can write to me at
kornelix@yahoo.de. If you send any images that work poorly, I can use
these to try to improve fotoxx. If there are any error messages in the
log file <span style="font-family: monospace;">/home/<user>/.fotoxx/fotoxx.log</span>
please send these also.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Technical Reference Book</span><br>
I recommend the book "Introduction to Image Processing and Analysis" by
Russ and Russ, CRC Press. It is clear and concise. The following
algorithms were adapted from
this book: flatten brightness distribution, sharpen (unsharp mask,
Laplacian), noise reduction (median smoothing, top hat), simulated
embossing.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Acknowledgements</span><br>
I am grateful for the programs <span style="font-weight: bold;">libfreeimage</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">ufraw</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">exiftool</span>, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">brasero</span>,
which have helped fotoxx evolve much faster than otherwise possible. Of
course this also applies to GTK, GDK, the pixbuf library, the Gnu
tools and libraries, and Linux in general.<br>
<br>
</small>
</body></html>
distrib
>
Mandriva
>
2010.0
>
i586
>
media
>
contrib-release
>
by-pkgid
>
a2d2026ac0786321b6ad0be0d5b0aa37
>
files
>
10
