All the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Sort us!"...

Posted by PY on May 17, 2011, 10:03 a.m.

…and I'll look down and whisper "Yes."

I think that's how the quote goes, anyway. So, I've built an image sorter and could do with some people to test it, so anybody with some images they can sort and some time to waste can feel free to give it a shot. Design criticism more than welcome, my UI design isn't top-notch, error reports appreciated.

The basic idea is that most image sorters have a fatal flaw: You're required to use the image sorter in order to quickly find an image, and damn near every single piece of software ever written cannot integrate with that, making actually using your images irritating at best. Does a man not deserve his images? No, says Picasa, they belong to Google. No, says iPhoto, they belong to Apple. No, says Windows, they belong to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose… to create a gigantic directory of every possible valid permutation of all valid tags (Valid is 'has more than X images with this tag' where X is user configurable) and then symlinked every appropriate picture into every last folder. This does, unfortunately, mean two things: It requires a modern version of windows, and it requires administrator access. Though do try it if you're still running XP, because I'd be interested to know whether it actually runs or not.

In any case, bug reports welcome and appreciated, as well as UI criticism.

edit: Oh, and for instructions: First go to preferences and add a new folder, after that it should be self explanatory. If it's not self explanatory, tell me, because my UI isn't good enough.

Comments

Castypher 12 years, 11 months ago

I can see this being quite useful. The only complaint I have is that the preview images are always JPG-style (the noticeable blur). Is there any way to let resizing still look decent on less complex images without losing the setting for photos?

PY 12 years, 11 months ago

Noticeable blur? What do you mean? The preview image is resized however the standard pictureBox resizes images, which I just sort of assumed would be well. If it's not I could resize it myself, but I haven't noticed any problems - would you mind taking a screenshot?

Castypher 12 years, 11 months ago

It's nothing you did, really. But open up a JPG, any, really, and zoom all the way in. You'll notice the interpolation. It's the lossy nature of JPGs is all. I'm just curious if there's another way to do it in whatever program you did so PNG images, for example, didn't use the lossy method when being scaled up to fit in the preview box, and each pixel is clear instead of blurred.

This was an image drawn in Paint, then saved as a JPG. You can see the massive quality loss by default.

And here is the screenshot. It's just when it has to size images up. But many PNGs happen to be logos where pixel precision is crucial, as opposed to photos where a little quality loss can be perfectly fine. As you can see, sizing up an image like a PNG looks terrible unless done in a certain way (default Windows programs can do it just fine). I'm wondering if your language (assuming Visual Studio C++ or C#?) can do it.

If not, it's just a preview, and only really painfully visible on images that are too small to fit in the preview window initially.

EDIT: You may need to open those in their own tabs, since 64Digits automatically resizes them (thank god).

PY 12 years, 11 months ago

Yes, I understand lossy compression :)

Still, looks to me more like the issue is lack of filtering, rather than lossy filtering, which makes a lot more sense. You're right, of course, unfiltered upscaling looks absolutely awful. A quick fix would be to simply display the image at its proper resolution if it's smaller than the preview box, but I can try and add some filtering too. Still, never going to get CSI levels of enhance, enhance, enhance :P

edit: Hm, it seems to be filtered quite heavily by default, so I'm going to totally change my opinion and figure you don't want the filtering at all. I can do that one, too!

Castypher 12 years, 11 months ago

It's no big deal, just the only not-shiny thing I noticed about this otherwise good program.

PY 12 years, 11 months ago

Well, you know me, I wouldn't blog about it if I didn't want criticism :P

How about This? If the image is smaller than the preview window I resize it myself, using no filtering at all. Pixel perfect!

Castypher 12 years, 11 months ago

Ah, much, much better.

I have no further complaints.

PY 12 years, 11 months ago

awesome. Not even any bugs? :D

Castypher 12 years, 11 months ago

Not that I found. Everything seemed to work pretty well.

PY 12 years, 10 months ago

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2502059/Misc/Release.rar

It's come along a bit, I'd super appreciate some extra testing. SirXemic has been invaluable, but one man can't change the world.