Overview
This release featuress sorting images by meta-data, shuffle mode for slideshows, fill-colour for contact-sheet generation, numerous command-line improvements including exposure controls for HDR images, and a new kiosk profile.
Sorting by Meta-Data
There are many new sorting options. The sorting keys with an asterisk denote they are stored in image meta-data (JPG EXIF for example). The last item in the dropdown is shuffle which will present the images randomly sorted. To open the thumbnail view where these properties are set, just press the 'T' key. Like all key bindings, it may be modifed from this default.
Slideshow and Kiosk
The slideshow settings now include the ability to auto-start, set the sort order directly, and auto-reshuffle.
The three different profiles (main, basic, and kiosk) are accessed using Alt-1, Alt-2, and Alt-3. These shortcuts can be re-assigned if desired. The default settings for kiosk profile include being in fullscreen mode with a shuffle slideshow auto-started for you. You may launch Tacent View from the command-line in any profile by calling tacentview --profile name. To launch in the the kiosk profile that would simply be tacentview --profile kiosk.
Contact Sheet Fill
This image shows the contact-sheet (flipbook) parameters dialog. Note that only if there are more page slots than input images does the fill-colour option present itself.
Command Line Improvements
Specifying multiple image types for both the input and output is now possible. For example, to convert PKM and JPG images to PNG and BMP:
tacentview -c --in pkm -i jpg -o png --out bmp
This may be written more concisely with comma-separated lists:
tacentview -c -i pkm,jpg -o png,bmp
Output parameters can also be specified more concisely than before. Here is an example that specifies output parameters for GIF files. It takes in a manifest list for what files and directories to process:
tacentview -c @manifest.txt --out gif --outGIF bpp=2,qan=neu,alp=120
The --outGIF is optional and specifies any non-default parameters for creating the GIFs. In this case a 2-bit (4 colour) palette is used, the neu algorithm is used for colour quantization, and the transparency threshold is 120. There are more options for GIF output not shown here including things like loop behaviour, frame duration, etc.
Many image formats have additional load parameters that may be specified. Here we adjust EXR exposure while loading.
tacentview -c --inEXR gamma=1.8,expo=3.5
This specifies a gamma-correction of 1.8 (default is 2.2) and an exposure value of 3.5. Exposure ranges from -10.0 to 10.0 with the neutral default being 1.0. For EXR files additional load parameters, not shown here, include defogging (defog), and adjusting knee values (white and middle points) using knee-low (knelo), and knee-high (knehi).
Extensive information on using Tacent View from the command line is available here: https://bluescan.github.io/tacentview/cli.html
Summary of Changes
- Image meta-data (EXIF), if present, is now stored cached along with the thumbnail/preview data.
- Images may be sorted by meta-data. Sorting keys include: latitude, longitude, altitude, roll, pitch, yaw, speed, shutter speed, exposure time, F-Stop, ISO, aperture, orientation, brightness, flash, focal length, time photo taken, time photo modified, camera make/model, and description.
- Random shuffle for slideshow with option to automatically reshuffle after every loop.
- The thumbnail-view was inconsistently called "Content View" in some modules. It is now consistently knows as "Thumbnail View". The default key-binding is now the 'T' key. Tile has been moved to 'Ctrl-T'.
- Some png files in the wild actually contain JPG/JFIF data inside. If strict loading is off (the default) these files will now load in Tacent View. If strict is enabled, they won't.
- CLI mode now allows load parameters to be set for any image type that supports them. This allows things like exposure control from the CLI. For example, loading an ASTC image allows colour profile, gamma-correction mode, gamma, and exposure/tone to be set. EXR load parameters incude gamma, exposure, defog, knee-low, and knee-high. Other image types with load parameters include KTX, KTX2, DDS, JPG, and HDR (Radiance) files.
- Respect early-exit for CLI post operations.
- Fix CLI issue with GIF palette size specification.
- Reworked how output paramaters are specified in the CLI. The newer syntax a) matches in the input param syntax, and b) allows only those parameters you want to override to be set. This was an issue before for types like GIF that have a lot of options.
- A corrupt tga file that doesn't contain enough content for the header and image data could cause an exception. We now check that we're not reading beyond what is loaded for both the header and the data.
- Added a new kiosk profile. There are now 3 profiles: main, basic, and kiosk. They can all be used any way you like -- the difference between them is the default settings. For the kiosk profile it starts in shuffle mode, auto slideshow-play is on, and auto-reshuffle is on.
- Fullscreen mode used to be a global setting. It is now a per-profile setting. By default the kiosk profile has this set to true. Other profiles (main, basic) have this set to false.
- Added a command-line parameter to allow setting the profile. This is one of the few CLI options that affect GUI mode.
- Fixed crash when changing profiles and in a directory that has no images in it.
- If play pressed and you're on the last image and not looping, start at the beginning again.
- CLI mode allows you to specify multiple output image types instead of just one. This works for normal operations as well as post-operations.
- Support empty-page fill colour when generating a contact sheet from the command line.
- Contact sheet generator dialog now supports user-specified fill colour for empty pages. The colour-picker only shows up if the number of pages is bigger than the number of available images. The fill colour for contact sheets has a separate entry in the config since it has a different default (transparent black). Elsewhere (rotate, resize-canvas, etc) the fill defaults to opaque black.
- Update LibPNG to 1.6.40
- Lots of CLI examples added to official Tacent View website.
Full Changelog: v1.0.40...v1.0.41