Version 1.7 released August 2003
What is it?
Batch Thumbs is a thumbnail creation program. It operates on a list of images you select in a folder. Creates high quality thumbnails and also converts, copies, and renames files. Will optionally create html to view thumbnails, with a reference to the original images. Supports GIF, JPG, BMP, EMF, and WMF formats. Created with the Web author in mind, for processing large collections of images. Current version is 1.7.
New in version 1.7
Functionality is the same, I did not change the re-sizing algorithm. But,
- You can now change the size of the Batch Thumbs window, by dragging an edge or maximizing to get the most screen real estate.
- The file explorer windows work more like Windows Explorer.
- This is hopefully an interim release. I am working on adding support for more image types, and I might actually have a version 2.0 in the future.
New in version 1.6
Not much has changed, but I did add a couple of much-needed features:
- The output web pages can now optionally include the file name of the original image. Not sure how I overlooked such an obvious requirement right up front.
- When selecting images for processing, you can use the right-click popup menu to rotate the original image. This is for those digital camera images that are taken 'sideways'. They can be corrected before creating the thumbnails.
Planned for next release
I'm not sure there will be a next release. I have been working on a similar program for converting files using a command-line utility, which is actually more of a true batch program. It's still in beta phase, but it may eventually just replace or be a companion to this program.
If there is a new release of Batch Thumbs, it will most likely be to replace the re-sizing algorithm. I currently use something called a nearest neighbor formula to do the resize. I would like to switch to a bicubic interpolation formula; it's not quite as fast, but the results are much more accurate.
If you have an interest in being a beta tester for the new program I'm working on (called cvrtimg; short for Convert Image) just drop me an email at ralph@harmware.net.
Program Requirements
Download
Screenshot
Tutorials
The tutorials demonstrate some of the basic program operations; thumbnails, conversions, renames, etc.
Examples
Example 1 - Basic multi-page table layout with reference to the original images
Example 2 - A frames layout, with the images tiled in a new window and sample text overlay. This is more for my personal use with sTile, but hey, maybe someone else has a bunch of background images they'd like to show off, eh?
