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CyPics - Digital Photo Album Software |
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Photo Album Software
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When we set out to design CyPics we wanted to create a windows based program that could properly manage up to 100,000 electronic photos per MS Access album spread over many removable volumes. It had to have strong cataloging and search capabilities. We believed a single image would often belong in many photograph groupings. We were committed to the concept of the PC as the media to manage and play a slide show. The program had to be easy to use through a deceptively simple interface which does not compromise the power of the system. Innovation was the key to the file registration process with a single minded goal of making it fast and minimizing the labor intensity of the process. Newly registered images had to be dynamically included in existing photograph groupings as against static groups that require each new image to be physically added. There is a commitment that it is your information that you enter into our program, so you must be able to get your information out. Information entered is accessible through use of a common database format, that is Microsoft Access. MS Access software is not required on the computer, however power users with it can manipulate their information store with MS Access. For those without MS Access the image registration information is accessible via an XML export function. As there are many excellent graphic image editors available, we could see little point in creating one more. Instead we allow you to manipulate your images through your existing specialist external graphics programs selecting the right one for each job. Version 3 extends this further with browsing. The drag and drop folder browser makes it easy to look at your images. The minute you add the integration with the open album you suddenly have a superbly powerful tool for image management. Truly power at your fingertips. Version 3 extends this further with printing. Having organized and managed your images now you can print them pretty close to any which way you want. As many images per page as you want with whatever of your catalog information that you want. Version 3.5 LAN and SQL Server support. Local area network support for reduced cost of ownership with concurrent user licensing. SQL server support for larger databases and sharing images across more people. Version 3.6 adds EXIF, IPTC and flexible text selection and printing. Extract the information from your digital camera. Time taken, aperture, exposure, distance and much more. Set image dates to the time taken. Select and format text for captions, popups, printing and export.
Easy to learn All aspects of program operation are documented in context sensitive
help. Additionally a discovery system leads you through first time use of the
program.
Browse the photos in your disk folders with a drag and drop enabled thumbnail browser. Access full screen image previews at the double click of a mouse. Change thumbnail size on the fly. Drag and drop both internally and externally to other programs. Open an album and the browser immediately integrates with the open album. See which photos are in the album. Move images and have the album location updated automatically. Adding, renaming and removing photos are all integrated with the open album. View and update your album information about photos. Select photos for printing. Drag move photo locations in the album from read only CDs to your hard drive. Uses the recycle bin for additional security on your photos.
Directory Registration is how you get images into a CyPics database. Images are brought into a CyPics image database through Directory Registration, a process that locates all graphics files in a specified path and enters into the database information regarding the file which includes location, media details, timestamp, size and a ‘thumbnail’ image of the photograph. In this process files that already exist in the database are ignored. As files are entered they are marked as ‘Not Registered’. Descriptive cataloging information can be added for each file during ‘File Registration’ which automatically follows. CD Naming Support With removable disks such as CDs the identification and a user friendly name are collected so that the required volume can be requested when required. Generated thumbnail size and quality are user configurable (these affect the photograph album database size). Apart from being read to generate the thumbnail the original image file is left untouched by the registration process. CyPics operations that require the full image (slide shows, image preview, image copy etc) all require access to the original file.
Descriptive information about an image can be entered during the File Registration process if you so wish. The descriptive information you can add includes a description, image date, up to 36 keywords, 3 user defined attributes each with a value and a popup note for use in slide shows. Keywords and attribute values both accept multiple words. File registration can be as simple or as complex as you care to make it. If all the information you want about the image is already in the filename then you could skip it completely. The File Registration process cycles through each of the ‘Not Registered’ files. The process can be stopped at any time and individual files that fall in the "too hard basket" may be skipped in which case they will be left marked as not registered and will reappear next time File Registration is run. When registering an image the most recently used 36 keywords are available to choose
from via check boxes. Any image is limited to a maximum of 36 keywords out of an
unlimited number in the album. Simply typing it in creates a new keyword. Keywords are
useful for things like the names of people and places.
Get your data out if you change catalog programs Cataloging your image collection is an investment for the future which takes considerable time and effort. It is your information and CyPics will help you get at it. The album database uses Microsoft Access as its storage format so that you can access your catalog information directly through MS Access or export it under the tools menu. The registration process caters for a degree of commonality between successive photographs in time, place and people. When this is the case it speeds up registration and required keystrokes dramatically. The speedup is facilitated by:
Select display regions and create clones Select regions of an image to be displayed in a slide show rather than cropping and destroying the original file. Selection can be confined to the screen ratio and hence a resulting image that fits the full screen in a slide show. Clone an image database entry to create multiple entries for the same image without creating a new copy of the file. This could, for example, be to have a different description for a second purpose or to have a zoomed region of a photograph displayed in addition to the original. Other functionality available from the file registration window includes:
Version 3 now adds:
A Picture Set is the way CyPics groups pictures together. CyPics does not rely on directory structures or other physical settings. CyPics enables you to specify conditions that select a group of images based on the information you have provided when you registered the file. Picture selection is done through a form which guides you through the process of specifying up to 10 conditions that must be met for images to be selected. The form provides convenient drop down boxes for selecting a data item, the test to apply and the value to compare against. Multiple tests may be joined ( AND, OR) , tests may be grouped together and conditions reversed (NOT).
Picture Sets can be specified, tested and then saved. After defining a Picture Set it can be used to view the selected images as thumbnails or in slide shows. New photographs automatically added to existing sets. The main advantage of the query based approach is that as you add new images that meet the characteristics of an existing Picture Sets then these images automatically become part of that Picture Set. You do not have to go back and manually insert them. Three Picture Sets are automatically defined whenever a new album is created.
The Picture Set also allows you to manage the order in which images will be presented. You can sort on selected image data fields entered during the registration process or select either random or manual order. If you select manual order, then photographs can be selected and pasted into the required sequence in the thumbnails view. Testing the Picture Set is part of the process. For the technically minded you can optionally view the generated SQL (Simple Query Language) selection query or test the resulting set by previewing all selected thumbnails. The Picture Set definition also defines two settings for slide shows. These are the style of transition effects to use between images and enabling or disabling image description display for each slide Version 3 now adds the following capabilities to the Picture Set thumbnail display:
Print multiple images with powerful layout controls and the
ability to include catalog information next to the photo - print 1 to 50+ images per
page. Provides a selectable layout for number of rows and columns with
selectable text area location, size and content. Print selected images from any thumbnail view or print entire Picture Sets.
The thumbnail view displays the images selected by a Picture Set in their resulting order. Multiple thumbnails together with their description are shown in a compact full
screen display in the Thumbnail View. Any Picture Set can be viewed as thumbnails. The
Thumbnail View is useful for verifying Picture Set selection criteria, excluding images
from a slide show, checking and modifying image registration details and
sequencing manual Picture Sets.
Quickly view registration information Registration information can be quickly seen by positioning the mouse over a thumbnail resulting in a popup window being displayed with the information. Shifting the mouse out of the thumbnail removes the window. Full image previews providing zooming and dragging in the preview window are accessible by double clicking any thumbnail. The right mouse button on a thumbnail brings up a sub-menu which enables updating the registration details including image editing and copying the image or its location to the clipboard. Include sub-titles in your slide shows The order of images within manually sequenced Picture Sets are set here in Thumbnail
View. Images may be selected and then pasted to a new position. Subtitles can be
specified in manual sets. During a slide show they appear as a full screen header slide
to indicate the subject of the following slides.
Slide Shows play the images selected by a Picture Set in full screen mode. A Slide Show takes the images selected by a Picture Set and plays them in the order extracted by the set. The show uses the full screen expanding or contracting each image to use as much of the display as possible. Images are advanced at a user selectable time interval using in excess of 1,500 different image transitions. Power saving suspends and screensaver activation are inhibited while playing a slide show. Select the play order for CDs in a slide show The image play sequence is potentially modified by the need to retrieve images from removable media. If the selected images span more removable volumes than are currently mounted, a dialog box is displayed requesting the order in which to play images from each removable volume. You can still have a CD shuffle if you want but CyPics enables you to avoid it. Header and trailer slides are displayed at the start and end of a picture show. The initial header displays the Picture Set name. This 'header' slide pauses until the space bar is pressed. Similarly there is an end of show trailing slide. These are especially useful for creating video tapes of side shows providing an introductory title plus letting you pause the show until you have music ready to record etc. Text free time As each image is shown the photograph description is displayed on the bottom of the screen in as many lines as it takes to show it. This text is removed after a period of time so that the full image can be seen for a portion of the overall display time. Long image descriptions are shown for additional time with the overall image display time being increased so that the text free time remains constant.Image display time, the percent of time the text should be visible, transition duration and all fonts used for title slides and image descriptions are user selectable as is the color scheme to use for title slides. Automa tic true-color switching On some display hardware improved image rendition is possible by increasing the number of colors available on the screen and reducing the screen display resolution. CyPics can detect this situation and if the user agrees to it, CyPics will automatically change the screen display mode for all slide shows. The mouse pointer is suppressed and is not visible whilst playing a Slide Show. For
that reason the keyboard is used to control a slide show. The following keyboard
controls are implemented:
Version 3 now adds:
Export Picture Sets to a slide show . Any Picture Set can be exported to an area on disk ready to be written to a CD as an autorun slide show. The exported slide show retains all the creative elements of the original CyPics slide show, that is the sequencing, titles, sub-titles, image descriptions and popup notes. Multiple Picture Sets can be written to the same area if you want more than one slide show on the CD. The CD slide show player does require a few Microsoft components to operate and will automatically install these if necessary. The player has a reduced set of transitions, supports continuous play plus allows selection and sequencing of multiple slide shows on a CD. It also supports many of the same keyboard controls. The CD slide show player will not run on systems with only 256 color support. The CD slide show player is free as long as you are distributing the CDs at no charge. If you wish to sell the CDs or would like your own logo and branding on the slide
show player then there is an option for a customized version which also includes the
ability to print a copyright clause on each image and to apply a mask to protect images
Click here for
more information.
Rather than providing functions in CyPics to manage your disk storage CyPics does the exact opposite. It provides functions for you to bring your album databases back into synchronization with your storage after you have manipulated it with other tools. Directory Maintenance functions provide
CyPics will be able to find moved files provided you have not both edited the file with a graphics editor and made changes to its name. As long as only minor changes were made to the name a secondary aggressive match may still find it. Other maintenance functions enable you to manage thumbnails and photograph album size. Thumbnails are the major contributor to photograph album database size. You can temporarily reduce album size for e-mailing or putting on floppy disk by removing thumbnails and compacting the database. After zipping the resultant album 80:1 size reductions are not unusual.After changing thumbnail quality and size settings all thumbnails can be regenerated. An option also exists to regenerate thumbnails for any images that have been edited outside of CyPics. Database compaction is available at any time. CyPics will also provide warnings when
compaction is highly desirable.
CyPics Standard Edition (this release)
In addition Windows '95 requires:
For more information please read the Installation Guide.
JPEG and LEAD Compressed (JPG and CMP) |
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NoteSpecifications may be subject to change without notice. |
Further DevelopmentVisit the Support ForumVisit the support forum to have you say about future directions. |
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Policy Copyright © 2000 - CyWarp (Digital Photo Album Software & Slide Show Program). All rights reserved. |
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