Quick caption (like Picasa)

[sparvy]

Hi,
I use xnview for some years now (irfanview before) and I just love it - great work.

I tested PICASA 3 recently to IPTC-tag my photos and discovered it is not lossless, it recompresses images as captions are added, so it's fairly crap... BUT there is a great feature missing to Xnview, the ease to add IPTC captions.

Is it possible to implement a "Picasa Mode" with the following functions when switched on :
- press any key to add/edit IPTC captions (in browser or viewer)
- press ESC to cancel
- press NEXT or PREV (or mousewheel, dep. on config) to save

This is not meant to replace the handy CTRL+I but let people add comments photos after photos in a friendly and lossless fashion.

Did I make myself clear ? (sinon je peux faire le post en francais...)
Thanks for feedback
Seb

[oops66]

Hello, I fully agree.
The MP version can already do that (on one mouse click in an area into the thumbnails) for categories and colors & tags ...then why not for the "IPTC already DB registered keywords" too .... !
About the new XnView PM version & about the meta-data and db project management :
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=16637

[JohnFredC]

it recompresses images as captions are added

Really? I have not encountered that. Did you do a controlled test?

[sparvy]

Yep, I tested with multiple images from various models of camera and the result is consistent, Picasa removes a few kb from the pictures (it's not much but tends to show a JPEG compression).

I could even notice the difference on a photo as the dark levels were changed (without having to look for color balance in photoshop or any other tool, it could be seen by switching between the test photos).

See below for on generic test :

1. original photo
DCP01523.JPG - 240,620 b

2. Change EXIF timestamp with Xnview
xnview timestamp.JPG - 240,620 b

3. Add a IPTC location with Xnview
xnview location.JPG - 240,670 b

4. Add a caption with Picasa 3
picasa caption.JPG - 219,568 b


And I also found this on picasa website that could prove the tendency of Picasa to recompose images :
http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/an ... swer=16721


Cheers,
Seb

[JohnFredC]

Sorry, I misunderstood you.

Of course Picasa recompresses when you save your edits or export.

In my experience, all of the "lossless" tools work that way.

I never save my edits. Instead I always export at highest quality. That way the original is preserved for another day.

[sparvy]

XnView better handles such operation, as the addition of captions or any other IPTC data does only update the IPTC fields and not recompresses the image.

This is why I would like an easy way to add caption to a picture, on top of CTRL+I.

[sparvy]

Hi Gents,
is my suggestion retained for a future release or do you know an existing work-around.

Cheers
Seb