Messages

651

General Software Discussion / Re: which simple tool to use to add watermarks to own images

« on: June 14, 2009, 03:21 PM »

Maybe try the freeware Picture-Shark? http://www.picture-shark.com or http://www.photo-fre...et/picture-shark.php

652

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody Know About DiskTune?

« on: April 12, 2009, 01:59 PM »

Thanks to all posters for the heads up on DiskTune. For now, I am very happy with JkDefrag's performance (0% fragmentation at present) but DiskTune looks like one to watch carefully.

653

General Software Discussion / Re: Image joining software?

« on: April 12, 2009, 01:38 PM »

Greetings, I just recently surveyed this software looking for an easy to use and customizable solution for joining images. DipStych looks pretty good, but I prefer another tiny .NET app named PicJoiner:  http://web.telia.com/~u11125889

654

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: March 04, 2009, 03:49 PM »

And the beat goes on...

Want a small, portable, and free image comparison tool which delivers very good accuracy?
ImgSearch   http://kolmck.net/e_apps.htm  latest version 3.08

Not likely to be your first choice when scanning a large collection, but ImgSearch is still a nice addition to one's toolbox.

655

General Software Discussion / Re: DVD to iPod Touch in 48 hours

« on: January 14, 2009, 02:38 PM »

The easy-to-use multimedia converter FormatFactory http://www.formatoz.com/ has mobile devices support for the ipod, iphone, and PSP. Very useful freeware.

656

General Software Discussion / Re: Audio Convertor

« on: January 12, 2009, 04:48 PM »

Hello Sobczak. I have seen Kristal Audio Engine at http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ mentioned as a good freeware.

Alas, I have no first hand knowledge about it because I don't do audio editing and haven't used the software. Good luck in finding a program to suit your needs.

657

General Software Discussion / Re: CaptureNet

« on: January 12, 2009, 04:32 PM »

Cool little .NET app sorta like a swiss army knife with all those tools incorporated into one. You can change the color of the clock to suit your mood and/or wallpaper.

Thanks for that one, dantheman.

658

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: January 11, 2009, 08:11 PM »

Curt, glad you liked the accuracy of SimilarImages. Its "Dataset Cache" will provide a major speed boost for all subsequent scans, but of course that first run can feel like forever when processing a large collection. Evidently, it's no easy task to achieve both accuracy AND speed in this type of software.

I have found only one minor problem with SimilarImages. It doesn't detect captioned images as reliably as other tools such as VisiPics. To clarify, I mean pictures that have text overlays, text bubbles, thought bubbles (ie. like in a comic strip) etc. My impression is that SimilarImages' algorithm is not optimized for this type of picture. Since each software has its own unique algorithm which "sees" the images in a slightly different way, I prefer to use more than one tool to scan for similar images.

SimilarImages' display of image matches reminds me of the shareware ImageDupeless, another worthwhile contender with respectable speed and accuracy.
ImageDupeless 1.6.3 at http://www.imagedupe...ss.com/en/index.html  /$29.95. Looks like it hasn't been updated since 2005 and is limited to 4,000 images in the trial version .

659

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: January 10, 2009, 04:06 PM »

Greetings 4wd and Lashiec, and thanks for the encouraging comments. 

I suspect there are many XnView users who weren't aware of its "Tools/Find similar files" feature simply because its developer Pierre-E Gougelet is constantly improving and adding features. If I recall correctly, that feature was implemented in early 2007 somewhere around version 1.90. Also in browser mode is the "Tools/Compare" feature which displays images side-by-side or in tabbed/overlay view. Good stuff.

Yet another freeware "photo duplicate scanner" worthy of mention is SimilarImages at http://celebnamer.ce...ld.ws/similarimages/ .
 

660

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: January 07, 2009, 06:28 PM »

Hello Curt. In hindsight, I can see how you assumed I didn't run SIF because I said it "looked promising". Sorry for my imprecise language. In fact, I ran it many times and it works really fast processing the maximum 200 images as you correctly noted. But it "looked promising" because that's all I really know about it due to Crown-s-soft's overly restrictive trial. Frankly, processing 200 images is child's play compared to processing 5,000 images.  Since these similar image utilites tend to choke processing large numbers of images, I am not exactly inspired to pay $34 for something which may or may not work efficiently. With modern processors, the days of "leave it overnight" image comparison should be in the distant past.

Also Curt, thanks for posting about MindGems' Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder. A few years ago it ran so slowly it required overnight processing of a large image collection. Currently, it has superior speed and is definitely a viable option.

661

General Software Discussion / Re: Large Text File Viewer

« on: January 07, 2009, 05:43 PM »

Just a simple thanks to dlprice, 40hz, and others for the LTFViewer link. I had never heard of it before, but now it's in my arsenal of text tools.

662

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: January 07, 2009, 05:21 PM »

Similar Images Finder at http://www.crown-s-soft.com/sifinder.htm is a $34 tool which looks promising. However, only after installing did I see in the Readme file that "Evaluation version limits the number of processed images to 200." I don't believe this important information is mentioned on their site, but maybe I overlooked it. Since these similar image utilites tend to really bog down when processing many files, this 200 picture limit seems kinda silly to me. I mean, Similar Images Finder may fly through 200 images like lightning, but how will it process 5,000 images? I guess it costs $34 to find out, huh? If anyone has experiences with this commercial software- especially regarding its processing speed with many images, I would certainly appreciate hearing about it. Thanks.

663

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: January 06, 2009, 04:48 PM »

Oops, I meant to say "if you can afford to BUY and get full functionality, then by all means..." As noted, Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder and PhotoSort are both demos, not trial software.

664

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« on: January 06, 2009, 04:43 PM »

Greetings to my new friends here at DC. As a photo enthusiast, I have enjoyed this thread and its many useful recommendations. I thought it worth noting that both the previously mentioned Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder and PhotoSort have demo versions which work quite well with only minor limitations. Specifically, neither allow moves/deletes but otherwise work just fine without any time limitation. Of course, if you can afford to register and get full functionality, then by all means...

Likewise, FirmTools' Duplicate Photo Finder at http://duplicatefinder.firmtools.com/ offers what they characterize as a "trial" version of their product. To me, it's a demo version like the others mentioned because it functions without time limitation but cannot perform moves/deletes. This Firmtools software IMHO needs a similarity/tolerance adjustment like Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder and PhotoSort have, but it does utilize cache and process quite quickly. If you just want to find the most similar pictures in your collection without a lot of fuss, Firmtools' solution might be your cup of tea.

Finally, I didn't see a mention of XnView in this thread. Among its myriad attributes, this excellent freeware image viewer at http://www.xnview.com/ works amazingly well in finding similar images via "Tools/Find similar files". With its adjustable similarity/tolerance level, it doesn't get much easier to process an image collection.