NANY 2012 Pledge & Release: Image Grid

[vlastimil]

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Note: a screencast has been prepared by kyrathaba

Application Name	Image Grid
Version	1.0
Short Description	Turn multiple (equal sized) images into one large image
Supported OSes	Windows 2k, XP, Vista, 7
Setup File	ImageGrid.exe
System Requirements	nothing special, just mouse & truecolor display
Author Info	http://www.rw-designer.com/image-grid
Description	This tool allows you to take several smaller pictures and create one big image with all the smaller pictures arranged in a rows and columns. Personally, I will probably do not use this, but because several people requested tool like this, here it is. At this moment, I know it will be used to: create custom wallpapers from photographs create previews of multiple images for sites like deviant art or for designers' clients create pictures for a printing service that only supports pictures of certain size and the client needs lots of smaller pictures
Screenshots	[attach]

[Ath]

Hey, vlastimil, great you're joining the party!

And such a useful tool too

[joiwind]

This is great and very useful for me. Thanks.

Just a very minor thing : misspelling of Erase (Rease all), and a suggestion : mouse-over shows individual image name in the status-bar.

[mouser]

Works great and very useful!

I think this will prove very useful to use with a screenshot program that makes it easy to drag and drop images to your program (like my Screenshot Captor -- sorry for the plug!).  Great for producing combination images.

One feature request: Ability to remove individual images.

[vlastimil]

Thanks for the feedback and thanks for the donation, mouser

I have fixed the typo, but I do not think I have enough time to add the requested features before the deadline. I'll try to have them ready tomorrow, they are not too difficult.

[vlastimil]

Implemented the requested features. You can now see the image name in status bar and you can drag and drop pictures to swap their positions or to remove them (drag them out to remove).

[mouser]

[cranioscopical]

Implemented the requested features. You can now see the image name in status bar and you can drag and drop pictures to swap their positions or to remove them (drag them out to remove).

Nice work!

[JavaJones]

A nice, simple tool. I hope you'll continue to increase the number of features, i.e. add borders around the photos, control the distance between, etc.

- Oshyan

[daddydave]

This is awesome, seems like a simple thing but so handy .I am using it to collect my third grader's photos so I can print them out for her science project. Usually what I end up doing is putting them in Word, wasting time resizing them and getting the wrapping properties right. This is instant. I can think of other uses for it, too.

[vlastimil]

I am glad so many of you find it useful. Thanks for the feedback!

[nkormanik]

I also agree with JavaJones above that having the option of white borders (margins) between the images would be a plus.  Maybe a standard number, say, 30 pixels.  Or perhaps allow user to choose the actual margin width.

Thanks!

[mouser]

Just used ImageGrid today and wanted to say thanks again for it.

[daddydave]

I also agree with JavaJones above that having the option of white borders (margins) between the images would be a plus.  Maybe a standard number, say, 30 pixels.  Or perhaps allow user to choose the actual margin width.

Thanks!

I third it, and I would also like to see an option to fill in space created by non-equally-sized images (which work fine even though this is meant for equally sized images) with "transparent" instead of black.

And it is super useful.

[vlastimil]

OK, here is a small update - version 1.1 can be downloaded from http://download.rw-designer.com/1.1/ImageGrid.exe

I have added a new button that cycles between 3 margin presets: no margins (default), small margins and large margins.
Another change is that the background color for images of different sizes (and now also for margins) is white rather than black. If you use .png when saving, these areas will remain transparent (as in the original version).

[cranioscopical]

here is a small update - version 1.1

Thank you for doing that!

[lifetimeupgrades]

Love the simplicity of the software.

Could it be possible to 1.  Show a delete images button and selecting the images to be deleted with a ctrl key selection, and 2.  have a simple crop function to crop all images to the same size.

[vlastimil]

You can delete images by dragging them out of the canvas.

Regarding the second request, could you describe the use case, where this feature would be useful?

[lifetimeupgrades]

This is the reason I proposed a crop feature.

As we all know, not all images are the same size and as of now, I believe your software will save the images in the same size as the originals but instead of saving them as a size equal to all others, they may be different sizes and sometimes that does not look good.  That I why I proposed a crop feature.  The crop feature I proposed probably isn't like the others you see in other software.  The crop feature I was talking about will determine the size of the smallest picture in the collage and set the crop box to that specific size.  However, the crop box should be able to be moved on each image for the best end product.

I hope I have not confused you even more.

[vlastimil]

I guess I understand. Though, I will probably not add that feature, because it is not directly tied to the main functionality and more importantly, it would require a big change of the user interface. I may make another tool specialized for just this.

[mouser]

ImageGrid got a nice writeup today from ILoveFreeSoftware (good blog):
http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/12/windows/image-photo/combine-multiple-images-in-a-single-canvas-using-image-grid.html

[vlastimil]

It is always nice to see when one's software is worth a blog post  If a DC'er is behind this, they have my thanks.

[daddydave]

By the way, I recently had the opportunity to run Image Grid on Wine (on Linux), and it worked perfectly!

[IainB]

As a result of reading this:

For combination of many images, or for combining images into grids (as opposed to rows or columns) see the excellent standalone free tool "ImageGrid" made by dc member vlastimil: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=29464.0
_______________________________

- I would just like to say that I downloaded ImageGrid out today, purely for a test/trial, and this is how it went:

The task was to take 10 images, in 10 sequentially numbered .JPG files, which were segments of a larger image, and stick them together to replicate the larger image.

• STEP 1: Run ImageGrid.
• STEP 2: Select the 10 image files and drag and drop them onto the ImageGrid canvas. (Required no rearranging.)
• STEP 3: Save the composite image as a file.
• Time taken: Not more than 10 seconds.
• Result: Worked a treat.    

Rather impressive bit of software, that. One of those tools that you may rarely need, but will probably have great difficulty finding when you do need it.
There are some alternatives given in the post referred to above: Combine Multiple Images In A Single Canvas Using Image Grid:

If not this, then try these free software to join photos.

- but I haven't tried them out.

[mouser]

Just used ImageGrid again today -- great program