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Archiver > TMG > 2002-04 > 1017882941


From: Collene Pearce <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] naming/captioning photos
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 19:10:54 -0800
References: <F226Va8grB33UKyM25I00011d94@hotmail.com>


> >...
> >I REALLY would not recommend depending on any current >album
> >software to store your pics and captions. IMHO, it is best
> >to store pic & caption together...
>
> In Adobe Photoshop a caption can be added to each image by file > file > info > caption. That makes the caption a part of the image file >itself.

Yes. I think this may be the more "GUI" way of extending the
"canvas" beneath the photo layer and adding text to it. Although
my "text" becomes part of the image, too, I believe you are
probably using the Adobe format, when you save your pics.
I try to stay away from anything like that. Portability/
migratability is now my most important criteria. ;-)

>I > usually then cut and paste this caption into a readme.txt file > which holds
> all the photo captions in a given folder. (A bit of redundancy never > hurts,
> though if a few images are moved, it requires editing the readme.txt > file.)

Well, I can see the advantage of having a searchable pic
description and you certainly don't get that if you merge
the text with the photo, as I do, but I just can't justify
the redundancy. ;-) If I had time for it, I believe I'd
like to try your method, but....

It seems I'm always short on time and now I have
this genealogy data migration to deal with, in addition
to processing all those old photos. So far, I've not
found a way to validate my data in TMG and I can't start
actually using it until I have done that. :-( The most
accurate method that has been recommended so far is either
to just re-enter all my data from scratch (can you imagine)
or sit there with both UFT and TMG open and compare every
individual, manually. ;-) Ouch!!

> >...It makes a great deal of sense to use Thumbs... or >some other
> >type of album software to "look" at your photos or to >keep
> >track of them, but I would not recommend using it to >format
> >and store your photos ...
>
> A great feature of Thumbsplus is that it can read and display the > photo
> captions as entered in Photoshop. (by file > property > info).

It's my understanding, that this is only the case, if you store
your images as you do; not as I do (as jpegs). If I remember
correctly (and my memory may be faulty), that Thumbs feature
only works w/ Adobe images, if you use the proprietary Adobe
captioning/file format features. :-(
Too bad, cause it would be nice.
I try to get around not having the search capabilities with
my file naming scheme and something like Mr. Photo, which will
grab anything in a specified directory structure and display
it for you.
...snip....

> Though I share your sentiments about lack of dependency on software, I >love
> Thumbsplus. Also, the latest version is now based on a MS Access >database,....

To me, this is not an advantage. ;-)
And remember -- Microsquish and most of the leading PC software
vendors have decided on the "planned obscelence" busines model.
It seems to get worse every year, so I'd not depend on any MS
style software being around or compatible for any number of
years. There's a reason everyone is adding the year to the
product name (i.e., Office2000, Windows2000, etc.). ;-)

> Like you, however, I also do not enter data directly
> into Thumbsplus, but do use it extensively to browse, find, and view
> my> images.

I wonder if it would have any advantages over poor little
brain-dead Mr. Photo, for me. It doesn't do much, but it's so
simple that I can manipulate it to pretty much get what I
want. For intance -- this is something I absolutely HAVE
to have, while processing these old photos --
When I start working on another group of photos, I open MrP
and create a new album (that being the directory where I'm
putting all the finished images). Then, after I've completed
a few more, I certainly don't want to add those manually to
the "album", so I discard the film, delete the MrP index
and just recreate the same album. It picks up all the
photos again, which now includes the new, completed ones.
That's fast and easy and requires a minimum of "pointing
and clicking".

I really would like to find a way to search the captions,
though. However, once the caption is embedded, it's no
longer text and so you can't find it with something like
"strings" or "grep".

When I have time, though, I may revisit Thumbs+. Thanks
for the info about it.

:-)
acp
******** "Too many stupid people. Too few comets." *********
**********************************************************************
* A. Collene Pearce * * www.jump.net/~collene *
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