New Features!!!

Version 5.0

New file formats!!!

Thumbs now supports these formats

.jpg JPEG

.avi
.wmf
.asf Windows Media (through Windows Media/Direct X)

.mpg MPEG 1, 2, 4 (through Windows Media/Direct X)

.mov
.qt Quicktime (requires Quicktime 5.0 or newer)

.tga Targa (requires Quicktime 5.0 or newer)

.tif Tiff (requires Quicktime 5.0 or newer)

.bmp Windows Bitmap (requires Quicktime 5.0 or newer)

.psd Photoshop (requires Quicktime 5.0 or newer)

.png Portable Network Graphics (requires Quicktime 5.0 or newer)

For the .tga, .tif, .bmp, .psd formats Thumbs will generate a midsized JPG image since most browsers will not directly display those formats.

For the .avi, .wmf, .asf, .mov, .mpg, .qt formats Thumbs will make them viewable in the browser but they require the browser to have the proper plugins installed.

Version 4.5

New Templates!

I had been meaning to make templates like this ever since I added templates to Thumbs since I have a similar template system running this website site but I'd been (a) too lazy and the templates on my website crash Netscape 4.X if there are are too many pictures. I'm not sure what too many is, somewhere around 20. But, then Apple's iPhoto came out and as they do a few things like that too I thought I'd better get around to it.

What makes it not crash Netscape 4 now? Removing a couple of surrounding tables. This has the effect that templates with borders around the slides cannot be vertically centered. If course when I first put in templates I was hoping more people would make their own but I have not seen many custom templates. Hopefully these will inspire some ideas.

Slideshow Control Panel

The slideshow has had two major problems so far. One, on Internet Explorer it opens a full screen window. This is great but it has one problem. Beginning users, the same people that Thumbs users are making CDs for, would get lost. As their is no close box and no instructions many people can't figure out how to exit the slideshow. (pressing 'Q', 'ESC' or on Windows pressing Alt-F4 or Mac pressing Command-W)

The other problem is that the slideshow opens two windows. One a controlling window, the other the window that shows the pictures. Normally this is works but for some reason, on some people's systems, the controlling window would appear in front blocking the slideshow and appearing ugly.

Well, I think I have a solution that solves both problems. It's the Slideshow Control Panel

Now, if the users clicks on the slideshow this control panel should appear giving them the option to exit and also, if it should happen to appear in front of the slideshow window by default it's easy to hide. Press H or click the hide button. Press S or click on the slideshow window to make it appear.

Version 3.0

Templates!

The biggest new feature is Templates!!!!

Templates tell Thumbs how to generate the pages it makes. That way it can generate an infinite number of styles of pages. We've included 5 styles so far.

Here are some examples of the templates that are currently included with Thumbs.

You can even make your own!!! You'll need an image editor that can save .GIF and .JPG files and it's really not all that hard. (see Making Templates)

And if you are a power user you can change pretty much all the details of how Thumbs generates HTML and even Javascript so if want to do something really fancy, go for it!

If you make something cool and you don't mind sharing it please e-mail it to us and maybe we will include it here for other users to download.

Support for Movie players:

From the original version Thumbs had support for MPG files but all it did was display the thumbnail blown up and then if you clicked on it it would launch the movie player. Unfortunately most of my friends to whom I gave CDs with movies on them didn't realize they could click on the images and see the movies.

So, I fixed it. Now movie files (.MPG and Quicktime) should show up in the browser with a movie player. Something like the picture below.

Quicktime Support:

As some digital cameras save Quicktime files Thumbs now supports Quicktime. Of course in order for Thumbs to read Quicktime files you must have Quicktime installed on your system. You can download it here. Also, in order for your friends and family to be able to view your Quicktime movies they will also have to download an install the Quicktime player.

Comments,Captions and
Alternate Names

Each image can now have an associated comment file. For example if you have a image called tulip.jpg you can make a file called tulip.txt in the same folder and Thumbs will use the contents as a comment for your image in the mid-sized pages and optionally with the thumbnails. You can also optionally specify an alternate name and a caption. The alternate name is used in place of the filename. Captions are used under the Thumbnails.

These comments, captions and names are HTML so you can format them if you prefer using HTML tags.

Support for EXIF comments

Some cameras and the software that comes with them support imbedding comments directly into the image files themselves. Thumbs now reads those comments

Option to Actually Generate Midsize Images

Thumbs original purpose was to prepare images for putting on a CD to share with friends and family but many users are also using it to for Web based sharing. By default Thumbs uses the original images for its midsize pages which can often be 300k and up. Thumbs now has the option to generate new midsize images to bring that file size down to something more useful for webpages and modem users.