imageindex - a digital photo gallery tool

Imageindex is a digital picture gallery program. It provides automatic generation of thumbnails and other size views of the images, and W3C compliant HTML to allow viewing of the thumbnails and images. It also creates montages of all images in a given directory to be used in directory entries within the HTML.

Imageindex has evolved from a simple thumbnail-generation program into a full-blown gallery application. With it you can create static thumbnails and medium views (good for dial-up web viewers) along with static HTML which presents the images in chronological order (based upon the date in the Exif header or date stamp of the file itself).

Imageindex creates static rather than dynamic content for many reasons. First the foremost it is much easier to archive pictures onto CD-ROMs on a periodic basis when the content is just there rather than trapped in a database of some sort. You create your own database with your own directories and let imageindex handle the presentation of the images to the world. Imageindex will use montages (or thumbnails of all your thumbnails crammed together) of subdirectories if they occur alongside images (see the the sample pages on the imageindex website - http://www.edwinh.org/imageindex/sample.html).

There are four basic views that imageindex creates (enabled by default). The index view shows thumbnails of all images in a directory in a basic table format (defaults to 3 columns). Within each cell of the table basic information such as the date/time of the picture are given as well as any comment (or caption) present in the image. Links to the various sizes of image and other views for the image are also presented by default.

The second view presented is the slide show view. In this view the medium sized image is presented along with information such as date/time, comment, etc. There are previous and next links on each page however which let the user quickly cycle through each medium image without having to constantly invoke the browser's back button.

In conjunction with the slide show view there is a frame view. When enabled a link to the frame view appears at the top of the index view's page. When the frame view is visited, the browser's pane splits into two portions. On the left all the thumbnails are lined up close together. On the right hand portion the same slide show pages are loaded. As the user clicks on a thumbnail on the left, it's slide view (including the medium image) is displayed in the right had side of the frame. This creates a very convenient mechanism for browsing through many images.

Finally a details view exists. This details view is much like the index view as the thumbnails (reduced in size further) are presented in a table format, but much more information is presented in each cell. This is very useful for images that come from digital cameras where Exif headers have filled with lots of neat information.

The HTML output of imageindex can be customized by creating a .imageindexrc in your CW$HOME directory and placing certain variables (see VARIABLES section) in that file and editing to your taste. One of the variables controls the output of a cascading style sheet which ultimately directs your browser how to render the HTML. All color, font, indenting, etc. changes you wish to make can be done in this style sheet variable.

When you create your .imageindexrc file in your CW$HOME directory, you can put any or all of the following variables in there and tweak as needed. This is Perl code itself and is subsequently included into imageindex as it runs.

You must end the file by putting a 1; at the end of it. It's a Perl thing!

The values you see in these examples are the program defaults. If you like the default value of a particular variable you don't need to include it in your .imageindexrc file.

Name of the directory that holds thumbnail images

     $thumbnail_dir = 'thumbnail';

Size of the thumbnail images in the x direction (pixels). Note that imageindex preserves the aspect ratio of an image when it is reduced from its original size to form a thumbnail image. So, if the x dimension is smaller than the y dimension, a thumbnail might have an x size smaller than CW$default_thumbnail_x.

     $default_thumbnail_x = 200;

Size of the thumbnail images in the y direction (pixels). Again, note that imageindex preserves the aspect ratio of an image when it is reduced from its original size to form a thumbnail image. So, if the y dimension is smaller than the x dimension, a thumbnail might have an y size smaller than CW$default_thumbnail_y.

     $default_thumbnail_y = 200;

If both dimensions of the original are within this much of the thumbnail dimensions we will skip the thumbnail and just use the original as the thumbnail.

     $thumbnail_threshold = 1.0;

Size of the medium images in the x direction (pixels). Note that imageindex preserves the aspect ratio of an image when it is reduced from its original size to form a medium image. So, if the x dimension is smaller than the y dimension, a medium image might have an x size smaller than CW$med_x.

     $med_x = 800;

Size of the medium images in the y direction (pixels). Note that imageindex preserves the aspect ratio of an image when it is reduced from its original size to form a medium image. So, if the y dimension is smaller than the x dimension, a medium image might have an y size smaller than CW$med_y.

     $med_y = 600;

Name of the directory that holds medium images

     $med_dir = 'medium';

If both dimensions of the original are within this much of the medium dimensions we will skip creating the medium-size format and just use the original. This saves needless creating a medium image if it's close in size to the original already.

     $med_threshold = 1.6;

Automatically recurse into subdirectories? Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_recurse = 0;

Generate medium images at all? Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_medium = 1;

Generate the slide show and frame view? Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_slide = 1;

Generate the details view? Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_captions = 1;

Use/display caption info stored in images? Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_detail = 1;

Process subdirectories as entries in the normal index and details views? Set to 1 to enable. If an entire directory hierarchy has been processed with CW$do_montage set to 1 (see below), the montage file for a given directory will be used as the thumbnail for a subdirectory.

     $do_dirs = 1;

Create a montage of all the images? When enabled all of the images that are processed are turned into an NxM montage of very small thumbnails in a tiled pattern. The resulting image is shrunk to the CW$default_thumbnail_x x CW$default_thumbnail_y dimensions and stored in the CW$thumbnail_dir directory. The size of the tiles grows as the number of images in a directory increase, but can be bounded by variables outlined below. Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_montage = 1;

Map ASCII smiley patterns embedded within an image's comment into real emoticon images? When enabled the ASCII smiley faces such as :) and :-), the winks ;) and ;-), and the frowns :( and :-( are mapped to small PNG images that display the emotion conveyed. Set to 1 to enable.

     $do_emoticons = 1;

The following three variables control what hyperlinks in the HTML output point to. They can be set to the following:

 index : points to the name reference for an image in the index view
 fullsize : points to the actual image itself
 medium : points to the "medium" version of an image
 thumbnail : points to the thumbnail version of an image
 slide : points to the "slide show" HTML page written for an image
 details : points to the name reference for an image in the details
           view

The folling variable controls what the hyperlink for the thumbnail image in the index view points to:

     $index_linkto = 'slide';

The folling variable controls what the hyperlink for the thumbnail image in the details view points to:

     $details_linkto = 'index';

The folling variable controls what the hyperlink for the medium image in the slide view points to:

     $slide_linkto = 'fullsize';

Default number of columns to use in the index and detail views

     $default_columns = 3;

Set the orientation of slide frame - 'horizontal' or 'vertical'. When 'vertical' the browser pane will split vertically with all the thumbnails towards the left. When 'horizontal' the browser pane splits horizontally with the thumbnails arranged in the upper portion

     $frame_orient = 'vertical';

The following two variables can be set to any of the following three values:

  top : put the item in question at the top of the page when rendered
  bottom : put the item in question at the bottom of the page when
           rendered
  none : omit the item from the HTML output

Controls if an image caption (or comment) embedded in the image will be retrieved and written into the HTML output. By default it is written above the medium image presented in the slide view.

     $slide_caption = 'top';

Controls if the date/time of an image is written into the HTML output. By default it is written below the medium image presented in the slide view.

     $slide_date = 'bottom';

In the detail view, the thumbnail images are shrunk to a size smaller than the normal thumbnails (to conserve valueable space). This sets the number of times they are shrunk. By default it is shrunk by a factor of 2.

     $detailshrink = 2;

The thumbnail and medium images are written out as JPEG files (even if the original images were not JPEG's). The following two variables control the quality for generated images. The value can range from 0 to 100 where 100 means don't lose any quality in favor of file size.

Adjust the quality of the thumbnails being written out

     $thumb_quality = 50;

Adjust the quality of the medium images written out

     $med_quality = 80;

Adjust the minimum number of tiles that will be found in a montage image. If the number of images in a directory is lower than this value, images will either be repeated or blanks will be inserted (see CW$montage_fill).

     $montage_min = 4;

Adjust the maximum number of tiles that will be found in a montage. If the number of images in a directory is higher than this number, the montage will be made by evenly picking CW$montage_max images in the directory and only using those.

     $montage_max = 36;

Adjust the space between montage images (pixels).

     $montage_whitespace = 2;

When there is not a even number of images in a directory and a complete NxM tile montage cannot be formed, images can be used again or empty space can be used. Set to 'repeat' to re-use images and 'blank' to use empty space.

     $montage_fill = 'blank';

The following variable controls all aspects of how the HTML output is rendered in standards compliant browsers. The contents of this variable will be written out into a cascading style sheet and the properties found within it will govern how the HTML is rendered. All color, font, size, alignment, etc. property changes can take place. This might require some knowledge of cascading style sheets. A good primer can be found here:

            http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp

     $stylesheet = '
     body { color: black; background: white; }

     /* Fonts in the title */
     h1.title { font-family: "Comic Sans MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; 
                font-size: 200%; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; }
     h2.daterange { font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; 
                    font-size: 125%; text-align: center; }
     h3 { font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; 
          text-align: center; }

     /* Photo captions & Directory titles */
     div.caption { font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; 
                   font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin: 1em; }

     /* Overall fonts on the index and details page */
     div.index { font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
                 font-size: 80%; }
     div.detail { font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; 
                  font-size: 80%; }
     div.credits { font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
                   font-size: 80%; text-align: right; margin: 10px }

     /* Table attributes */
     table.index { background: #ffffff; border: none; 
                   border-spacing: 8px; }
     td.index { border: none; padding: 3px }
     table.frame { background: #ffffff; border: none }
     td.frame { border: none; padding: 0px }

     /* Image attributes */
     img.index { border: none; }
     img.slide { border: none; }
     img.frame { border: none; }

     /* Link attributes */
     a:link { color: blue; }
     a:visited { color: green; }
     a:hover { color: red; }
     a:active { color: red; }

     ';

Adjust what is presented in empty table cells when there are not an even number of images in a directory.

     $emptycell = "<I>empty</I>";

Control the text of a hyperlink to a parent directory. If you do not desire that this link be present in the index and details views undef the variable (undef CW$updirtext;)

     $updirtext = "up one directory";

Control the text of a hyperlink to the frame view. If you do not desire that this link be present in the index and details views undef the variable (undef CW$framelinktext;)

     $framelinktext = "slideshow view (frames)";

Control the text of a hyperlink to the detail view. If you do not desire that this link be present in the index view undef the variable (undef CW$detaillinktext;)

     $detaillinktext = "details index";

Control the text of a hyperlink to the index view. If you do not desire that this link be present in the detail view undef the variable (undef CW$indexlinktext;)

     $indexlinktext = "main index";

Control the default TITLE string written out in the HTML for a given directory. This is most usually given on a per-directory basis via the command line and remembered within META data inside the index HTML file itself.

     $default_titletext  = "Image directory";

The following five variables control the TITLE attribute on anchor constructs in the index and frame views. When TITLE attributes are given they are usually rendered as tooltip bubbles that show text when a cursor hovers and stops over the active link. We use them here to give a visual cue about the image. These variables work much like printf(1) strings. The values that can be interpolated for a given image are:

 %f => replaced with the filename of the image
 %d => replaced with the date/time of the image (or mtime of the file)
 %s => replaced with the size of the file (in Kb)
 %r => replaced with the resolution (XxY) of the original image
 %c => replaced with the image's caption (if stored with one)
 %% => replaced with a literal '%' character

The following codes are interpolated when directories are processed and a montage of that directory is used as the thumbnail of the subdirectory.

 %n => replaced with number of images in a directory
 %b => replaced with the "begin" date from a directory of images
 %e => replaced with the "end" date from a directory of images
 %t => replaced with the "title" from a directory of images

Other characters (including spaces) are literal. undef these in your .imageindexrc file if you don't want the TITLE attributes to be written into the HTML. The date/time related constructs are interpolated using the date/time format variables defined below.

Control the TITLE attributes for hyperlinks to thumbnail images within the frame view. The default is <filename> - <date> for an image

    $framethumbtitle  = "%f - %d";

Control the TITLE attributes for hyperlinks to thumbnail images within the index view. The default is <filename> (<size>) for an image

    $indexthumbtitle  = "%f (%s)";

Control the TITLE attributes for hyperlinks to thumbnail images within the slide view. The default is <filename> (<size>) for an image

    $slidethumbtitle  = "%f (%s)";

Control the TITLE attributes for hyperlinks to thumbnail images within the detail view. The default is caption (or comment) of an image if one was embedded within it.

    $detailthumbtitle = "%c";

Control the TITLE attributes for hyperlinks to montage images within the index view when a subdirectory is being presented. The default is to show how many images the subdirectory had and the date range that is spanned.

    $montagetitle = "%n images %b through %e";

The following eight variables control how dates and times are formatted when written into the HTML. Again we're using printf(1)-like variables where codes are interpolated according to a user's taste.

The definitions of the escape sequences come from the POSIX strftime(3) definitions. NOT ALL of strftime(3) are supported for obvious reasons.

 %S is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00-60).
 %M is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00-59).
 %I is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01-12).
 %H is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00-23).
 %p is replaced by national representation of either "ante meridiem" or
    "post meridiem" as appropriate (currently only U.S. "am" or "pm")
 %R is equivalent to "%H:%M" (in *timeformat variables only).
 %r is equivalent to "%I:%M:%S %p" (in *timeformat variables only).

 %Y is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.
 %y is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number (00-99).
 %m is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01-12).
 %d is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01-31).
 %F is equivalent to "%Y-%m-%d" (in *dateformat variables only).
 %D is equivalent to "%m/%d/%y" (in *dateformat variables only).
 %% is replaced by a literal "%".

Control the way the date is formed in the frame view

    $framedateformat = "%m/%d/%Y";

Control the way the time is formed in the frame view

    $frametimeformat = "%r";

Control the way the date is formed in the index view

    $indexdateformat = "%m/%d/%Y";

Control the way the time is formed in the index view

    $indextimeformat = "%r";

Control the way the date is formed in the slide view

    $slidedateformat = "%m/%d/%Y";

Control the way the time is formed in the slide view

    $slidetimeformat = "%r";

Control the way the date is formed in the detail view

    $detaildateformat = "%m/%d/%Y";

Control the way the date is formed in the detail view

    $detailtimeformat = "%I:%M %p";

Control what the index view's HTML filename will be

    $indexfile = 'index.html';

Control what the detail view's HTML filename will be

    $detailfile = 'details.html';

Control what the frame view's HTML filename will be

    $framefile = 'frame.html';

Control what the slide view's HTML filename will be

    $slidefile =  'slides.html';

Control the name of the directory where all the slide view HTML files will be deposited (one per image)

    $slide_dir = 'slides';

Control the name of the cascading style sheet written out in each directory

    $stylefile = 'style.css';

Control the name of the montage image if enabled

    $montagefile = 'montage.jpg';

Control the prefix of the emoticon PNG image filenames

    $emoticonprefix = 'ii_';

As an example, suppose you just want to change some date/time format strings. A complete .imageindexrc file in this case would be:

  $framedateformat = "%F";
  $frametimeformat = "%R";

  $indexdateformat = "%F";
  $indextimeformat = "%R";

  $slidedateformat = "%F";
  $slidetimeformat = "%R";

  $detaildateformat = "%m/%y";

  1; # don't for get this as the last line in the file!

We would like to thank Larry Wall, creator of Perl for his swiss army chainsaw of a scripting language (as well as all those who have hacked on Perl throughout the years). We would also like to thank all who have contributed to ImageMagick and its companion module PerlMagick. Without PerlMagick this software would be exceedingly less robust.

 Edwin Huffstutler <edwinh at edwinh dot org>
 John Reynolds     <johnjen at reynoldsnet dot org>