Image Comparer: post your suggestions here

Description: Feel free to ask here any questions about Image Comparer. Any suggestions are welcome!
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bolide M
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bolide M
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Post #1by bolide » Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:40 pm

Any thoughts are welcome here
Bolide Software

motobojo
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Post #2by motobojo » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:57 pm

Hi,

I've been using Image Comparer (IC) for a couple of years now (I think). Most of my experience has been with V2.0 (beta). I recently udpated to V2.2 which fixed many of the reliability problems I was having with V2.0. As far as the mainline functionality of the product goes I'm reasonably pleased. I haven't found any other products that do what it does.

I've made the following enhancement suggestions to Bolide's support already, but since this forum is for more than just feedback to Bolide I'll repeat them here. I'd expect others can refine the suggestions.

>> Auto-save & shut-down(s) <<

Since many of the file sets to which I apply IC are rather large and there is a certain bit of instability to my computing environment (i.e., power surges and other recalcitrant applications causing system crashes) it would be really nice if I was able to get IC to save the database after completing it's comparison. This could be in conjunction with closing if necessary. Some applications that can take quite a while have a little check box on the launching screen that enable the user to select "save results and close when complete" as an option. Since IC does suck down some cycles and monopolize the disk another use for this would be to fire up a gonzo compare before leaving the computer for a while (say at night). In this instance it might be useful to have an additional option that not only saves the database, shuts down IC, but also shuts down the computer.

>> batch processing <<

Many of my comparison jobs are often done over and over (as new files are added to the file sets). It sure would be nice to create batch jobs that I could just launch to handle these comparisons. I could then come back at a later time and handle the review of the database results. I'd probably even do something like schedule the batch jobs to fire up at night.

~~~~~~~

Okay, now here is a new suggestion that I haven't yet mentioned to the Bolide folks ...

>> automatic delete <<

Here's the scenario I'm addressing ... I've just done a "compare groups" and for each 100% similarity (or you choose the similarity, but for my purposes it is 100%) I want to delete the files found in the 2nd group(s) (the one(s) specified on the right of the selection dialog box). It is really tedious to have to go tick all of these (especially since the ticking operation seems REALLY slow on my computer with V2.2). Anyway, I'd like some way to specify this operation to happen for me rather than having to do it via interactive selection.


Thanks for asking and listening.

-- Tom.

motobojo
motobojo
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enhancement / defect - slider granularity too gross

Post #3by motobojo » Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:13 pm

Hi,

Here's another one that could be either a defect or an enhancement request.

In the comparison results window, the slider bar on the right of the list of results records is way too course. There only seems to be 3 positions for the slider (at the top, at the middle or at the bottom) rendering it useless. I often have 100's (if not thousands) of records and it sure would be nice to actually use that slider bar rather than have to single-step through the records.

-- Tom.

motobojo
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cntrl-click selects between last file in column & file

Post #4by motobojo » Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:55 pm

Hi,

I often times find myself selecting LOTS (hundreds of files, if not many 10s of files) all in one column on the comparison results screen. It is tedious to do one at a time. Usually I know that all of the files between two files in a given column all need to be selected. I'd like to be able to select a batch of files all at once. This would be similar to what you can do in Windows file explorer / browser applets. You know ... select one file then shift-click to select another or cntrl-shift-click to select between the last file selected the the cntrl-shift-clicked one. The former doesn't mean much in this context, but the latter is EXACTLY what I need.

It would only work for bounded selections in the same column (all N1 - left column or all N2 - right column). I select a file in a column and then I scroll down and either cntrl-select or shift-select or cntrl-shift select (you decide) and IC will tick ALL of the files in that column following the first file up to and including the whatever-selected one.

I could sure use that right now ...

best wishes,

-- Tom.

motobojo
motobojo
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select whole column

Post #5by motobojo » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:42 pm

>> select whole column on comparisons result page

Another useful means of selecting groups of files would be to put a button on the title bar position above the column. When selected all files in that column are selected.

Useful if you indeed want to select all or most files in the column.

-- Tom.

motobojo
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Post #6by motobojo » Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:18 pm

:: Delete all records containing "file not found"

I often find that activity since I've created a database results in a number of records containing "file not found". I'd like some way to conventiently delete these. Here are some possible ways of doing that:

1) automatically do it when the database is loaded. If this seems to harse then ...
2) allow a "preference" to be set to enable the behavior described in #1
3) or provide a "delete all records containing 'file not found'" button
4) or provide a "mark all records containing 'file not found'" button (then I can hit the 'delete records button'.

If you find that the main screen get's to cluttered with additional options you can provide some level of indirection to get to less-often used tools in some "toolbox".

-- Tom.

Satya
Satya

Image Comparer v 2.2

Post #7by Satya » Tue Sep 06, 2005 7:25 pm

It will be nice to have the feature that shows the differences on the Window that shows the both compared files.

Thanks for listening.

Satya

motobojo
motobojo
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filter records

Post #8by motobojo » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:13 pm

I would like the ability to identify records in a database as "OK" and have them added to a filter to be applied to the creation of future databases. The filter would then EXCLUDE these records from being included in the newly created database.

Let me expound the problem I'm trying to solve with this ...

As new image files are added to my photo collection I periodically run IC's Compare group and Compare folders (as appropriate). I find that when I run Compare folder there are LOTS of db entries that I have previously reviewed and deemed the similarities as acceptable. It is a waste of time to have to keep re-reviewing these records every time I run the analysis. Hence my request to add these "OK" records to a filter and have that filter applied to subsequent analyses to exclude these records from subsequent databases.

Thanks for considering it.

-- Tom.

motobojo
motobojo
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pause button during analysis

Post #9by motobojo » Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:11 pm

Often times I run analyses that take many hours to run. While it is running my system can get a bit sluggish (most of the resource drain is on disk access). It would be nice to have a pause/resume button so that if I need to perform some other work on the system for a short time I can do so without it feeling like I'm working in molasses.

aires69uk
aires69uk
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Post #10by aires69uk » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:30 pm

Hello there. I've been using Image Comparer for some months now and I think it's fantastic - but there are some things I'd like to see.

1/ I'd like the function to be able to compare all BMPs in a folder only (for example) - thereby excluding any other image formats. A tick box would be good say:
(i) ALL
(ii) JPEGs
(iii) BMPs
(iv) GIFs & PNGs

2/ If it's possible I'd like to see the scrollbar in the results window actually scroll realtime and not jerk when the cursor leaves the bar.

3/ I'd like any photos that are date stamped with the date they were created to be kept as default above any other copies of the same photo - or at least asked whether I want to keep them. I had some photos that were the originals and were deleted with the copies kept. I may well have improved the quality of the photos but I wanted to keep the originals and now I will never get those photos back.

4/ Double clicking on the particular line selected to view both photos would be a good addition rather than having to right-click.

5/ Why can we only rename file 2? Why can't we also rename file 1?


And why can't there be an Options menu where you can put all these. Not everything has to be default - why not allow the user the ability to select how they want Image Comparer to work.

As I say I think that Image Comparer is fantastic but the usuability has still got a long way to go.

motobojo
motobojo
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With us: 18 years 7 months

Post #11by motobojo » Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:34 pm

aires69uk wrote:1/ I'd like the function to be able to compare all BMPs in a folder only (for example) - thereby excluding any other image formats. A tick box would be good say:
(i) ALL
(ii) JPEGs
(iii) BMPs
(iv) GIFs & PNGs

I must be misunderstanding what you are asking for because as I understand it it is already possible to do that. What version of IC do you have? I have v2.2. In my version when I select the "Compare Folders" button the dialog box that comes up has a drop down select box just above the "Compare" button whose default value is "All supported files". From there you can select a file format (such as BMP). Granted it doesn't allow you to mix and match formats, i.e. you either have select all formats (the default) or a single format such as BMP or JPG. But I think that does what you've requested.

aires69uk wrote:2/ If it's possible I'd like to see the scrollbar in the results window actually scroll realtime and not jerk when the cursor leaves the bar.

I'm with you on that one. I've already submitted the total ineffectiveness of the scroll bar as a defect report as well.

aires69uk wrote:5/ Why can we only rename file 2? Why can't we also rename file 1?


Huh? I'm able to rename either file. When I'm in the view with the list of comparison records, if I right-click for shortcuts over "File N2" one of the options is to rename it. The same is true when I right click over "File N1" in the record -- I can rename that file.

vitoco
vitoco
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Post #12by vitoco » Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:20 pm

I'd like a modification comparison option to detect if an image is a cropped version of another.

If I understood well on how this tool works, this could be a real challenge!

Thanks!!!

++Vitoco

xpto
xpto
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similarity % slider

Post #13by xpto » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:05 pm

I think the slider idea was very bad.
I liked the previous version, where you could specify a range of %.
If I want to see all the images that have 95%-99% similarity, I can't do it in the new version. The slider forces to choose X% and above, but not a range!
Why did you change this great feature???

xpto
xpto
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percent difference

Post #14by xpto » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:06 am

I think the slider idea was very bad.
I liked the previous version, where you could specify a range of %.
If I want to see all the images that have 95%-99% similarity, I can't do it in the new version. The slider forces to choose X% and above, but not a range!
Why did you change this great feature???


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