Namer Tamer 1.0
By T. Justin Shaw
January 2004
NamerTamer is a photo processor designed to speed up and simplify the common
tasks associated with digital photo management: renaming, rotating, cropping,
red eye editing, and thumbnailing. Each task is expedited via a
"Hot-Key" sequence using either the <Ctrl> or <Alt>
key to avoid menu navigation and to minimize mouse utilization.
The speed gained comes at the expense of oft-relied upon safety nets. Files can be deleted or over-written without warning or recourse. For this reason it is recommended that you practice with NamerTamer using a test directory containing copies of the original images. All photo edits are un-doable which provides a degree of safety. The two actions with permanent repercussions are saving and deleting. NamerTamer makes both of these actions easy and quick to accomplish, with the assumption that the user will wield these powers with the requisite care.
Initially I wrote NamerTamer simply to rename the images after uploading them from a digital camera. Windows XP's Explorer was almost up to this task as thumbnails of the images can easily be viewed and rotated directly in Explorer. Renaming several images is cumbersome and requires jumping back and forth between the keyboard and mouse for each image. Another minor peeve was that the extension had to be retyped for each image.
NamerTamer -- Makes common tasks easy and leaves the rest to GIMP.
Links:
NamerTamer Project Page
Download
Page
Screen Shot
There are three steps to editing an image: opening the image, altering the
image, and finally saving the image.
-- Opening an Image --
If NamerTamer is not already started, right click an image from Windows Explorer and drop down to "Open With." Select NamerTamer if it is one of your options. Otherwise select "Choose Program". On the pop-up box press the "Other..." button and find the install location for NamerTamer.
If NamerTamer is started but the wrong image or no image is displayed, click File-->Open and browse to find the image. and can also be used to open each of the images in the current directory.
The final way to open an image is to hit <Return>. This will move to the next file in the current directory after saving the edits for the current image and renaming the image file if the name has been changed. Pressing <Return> will always overwrite the current image. Use <Tab>, <Shift-Tab>, or File-->Save As if this is not desired.
-- Editing the Image --
For the currently displayed image several edits are accessible via Hot-Keys. See Hot-Keys. Once an image has been modified the name in the titlebar will be enclosed by asrices, “*”. If the image has not been modified the titlebar will display the filename enclosed by hyphens, “ –“.
-- Saving the Image --
There are three ways to save the changes to the current image:
<Return>, saves edits overwriting original file and moves to the next image in the current directory.
File --> Save, saves edits overwriting original file.
File --> Save As, saves edits with a new filename.
To see the Help Menu hit <F1> at any time.
-- Common Tasks --
To rename images -- Open image Left click the cursor into the naming field. Type in the name of this image. Save and move to the next image by hitting <Return>.
To turn images clockwise -- Hit <Alt-Right> for each 90-degree turn. Name image in the naming field Save and move to next image <Return>.
To repair red eye -- Box the head of the person with the afflicted eye using the rectangle selection tool and hit <Alt-z> to enlarge it. Box the individual eye, using the oval or rectangle selection tool in the upper right. <Alt-r> will change the eye color. Continue to use <Alt-r> until you think the color is right. <Alt-u> to unzoom the image. Check the overall effect of the changed image. <Ctrl-z> will undo the color changes one step at a time. Use File-->Save As to save the photo, protecting the original. To overwrite the original press <Return> or select File-->Save from the menu.
To separate images from a multiple-image page -- First copy as many of the pages as there are images that you want to cut. For instance, I you have scanned six photos on one scan, make six copies of the page. Open the File pulldown menu. Choose File-->Save As. When the naming window appears, add the words “copy 1” or “c1,” some designation that differs from original page. Do File-->Save As as many times as there are photos on a page, changing the copy number each time. Tab-Shift back to the first copy, taking care that you are NOT on the original page. Box the photo you wish to cut and cut it using Alt -C. All other photos will disappear, leaving you with only the selected photo. Rename the photo in the naming field. Hit Enter to save and move to the next copy. Depending on the next photo, comes in handy here, allowing you to paste the previous photo name into the naming field. Repeat the cutting, renaming process until you have separated photos. I like to <Shift-Tab> back to the original when finished with that set to double check. If you have created too many copied pages, simply hit <Alt-D> to delete.
-- Menu Commands --
File <Alt-f>
<Alt-f, Alt-o>, Open: to change current directory and/or current
image
<Alt-f, Alt-r>, Rename Directory: to rename current directory, but
not the
current image.
<Alt-f, Alt-x>, Exit: to exit the program
Hot Key Commands:
<Enter>, rename and save: to automatically save the current image, replacing
the
original, and its name and move to the
next image in the directory
<Tab>, Next Image: to move to the next image in the directory
<Shift-Tab>, Previous Image: to move back to the previous image
<Alt-Right>, Rotate Clockwise: to rotate the image into position,
only one direction is necessary. Use hot key until the image is in the
correct orientation. Only the thumbnail is rotated, not the
original image. This orientation is not saved unless the image is saved (<Enter>
or <Alt-f, Alt-s> or <Alt-f, Alt-a>).
<Alt-l>, paste last: to paste previous image name with the
addition of a number, i.e. “Picture” ŕ “Picture-1” ŕ
“Picture-2” etc.
<Alt-z>, zoom: to zoom region defined by selection tool. Use zoom to assist in the precise definition
of redeye region
<Alt-u>, unzoom: to reset the image scale so that the entire image
is visible.
<Alt-r>, redeye: to reduce the redness level for the current
region defined by the selection tool.
Repeat until desired red level is attained.
<Alt-c>, crop: to remove the area of the image outside the
rectangular region defined by the selection tool.
<Alt-f, Alt-s>, save: to save current image, orientation and name,
replacing
the original.
<Alt-f, Alt-a>, save as: to save current image, orientation to a
new location;
prompt will appear for name and location, leaving the original file
unchanged
<Alt-t>, thumbnail: to create a smaller version of the original
image, according to
user specifications, “Maximum dimension in pixels.” Customary pixel
size for
a thumbnail is 100 and for email 640. If the original image is already
smaller
than the specified size, the thumbnail will be the size of the original
image. All
images changed under this command will be saved in a new directory
called “thumbnails,” created to contain
thumbnails (if this directory doesn’t already
exist). For example, “Picture.jpg” with max dimension of 100 will be
saved
relative to the current directory as “thumbnails/Picture_100.jpg.”
<Control-z>, undo: to undo the last image manipulation. Can be repeated indefinitely until the
original image is restored.
<Alt-d>, delete image: to delete the current image, irrevocably without any prompt,
warning or do-overs.
<Escape>, cancel: to recover original filename and orientation of
the current image
<F1>, show help: to display hot keys