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Tag: filter

  • Quick Search: Freeware File Search

    Quick Search (Version: 1.1.0.189) is a simple and fast freeware tool to list and search for files on a local machine and storage devices attached to it such as USB keys or external hard drives. It is very fast with all files indexed within seconds. Its interface is clean and straight forward. It starts with a floating search bar or its non-full mode, it can be expanded or maximized to show the program window and all its options and menu.

    Quick Search

    Find or filter for a file as you type and either search within all files or narrow down the results from Show All to any one of Shortcuts, Folders (and files within them), Documents, Pictures, Videos or Music. Other filters can be added via its settings by telling Quick Search which file extensions should belong to the filter.

    Quick Search

    Any list of files can be exported to a txt file and the list can be arranged by type, date modified, size and name. Files can also be selected to copy, cut or paste. They files are also clickable, Quick Search opens their containing folder.

    The settings has an option – on by default – to show and hide the full program window by clicking the Ctrl button twice.

    Quick Search should run on all Windows versions.

  • LazPaint: Open Source Graphics Editor

    LazPaint (Version: 4.8) is open source and is a good and very capable alternative to any full featured image or graphics editors. Some of its features are listed below using its menu as a reference and the images attached to this review highlight a few of them.

    LazPaint

    LazPaint can do multiple undo and redos and paste as and paste as new image. Selections are available as rectangle, ellipse and polygon, these are complemented with curve that can create complex shapes or areas based on initial and end points. Selections can be edited, rotated and there is also the magic wand to automatically select objects within an image. Change canvas size and flip are available too as is zoom which includes a ‘Smart zoom’.

    LazPaint
    Shift colors (Colors—>Shift colors) and Deformation (Tool—>Deformation)

    Colorize and shift colors work really well and change an image smartly. Intensity, lightness, normalize, negative, linear negative and grayscale are equal or superior to other similar programs. Pen, color picker, eraser, gradient, fill, shaded shape (many available shapes with adjustable light sources), text, deformation (image is divided into any number of grids and then any section of the grid can be dragged to distort portion(s) of an image) and texture mapping take LazPaint into more advanced territory.

    Filter are mostly the common ones with different blurs (radial, motion, disk, fast, precise), sharpen, smooth, pixelate, cleartype, contour and emboss all there plus plane. The latter comes with a warning that it is a slow process (see last image for what the first image image is transformed into using plane). Finally render adds any one of various objects over a selection or the whole image.

    LazPaint
    Plane (Filter —>Plane)

    LazPaint is multi-platform written in Lazarus, has command line support and so can take advantage of the BGRABitmap library, read more at http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/LazPaint and http://wiki.freepascal.org/BGRABitmap. Input file formats supported are bmp, jpg, png, gif, ico and Paint.NET’s pdn and it can save to bmp, png and jpg.

    Image in the screen shots is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/puksdesign/5896307147/in/photostream

  • Keep An Eye On System Changes With TheFolderSpy

    TheFolderSpy monitors folders so one can check for changes. The Spy in the name may conjure up a hesitation or two and the program doesn’t help the cause by having hidden and incognito modes.  In these modes the program runs in the background. However the hidden and incognito modes don’t really make the program invisible, both leave the program’s icon in the tray area, but notifications are disabled in the latter.

    TheFolderSpy

    Perhaps the best use for TheFolderSpy is to keep an eye on programs that add folders or files in places like the Documents folder when they are being installed.

    Using TheFolderSpy starts with adding an item. Choose the path to the folder – and optionally subfolders – to be monitored, if needed add file type filters and optionally execute a file when a change is detected. Created, changed, deleted or renamed are the file attributes that can be monitored.

    TheFolderSpy can be paused, made to save a log or start with Windows. It has a built-in feature to send emails when changes occur. The email feature is ready to use with gmail or any other SMTP server. The subject and content of the emails can also be set within TheFolderSpy.

    TheFolderSpy has command line parameter support to configure its modes, log file path and others. The email body has parameters as well. For example *f inserts the file name and *n the date and time of a change (See the accompanying readme.txt for others).

    TheFolderSpy is freeware, a single executable file, just over 60KB and runs on XP and newer versions of Windows. It requires .NET Framework 3.5.

  • Freeware Shorts: Directory Monitor

    Directory Monitor (Version: 1.0.2.0 as of this post) is a program that keeps an eye on or monitors any number of directories for file additions, changes and deletions. These could be local or directories located on a network. These kinds of programs are very useful because a user can see and know what happens when for example a program is installed or uninstalled. As a more specific example many programs have a habit of creating directories in the My Documents folder and when uninstalling these sometimes cryptically named folders remain. Directory Monitor makes such scenarios more manageable.
    Directory Monitor can generate alerts or tool tip balloons when changes occur and can also execute a command when a change happens. .NET Framework required.

  • Hornil StylePix: Feature Packed And Freeware Photoshop Alternative

    Hornil StylePix, Freeware Photoshop Alternative

    Hornil StylePix is an impressive Photoshop replacement that is not only freeware but is only 1.5MB in size. The layout is similar to that of the expensive Adobe product. Not unlike other free Photoshop alternatives it supports a lot of the features or functions of the much bigger product and does them reasonably well.

    Hornil StylePix’s features include the likes of lasso (free, polygonal and others and all with extra settings to increase, decrease, fill and generally work with the selected region), erase, spray and an easy way to draw shapes.

    Walking through the program menu, the following are also available.

    The file menu: Batch processing with control over output size, name, orientation and filter. Browsing, previewing and navigating folders from within the program. Setting images as wallpaper.

    The edit menu: The usual series of tools like brush, clone, fill, color drop, text, zoom, transform, fix red eye and others. Here is also where one can use Hornil StylePix’s support for multiple undo levels in addition to the histogram.

    The image menu: Rotate, resize, duplicate and crop.

    The object menu: ‘Inserting’ images into other images and working with them as groups and then aligning, blending and layering (the image shows two pictures ‘grouped’ together)

    The Filter menu features a list of filters including the likes of noise, sketch, glow, blur and others.

    The view menu : Grid, ruler, and zoom. Also full screen mode and slideshow for the current image’s folder. This is also where the program options reside where the slideshow, interface grid, program skin and other settings are configured.

    The Window menu arranges windows and preserves or saves the layout for future sessions.

    A pro version with layer styles such as emboss, shadow and glow is also available. Hornil StylePix runs on Windows XP and newer PCs.

  • Organize Files With File Bucket

    File Bucket is one the many excellent programs and coding snacks from DonationCoder. File Bucket’s main purpose is to copy or move scattered files into one central or organized location. It was created because a user on the DonationCoder forums asked for a program to ease disc creation. The user wanted to automatically copy media files to one single folder and then burn them to a disc. In my opinion the same concept can be applied to backing up files. Working on my system I am using File Bucket and moving files that have been created in various My Documents and other folders into one location so subsequent system backups are easier and cleaner.

    File Bucket is divided into four panes or areas, the top left hand side shows all systems drives and below it the folder tree. Highlighting a folder in the tree will show its files in the upper right hand pane. The lower right hand pane is the bucket or list of files and folders that will be moved or copied.

    The three buttons on lower left side of the interface act as aids or shortcuts for adding files or folders to the bucket. “Add folder’s file to list” will add only files – from the folder selected in tree – to the bucket, ignoring any subfolders. “Add folder & subfolder’s files to list” will add all files including those in subfolders. “Add to list as a folder” will add the selected folder as is to the bucket thereby moving or copying it as a folder and not only the individual files that are within it. The “Add selected to list” and “Add all to list” buttons work on the folder(s) and file(s) visible just above them. After the bucket is populated the destination folder can be configured and the option to move or copy – or “Delete items to Recycle Bin”, “Save list with absolute paths” and other – chosen.

    One other feature that adds another degree of usefulness to File Bucket is the filter (middle right of the program interface). Using the filter one can specify the file formats that will end up in the bucket. For example one can only move *.mp3 or *.jpg files. Any number of formats can be defined in the filter list which pops up when clicking the filter button. The filter(s) must be defined before any files are added to the bucket and in that sense the location of the filter button – and its associated dropdown – is perhaps not the best as one can mistakenly add files to the bucket before ‘reaching’ or getting to the filtering part on the right hand side of the program.

    Once used it becomes clear that File Bucket is more difficult to describe than to use and it joins a long list of very useful utilities coded at DonationCoder.

  • Image Analyzer Offers More Image Editing Features

    Image Analyzer is described by its author as

    Advanced image editing, enhancement and analysis software…plus a number of advanced features not even available in professional photo suites


    Image Analyzer

    Indeed the strength of Image Analyzer is that it is somewhat more than an average freeware or shareware image editor. Its features include the likes of resize and crop but additionally also warp. Color correction, brightness and contrast tweaks are all included but again local contrast and statistical images enhancement provide more. A number filters are also available, some of which are specialized and require calculations that take more than a few seconds to complete on a relatively older XP install for example. Skeletonize, dilation and more fall under the morphing category or menu. There are other features that include yet more complex calculation like fourier and cosine transforms. Under the help menu an expression evaluator reads like a math calculator and allows the user to check values before using the update with expression option available for the transformations menu which is located like all other advanced features under the operations menu.
    Documentation is very sparse and this is admitted on the author’s page, therefore many may not even be aware of how some of the features work and only an image expert may understand all that is available. Image Analyzer is an 841KB zipped, no install download and is good both for the relatively novice and professional image editor, but perhaps more the latter. It is also worth noting that a number of plugins are available, 3D modeling just to name one, along with some documentation on creating new ones.

  • PhotoScape For All Your Image Editing Needs

    PhotoScape is described by its author as

    PhotoScape is the fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.

    The opening screen is an attractive and clear division of functions and features that can also be accessed in tab like fashion on the top of the screen. The program also displays random flickr images but this can be turned off.
    PhotoScape

    The Viewer presents the well known explorer like interface with panes for navigation and preview. From there and via right click images can be set as wallpaper, become part of a slide show, rotated and double clicked to be viewed in full screen mode. In full screen mode a right click presents the aforementioned possibilities plus others like brighten, darken, zoom, and view EXIF info.
    The Editor presents an ever growing number of filters. Most filters, and other effects, can accessed either via the accompanying drop down or by clicking on their respective buttons. They include the very impressive ‘Bloom’ and ‘Blacklight’ filters that give life and clarity to images. Here one can also resize an image, frame it, add line, objects and shapes onto it, apply a mosaic effect, apply free and preset crops, reduce red eye, and even reduce the appearance of moles. The Batch Editor can do all of the above on a set of images.
    Page includes many templates to group a number of images into a page that can be saved. It is possible to drag and resize images to fit them within many sizes, mixes or shapes available. Frames and filters can be added as well to produce imaginative finished pages.
    PhotoScape
    Combine is another form of the Page funtion described above. Here images can be grouped vertically or horizontally to produce a strip or multipage effect. Again many sizing and framing options are available here.
    AniGif creates gif animations of course and with many required controls. Of course the delay between each animated frame can be controlled as well as the background color that fills any emtpy regions when the images are not exactly the same size. Additionally PhotoScape has 7 transition effects and crucially the ability to position images within the frames (center, top-right, etc.). The latter feature is important when the pictures are not the same exact dimensions and, when using some other animators, individual frames can be off relative to the next frame, but not with PhotoScape.
    Print is sort of an extension of Page and includes various forms that let the user visualize different layouts and print images with configurable alignment, brightness and dots per inches (dpi). The finished product can also include such things as the file name under each image.
    Splitter divides an image into different regions, be they configurable number of equal sized rows and columns or widths and heights.
    PhotoScape
    Screen Capture, captures windows, full screens, rectangular regions and copies them to the clipboard or opens them in the Editor. It is also possible to repeat the last capture.
    Color Picker provides the RGB or Hex value of any region via a zoomed and draggable ‘fountainpen’. PhotoScape also keeps a recent history of captured colors.
    Raw Convertor, useful for DSLR camera images, converts raw formats (DNG, CRW, TIFF, etc) to the web friendly JPG. And finally Rename batch renames files with several renaming templates such as including the EXIF date, today’s date, numbered increments and others in the output file names.
    PhotoScape, currently at v3.3, packs many features in a 14MB download and is one of the most complete freeware of any kind. It does not consume too much resources as it remained well under 40MB of RAM usage throughout extended use. As mentioned it is free, looking for donations, runs under all Windows from 98 to Vista, is actively developed and looking for translators as well.