JIBS The Java Image Browser Sorter

JIBS Optimizer Reference


You should carefully read this reference before using the Optimizer!

Purpose

The Optimizer is designed to take various actions on all the pictures in one or more directories.  It is useful for both pictures downloaded from your camera or from the Internet.  However, the options choosen for each will likely be different and are provided on different tabs. 

In general, its a bad idea to use the options under Download for your camera photos.  Some of the option under Download will remove important metadata informaton from your photos.  This is all explained below.

I recommend that you try the Optimezer on copies or files you don't care about first.  Look at the files in thier directory before running the Optimizer.  After running the Optimezer review the report and see what the Optimzer actually did with your files.  Don't use the Optimizer on your important files until you are comfortable with it.

Selecting Directories

The Directories tab allows you to select the directories to be used.  If you select various directories in the JIBS Viewer file tree and then right click, you can bring up the Optimizer pre-filled with the selected directories.  You can also bring up the Optimizer with only a single directory or with all the directories in a particular tree that way.

Add
Brings up a dialog box to select a directory. Adds the choosen directory.
Add Subdirectories
Brings up a dialog box to select a directory. Adds the choosen directory and all of its subdirectories (and thier subdirectories, etc).
Remove
Removes the selected directories from the list.

You can reorder the list of directories by dragging directories to where you want them.  The order is important when you are deduping across directories (disucussed below).


Download vs Camera

In general, use the "Download" tab for pictures you downloaded from the Internet and the "Camera" tab for pictures you download from you camera.  The reason is that several of the Download options will remove the EXIF information from the pictures taken by your camera.  You don't want that to happen because photo editors can use that information to improve you pictures.  Specifically, any time you resize or make image adjustments the resulting file will not contain the EXIF information.


Camera Tab
Rename

Unique
Unique will ensure that every file in every directory choosen is unique.  For example, if you have downloaded multiple camera sessions into different directories, but all the files are labeled starting with P000001.JPG, you can't very well move the files between directories because the you might overright a different picture with the same name.  This feature solves that by renaming the file adding a unique identifer.  The identefier is in the form of -jibs000001.  The -jibs is used by JIBS to know which files it has already made unique.  The number is a simple counter of all the files you have renumbered.  You can see what the next number will be by looking in the View Setting menu.  If the file as named P000001.JPG, it would be renamed something like P000001-jibs000001.JPG.

EXIF
Most digital cameras include extra information with the picture.  This information is refferred to as metadata.  EXIF is a popular method for storing metadata.  This option will read the metadata for the picture and use it to rename the picture.  No action is taken if no metadata is included or JIBS does not unstand the metadata.  If JIBS understands the date time metadata information, it will rename the file with that information.  So P000001.JPG becomes 2004.01.03-16.54.51.jpg beding the date and time the picture was taken to the second.  Caution: If you use a burst mode you could have more than one picture in the same second.  My camera does not have that feature, so I have not tested JIBS in that configuration.  It should only rename the first file it comes to and leave the name of the other files the same.  However, I suggest you try it on  a copy first.  Also, let me know the results so I can update these instructions.

Operation

Press "Start" to begin renaming the files.  You will see the progress just below the Start button.  When complete, you can press "Report" to see what was done.


Download Tab
Remove Duplicates Options
Dedup
If you have been copying your files, crawling web sites, or doing mass downloads, you may wind up with several copies of the exact same file.  This does a binary comparison and will delete the duplicate files if they are exactly alike.  If they are even one bit different, this will not remove the files.  This will leave the first copy of the file found and remove all duplicate found later in processing.  The processing order is not guaranteed to be alphabetical.
Across Directories
If this option of off, the dedup will only dedup with each directory and will not delete duplicates found in another directory.  If this option is on, files will be deduped across all selected directories.  The directories are processed in the same order they are presented in the Directory tab from top to bottom.  So if a file is duplicated in the top and the bottom directory, the file in the bottom directory will be removed.

Remove Non-Image Options
Strain
If you walk a web site and want to delete all non-image files, this option is for you.  It will also remove all image files which JIBS does not understand.  Since JIBS understands all the image files Java understands, this usually means the image file was defective in some way.  You should generally use this option togehter with the Move to Park Directory option.  Without the Move to Park Directory option, this option will  permanently remove the file.  It will not be in the trash can or be recoverable.  Do not use this option with critical files, like pictures taken with your personal camera.
Move to Park Directory
Instead of deleting a file to be strained, the file will be moved to the park directory.  On Windows machines, this works best if the park directory is on the same drive.  If a difficulty is encountered in the move, the file will not be deleted and you will need to manually delete it.

Rename Options
Unique
Unique will ensure that every file in every directory choosen is unique.  For example, if you have downloaded multiple camera sessions into different directories, but all the files are labeled starting with P000001.JPG, you can't very well move the files between directories because the you might overright a different picture with the same name.  This feature solves that by renaming the file adding a unique identifer.  The identefier is in the form of -jibs000001.  The -jibs is used by JIBS to know which files it has already made unique.  The number is a simple counter of all the files you have renumbered.  You can see what the next number will be by looking in the View Setting menu.  If the file as named P000001.JPG, it would be renamed something like P000001-jibs000001.JPG.
Enforce Windows File Names
I saved some files on my Linux partition and Windows was not particularly happy with the names.  Seems there is a little more naming flexibility in Linux.  This cleans up those Linux file names so Windows can read them.  More specifically, it strips the following characters out of the file name: \ / : * ? " < > |
Clean Up Endings
Sometimes uploaded files have a unique number at the end.  For example, sample.jpg001.  This naming works fine in Linux, but is a pain in Windows because Windows can't figure out that type of file it is.  This will rename the file to sample.jpg.  It should then work in Windows.

Adjust Size Options
Resize
Resize will shrink larger pictures to the size indicated.  Resize will not grow pictures.  It is used when you capture photos at a greater resolution than your screen display and to want to get them all to fit on your screen.  This is not recommended for your Camera photos because you will lose resolution that you will never be able to get back.  The lost resolution will be important when you get prints of you photos from you printer or the drug store.  JIBS will automatically show your photos at the correct size during slide shows without making any permant changes to them.
Width & Height
Width and Height are set in pixels.  For reference, the settings for a full screen display at your current resolution are shown to the right.

Image Adjustment Options
Repack
If you have a set of photos that takes JIBS a long time to dipsplay, this function may help.  Technically it is doing an Affine Transform using the repact factor indicated as the scale.  Basically this causes the file to be saved in a format which seems to be more easily read by JIBS.  I suggest not using this unless you have files which have exhibited the problem.  Then experiment with copies of the files and see if you like the results.
Repack Factor
For the best results this should be between 1.0 and 0.8.

Operation

Press "Start" to begin taking all the selected actions.  You will see the progress just below the Start button.  When complete, you can press "Report" to see what was done.


View Settings

You can view and change the next number to be used for unique renaming.  You can also change the location of the Park directory.  Note that changing the location of the Park directory changes it both for the Optimizer and the Viewer.