    GTKRawGallery: an open source Photo Manager and camera raw files processor.
                                  Version 0.9.3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GTKRawGallery is an open source photo manager and camera raw files processor
written in Python for Linux O.S.

Why did I write it? Well, because I like photography and I needed an user friendly
image viewer to manage my camera raw files, but I didn't find a decent one running on Linux,
so I decided to write it with my favorite language, the Python.
Why should you try it? Because it has all you need from a photo manager:
  o Image browser;  
  o It's fast and highly costumizable;
  o Full featured Dcraw GUI for a fine-tuned raw file pre-processing;
  o Image modification tools for 16 bit/channel post-processing;
  o Multiple conversion with single workflow applicable;
  o Batch Processor;
  o Tagging;


Features
--------
Here are a list of the main features of GTKRawGallery:
  o Most known image formats supported: jpg, tiff, png, xpm, xbm, gif, ico,
    cur, ppm , pbm, pgm, pnm, pcx, bmp, svg, svgz, svg.gz, ras, tga, targa, wmf, apm, wbmp (see gdk_pixbuf doc);
  o Camera raw files support: cr2, nef, crw, raf, kdc, dcr, mrw, orf, ptx, pef,
    arw, srf, x3f, erf, dng. For the updated list of supported cameras, please, visit Dcraw home page;
  o 16 bit for channel color depth images recognized;
  o Exif support (with makernotes);
  o full featured browser with "copy", "move", "rename" and "delete" capabilities; 
  o Detail and thumbnail view for images;
  o Thumbnails zooming;
  o Thumbnails autorotation;
  o Thumbnails cache;
  o Full featured Dcraw GUI with fine controls and automatic preview;
  o Image histogram: a very important tool on digital photography;
  o Color enhance tools (adjust levels, gamma, normalize, color balance, exposure, saturation, hue, contrast,
    sigmoidal-contrast, channel mixer);
  o Image effects and transform tools (sharpen, unsharp mask, blur, reduce noise, add noise, median filter, grayscale, sepia tone,
    scale, rotate, flip, flop, fine rotation, border, crop);
  o Non destructive image workflow with a color depth >=16 bit; *
  o Full-screen view;
  o Zooming and rotation;
  o Slideshow with fading transition and background player;
  o Album manager;
  o Fast link to open images with Gimp or other
    editing tools;
  o "Save as" and "Conversion" features with exif data preserved;
  o Multiple conversion with applicable workflow;
  o Batch Processor;
  o Metadata tagging to quickly search by categories (see exiftool manual for supported file types);
  o Customizable GUI colors;
  o Two different gallery layouts;
  o User friendly graphic interface compatible
    with several screen resolutions (minimum 800x600);
                                                

Hardware
--------
Ram >= 1Gb (lower not tested)


Requirements
------------
Python >= 2.5
Pygtk  >= 2.10
GTK+   >= 2.10
Imaging Python (PIL) >= 1.1.6
Numpy >= 1.0.4
Imagemagick >= 6.3.4
Exiftool (last stable version)
Libglade (last stable version)
Dcraw >= 8.85 
Sox (The well known command line sound converter)


Imagemagick notes*
-----------------
It's a powerfull library for image processing running on Linux
usually coming with most known Linux distributiones compiled with a default color depth
of 16 bit (Q16), but it can be compiled as Q32, Q64 to preserve more color informations during image processing
or if you prefer, as HDRI (floating point quality) for a totally reversible and non destructive workflow.
(see Imagemagick documentation for more informations!)

Packages
--------
A Slackware package can be found at the www.slacky.eu repository;

Installation
------------
Gnome and Xfce users:
Just unpack the tarball, then double click on gtkrawgallery.py script and run.

KDE users:
Follow 'All users' instructiones or if you prefer, make a launcher on your desktop.
                                                
All users:
Unpack the tarball, then
$ cd /home/.../gtkrawgallery-0.9.3  at your shell's prompt,
and finally 
$ python gtkrawgallery.py

Uninstall
---------
Simplely delete the folders gtkrawgallery-0.9.3 and .GTKRawGallery in your home directory.


Change-Log (version 0.9.3)
----------
Updated PythonMagickWand to newer Imagemagick versions;



Tips and tricks:
---------------
o After every image modification, just right click on it to compare with unchanged image;
o Disable "Thumbnail autorotation" and "Thumbnail border" to speed up the gallery loading;
o Don't check the "Full image workflow" option if you don't need image zooming!
o Keep always checked the "Fast Loading" options on Dcraw settings page to speed up raw images' workflow.
  This option has not effect on saved images!
o Multiple conversion and Batch Processor do not overwrite;

When you process or save images, the workflow is applied to full sized images!

                                                

Bugs and Issues
---------------
The transition is still experimental, so some bugs are probable:
it usually works fine, but could be very slow for images with alpha channel like png files (specially on old hardware and old X server);
try reducing the number of frames or else disable it.
Other bugs are always probable. If you like the program and find anyone , it would be
nice if you reported it.  


License
-------
GNU GPL v.2 (see COPYING)


To do
-----
Red eye removal;
Lens distortion correction;
Vignettation removal;
Print support;
Internationalization;


Feedback
--------
Always very welcome :-) You can reach me at bit123@users.sourceforge.net

Greatings
---------
Thanks to Ian Stevens for permitting to include his Pythonmagickwand package;

