Fotoxx Change Log         https://kornelix.net
=================

2018 Jan 02 v.18.01.1
Bug Fix: Crash in metadata related functions if the default tag category 
'nocatg' has been deleted. This is now replaced automatically.

2018 Jan 01 v.18.01  - changes from prior release 17.08 (August 2017)
-------------------
Technical Changes:
 • The image index format was revised, requiring a new index initialization.
   This runs fast (up to 7000/min.) since new thumbnails are not needed.
 • Image Index initialization: work is now divided among 4 parallel threads. 
   On a computer with 4 processor cores and an SSD disk, indexing is about 
   3x faster (ca. 6000/min). There is no speedup for a rotating disk (1000/min). 
 • The maximum thread count for some functions was increased from 4 to 8, 
   to better utilize the newest processors from Intel and AMD.
 • Use of the shell 'find' command was mostly replaced with calls to glob().
   This is fail-safe against special characters in file names.
 • There is now an option to place the Fotoxx home directory wherever wanted.
   The file "/home/<user>/.fotoxx-home" may be used to set a custom location.
 • Font for gallery windows is 1 point less than the user setting for dialogs. 
 • Retained geocoordinate precision was improved (now within 1 meter).
 • Many GTK widgets were downsized by reducing unnecessary margin padding. 
   This can be revised or undone by editing the file "widgets.css".
 • The custom [small] spin button widget now spins increasingly faster when 
   the +/- key or up/down arrow key is held down more than 1 second. 
Functional Changes:
 • The image index may now include up to 20 user-defined metadata items
   (search speed for indexed metadata is >1000x faster than non-indexed).
 • The restriction on sorting a metadata report was removed.
 • Effects > Pattern: GUI improvements and better responsiveness.
 • Updating Albums: GUI improvements to make it easier to update affected 
   albums after an image file is updated or a new version is created.
 • Play video: Keyboard commands revised: 'P' to play/stop/resume, 'Q' to quit.
 • New slide show transition: the next image swells up from the middle and 
   compresses the previous image out to the sides. 
 • Galleries retain both sort and scroll position within and across sessions.
   All galleries can be reset to 'file name ascending' order with one button.
 • Retouch-Combo: GUI improved for setting white balance and black point.
 • Retinex: new edit function to improve color and contrast for images with 
   extreme fog/haze or color cast (e.g. a scan of a 100 year-old photo).
   Retinex can also be used to add flair to most other images. 
 • Batch Photo Date/Time: new function to fix missing or wrong photo date/time,
   or shift the date/time a given amount (e.g. camera in wrong time zone).
 • Batch Geotags: Location and Country can be updated without changing existing 
   geocoordinates (e.g. rationalize chaotic names from the camera GPS).
 • Keyboard navigation: some search and select functions that output a list now 
   allow navigation of the list using the arrow, page and home/end keys. You can 
   also enter text to make the list scroll to the next entry with matching text.
 • KB shortcuts: most can be customized, most are now available in gallery view.
   The menu functions that can have shortcuts were expanded from 27 to 94.
 • Menu font and background colors can be set to match a 'theme' or personal
   taste (these are generated graphics and do not follow themes automatically).
 • Two batch RAW conversion functions were consolidated into one, with options.
 • Search Images: search by file mod date added (in addition to photo date).
 • View360 function: View a 360° panorama image (e.g. Google photosphere).
   Viewpoint can turn through 360° and wrap-around by dragging the mouse.
 • Manage Tags: stop auto-delete of unused tags. User must delete if unwanted.
 • Mosaic: made much faster by using parallel threads. Blend is now instant. 
 • KB shortcuts: make '+' work as 'zoom-in' for any keyboard layout. 
 • Zonal Flatten: allow zone count = 1 (i.e. use the entire image distribtion).
 • Adjust HSL: use a sample spot of 3x3 pixels instead of one pixel.
 • Gallery view: use arrow keys to index current file and jump across galleries.
 • Revised menu names: Zonal Flatten > Flatten, Tone Mapping > Gradients,
   Flip Image > Mirror Image, Write Text > Add Text, Write Line > Add Line,
   Brightness Gradient > Brightness Ramp, Local Color > Zonal Colors
Bug Fixes:
 • Panorama: PNG images with alpha channels were sometimes made invisible.
 • Possible lockup after a long image indexing process. Exiftool memory leak.
 • Brightness Ramp: direction line sometimes persisted after function exit.
 • Albums: stop removal of videos from album if 'ffmpeg' or 'totem' is missing.
 • All directories tree: possible crash if navigating via keyboard arrow keys.
 • Search Images metadata report: missing data for the first image in the list.
 • Search Images with metadata selection criteria: minor memory leak plugged.
 • Vertical Panorama: fine alignment via mouse caused image to partly disappear.
 • Favorites menu: stop crash if assigned menu name is a 'top' menu.
 • Favorites menu: stop movement of menu position if 'user settings' selected.
 • The interface to Raw Thereapee was updated for changes in Raw Therapee. 
 • Some keyboard shortcut keys were not working for non-English locales.
 • Spurious "kill active dialog" message if image-index [x] button is used.
 • Crash "max. dialogs exceeded" after 15 "Edit Brightness" done in a script.
 • Stop spurious log file diagnostic from thumbnail clicks: "f_open re-entry".
 • Batch Utilities: stop flashing of title bar with each file opened.
 • Crash "no thumbnail directory" needed a better diagnostic.
 • Image Index: RAW files were being omitted (auto updated when referenced).
 • Make all date/time input formats the same.
User Guide:
  The user guide was audited to fix many minor errors and omissions. 
  The images were all updated and some were enlarged for better visibility. 
  A clickable table of contents and a clickable topic index were added.
Wayland Note:
  Fotoxx works OK with Wayland/Xwayland with one exception: when an image is
  zoomed-in by clicking on a spot, the pointer no longer follows the spot but
  stays fixed. This is a known bug or omission (only user can move pointer).


Bug Fix releases for Fotoxx 17.08
---------------------------------
17.08.3
 • User settings for video file types were not being saved.
 • Add missing popup diagnostic for libraw (RAW file) errors.
 • Check for 'hugin' instead of 'hugin-executor'.
17.08.2
 • Crash if invalid thumbnail parameter is inherited from a prior release.
17.08.1
 • Crash in gallery list view for directory outside the indexed directories.


2017 Aug 01  v.17.08
--------------------
Technical Changes:
 • Thumbnails were enlarged to 512 pixels for faster galleries when using large
   thumbnails. To implement, delete your thumbnails directory and re-index. 
 • Use of shell "cp filename" was replaced with a copyfile() function, which
   makes batch functions fail-safe against special characters in file names.
 • New widget types were implemented to make some dialogs smaller, covering less
   of the image being viewed. Number values can be indexed up or down using the 
   mouse wheel, keyboard up/down arrow keys, or the [+] [-] keys. The shift key 
   can be held down to increase the step size and speed by 10x. 
Functional Changes:
 • Video files display as both images (initial frame) and gallery thumbnails. 
   Click to play. Also editable metadata, albums, search, and slide show play.
 • Maps: save and recall user-named map locations (map position and scale).
 • Panorama: the flatten function was made variable and reversible.
 • Retouch Combo: the curve edit user interface was improved.
 • Galleries remember and restore their last scroll position with each view.
 • Select Hairy: improved algorithm, faster and better user interface. 
 • Select Area > Find Gap: fatter lines are drawn for better visibility.
 • Custom Kernel: added functionality. Ten more pre-installed filters.
 • Paint Image: added an HSL color chooser as an additional color method.
 • Slide Show: 2 new transition types. 5 others made faster on slow computers.
 • Color Profile: EXIF "ICCProfileName" is updated and embedded profile deleted.
 • Export Image Files: added metadata relevant for photo web services.
 • Search Images: match 'all' or 'any' logic was implemented for location.
 • Gallery List View expanded: show small thumbnails + most relevant metadata.
Bug Fixes:
 • Slide Show: workaround for GDK pixbuf scaling bug.
 • Flickr Upload stopped working and was removed. Flickr and other photo web 
   services can do this directly. The User Guide describes a simple procedure.
 • A startup album name (if any) was getting replaced with blanks.
 • Retouch Combo: failed if directory for saved settings is missing (create it).
 • Index Image Files: failed if recent files file is missing (create it).
 • Possible crash if Trim/Rotate [level] button is used (EXIF tilt angle).

2017 Jul 01  v.17.04.3
----------------------
Bug Fixes:
 • Manage Albums, Choose Album: [cancel] left all album menus disabled.
 • Slide Show, zoom image function: fix memory leak.
 • Select Area, Find Gap: crash if gap search killed before complete.
 • EXIF data update: possible crash if input keyword data is null.
 • Color Profile: liblcms2 can produce RGB values < 0. Replace these with 0.
 • File index process sometimes omitted a few files. This was self-repairing.
 • Metadata Report: leafpad fails to display report file - replaced it.

2017 May 02  v.17.04.2
----------------------
Bug Fixes:
 • Workaround for GTK draw event loop in Paint Image palette selection.
 • Retouch Combo: failed to update distribution graph with dialog edits.
 
2017 Apr 11  v.17.04.1
----------------------
Bug Fixes:
 • Crash in thumbnail gallery of RAW files if thumbnail size is large.
 • Sharpen Image: add error message if [apply] and no method was chosen.
 • Retouch Combo: [reset] omitted reset of "amplify" slider.
 • Popup menus: offset from mouse position to make menu cancel easier. 

2017 Apr 01  v.17.04
--------------------
Technical:
 • Source code revisions for GTK API changes (Ubuntu 17.04, Fedora 25).
 • Implementation of AppImage, a distro-agnostic packaging format.
 • Smoother gallery scrolling via thread to pre-fetch thumbnail images.
Functionality:
 • Image Montage: join selected images together into a compact table format.
   Images included in the table can be clicked to show a full-size image.
 • Paint Image: modified to make it easier to use with a Wacom tablet. 
 • Paint Image: use any image as a custom color palette - click to select color.
 • Edited images get an automatic tag, allowing "edited" as a search criteria.
 • Alien Colors effect: repaint an image or area with random strange colors.
 • Stack/Paint: Transient forground objects can be removed automatically, and a
   moving subject can be shown in multiple positions against the background.
 • Twist effect: twist or swirl an image around a mouse-selected central point.
 • Script Files: most of the special effects functions are now scriptable.
 • Denoise - measure noise: the noise is more completely characterized.
 • The desktop wallpaper functions were removed because they stopped working.
User Interface:
 • Paint Image and Clone Image were split into separate functions.
 • Trim/Rotate: margin sides can be dragged in addition to the corners.
 • Rename, Copy/Move, Delete/Trash: options were added to keep these dialogs 
   open or not (keep open is easier/faster if processing multiple files).
 • Albums can now be sorted like any other gallery, but cannot be edited when
   in an out-of-sequence condition. To edit, re-open the album. 
 • User Settings: an album name can be specified as the startup gallery.
Bug Fixes:
 • Startup with file parameter: now works for absolute or relative file name.
 • Correctly handle file and directory names containing '$' characters.
 • Voodoo functions can now be assigned to shortcut keys like any other.
 • Disallow re-sorting of a metadata report, which loses the link between 
   images and their metadata. Sort the gallery before generating the report.
 • Copy to Desktop or Clipboard: an edited but unsaved file copies correctly.
 • Trim/Rotate: stop sporadic motion of zoomed image when margins are dragged.
Next release: planned for Oct. 2017 if there is significant new stuff.

2017 Feb 28  v.17.01.2
----------------------
Bug Fixes:
 • Read TIFF file with alpha channel: alpha data was being ignored.
 • Panorama: crash if images have too little overlap.

2017 Jan 21  v.17.01.1
----------------------
The Spanish and Catalan translations were updated. No version change.

2017 Jan 12  v.17.01.1
----------------------
Bug Fixes:
 • Rare crash at startup after new image files are found and indexed.
   (This was self-repairing at the next startup).
 • Crash if the de-noise dialog was quit with the measure-noise dialog open.

2017 Jan 01  v.17.01
--------------------
New Functionality:
 • Show the entire image directory hierarchy with [+] and [-] buttons to expand 
   or contract subdirectories at each level. Click any entry for a gallery view.
 • Blend Image: Paint with the mouse to blend pixels within the mouse circle.
 • Replace Album File: Make it easier to update albums whenever member images
   are added or updated. Replace a given old image with a given new image, in 
   selected (or all) albums, or add the new image after the old.
 • Maps: An option was added to show markers only for images in the current 
   gallery (e.g. search results or album). The default is to show all images.
 • Color Mode: A new option was added to "rotate" the colors (RGB -> BRG), and
   each function operates on prior results instead of the original image.
 • Three new slide show transitions: turn-cube, windmill, pixelize.
 • Adjust HSL: both source and target colors can be selected with mouse clicks.
 • Slide Show - button to use current gallery (no album selection).
Efficiency Improvements:
 • Image indexing is 1.9x faster for 5400 rpm disk (slight speedup for SSD).
 • Thumbnail caching is more efficient, gallery scrolling a little smoother.
User Interface Improvements:
 • Edit Metadata: added [prev] button to recall previous geotag data.
 • Batch Rename Tags: A GUI replaced the text file for old/new tag names.
 • Brightness/Color Gradient: Set direction of gradient with a mouse drag.
 • Favorites menu: Alignment of icons or text to unseen grid was made easier.
 • Bookmarks Edit and GoTo dialogs now scroll to allow larger entry counts.
 • Slide Show: transitions dialog is scrollable for use with small monitors.
Bug Fixes:
 • Report by location and date-groups: If only a country is selected, the 
   output gallery did not include all locations within that country.
 • Metadata report: Failed if no prior reported items list was found.
 • Sort gallery by file or photo date: Avoid sorting subdirectories
   (leave them at the top of the list and in alphabetic order)

