GTKRawGallery: an open source Photo Manager and camera raw image processor written in Python for Linux O.S.
                                  Version 0.9.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wants to be a workflow oriented photo manager with all necessary tools
to quickly process camera raw images. For this purpose GTKRawGallery holds
together the best libraries we have to work with 16 bit color depth images:
Dcraw, Imagemagick and Exiftool.

Some important features:
  + Image browser and manager;  
  + Full featured Dcraw GUI for a fine-tuned raw image pre-processing;
  + Image modification tools for 16 bit/channel post-processing;
  + Multiple conversion with single workflow applicable;
  + Batch Processor to speed up the workflow;
  + Fast keywords tagging;


Features
--------
Here are a list of the main features of GTKRawGallery:
  + Most known image formats supported: jpg, tiff, png, xpm, xbm, gif, ico,
    cur, ppm , pbm, pgm, pnm, pcx, bmp, svg, ras, tga, targa, wmf, apm, wbmp;
  + Camera raw files supported: cr2, nef, crw, raf, kdc, dcr, mrw, orf, ptx, pef, arw, srf, x3f, erf, dng. 
    For the updated list of supported cameras, visit Dcraw home page please;
  + 16 bit for channel color depth images recognized;
  + Exif, iptc, xml and makernotes read support;
  + full featured browser to copy, move, rename and delete images; 
  + Detail and thumbnail view for images;
  + Thumbnails zooming;
  + Thumbnails autorotation;
  + Thumbnails cache;
  + Full featured Dcraw GUI with fine controls and automatic preview;
  + Image histogram: a very important tool on digital photography;
  + Color enhance tools (adjust levels, shadows/highlights, gamma, normalize, color balance, exposure, saturation, hue, contrast,
    sigmoidal-contrast, channel mixer);
  + 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, lens distortion, red eye removal, despeckle, oil paint);
  + Non destructive image workflow with a color depth >=16 bit/channel; 
  + Full-screen view;
  + Zooming and rotation;
  + Slideshow with fading transition and background player (needs Sox);
  + Album manager;
  + Fast link to open images with Gimp or other
    editing tools;
  + "Save as" and "Conversion" features with exif data preserved;
  + Multiple conversion with applicable workflow;
  + Batch Processor;
  + Direct metadata tagging for portability (see exiftool manual for supported file types)
    and database support to quickly search by keywords;
  + Synchronize database tool to scan the file system for already tagged images;
  + Possibility to open files and folders dropped from the window manager;
  + Command line access;
  + Customizable GUI colors;
  + Two different gallery layouts;
  + 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
Sqlite3 (needs Pysqlite2)
Imaging Python (PIL) >= 1.1.6
Numpy >= 1.0.4
Imagemagick >= 6.3.4 (<=6.5.4)
Exiftool >= 7.41
Libglade 
Dcraw >= 8.93 
Sox (The command line sound converter)(optional)


Imagemagick notes
-----------------
It's a powerfull library for image processing usually coming with most known Linux distributiones. 
It is compiled with a default color depth of 16 bit (Q16), but it can be compiled as Q32 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!)
This GTKRawGallery version requires imagemagick <= 6.5.4 to assure wrapper compatibility.

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

Installation from source
------------------------                                            
Unpack the tarball, then
$ cd /home/.../gtkrawgallery-version  at your shell's prompt,
and finally as root:
# python setup.py install

Uninstall
---------
type from gtkrawgallery-version directory as root:
# python uninstall.py

Usage:
------
type
$ gtkrawgallery  at your shell's prompt or
$ gtkrawgallery filename/dirname

or simply use the window manager's start men ;-)
If something go wrong, start from a shell to see any errors.

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 at high resolution,
  but when you deal with raw images, to get max resolution, it is advisable to keep this option checked at cost of a little overhead,
  while processing compressed image formats with "Full image workflow" option checked could be very slow;  
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;
o With the 0.9.4 version was added also the "Canc" keyboard shortcut,
  that's very useful to quickly delete wrong photos;
o Always synchronize tags database if you want GTKRawGallery recognizing keywords tags written with other softwares,
  that's very useful to migrate from other O.S. ;-)
o The "write metadata" button on details window's tag panel works overwriting metadata with checked tags,
  so if nothing is checked, it will write a void string deleting all keywords;

When you process or save images, the workflow is applied to the 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
-----
Vignettation removal;
Print support;
Internationalization;
Porting to Windows;


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;
Thanks to the slacky.eu and getdeb.net communities for slackware and debian packages;

