Fast Loading Image Viewer for Ubuntu Linux: Mirage

These days when it comes to image viewers, GNU/Linux has a whole bunch of very competitive ones + if you use Ubuntu, then it comes with an excellent, fully featured image viewer (and a simple editor included) called Shotwell which was so good that it replaced the previous contender F-Spot.

There's certainly nothing wrong with Shotwell... but if you're searching for something loads a bit faster but doesn't come with a lot of features (don't be fooled, it's quite powerful!) then Mirage is a pretty good one.

But before we go further along this road ;-), just remember, if you have a huge list of albums to manage, then this is not the one to go for.

Main features...

*. Uses the GTK+ toolkit that integrates flawlessly with the Ubuntu Unity, Gnome classic desktop and other GTK+ based ones such as LXDE & Xfce (heck, you can even use it under Qt/KDE as well). .

*. Supports a lot of file types (including both raster and vector graphics) such as: png, jpg, svg, xpm, gif, bmp, tiff and many others.

*. Zoom/Out, Flip and Rotate, Full screen and a small thumbnail window to the left, etc. 

*. It may be a simple app yet you can do basic image editing such as : Cropping, Resizing and color changing too.

*. View image properties.

*. Save in different formats.

*. Take screenshots.

*. Rename, Delete pictures.

*. Image pre-loading (which helps to reduce the loading times).

*. Slide-show support.

*. Change between image scaling algorithms.

*. Change thumbnail size and background colors... man, so much for "simplicity" :P.

You can install Mirage in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install mirage

But remember, unlike with Shotwell or F-Shot, etc Mirage is not built to let you easily handle lots of image libraries (because that's not its purpose). Yet, all you want is a fast loading, pretty simple image viewer that has some useful features, then Mirage is a pretty good looking app nonetheless.

Free Cross-Platform Screenshot Tool: Screenie!

Most of us honestly don't be needing these type of dedicated screenshot capturing tools because we can use the built in photo manager or a painting application that comes with your operating system to do that.

But if you deal with screenshots a lot (just like me :D) and wondering about how to create screenshots that are angled + 3D looking reflections which you usually see with commercial applications "branding", then Screenie is one of the best, free tools that you can use.

One of the best things about Screenie is that it's a cross-platform tool that's written using the Qt toolkit and not only in Ubuntu (or GNU/Linux) but you can even use it under MS Windows and Mac OSX too.

Main features...

*. Supports Left, Middle and Right angled pictures.

*. Change offset, angle and distance of each picture.

*. Change Reflection opacity/angle.

*. Manually define R/G/B colors.

I obviously don't have a taste but this is what you can do with it... :)

That's about it for features!. You can install Screenie in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (might also work in 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04, not sure since I didn't test them) by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install screenie-qt

For the MS Windows users please visit the Screnie official home page. And big thanks to the developer Ariya (who's a very active Qt/KDE developer) for this excellent tool.

And I don't think anyone would need a tutorial on how to use it... but two things. Once opened, you have to drag the pictures to the Screenie window to load them + once you're done, just right click on it and you'll see the "saving" window.

But remember, Screenie is actually a basic screenshot composer rather than an advanced utility like Shutter, thus you cannot crop/resize your screenshots. So make sure to do those things before you drag-em-in to Screenie :). 

So, if you've been looking for a simple, free and yet effective screenshot tool that can be used on different OS environments, then Screenie is certainly an excellent little application.

A Professional Digital Painting Software for Ubuntu Linux: MyPaint!

If you're looking for one of the best digital painting applications for Ubuntu, then there aren't that many which can beat GIMP for what it does. But if you're looking for a bit simpler yet a powerful and professional painting software that has a somewhat different characteristic to it (more later), then MyPaint is something that's totally worth giving a shot :).

According to the developer of MyPaint, it's designed for pressure sensitive Tablet PC type devices + puts a lot of "weight" on digital brush strokes, which makes it an excellent dedicated painting application rather than a usual image editor.

Welcome to the world of the "damaged bird!", ;-)... Original image by : Nicobou from deviantart.

 Main features...

*. As mentioned above, it's all about brush-strokes with MyPaint and you get a hell lot of 'em by default such as:

Sponge, Pen, Charcoal, Marker, AirBrush, Spray, Dry Brush, Rounded, ink_blot, Erasers and Blur brushes (of different types) are just a fraction of the brushes that you'll get!.

*. If you want to create a brush of your own, then you can use the built in "Brush Editor" which basically lets you define a new one using changing "Opacity", "Hardness", "Speed filter", etc values.

*. Import a brush package with ease.

*. A basic image layer support (add/remove, change opacity, merge layers, add a background, etc).

*. Save images as: PNG, JPEG, Multiple PNG transparent and Open-Raster formats.

*. Unlimited canvas size thanks to the Raster image support.

*. Also available for MS Windows platform as well. 

*. Edit pressure settings for Tablet or if you have a similar Touch sensitive gadget.

*. Change the colors of your brushes + pick colors from the color piker tool from your current image... are among the main features.

As said, the GUI is pretty simple and is not filled with options because MyPaint only emphasize on creating amazingly beautiful digital graphics rather than a fully featured image manipulator such as the GIMP, Pencil or Inkscape for instance. 

Anyhow, you can install MyPaint in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 and 10.10 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install mypaint

Also remember to have a look at the excellent documentation of MyPaint which includes tutorials on how to use this amazing, digital painting software to create beautiful looking artwork in Ubuntu Linux. Enjoy!.

How to Install Gnome-Paint in Ubuntu?

Gnome-Paint is a simple and very basic painting application designed for the Gnome desktop which you can also use in Ubuntu Linux as well (obviously). But remember, this is not an advanced tool and some "must have" type features such as Text tool and the Zoom in-out tools are not completed yet thus you can't use them!.

But if you're looking for an application that you can use to draw "stuff" to kill some time :) and okay with not having the ability to add text (although you can use the pencil tool though) or Zoom them, then Gnome-Paint is a decent application. But as said before, please remember, this is not a professional painting application by any means.

Main features...

*. Since it's designed by Gnome geeks :D, it has a simple yet easy to use GUI (designed using the GTK+ toolkit).

*. To your left you'll see a list of tools such as: Crop, color picker, eraser and few types of selection tools. But you cannot use Text and the zoom tools, yet.

*. Undo/Redo.

*. Flip, rotate and load various types of images.

*. Invert colors.

*. Save in different formats... are the main features.

You can install Gnome-Paint in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gnome-paint

Again remember, this is still under development and the overall application responsiveness was not bad but I did encounter few slowish type issues. For instance, after using a tool (say the eraser), it took a small (very small but noticeable) delay to "update" it on the image.

Not "everything" is fully implemented yet...

This however is not a professional software by any means... but if you're looking for something that lets you create basic drawings under Ubuntu or GNU/Linux in general, then Gnome-Paint is a decent application which really needs some developing to be considered as a fully featured one in my opinion.

How to Install GIMP 2.7 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04?

Without A doubt, GIMP is one of the best raster image editors for GNU/Linux (also available for other operating system such as MS Windows and Mac OSX, etc as well).

It also has quite a history with GNU/Linux too, especially with the Gnome desktop since, if I'm not mistaken, GTK toolkit (which is the building block of Gnome desktop interface) was actually designed for the purpose of creating the GIMP at the first place.

Although apart from its popularity, few years ago, Ubuntu developers decided to remove it from the official CD ISO image (I guess because most of the users didn't use it), so if you want GIMP in Ubuntu, then we all gotta install it manually these days nonetheless.

Anyhow, few days ago the GIMP team announced the official availability of the GIMP 2.7.3. But remember, this is actually not a stable release but only a "unstable development" release since the next stable release of GIMP is the upcoming version 2.8. According to the developers, GIMP 2.7 unstable series in general does bring some major UI features + improvements but to quote their own words...

"A lot of new features are incomplete and some things may even be completely broken...", there, I warned you :)...

The new "loading-logo" (I just had to post it :D)...

But still, if you work quite heavy with GIMP and want the all new features available, well then, you might wanna give a try at the GIMP 2.7 nonetheless! :).

Main features...

The default & the usual "dock" mode...

*. Hide or merge the "Docks" into a since window (which I really like):

To be honest, I actually don't use GIMP that much but I do use it from time to time for simple tasks (this blog's ugly logo was created using it, although GIMP had nothing to with it being so ugly :D) and I used the version 2.5 the last time I used it.

Therefore I can't point out all the recent changes and whether they were actually introduced in a bit earlier version. But the rest assured, I like the new merged window which helps both navigation + reminds a bit of the Adobe ... ;-).

The "merged" window, I just love it!...

*. Tools that are rendered on the canvas window are now done via Cairo which "draws" smoother (+anti-aliased) graphics UI.  

*. Did you also noticed that the docks + canvas now has a background of the GIMP "fox" which is another feature. 

*. Easily add/remove color tools, tool-bars, palettes or other whatnots as "docks" via: "Window" -> "Dockable Dialogs" from the main menu-bar.

*. New transparent "Add-Text" dialog is also pretty cool.

I'm pretty sure the transparency of the text-toolbar is also due to the Cairo (an advanced 2D graphics library) rendering ...

Unlike in the past we can make the text Bold/Italic, change font type and size, etc via using the tool-bar rather than using the "left-dock" filled with graphics tools, which was the case in the past. This is a good thing since this should help to increase the productivity.

*. Tag your tools/docks:

For instance, if you have manually added a lot of docks filled with different tools, now we can "tag" them which helps to easily hide/filter out the ones that we don't want thanks to this feature.

*. New GEGL (another graphic library) operation widget for scaling, blur, add drop-shadow, change colors + huge list of other ability for the images.

Just a fraction of the features...

*. A Cairo based PDF importer.

*. A web-page plug-in that lets you render any web page into an image using the Webkit browser engine.

*. If you use a Tablet-PC with GIMP, then you'll love to hear that the developers have added a totally new input dialog that lets you customized the sensitivity, etc according to your personal preference.

These are just a very very small list of all the new features that comes with the 2.7 (2.7.3 is the latest) version. Anyhow, you can install GIMP 2.7.3 in Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 (might support the latter versions too) by using a PPA provided by Matt Walker. So a big thank goes to him.

As usual, open your Terminal window and use the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

That's about it. Enjoy!.

How to Install Flickr Remote Organizer (Frogr) in Ubuntu?

Flickr is a very popular, online photo sharing service that's now owned by Yahoo. Although the search engine giant Google also has their own version called Picasa which is as good as Flickr is but they're both just give us the ideal opportunity to share and show-off our talents with ease nonetheless :).  

If you use Gnome as your desktop and daily deal with Flickr then wouldn't it be nice if you could find an app that integrates directly into your Gnome desktop and lets you upload pictures to Flickr with ease?... in that case, Frogr which stands for "Flickr Remote Organizer" is a great little tool that can make things much more simpler for you :).

Main features...

*. Written in GTK+ toolkit (in fact the latest 0.6 version now supports the GTK3 tool-kit which Gnome 3 is written) thus integrates seamlessly with Gnome but you can use it in other desktops such as KDE or in other desktops as well.

*. The ability to log-in directly to Flickr using their API and upload pictures directly from the GUI (well it should!, that's the idea, right? :D).

*. Change visibility of your uploaded pictures (whether they are accessible to everyone of just "private").

*. Built it content type:

For instance, I usually upload screenshots of applications. So, since Frogr has a built in "tag" called "Screenshots" (+ "Photo" and "Other"), all I gotta do is just choose "screenshoots" and all my pictures will be categorized as "Screenshot".

*. Safety level settings (safe, moderate and restricted).

*. Build in photo releasing licenses to add with your pictures.

*. Drag and Drop support.

*. Support accessing via Proxy servers.

*. Open images via external image viewers. 

*. Edit Photo name and add descriptions (you know the usual photo tag editing).

*. Multiple Flickr account support... are among Frogr's main features to mention.

You can install Flickr Remote Organizer (or Frogr) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 or even 10.04 by first adding its official PPA. To do that, as usual use the below commands in your Terminal window.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mariospr/frogr

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install frogr

That's it. 

How to Install DesktopNova in Ubuntu?

DesktopNova is a simple application that automatically changes your wallpapers. Although currently it only supports Gnome and XFCE desktops. But after running app I saw that it has a plug-in support (they called it Module) so lets hope someone will come up with a plug-in so it would be usable in Unity as well.

Main features...

*. Add various folders containing your images (only local storage are supported).

*. Change the wallpaper interval.

*. Change the wallpaper every time the application launches.

*. Run automatically when you log-in.

*. Mouse wheel support (changing wallpapers).

*. Tray-icon support.

*. Filter out certain file-types.

You can install DesktopNova in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.04 and 10.10 by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install desktopnova desktopnova-module-gnome

If you use the Xfce desktop (Xubuntu 11.04) then you the below one instead.

sudo apt-get install desktopnova desktopnova-module-xfce

That's it.

How to Install EasyImageSizer in Ubuntu?

EasyImageSizer is a simple yet an advanced Image resizer written in Qt toolkit which lets you easily convert images from one formats to others formats, mass renaming, resize, etc with ease. Although it's written in Qt, yet it integrated quite nicely in the Gnome classic desktop while I was playing with it ;-).

You can both lower or make the images look bigger (increase) by changing the resolution. Although EasyImageSizer comes with predefined presets but you can manually override the settings as well.

They recently released a new version 3.0.2 but it's not available for Ubuntu at the time I was using it... but other than few stability enhancements, etc the 2.1.5 version is pretty close the version 3x nonetheless.


Main features...

*. Add individual images or directories.

*. Convert/save images into .bmp, .jpg, .png or .tiff formats.

Enabling the "plugins" is pretty easy as you can see...

*. Resize with manual quality settings.

*. Add overlay images or texts.

*. Change aspect ratio and resolution settings manually or choose predefined settings.

*. Rotate.

*. Rename images or Exifdata (advanced "tags" which hold information such as the camera which took the pic, shutter speed, etc).

Although almost all these features are disabled by default (resizing, rotating, etc) thus you have to enable them by enabling the plugins since these features are implemented as plug-ins. It's pretty easy, all you gotta do is, from its menu go to: "Edit" -"Plugins"   and choose the ones that you need.

You can install EasyImagesizer in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by first downloading the .deb file from this page. Although I'm not entirely sure but I think it should work in Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 version as well + that downloading page holds prebuilt packages for other GNU/Linux distributions such as Fedora, Gentoo, etc too.

In Ubuntu after the downloading completes, just double click on the file and follow the instructions on the Ubuntu Software Center.

Note: even after the installation went pretty well yet I couldn't run the application. When I click on the EasyImageSizer, well, nothing happened :/. So I went for the ultimate trick ;-)... I put the command in the Terminal window which gave me the below error.

gayan@gayan-PC-LL700ED:~$ sh /usr/bin/easyimagesizer.sh
: not foundsr/lib/easyimagesizer/easyimagesizer

Well then I went to that directory in bold letters and doubleclick on the "easyimagesizer" and guess what?, it worked!. The app launched without any issues.

So as you can see, if you want to launch it then evertime you have to go to that folder and double click on that specific executable file or you can just create a shortcut on you desktop OR if you use Gnome classic desktop,

1. Just right click on the main desktop menu and choose "Edit Menu". Then navigate to :"Applications" -> "Graphics" -"EasyImageSizer".

Now double click on the icon which should bring you its properties window as below. Just replace the text for "Command" box with the below text.

Replace the highlighted text with the below one...

/usr/lib/easyimagesizer/easyimagesizer 

And click on the close button. Now everything should be working without any issues. In unity desktop... you can just replace the "command" in the app-launcher any other launcher with the above one.

One thing though... for some reason, I can't save the plugin data. For instance, if I had enabled all the plugins the last time, then whenever I launch the app, the plugins are automatically disabled. So you'll have to re-enable them every time you launch the app. Anyone knows how to fix it?

Yep that should do it. Enjoy!.

How to Install gthumb in Ubuntu (11.04/10.10 and 10.04) ?

Although there are literally hundreds of image viewing/importing applications for GNU/Linux yet gthumb used to be one of the most favorable ones among Gnome desktop users. But for some reason little by little it was replaced by others.

I can't remember the exact version but Fedora Core started to ship F-Spot and let go of gthumb a while ago. Don't know when it happened with Ubuntu but these days most distributions are drifted towards the excellent Shotwell photo manager.

Anyhow gthumb is still developed and part of Gnome desktop and it's certainly is in the official repositories in Ubuntu as well.

Main features...

*. By default it supports a lot of major image formats such as - BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, ICO, XPM.

*. Choose different views (full screen, etc).

*. View images in various other ways such as - Flip/Rotate or Black-n-White, etc.

*. Create thumbnail previews, these thumbnails are saved in the Nautilus database so no space is "wasted".

*. Bookmark folders.

*. Copy/Move or delete.

*. Edit image tags - Comments, etc.

*. Organize pictures with catalogs.

*. Search and find images within the database with less time.

*. gthumb has a simple image editor with which you can do things like Edit/Crop/Rotate/Change colors, etc with ease.

*. Write to CDs, Set them as backgrounds or import images from other devices such as USB drives or Cameras, etc.

You can install gthumb 2.13 (current version) in Ubuntu 110.4 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 or 10.04 by entering the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gthumb

Enjoy it :). 

Videoporama - A Fully Featured Video/Image Slide Show Creator for GNU/Linux!

Videoporama is a very impressive video and image slide-show creator that is written in Qt. Although it's basically seems like a front-end since it uses the excellent MPlayer for video play-back, ffmpeg and MjpegTools for dealing with various types of audio and video formats... the rest assured, if you want something that lets you create hassle free video shows or image slides... then Videoporama is an elegant app.

This actually is a cross-platform Qt written application thus you can use it in Microsoft Windows as well.

Main features...

*. Comes preloaded with a lot of transition effects.

*. Add text to your images (overlays, etc).

*. If your does not have an audio file, then you can manually add one too!.

*. Pre-built presets for creating videos for iPhone/iPod or manual output settings.

*. Supports saving videos in mpg, avi, mp4 and webm + if you want you can save the recorded videos in full HD resolutions as well.

These are few of its main features to mention and if you want to install it in Ubuntu 10.10, then open your Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo apt-get install videoporama

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Nalwhal, then please use the this .deb package instead. 

Lookit, A Simple "Screenshot-Taker" for Ubuntu Linux

If you want a dedicated screen capturing application for Ubuntu that's written in GTK+, then Lookit is a great solution!. It basically runs in the notification area and lets you take you screenshots easily. Not just taking live screenshots but with Lookit, you can easily share/upload the images via online image sharing sites as well.

You can basically tell the Lookit to capture the entire screen or define an areas specifically. The uploading URL + few other options can also be set using the preference window. If you want to automatically shorten the URL of the uploaded images then it can even do that as well.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 or 10.10 (should work on 10.04, I think) then you can easily install Lookit using its official PPA channel. To do that, simply open your Terminal and issue the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lookit/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lookit

Install Rapid Photo Downloader 0.4.0 in Ubuntu

If you want an easy to use application that downloads photos from Memory cards, digital cameras or other storage devices and looking for one of the impressively fastest of all, then I don't think there are any app that can beat Rapid Photo Downloader!.

It's not me who says its faster, but according to the developer Damon Lynch, it's 2.5x times faster than F-spot and 12x times faster than Shotwell! too. But remember, it's not a photo editor, only an organizer/importer.


Main features...

*. Easily rename camera generated file names.

*. 27 Languages support.

*. Simultaneous downloads.

*. Not just RAW image formats such as ARW, CR2, CRW, DCR, DNG, MEF, MOS, MRW, NEF, ORF, PEF, RAF, RAW, RW2, etc but it even supports downloading video formats such as 3GP, AVI, M2T, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, MOD, and TOD as well.

*. Runs in both Gnome and KDE desktops.

*. Save files while downloading... etc.

So if you have installed Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal/10.10/10.0... then you can easily install Rapid Photo Downloader by issuing the below command in your Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dlynch3/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rapid-photo-downloader

That's it!.

Shotwell 0.9.3 Is Out (Few Bug-fixes)

Shotwell is one of the best picture managers available for GNU/Linux. It has a simple GUI, loads pretty fast and handles thousands of pictures with ease as well. Few hours ago they released a new version, which is - 0.9.3 and with it you won't necessarily get new features but it does come with few bug fixes thus the developer advices to upgrade to this latest version.

The main bug-fixes include - desktop integration and Raw image storing + some newly added languages.

Anyway, Ubuntu 10.10 comes with it by default (a wise choice :P) and if you have already installed it using the official PPA channel then you should receive the update. If you haven't then.. open your Terminal and enter the below command to install SHotwell 0.9.3 in Ubuntu.

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yorba/ppa
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install shotwell

If you use Fedora, OpenSuse or few other major distributions, then please visit this page for more information.