Slideshow with on-the-fly, user defined image cropping and resizing
This is a stand-alone program, which requires the Python language (tested with version 3.9) with the PyQt5 and PIL libraries.
It requires also the external command line tool exiv2, to eventually fix a wrong Exif Orientation tag in images.
Usage:
usage: photo-reframe [-h] [-f] [-r WxH] [-p] [--timer TIMER]
[--no-usercomment] [--shuffle] [--loop LOOP]
[--count COUNT] [--read-only]
playlist
Show images listed in playlist, which contains "filename|geometry" entries.
positional arguments:
playlist playlist filename, or directory which contains it
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-f, --fullscreen start in fullscreen mode
-r WxH, --ratio WxH screen ratio, width x height (default 16x9)
-p, --play start slideshow
--timer TIMER time for each slide in seconds (default 6.0)
--no-usercomment default to Exif UserComment disabled
--shuffle show images in random order
--loop LOOP for --play mode only: exit after LOOP slideshow repeat
(default 0: endless loop)
--count COUNT for --play mode only: show only COUNT images (default
0: all the images)
--read-only disable playlist saving/overwriting
You can start the slideshow mode in full-screen with the following command line:
photo-reframe --fullscreen --play path/to/directory/
The program receives the name of a directory (or a playlist) from the command line and it will search images starting from that location. Some filenames are considered reserved, and thus ignored during the search; the list of reserved names is hard coded into the source code (see the IGNORE_FILES definition) and it defaults to just the folder.jpg name.
The default, preferred name for the playlist is "playlist_16x9.m3u" (or whatever is the screen width/height ratio imposed by the command line option). A fallback default is "playlist.m3u".
The playlist contains the filename of the images and their respective geometries, separated by a vertical bar, something like this:
#EXTM3U-PHOTO-REFRAME
IMG_6602.JPG|4000x2250+0+332
IMG_6605.JPG|2971x1671+796+628
IMG_6606.JPG|4000x2250+0+442
IMG_6610.JPG|3810x2143+90+387
IMG_6615.JPG|2828x1590+547+681
IMG_6617.JPG|1633x918+1229+1052
IMG_6624.JPG|2843x1599+393+585
Each geometry determines the portion of the image to be shown in the slideshow, and it is composed by four values:
- width of the crop region
- height of the crop region
- X offset of the top-left corner of the region
- Y offset of the top-left corner of the region
The cropped region is resized to occupy the entire screen. In slideshow mode, only images listed in the playlist will be automatically shown for the time specified by the --timer command line option (default is 6 seconds).
You can arrange the image order etc. editing the playlist file. Other images contained into the directory will not be shown.
If you stop the slideshow play mode (press the P key), you can interactively prepare the playlist. It is advised also to exit the full-screen mode pressing the F key.
Every image is displayed on the screen, you can adjust the zoom and pan as desired and then press the Return key. The border of the image becomes green, indicating that a geometry was selected for that image. A red border means that no geometry was defined for the current image (thus that image will not be displayed in slideshow). A yellow border means that a geometry was defined, but you moved the image into the frame, so you need to press Return again to update its value.
At the end of your work, press the S key to save the playlist with the update geometries.
This is the help for every keyboard shortcuts:
F1 or ? Show this help
F2 Share With...
F3 Edit Exif UserComment tag
F11 or F Toggle fullscreen mode
+ Zoom in
- Zoom out
1 Zoom to 1:1 pixel
W Zoom to fit image width
H Zoom to fit image height
Z Zoom-in to remove blank space
R Rotate image changing Exif Orientation tag
Return Accept current geometry for image
G Zoom to current image geometry
Canc Forget current geometry (remove from playlist)
I View image metadata
D Delete image from filesystem
Space Go to next image
Backspace Go to previous image
PgDown Advance by 10 images
PgUp Backward by 10 images
Home Go to the first image
End Go to the last image
< Shift the image backward into the playlist
> Shift the image forward into the playlist
C Toggle display of Exif UserComment
P Toggle autoplay
S Save the playlist with updated gemetries
Esc or Q Quit program
When the program run in window mode, it will show the image into a rectangle with a fixed width/height ratio (default is 16:9), this forces the preparation of geometries suitable for this screen ratio. If you intend to play the slideshow on a different screen, you can start the program adding a command line option e.g. --ratio 4x3.
If you run the program with the --shuffle option, images are displayed in random order. You cannot change image playlist position (shifting backward or forward) when you are in shuffle mode.
The --loop and --count options make sense only with the --play option. The first one control how many loop of the playlist are required (default to endless loop), the second one tells the program to play only some images from the playlist (default to all).
The --read-only option disables the saving (i.e. overwriting) of the playlist file. It may be useful when the program is used for playback only, to avoid accidental changes to the playlist. There is a cheat mode to force saving even in read only mode, read the source code if you are interested.
The Share With... function, invoked with F2 key, prompts you for a recipient address; then it executes the external program defined by the SHARE_COMMAND variable, passing to it the image filename and the recipient address as arguments. You can create for example an external script to send the displayed image as an email attachment.