SB Image Explorer

(c) Scott M. Baker

Purpose:

A unique new thumbnail browsing utility. Form and function is similar to the Windows-95/98 Explorer, but with many additional image viewing features. Rather than displaying simple icons, Image Explorer displays small thumbnail versions of the image files. A full-size image preview panel automatically displays the images that you click on. Advanced multithreaded design loads several images at once in the background for a significant performance improvement over single threaded viewers.

Enhancements/Differences from the Windows Explorer:

When you first load up SB Image Explorer, it's appearance will be similar to the Windows-95 Explorer. However, there are several important additions:

• SB Image Explorer includes a picture viewing panel on the right side of the main window. Any time you hilight a valid image file in the file listview (center panel), the picture panel will display a larger copy of that image. You can double-click on the picture panel to bring up a full-screen view of the image.
• For any image files in the file listview (center panel), the icons will be an actual scaled-down thumbnail of the image itself, thus giving you a brief overview of the contents of the directory.
• There are several listbox option buttons on the toolbar. These let you select the size and format of the icons displayed in the file listview. You can instantly scale these icons as large as 128x128 or as small as 16x16 with one click.

-- Important Version 2.0 Changes --

Version 2.0 and above of SB Image Explorer are a complete rewrite of the old 1.x versions. The rewrite uses a new compiler, new windows 95/98/2000 features, and should perform much better on your machine. However, the complexities involved in such a complete rewrite may lead to a few bugs -- if you notice any problems, then please report them to smbaker@primenet.com. 

Listview display modes

The center pane of the main window contains a "Listview Control". Listview controls are a Windows-95 control used to display a list of items, in our case, it is a list of files in the current directory. The listview display has several different modes. These may be selected by several of the toolbar buttons (which looks like little squares) or the View pull-down menu.

• Icon View Modes:
  • Giant Icons: 128x128 pixel thumbnail images are displayed. No other information (date, size, etc) is shown.
  • Huge Icons: Like giant, but 64x64 pixels.
  • Large Icons: Like giant, but 32x32 pixels (this is the normal Windows-95 large icon size)
  • Small Icons: Like giant, but 16x16 pixels (this is the normal Windows-95 small icon size)
• List View Modes:
  • List: It's sort of like the small icon view, but arranged slightly differently.
• Report View Modes:
  • Giant Details: 128x128 pixel thumbnail images, presented one file per line. All file information (date, size, etc) is displayed to the right of the thumbnail image.
  • Huge Detail: Like giant, but 64x64 pixels.
  • Large Details: Like giant, but 32x32 pixels.
  • Small Details: Like giant, but 16x16 pixels.

The best way to find out which one you like best is to experiment. The Giant Icon view is very useful for browsing thumbnails when the images themselves are what you're most interested in. The Small Details mode is most useful for file-maintenance chores where you need all of the information available.

Registration:

Please see the file register.doc (or register.htm) for full registration information.

Contacting me:

You can email me at smbaker@primenet.com. Additional contact information is located in register.doc/register.htm.

Revision History

• Version 1.0
  • Initial Public Release
• Version 1.1
  • Added tooltips to toolbar buttons
  • Added 'New Explorer Window' to file menu
  • Added 'New Jview Window' to file menu
  • Added 'New Index Window' to file menu
  • Added 'Generate Catalogs' to file menu
  • Enabled status bar text
• Version 1.2
  • Fixed problem with cut and paste causing GPF
  • Fixed right-click copy/cut so they work right
  • Explorer window now remembers size/position
  • Multiple open explorer windows are cascaded
  • Enabled properties button and properties command on file menu
  • Added some shortcuts to menu commands
  • Support for less than 256 color bmp files
  • Fixed checkmark not being displayed on Center_In_Window
  • Added slideshow features to explorer window
  • Restored proper item selection and focus after delete operation
• Version 1.3
  • Sorted items in tree listing (left-hand panel)
• Version 1.4
  • Fixed padding in catalog generation (wasn't doing anything)
  • Added padding=4 to catalog generation
  • Added quality setting to catalog generation
  • Added additional error checking to blend name on generate catalogs dialog
  • Added voice registration nag
  • Added promote group and demote group commands
  • Added zoom command to jpeg viewer
  • Fixed jpeg viewer zoom ratio changing as picture is panned/scrolled
  • Reduced initial SBJV/SBIMG shareware delay to 5 seconds
  • Image viewer support for .FTS/.FITS telescope image files
  • Fixed problem with install program
  • Added drag and drop capability to Tree View (lh pane)
  • Fixed drag and drop to handle multiple selections
  • Fixed possible bug with drag and drop / cut and paste
  • Added hourglass cursor while directory load in progress
• Version 1.5
  • Added some accelerators (keyboard shortcuts)
  • Added more information to duplicate overwrite dialog
  • Treat .jpe and .jpeg files as .jpg files
  • Added sort button to categorization list
  • Fixed print command
  • Fixed problem with really big and really small images causing crashes
• Version 1.6
  • Added -max switch to maximize window on startup
  • Fixed problem with .jpeg files being listed twice
  • Added randomize to jpeg window
  • Disabled processing of CMYK or YCCK jpegs as they were causing crashes
  • Fixed case sensitivity on command line options
  • Fixed crash with short GIF files
• Version 1.7
  • Robustized bmp viewer
  • Fixed encryption problems with gif/bmp files
  • Fixed problem with encrypt/decrypt causing crash
  • Added "titles above" checkbox to catalog generation dialog
  • Made encryption fields autoscroll
  • Many enhancements to jview display mode
• Version 1.8
  • Fixed problem with 1x1 or 0x0 size images
  • Version 1.8 shipped with the wrong version number
• Version 1.9
  • Correct version number
• Version 2.0
  • Fixed problems with filenames grunged in WinNT/2000
  • Complete rewrite using Borland C++ builder
  • Multithreaded core replaces old single threaded core
  • New drag & drop system
  • Many changes to this version due to complete rewrite -- send email to smbaker@primenet.com to report any bugs.