[wellylug] Databasing and Annotating pictures under Ubuntu8.10

[Rimu Atkinson]

have you tried Picasa for linux? Google has released a 'port' (which 
actually relies on a bundled version of wine) of it to linux

R

Jeff Hunt wrote:
> Using Ubuntu 8.10 I have a problem.
> My wife is a professional picture librarian archivist and wants to
> keep our personal photos stored, documented and accessible to a high
> standard. This should be trivial, but I cannot get close to an
> adequate solution.
>
> If I search on databasing pictures I get software that simply tags
> photos with a few keywords, is incompatible with other software and
> has a whole lot of daft extras such as editing the picture. (Why not
> use Gimp or simpler editors)
>
> So I am using a mixture of F-Spot, Nautilus and then a Python program.
> I wrote myself to get the naming the way she wants it Date -
> sequencial number - photographer initials - base name and of course
> suffix (20090326005 JM My_holiday.jpg)
>
> She then adds copious notes to the Nautilus notes tab - which are
> unsearchable except by a text search in a hidden folder. The
> tantalising other data tabs are inaccessible.
>
> Even with this limited approach a number of things go wrong...
>
> F-Spot is wonderful for downloading the camera and putting pictures in
> identifiable directories but childish for anything further.
> Nautilus is great for graphical interface but does not allow access to
> most photographic data and has the alarming ability to lose associated
> data (notes) if you move the photo using anything but grahical
> Nautilus (Try adding a note to file 'test'. Open a terminal and issue
> " mv test test1 " and then check for the note) Equally alarming it
> appears to be impossible to reattach the note other than by a
> graphical cut and paste from the .nautilus/metadata folder.
>
> I cannot find any list of Nautilus commands to cause a mv (move /
> rename) to happen from the terminal or a Python program. In fact
> Nautilus appears to be undocumented in the places I have looked.
> Surely there must be a command such as "Nautilus_rename test test1"
> but where do I find it? I confess I am emailing you guys first before
> searching the Nautilus site carefully.
>
> Related to the last point, backing up is very harrowing because of the
> risk of detaching file info from the file. I still have to research
> this.
>
> I have considered writing my own xml data file and storing it in the
> photo folder where it can be tracked and backed up but I would only be
> adding my own dysfunctional software to what's out there.
>
> Most of our pictures are jpg's which are supposed to have built in
> additional data but it appears to be very hard or impossible to access
> and not all pictures are jpg's and it would be nice to extend this to
> all files. I want general databasing and annotating capabililty, not
> an extended mishmash of software to do a small part of the job.
>
> We have a family member who is a professional Drupal author and he has
> shown the wife a working display of pictures and thumnails and
> something called 'authority files' which are the author, date etc,
> that impressed her  - but using software of this size to name, view
> and document a personal picture and file collection seems overkill and
> if there are any deficiencies such as modifying bulk sequential naming
> then I may be back where I started.
>
> Anyone out there know the answer? This is 2009, it should be automatic
> by now and possibly is if I look in the right place.
>
> If anyone wants a Python program that reads a directory alphabetically
> and numbers and adds base names which can be changed as it goes by
> either regular expression or sequence count of the originals then I am
> your man. You will lose any notes written on Nautilus though.
>
> Thanks  to everyone who helped out with my friend wanting a host
> internet site for a start up company. Much appreciated.
>
>
>   

-- 
Phone (04) 381 4827 or 021 823 129
Skype rimu123
MSN rimuatkinson at msn.com
ICQ 60417596
Yahoo rimu_atkinson
http://rimu.geek.nz/

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