JPhotoAlbum Help

JPhotoAlbum allows quick browsing, organizing and commenting digital photographs and publishing the resulting albums as web pages. Albums are saved in XML formatted files which are transformed to HTML with XML stylesheets.

Running JPhotoAlbum

JPhotoAlbum can be started with command "java -jar JPhotoAlbum.jar". The supporting jar files castor.jar, exif-extractor-2.1.jar and xerces.jar must be in the same directory as the JPhotoAlbum.jar. In Windows you can also start JPhotoAlbum by double clicking the JPhotoAlbum.jar. See below for various command line options.

Creating albums

Create a new album by selecting File/New.

Use "File/Import photos from a directory..." to import all photos in a directory.

Use "File/Import selected photos..." to select photographs in JPG or GIF format into the album. Note that you can select multiple photographs at the same time by holding down the control key.

You can use Import commands multiple times, the new photos are added after the currently selected photo.

"Find original photos" is useful when the original photos have moved since you created the JPH file. Select the new directory which holds the originals, and JPhotoAlbum will search for files whose file name matches to those in the current album. You can select this multiple times if the originals are now in multiple directories.

You can also drag and drop one or more photos from an external file manager, e.g. Windows Explorer.

You can also quickly create an album from a set of photos in a directory by listing them as parameters when starting JPhotoAlbum on command line, e.g. "java -jar JPhotoAlbum.jar /photos/*.jpg".

Save the album using the File/Save option. The default extension for JPhoto albums is .jph.

Editing albums

You can load existing albums with File/Open or by entering the album name as a command line parameter when starting the program.

The photographs can be reordered by cutting selected photographs and then pasting them to a new location. Normal keyboard shortcuts work as well.

The photographs can be reordered with drag and drop. First click the photograph you want to move, then press mouse button down and drag while holding it down. Release when the blue selection is in a correct place.

You can add descriptive text to photographs by entering it into the edit field above the photograph area. While the focus is in the edit field, Enter will save the edit and move to next photograph. Up and Down arrow can also be used to move to previous and next photo.

You can add text only panels for descriptions without photos.

Various page properties can be edited using the Page menu. These can be referred to from the page templates. The watermark is written to the lower left corner of web images, it is useful for embedding copyright to published images. Note that this watermark is written to images only when they are generated. You must delete the images in "pictures" subdirectory to regenerate them with new watermark. The current properties can be saved as defaults, then new albums will be created with those values.

You can link albums together by using Edit/Insert Link to Album or dropping a JPH file to album. The title of the linked album is taken as default text, and the cover photo of the album is shown. Text can be edited, if the title is not suitable (original title is not changed). The cover photo can be set from page properties. Double clicking the album link will open it in another JPhotoAlbum window.

Exporting HTML

The File/Export HTML provides different HTML output formats. The album is automatically saved before starting any export operations.

The HTML albums will contain images resized to fit into a 640 times 640 pixel square, and optionally thumbnails are also generated. The generation of there pictures may take a long time if there are a lot of large photos, but it will be done only once, unless generated images are deleted manually.

The HTML file is generated to the same directory as the saved album file. The scaled images are saved to pictures and thumbs subdirectories. Some supporting HTML pages may be saved to html subdirectory.

Exporting Subtitled Photos

The Export Subtitled Photos option can be used to export photos so that they fit in a 640 times 480 pixel rectangle, even if they are in potrait form factor. The description is added over the image and the result is saved to subtitled subdirectory. These photos are useful when you will burn the photos on a CD for viewing on TV. This export option generates the photos every time from original images, unlike the HTML export methods which generate the pictures and thumbs only if they do not exist.

You can also export albums from command line, e.g. "java -jar JPhotoAlbum.jar export *.jph". This command will export the photos from all album files using all HTML methods as well as the Subtitled method. You can also export using only selected methods by adding their shortcut numbers to export command, e.g. export02 will export Subtitled photos and Framed Thumbnails.

Modifying HTML templates

The Export Template option can be used to save the default templates for generating the HTML pages to files. These templates can then be edited with any text editor to create custom look&feels for some albums. See the status line for the exact name of the template used by each output format. Note that some export options share templates, so you should export all templates to the same target directory before you start editing them.

The Export HTML operations try to find the templates from the output directory, and failing to find them there, then also from the parent directory of the output directory. Otherwise the default templates from the program Jar file are used.

Viewing slideshow

The currently open photo album can be viewed as a slide show by selecting View/Slideshow. The program will show the photos one after another in full screen mode, with description shown in the bottom as sub-titling.

Each photo is shown for 5 seconds. Up and down arrows can be used to return to previous photos or skip to next photo. Esc will cancel the slide show.

Slideshow can be started start from command line with command "show album.jph".

Viewing EXIF information

The EXIF information is created by the digital camera when the picture is taken. It includes exposure information like aperture and exposure time as well other information. You can view this by selecting the View/Exif information menu option. The dialog remains open until you close it.

Authors

Copyright © 2003-2004 Jari Karjala [www.jpkware.com] and Tarja Hakala [www.hakalat.net]

JPhotoAlbum home page: http://jphotoalbum.jpkware.com/

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