Graphics Application Settings

Introduction

Here are some of my graphics application (image viewers, drawing programs, photo albums, etc.) settings including tips. See also: Graphics Applications, Programs, Operating Systems, Software.

Color pickers

Try ColorZilla add-on for Google Chrome and Firefox

Open Adobe Photoshop .psd file

(The Photoshop .psd file is layered image file.)

Try GIMP, IrfanView or LibreOffice.

Picasa Plug-in

Disable the Picasa plug-in in all browsers after installing Picasa.

Remove EXIF data with

- ExifTool (by Phil Harvey), see elsewhere

- Preview 8 (OS X 10.11): Tools, Show Inspector, (i) tab, GPS sub tab, Remove Location Info

- slow or not possible: GIMP (you may need to export/save as a different image), Preview, Sketchpad

Show cursor position

- GIMP 2.8: Windows, Dockable Dialogs, Pointer (this is different from the Status Bar position info)

Write text to images with

- GIMP 2 (OS X 10.8)

- Preview (OS X 10.8)

- Sketchpad (OS X 10.8)

ColorSync Utility 4 (OS X 10.8, OS X 10.11)

Open file

Right-click image, Open with.

Location of the application

Applications, Utilities.

Increase/decrease the number of colors

Apply Profile -> Abstract -> (e.g. Black & White / Gray Tone).

Apply Profile -> Display -> Generic Gray Profile.

Note

Remember the Apply button.

ExifTool 9 (OS X 10.8)

Show EXIF data using HTML formatting

exiftool -h [image]

Show additional EXIF data

exiftool -h -v [image]

Show EXIF data using short format

exiftool -s [image]

Read certain tags

exiftool -Comment -Description -Subject [image]

Replace tags

-exiftool -Comment='' -Description='' -Subject='' -Caption-Abstract='' -ImageDescription='' [image]

Delete a tag totally (not wise)

-exiftool -Comment= [image]

GIMP 2 (OS X 10.11)

Make transparent color

Select area, Layer, Transparency, Color to Alpha.

Tools, Selection Tools, By Color Select.

Write text to image

Select an image window, so the application knows what you want to do. Press the "Text Tool" button on "Toolbox" (or from the menu, select "Tools", "Text").

Picasa 3.9 (OS X 10.9)

Rebuild database

Go to ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Picasa3 and remove the 'db3' folder. At first it looked like even my albums were gone, but they appeared back eventually after the hard drive scan.

Preferences

General

[ ] Use special effects

[ ] Show help tags

[ ] Single-click to exit Edit View

[ ] Detect duplicates while importing

[ ] Clear cache files

[ ] Delete from disk without confirmation

[x] Remove from album without confirmation

[ ] Send anonymous usage stats to Google

File Types

[x] .gif

[x] .png

[x] .tif, .tiff

[x] .bmp

[x] .tga

[x] .psd (Photoshop)

[x] RAW formats

[ ] Movies (.mpv, .mpg, .m4v, .3gp, .avi, ...)

File

Add Folder to Picasa

[ ] iPhoto Library (not necessary, because same pictures are elsewhere on hard disk)

[x] Desktop

[x] Pictures

[x] Documents

View

[x] Normal Thumbnails

Folder View

[x] Flat Folder View (looks less complicated)

[x] Sort by Name

Preview 6 (OS X 10.8)

Write text to image

Press the "Show Edit Toolbar" button on top of an image window. Then press the "Text" button.

Preview 8 (OS X 10.11)

Show tools

View, Show Markup Toolbar.

Sketchpad 1 (OS X 10.8)

Write text to image

Press T (text), click mouse on the picture, write the text, select the whole text, select opacity (for example 70%) and font.

Last modified: November 23rd, 2019

Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)

URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/graphics-application-settings