FR: Crop Tool on steroids

[picolo]

I would like to have a crop tool implemented that can be completely customized in regard of:

1: ratio
2: rules (rule of thirds, golden rule, customized rules (which can be loaded and saved)
3: image overlays for special purpose like passport photos etc.

The cropped image then goes into the image batch processor to do the rest...

[RainerG]

That is what i also wist :-) --> https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=41.0

[picolo]

Your request was more towards a automatic crop...
Mine goes totally towards a manual crop.
The background for my request is to make it possible to do passport photo sheets completely in IM

However, a crop tool on steroids might do it all

[sinus]

I would like to have a crop tool implemented that can be completely customized in regard of:

1: ratio
2: rules (rule of thirds, golden rule, customized rules (which can be loaded and saved)
3: image overlays for special purpose like passport photos etc.

The cropped image then goes into the image batch processor to do the rest...

I am pretty sure, that this can done with a script. Unfortunately I am not a scripter, or I would have for something like this 3 days and the code would be horrible ... but I guess, it would work somehow 

As soon, as IM5 is out to the crowd, I think, we would have some scripts from users, who does share the scripts (uh, btw, where is Khodadad?)

[Ferdinand]

A manual crop would need some way to draw the crop rectangle.  That would be a fairly advanced script.  Khodadad would be the only hope.

[I have migrated a number of my scripts to V5 and will release them sometime after the beta is out.  But I will NOT be migrating the Image Synchronisation Script, since it's redundant in V5.  Likewise the date category script and the Country/State/City/Location categories script.]

F_P

[Mario]

A user interface for a crop tool can be implemented as an IMatch App.

There are several web-based photo editors out there which include a crop tool, with appropriate visual feedback and mouse control. So it is doable in HTML and JavaScript, which makes it doable in IMatch 5. A nice coding challenge...

[claudermilk]

I think I just heard a gauntlet hit hte floor...

[Mario]

Nah. I just think it would be fun to create an App which does this. Unfortunately, I don't have the time now...

[Ferdinand]

You don't have the time and I don't have the inclination.   I wish to do less scripting and more photography.  As a general rule I script where I have a need rather than for the challenge, with the occasional minor exception when someone needs help.   I know you have put a lot of effort into the new framework, but my initial approach will be to try to use the native capacity in V5 as far as possible, rather than scripting. 

So any gauntlets on the floor can just stay there.

F.

[sinus]

my initial approach will be to try to use the native capacity in V5 as far as possible, rather than scripting. 
F.

Mine too. But if I see, for example in the importer/renamer-aerea, I think, I will try to create a script, because it can be more individual and can handle more. That is the power of IMatch, if we can not solve it natively, we have options! 

[Mario]

That is the power of IMatch, if we can not solve it natively, we have options!

Very well put! 

[Mario]

...but my initial approach will be to try to use the native capacity in V5 as far as possible, rather than scripting.

Exactly. Scripting and Apps are meant to be used to extend IMatch, to provide advanced features not 'built-in' already. The first approach should always be to use what's there.

Typical uses for scripts are import/export functionality, connecting IMatch to other applications, automation of frequent tasks, data cleanup, validation, ...

IMatch Apps are intended for more 'visual' purposes: custom data displays, visualization, incorporation the mobile world, using web services, data analysis, toys, ...

But with the superior user interface possibilities available to IMatch 5 Apps, a custom crop tool at least can be built. If somebody has sufficient time or sees a commercial value in doing so.

[NeilR]

I currently use Photomechanic as a front end browser.  It supports soft crops, as well as Lightroom.

I've used iMatch for many years.  I've never been able to get away from using Photomechanic to render embedded JPGs into web size images, for example.  Even after getting things cataloged into iMatch.

The problem with that is that once I am "trained" to go back into Photomechanic to do these web resizes (including and most importantly, with soft crops), now I constantly have to think about what I am doing in PM and how that may adversely affect iMatch.

In other words, it is the wrong way to do things, and even Mario has often said that once an image is in iMatch then all work done on it should be done in iMatch.  He is very right on that, but without soft crops it is impossible to take that advice.

In other words, I don't consider soft crops a "neat add-on", I don't think iMatch can be complete without it.  The image export functionality in iMatch 3.6 was never useful to me simply because of the lack of a soft crop tool.   Now that iMatch at least recognizes other app's soft crops embedded in XMP, it is so close that it would be a great shame if it never completed the circle.

From a marketing point of view, consider that PhotoMechanic's authors are also working on a catalog app.  Their app will certainly support the soft crops that Photomechanic browser has always supported.  That feature alone would make me give up a lot of iMatch functionality simply because soft cropping is so important to what I do with my images and my work flow.  And I suspect that that simplicity in work flow is why a lot of PM users are waiting interminably for that catalog app to come to market.

I mention Photomechanic because that is a tool I use every day.  I'm sure Lightroom users would feel the same way, at least in terms of how Lightroom manages to actually allow a user to stay in the one app throughout an entire image life cycle, rather than trying to patch various apps together in order to do basic tasks like soft crops.