From The Naked PC issue #5.08...

ThumbsPlus Stays in Focus

by Al Gordon
April 11, 2002

Back in the dark ages of digital imaging -- around eight years ago -- I was tipped to a little gem of a program called ThumbsPlus, created by Charlotte, NC programmer Phillip Crews. The software, as the name suggests, created a database with thumbnails of your electronic graphics. Plus, a few other things such as:

-- Convert from one digital format to another, both for individual files and as a batch process.

-- Filter and adjust picture quality.

-- Crop and resize.

-- Play a slide show of your art.

-- Accept input from TWAIN-enabled devices (which at the time primarily meant scanners).

What's so impressive about that feature list, you say? Trust me, in 1994-95, finding those capabilities were a Very Big Deal. Scanners were expensive and rare, instead of being freebies that you get bundled with a PC in promotional sales incentives. The leading graphic format was CompuServe .gif, which was limited to 256-colors. The Web was in its infancy. And digital cameras, to the extent they existed at all, were a tool primarily of news photographers and were priced in the thousands of dollars; not for a few hundred bucks at your local superstore.

Cerious Software, Crews's company, has just released ThumbsPlus v. 5.01 ($79.95 for new users, $25 upgrade). In many ways it is a vastly more sophisticated product than the original. But at the same time, it remains true to the original conception: a tool to help you manage your graphics.

http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/508/tr.cgi?al1

As the digital graphics market has grown, so has Cerious Software. Its workforce is up 700 percent. Of course, that translates to only seven people in real office space, up from Crews himself working out of his home. However, that is one of the true charms of "T+".

Cerious Software remains a shareware provider and will never be confused with Microsoft. Laura Shook, Cerious's President and first employee, still answers customer emails. The upgrade policy is generous but quirky: Users get .X updates free and are charged for major X.0 version upgrades. However, what version is classified as major and which are minor is not always obvious. To my eye, Cerious should have made its 4.5 update (free) a major, paid release while 5.01 strikes me as more of a refinement of 4.5.

Either way, the point is that users got considerable refinements in 4.5 and 5.01 for a single upgrade charge. Among the advances are helpful "preview" and "properties" panes in the thumbnail display; integration with the Windows Explorer shell, Windows XP compatibility, more transition effects for the slide shows, more filters, more automated processes, and support for more file formats. In keeping with the explosion in digital imaging, the latest versions provide the requisite tools for creating photo web pages.

They key word here is "more." You can expect each new release of ThumbsPlus to have more useful capabilities than the previous one. But as noted earlier, the program remains faithful to its original concept.

The T+ database is written in Access format and is ODBC capable. The program automatically will generate keywords to assist in searches and you can add other keywords manually. Over the years, the range of information that can be compiled in the database has increased significantly. So has the utility of the program's overall feature set.

Take, for example, cropping. ThumbsPlus started with the usual manual cropping functions -- use a mouse to make a selection, or resize by typing a specific dimension. This has expanded over the years into a wide array of valuable options. For example, you can crop to the proportions of most common photo prints, papers, and video screen sizes. A moveable mask appears over your picture allowing you to select the areas you want in the final picture, then you crop, and as needed, resize. I use these features constantly.

Another big item is the batch processing tools. Using either a tabbed box or wizard interface (go with the tabs, the wizard is just the tab screens presented in sequence rather than at once), you can perform multiple tasks on several files. You can, for instance, apply color corrections, filter, and resize some photos, then change them to a different file format, and rename them. Batch processing is again something I use regularly.

T+ isn't flawless. While it is not an editing program per se and its interface lets you open up your chosen graphics editor when needed, I would still like to see one or two minimal "painting" tools so that simple retouching can be done inside the program. Also, be advised that this is not a program for the computing newbie. When you have scores of functions available to you, no interface can make accessing all of them easy. (See, Microsoft Office). The more you work with T+, the easier it gets, but there is a steep learning curve.

But overall ThumbsPlus is a program that has stood the test of time and is an excellent alternative to the wimpy cataloging software that ships with most scanners and digital cameras.

You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com

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