Workflow and integration aspects

[snapshot]

The current version 2.3 of FDRTools enables you to specify an external image editor for further image editing.
This feature is available if you save an image and it is mentioned in the documentation. Less known may be the
possibility to pass an image stack from an external program to FDRTools. This feature may be used for example
to establish a workflow beginning with an image organizer and the inclusion of FDRTools. The attached image
illustrates this kind of workflow.

In the following table I listed some image organizers and their image export capability.
The list is incomplete as there are many more image organizing programs available. If you
would like to contribute to fill the gap please send a personal message to the author.

image organizer	version	single image export	image stack export(*)	export plug-in available	integrated workflow possible	comment
Bibble Pro	5.0	no	no	no	no	Bibble people are thinking about integration of this feature
Digital Photo Professional	3.4	yes	no	no	no
Faststone Image Viewer	4.1	yes	no	no	no
IrfanView	4.25	yes	no	no	no	Irfan Skiljan told that he is currently working on this feature and will include it in the next version
Lightroom 2	2.6	yes	yes	not necessary	yes
Picasa	3.1 (de) 3.6 (en)	no	no	not yet	not yet
XnView	1.97	yes	yes	not necessary	yes

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(*): in this context - export of a complete image stack to one single instance of a destination program

Manfred

p.s.: just for completeness - the name of the above mentioned image organizers are typically registered trademarks and property of their respective owners ...

[jrandall]

Manfred, your email address is blocked here.

Faststone Image Viewer

Export of single images -- Yes

Export of multiple images -- Yes to programs such Picture Windows where they are opened individually.  Howerver multi-image export does not work with FDRTools as seperate instances of FDRTools are opened for each image.  Maybe if Andreas could create a command line feature for FDRTools ( w/ switches for add new project--single or multiple, etc) Image Viewer might be able to work.

Plug-in -- not applicable

Jeff

[snapshot]

Hi Jeff, thanks for the update! I integrated your observations in the table.

Manfred, your email address is blocked here.

Will check this.

Faststone Image Viewer ...

Export of multiple images -- Yes to programs such Picture Windows where they are opened individually.  Howerver multi-image export does not work with FDRTools as seperate instances of FDRTools are opened for each image.  

This is exactly the same behaviour I observed for example with IrfanView.

Maybe if Andreas could create a command line feature for FDRTools ( w/ switches for add new project--single or multiple, etc) Image Viewer might be able to work.

I just discovered that PTGui shows an interesting behaviour. You may launch PTGui with an image stack as well. However if PTGui is launched only with one single image it asks you wether you will add more pictures of the originating directory. This is indeed a nice feature to circumvent the shortcomings of the exporting programs.