Storing photographs with descriptions???

[amuk]

I want to scan all my old photos and put a description in with each of them. The goal is to burn them to CDs.
I can scan them, store them, and view them OK, but I haven't found a way to include a description with each of them.
I have ACDSee 3.1, Photoshop and all these great programs to edit the photos themselves but no way to add text to them that I can see.
Any suggestions???

[ucklak]

I scan my photos and create a web page to catalog them with comments. Photoshop has the automatic scripting that creates the HTML documents with thumbnail creation. All I do edit each HTML document and link the picture to the original TIFF.

1 CD holds 2 rolls of film.

[Daizy]

Hi amuk:
Surely any of those programs has a text tool that will allow you to just write on the photos?

Daizy

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Hope this helps.

[richie259]

Ditto Daizy's remarks. Look around for a box with an italicized 'T' in it. That is usually the text icon. I'm POSITIVE Photoshop can do it.
~richie

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"What do you need a fake ID for?"
"To vote, of course."

[amuk]

Thanks for the reply, people.
I did as Ucklak suggested and Photoshop was able to create a web page and I was able to edit the HTML with Wordpad with the desired result.
The process is longer in editing than I would like (whine, whine) since I have many hundreds of photos to do so I will look around for a "T" or whatever in Photoshop to try to write on the photos.
Any other suggestions still appreciated.

[jdc2000]

You might check out Thumbs Plus from http://www.cerious.com

[amuk]

I tried "Thumbs Plus" and I couldn't find out what it is really good for. I guess I'm creatively challanged.
I tried "Picture It, Silver" and can't say that's very useful either for my purposes. It's funny that no one has made a program, that I can find yet, to simply make an album with text to burn to CD.
I did try "MS Word" and that is actually most satisfactory to insert the picture and then write the text but you really can't manipulate the pictures then (I'm thinking about who will see these in posterity).
So far, it looks like I'll do the Photoshop thing of writng text on the JPEG pictures.
Thanks very much for your input! It has been very helpful to see the possibilities.

[sp agent]

http://www.moonsoftware.com/download.asp

download FileNote 1.1.0

its exactly what you need

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Special Agent (sp agent)
If you don't post back with results, I will black list all of your posts.

[slipe]

You might have a look at MyAlbum also. It is basically a free photo organizer. It offers these features:
”Comment and keywords can be added to each picture” and ” Special features for building CDROM album” http://quebec.eds-ingevision.fr/DMS/MyAlbum.html#2

[amuk]

Wow, I'm starting to appreciate how many diffent ways to proceed and it's a little dismaying.
The neatest way to put all these photos together is to use "Photoshop" to add a layer of text but that transforms a 4ookb file to 8MB! That's a huge increase in storage needed there--just as in adding photos to "Word".
"Filenote" is basically a shortcut to creating a separate text file for an item and "My Album" has a lot of the same elements as "ACDSee" or part of "Picture It".
Quite a survey.
I just haven't decided which way to go yet so I'll keep on looking, scanning the photos, and I'll add the text later with whatever I find to work the best.
I really thank you all for your input.

[buck52]

Howdy amuk

Is this what you want to do?

http://home.attbi.com/~buck52/web/test.jpg
http://home.attbi.com/~buck52/web/test1.jpg

I did this with an older version of MGI Photo Suite ( version II SE) that came with a scanner. You might find someone with a driver CD that you could get it from.

It appears to add nothing to the file size and is very simple to use.

I tried adding a layer of text with Paint Shop Pro and as Photoshop did for you it increased the file size dramaticly

good luck

buck

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just hav'n fun



[This message has been edited by buck52 (edited 03-23-2002).]

[amuk]

Buck, Yes, This is exactly what I'd like to do!
I found a program, ARC-SOFT PhotoImpression that does exactly that too
BUT, it creates a "PSF" file that it seems not many programs can open (Photoshop can't and ACDSee can't).
When I try to save that PSF file to JPEG, I get a warning that the text layering will be lost and that's exactly what happens.
I'd like to save these pictures to a file type that will be able to be opened by others in the future and not to an obsure file type.
Still looking........

[buck52]

Hey amuk

Don't know why I didn't think of this before but...
I just did this with MS Paint
http://home.attbi.com/~buck52/web/test2.jpg

If the version of Paint you have won't let you save as .jpg ,you can get the filters here (http://www.geocities.com/one_human/advanced.html#mspaint_fix)

just another thought

buck

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just hav'n fun

[This message has been edited by buck52 (edited 03-23-2002).]

[smurfy]

Done in 30 seconds with Irfanview:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~smurfy/DSC02796.jpg

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Sean (Smurfy)
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Please remember that others may need to know the outcome of your problem so please keep us updated.

[buck52]

Thanks smurfy

Feeling a little dopey http://discussions.virtualdr.com/rolleyes.gif

Another good reason to read the help files once in awhile

buck



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just hav'n fun

[amuk]

Wow, Iranview is it! I've downloaded and installed it and it does the job I wanted--- and you can't beat the price.
I can add text to a photo, save it in JPEG, and the file is small and readable with other programs!

[slipe]

You can do the same thing with Photoshop without having to save in their format. Go Layer>Merge Layers. Then you can save in any format you like. You have a lot more versatility lettering in Photoshop.

There are a couple of advantages to saving in the Photoshop PDF format with the layers. Every time you change a jpg you get quality loss due to decompressing and recompressing the image. PDF is loseless. You might also want to print the image without your message on the front someday. Easy to do with PDF as you can just temporarily remove the message layer to print it.

[buck52]

Howdy slipe

You make a good point about being able to turn off the layer with the text so you can print without it. ( never thought of that. )

Only drawback is file size...I don't have PhotoShop ( I have Paintshop Pro ) but I'm guessing it's the same... saving as PSP file doubles the file size.

Question for you if I may...Do I lose quality in a jpg if I just open it and print then close it.

thanks

buck

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just hav'n fun

[amuk]

The main reason I didn't want to use Photoshop was the size of the files after adding the layer. With hundreds of pictures to scan and put on CD, the number of CDs required would be too many. BUT, the idea of being able to just remove a layer is an apppealing one.

[Dreamboat]

Awww, smurfy!! She's so cute! Almost as cute as my pride and joy! (Who is a blonde bombshell at 19 and geeeze...you think you worry now?)

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TheWordExpert (http://www.TheWordExpert.com)

[goldtoe]

Smurfy,

I am new at this computer stuff, and I have Erfin View downloaded and really like it so far. My question is how did you get the text onto the photo of your darling little lady? I tried to find a method from the file and edit menus, but with no luck. Where have I failed?
Thank you for your help.
Dick.

[goldtoe]

Smurfy,

I am new at this computer stuff, and I have Erfin View downloaded and really like it so far. My question is how did you get the text onto the photo of your darling little lady? I tried to find a method from the file and edit menus, but with no luck. Where have I failed?
Thank you for your help.
Dick.

[falcon2000]

The neatest way to put all these photos together is to use "Photoshop" to add a layer of text but that transforms a 4ookb file to 8MB! Quite frankly it appear to be extremely weir to me to hear you guys talking about the huge increase in file size after adding the text and save the file as PSD, PDF, PDP files (or any other formats for that matter) with PhotoShop. From 400kb to 8MB!? It has never happened to me and I use PhotoShop everyday. A layer of text will only add a little to the file size!

And you are not limited to PSD, PDF, PDP or TIFF, etc. formats. You can save the file in whichever format you like. Just be aware that the layers will NOT be preserved by saving the files in formats other than the various Photoshop formats and TFF.
And you do not need to flatten the image (merge layers) first before you save them as JPG. Simply saving it as JPG will flatten the image automatically. Just make sure you have selected the backgroung layer not the text layer before hiting File > Save As. This should save you a lot of time since you have so many hundreds of pictures to do.



[This message has been edited by falcon2000 (edited 03-24-2002).]

[smurfy]

Falcon, I'm not a photoshop user but have to agree it looks like user error.

Goldtoe - Open your image.
Click and drag a rectangle in the area you want the text and edit>Add Text.

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Sean (Smurfy)
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Please remember that others may need to know the outcome of your problem so please keep us updated.

[buck52]

falcon2000

I guess I was refering to being able to save with the text as jpg (save file size) there by not being able to print without the text...or...saving as psp, psd, whatever and still being able to print without the text.
Indeed you are correct that the difference in file size between psp no layers and psp with a layer of text is negligable

buck http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif

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just hav'n fun

[amuk]

Yes this is an issue: What file type is going to last over the years. I don't want to save my pictures in an unaccessible type.
The Langalist took this issue up in todays newsletter and he seems to feel as I do that JPEG will be around and will be accessible to others.

[slipe]

I guess its all a matter of priorities. My film scanner gives a 30Mb image from a 35mm source and I couldn’t imagine saving it in a format that would degrade the image in any way. I’ve started using PNG and get about 30 images on a CD. If I work with the image in Photoshop I save it in PDF to preserve the layers so I don’t have to go through the entire process again to change something. I watch the sales and get decent quality CDs cheap.

As printing technology improves there is a gap between printing a high quality tif, png or pdf file as compared to printing a jpg at best photo quality. That gap will widen as printers get better. Since you don’t know what images you will value in the future it makes sense to me to save them loseless. Tif, png and pdf will be around at least as long as jpg.

Circuit City has 50 Fuji 700Mb CDs for $5 after rebate. You can get about 85 8Mb images on a CD for a cost of about a penny for 9 images. Are your images so unimportant that such a cost is restrictive? There aren’t any great sales this week. After rebate, new customer discount and free shipping from Office Max I made a $10 profit on my last box of 200 CDs. So I figure I make a nickel profit for each 30 images I save at full quality.

It takes probably 2 hours to adjust, scan and organize 30 images. It takes only a few unattended minutes to burn them. I end up with instant high quality digital access to my images and backup in case the original deteriorates or gets damaged.

buck52 You don’t lose any additional quality printing a jpeg and closing the file without resaving. You haven’t altered your saved file in any way.

falcon2000: It isn’t the baggage of the extra layer but the difference between saving in jpeg verses tif or pdf. Take one of your large image files and save as pdf. Then save the same image as a jpg. Compare the two file sizes and you will see that the difference between 400k and 8Mb isn’t that unusual. If you save as a medium compression jpg the file size difference will be even greater.

[buck52]

slipe

Thank You http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif

buck

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just hav'n fun

[goldtoe]

Thank you Smurfy. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again.
Dick.

[falcon2000]

I probably misunderstood what you guys were talking about.

Sure for the same file, a JPG format will be significantly samller than a TIFF, or any of those PhotoShop formats.

THE GOOD NEWS IS that in Photoshop you can choose to save as TIFF and still use the JPG compressions (or other type of compressions methods.) This way you can preserve the layers and have a smaller file.

If the option to use compression does not show up, go to Edit > Preferences > Saving files and check the box for "Enable advanced TIFF save options."