Qimage Functions

Add Another Copy of this Image
Add to Queue
Antialias setting (for downsampling)
Auto Preview (batch filter window)
Auto Rename
Batch Filters (to enhance/crop images)
Blemish/pixel corrector
Borderless overspray/expansion
Borders around prints
Browse Selected Image's Folder
CCD Noise Filters (dark current, shadow noise, and high ISO filters)
Context Sensitive Help
Color Management (ICC support)
Comparator
Copyright/signature
Cropping Images (to fill print size exactly)
Curves Filter
Cutouts (framing images)
Dark Frame Subtraction
Defaults (for print size and fit)
Delete Filters
Edges
Editor Functions
Edit IPTC Image Info
E-mailing photos
EXIF Hotbar
EXIF info (view image info)
Exposure compensation
File Dropdown Menu
Filters (managing associated filters)
Flash Card Copy/Move
Floating Text
Folder History
Freehand - manually placing images on the page
Fringing Filter (purple/green fringing)
Full screen view
Global Filter
High Quality Work Image (batch filter window)
Hyper Printing
Image Fitting
Image Lock
Image Placement
Instaview
Info Stamp
Interface (filenames versus thumbnails)
Levels Filter
Lossless JPEG Transforms
Margins
Mirror
New Session w/Selected
Optimizing layouts for certain size prints (4x6, etc).
Page Background Color
Page Editor - defined
Page Orientation (portrait/landscape)
Page Preview
Page/Paper Size (changing)
Photo Editors (using with Qimage)
Plugins
Preview (while adding images to queue)
Print Filter
Print Image Information (under each print when printing)
Print Info/Annotation Font
Print Interpolation and Spooling Options
Print/Job Logging
Print Proofs
Print Rotation
Print To (printer or file)
Printer Setup
RAW Format Options
Red Eye Correction
Reordering Prints
Scrapbooks
Search IPTC Image Info
Selected Thumbs/Files (Copy, Move, Rename, Auto Rename, Delete, Recycle)
Selective Color Filter
Slide Show (to view images in the queue full screen)
Soft Proofing
Sort Prints
Templates (creating manual templates and retaining image positions)
Test Strips
Thumb Builder
Thumbnail Font
Thumbnail Cache - Managing Disk Space
Thumbnail Quality
Units (of measure)
Unsharp Mask
Utilities (file manager, Flash card copy/move)
White Balance Filter

Add Another Copy of this Image - Sometimes you may be looking through images that you have already placed in the queue and decide that you want more copies of certain images that are already in the queue. To accomplish this, select image(s) in the queue or on the preview page and then right click in the queue or on the preview page and select "Add Another Copy of this Image". Qimage will add another copy of each image to the queue. You may repeat this command as many times as you like to increase the number of copies in the queue indefinitely.

Add to Queue - add the images selected in the thumbnail/files window to the queue (bottom window) at the default size shown above the thumbnail area. As alternatives, you may double click thumbnails to add one at a time, press the insert key, or drag the selected images onto the preview page in the upper right corner of the main screen. When you drop the images, they will be placed on the page/position where you dropped them.

Access:

• Right click in the thumbnail view with thumbs selected. When the popup menu appears, select "Add to queue".

Alternatives:

• Press the insert key with thumbnails highlighted.
• Drag directly to the preview page (upper right).
• Double click to add one at a time.

Antialias filter for downsampled images - Click "Edit", "Preferences", "Printing Options" to access the interpolation settings. Move the antialias lever to control the strength of the antialias prefilter that is applied when downsampling images and prints. Note that this setting affects not only prints (usually those being printed at very small sizes) but also images downsampled via the batch filter, e-mail/web conversions, etc. Also note that the antialias setting only applies to images that are being downsampled (resolution is being decreased) and the setting has no effect whatsoever on images being upsampled (resolution is being increased).

Aliasing is an artifact that can be visible in areas that have small, repeating patterns such as brick walls, stripes in a shirt, fence posts at a distance, etc. Sometimes called "moiré", the artifacts may look like heat waves. See the example below to see the aliasing caused by a brick building being downsampled, and how the "Med" antialias setting removed the aliasing artifacts.

Straight downsize	w/antialias at "Med"

Auto Preview - The "Auto Preview" option is located on the "View" menu in the batch filter window. If enabled, auto preview causes a small filter preview window to open whenever a filter change is being made. For example, when adding contrast, click on the up/down arrow next to the contrast parameter. As soon as the contrast is changed, a small preview window will open showing the change in real time. When finished, the changes can either be accepted (by clicking OK) or canceled (by clicking Cancel). When auto preview is turned off, the preview window can still be activated manually by right clicking on the image. To preview filter changes in real time with auto preview off, simply right click anywhere on the displayed image to activate the preview window and then make the desired filter changes.

Auto Rename - Auto rename provides a method for renaming files to the stored image date/time, etc. There are two ways to auto rename in Qimage.

Method 1 - When you use the Flash Card Copy/Move Utility (accessed by clicking "File" from the top menu bar on the main screen and then clicking "Flash Card Copy/Move"), you can rename files as they are moved from one folder (or flash card) to another folder. If you check the auto rename box before clicking the Copy/Move button, the files will be renamed after they are copied.

Method 2 - You can auto rename files that already exist without copying/moving them. To auto rename existing files, simply navigate to the folder containing the files and select the thumbnails/files to be renamed. Then right click in the thumbnails area and select "Auto rename" from the dropdown menu.

Changing the auto rename format - To change the format for renaming files, click "Edit", "Preferences" and "Auto Rename Options" and change the renaming parameters. You can close the rename parameter window by clicking the "x" in the upper right (your parameters will still be saved).

Renaming note: Qimage will use the date/time stored in the EXIF header if one exists. If no EXIF header is present, Qimage will use the date/time stamped on the image file itself (file date/time). Qimage will never overwrite a file when auto renaming. If a file already exists with the given rename format, the next image renamed will be succeeded with an occurrance number. If for example, you had three images with the same date/time (not likely), you would have something like this:

1999-06-15 13:46:20.jpg
1999-06-15 13:46:20(0001).jpg
1999-06-15 13:46:20(0002).jpg

Flexibility: Qimage is very flexible in renaming format. For example, you don't have to use the date/time at all. If you simply want to rename all files by the camera that they came from, you could set the rename parameters to "Nikon 950 " and Qimage would save files as:

Nikon 950 (0001)
Nikon 950 (0002)
Nikon 950 (0003)

Limit: Qimage does have a limit of 9,999 files when auto renaming, so if you reach "Nikon 950 (9999)" for example, the remaining images will simply not be renamed.

Batch Filter - The batch filter can be accessed via the "Page/queue actions" tool button at the top of the main window or by double clicking on any image on the preview page to open that image in the batch filter (image editor). When accessed, the batch filter will activate with the first image in the queue displayed.

You may design your filter by changing the filter parameters on the right side of the window. To assist in the design of your filter, the following functions are available within the batch filter window:

• After changing any number of parameters, you may click the "Apply" button on the bottom of the panel to view the filter on the current image. Note that depending on the complexity of the filter, it may take from several seconds to several minutes to apply the filter.
• To switch between the original and filtered images, select "View" from the top menubar and select "Original Image" or "Filtered Image".
• To preview the filter in "real time" (when moving one of the sliders for example), simply right click on the image and open the zoom/preview window. If you leave this window open while changing filter parameters, the zoom/preview window will update as you make changes.
• If you do not want to save the filtered image(s) but simply want to save the filter parameters so that they can be loaded quickly in the future, click "File", "Save Filter Parameters".
• Although you can save the filtered image(s) at any time using "File", "Save Filtered Image(s)", it is simpler to just close the window or click "Next" to see the next image in the queue. Closing the window or advancing to the next image will always result in a prompt to save the filtered image(s).
• When prompted to save, you first select whether you want to apply the filter to the current image only, or all images in the queue.
• Next, indicate whether you want to associate the filter to the original, or create new images using the filter. If you associate the filter with the original image, be aware that your original image is not modified. Instead, the same filter is applied each time Qimage opens the original image. If you select "create new images", Qimage will apply the filter and save new images in the image format you select, using a {Q} prefix for the filtered image. We recommend using "create new images" for complex filters that take more than a few seconds to run so that time consuming filters are not "executed" each time the original image is opened.
• Finally, click "Ok" to save the filtered image(s).

Using the Undo feature. The batch filter provides two undo actions:

1. Undo Last: Undo the last apply (go back one iteration to view the previous filter parameters that were displayed).
2. Undo All: Undo all changes since the filter was opened (go back to how the image appeared when you first entered the batch filter).

For information on individual filtering options, go to the main list of functions and click on the filter option.

Blemish/pixel corrector - Blemish correction is an alternative to cloning that is faster and more efficient. Use this option to remove blemishes, red eye, unwanted small objects, or stuck pixels from your photos. To access the blemish corrector, add the images that you would like to correct to the queue and then double click on the image you want to correct on the preview page to open the batch filter. You can then check the "Blemish/pixel corrector" box to enter pixel locations manually, but most of the time you will want to visually "melt away" the blemish. To do this, perform the following steps:

• Once you have selected "Batch Filter", right click on the blemish in the image and a zoomed window will appear.
• Using the zoomed window, click in the center of the blemish and drag to the right just past the edge of the blemish. To blend away abnormalities in photos (freckles, sores, etc) always drag from the center toward the right. This will cause the edges of the defined area to be blended inward. To remove red eye, click in the center of the pupil and drag left just past the edge of the pupil (into the iris of the eye) to darken the pupil and remove the red color.
• The blemish and correction radius will be added to the blemish list (you'll see the list to the right). Qimage uses negative radius numbers to indicate red eye correction and positive radius numbers to indicate normal blemish removal.
• If the next blemish is the same size, you can simply single click on the center of the blemish and Qimage will use the last radius you selected. If the new blemish has a different radius, you can click and drag as before.
• IMPORTANT: When finished correcting all blemishes and any other enhancements you selected, you must click "File", "Save Filtered Images" from the top menu bar to associate your filter with the image(s). Or, simply close the batch filter window or click "Next" to filter the next image in the queue and you will be prompted to save on your way out/to the next image.

Summary of the two methods of blemish correction:

Consider the above icon. It is a reminder to always drag from the center toward the left to correct red eye and from the center to the right to fill in blemishes. Remember that Qimage will "pull" the edge color inward to fill in blemishes when dragged to the right. In contrast, it will perform a darkening of pupil when dragged to the left.

Borderless Overspray/Size Expansion - Many print drivers offer a "borderless" or "no margins" mode that allows printing from edge to edge and top to bottom with no white border. If you would like to print a 4x6 print on 4x6 paper for example, you would expect the 4x6 print to align perfectly with the edges and top/bottom of the paper. Unfortunately, printers do not load paper precisely enough to cover exactly 4.0 x 6.0 inches of paper with a 4.0 x 6.0 inch print simply because the paper loading and positioning process is not exact. To compensate and insure that you don't get small slivers of white on the top, bottom, left, or right of your print, most print drivers artificially "expand" prints so that they are larger than necessary and so that part of the print actually oversprays onto a sponge behind the roller. When printing your 4x6 on 4x6 paper for example, the driver might see the 4x6 print and expand it to 4.2 x 6.2 so that 0.1 inches of the print overspray the left, right, top, and bottom, thus insuring that you have full coverage as long as the paper loads within 0.1 inch of the expected location. This expansion/overspray characteristic is a common feature of most print drivers, however, the artificial expansion of print sizes and overspray off the edge of the paper create problems of their own.

While expanding a 4.0x6.0 print (as selected in your printing software) to 4.2 x 6.2 might be acceptable in most cases, this "size expansion" can cause other issues. If you are printing three 4x6 prints to a borderless 8.5 x 11 page for example, you will find that your 4x6 prints are a little larger than 4x6. Overspray can also cause unwanted cropping since part of the image might actually be oversprayed beyond the edge of the paper, making your prints look like they are missing some of the edges. There may be times when you would like to use borderless mode but you also want to insure that you get the exact sizes you ordered and you want to insure that parts of your prints are not oversprayed past the edge of the page. In these situations where exact print sizes and minimizing overspray are important, click "Page Formatting" from the Qimage main window and select "Borderless Overspray/Expansion" and choose "Disable Overspray and Size Expansion". This will allow you to print exact print sizes and also minimize overspray off the page. Such an option is important, for example, if you are creating a layout of multiple photos on an 8.5 x 11 borderless page and you simply want to use as much space as possible on the page but you still want exact print sizes and you don't want part of your prints to be clipped at the edges of the page. Note that when you disable expansion/overspray, however, you are subject to the accuracy of the paper loading mechanism so you may still find that you have a 1/32 inch white border on the left and 1/32 inch clipped on the right simply because the paper didn't load perfectly. If the paper loading error is consistent (always 1/32 border on the left and missing 1/32 of the image on the right), you can compensate by using "Page Formatting", "Page Margins". In this example, enter a margin of -1/32 inch on the left and 1/32 inch on the right: -0.03 left and 0.03 right.

NOTE: Disabling borderless overspray/expansion will only affect jobs printed to a printer. This option (the allow/disable selection) will have no effect when you are printing to file. Normally when printing to a file, you are preparing a job for a printer that is not available/connected so the printer cannot be querried for capabilities to allow for accurate disabling of borderless overspray/expansion. As a result, the setting (allow/disable) for the overspray/size expansion is ignored when printing to file.

Borders - Borders may be added to prints to create edge effects, add spacing for photo mats, and more. Borders of any size and color may be added by using the "Brdr" parameters in the "Print Properties" panel on the main window. Note that these controls are also available in the full page editor by clicking the "Size/Loc" button.  Two borders may be added to each print: border 1 is the border closest to (touching) the print and border 2 is a second border on the outermost edge of the print.  To activate a single border around a print, simply enter the size (thickness) of the border in inches or millimeters (depending on your setting for "Units") in the left edit box under the print size buttons on Qimage's main window.  To change the color of the border, click the small color patch marked "1" next to the left edit box.  If you would like a second border which will appear around the first border, repeat these steps for the right edit box and the color patch marked "2". 

The "B" and "B+" radio buttons allow you to specify whether you want your borders inside the selected print size or outside.  As an example, if the "B" radio button is selected and you choose a 4x6 print size, the final print will be 4x6 with borders included on the inside.  If the "B+" radio button is selected, the photo will be sized to 4x6 and then the borders will be added outside that photo size, making the final print larger than 4x6.  Simply put, use "B" when you would like your borders to show inside a specified frame size.  Use "B+" when printing photo mats where you want the photo to be the specified size with the borders extending beyond that size.  Note that in order to prevent sizing problems, Qimage may switch from "B+" to "B" if it determines that the borders will not fit on the page.  For example, when using 4x6 borderless paper and a print size of 4x6, Qimage will not allow use of the "B+" border and will automatically use the "B" option since the "B+" option would create a print larger than 4x6 that would no longer fit on the 4x6 page.

Application of borders: You may set up border parameters prior to adding images to the queue and each print will contain the specified border as it is added to the queue.  You can also change the borders on an existing print by first clicking the print on the preview page.  Once you have selected a print (or prints) on the preview page, simply change the border parameters and the prints on the preview page will update with the new border parameters.

Browse Selected Image's Folder - Qimage allows images from different folders (or even drives) to be present in the queue at the same time. If you would like to quickly browse thumbnails in the folder where a certain image in the queue resides, simply highlight an image in the queue or on the preview page and then right click in the queue or the preview page and select "Browse Selected Image's Folder". Qimage will go to the folder that contains the selected image so that you may review other images in the same folder. This is useful if you have forgotten to add an image and would like to locate other images from the same folder as an image already in the queue. Note that if multiple images are selected, Qimage will go to the folder for the first selected image.

Color Management (ICC) Support:

Qimage supports ICC profiles for input devices (cameras and scanners) as well as your printer and monitor. Color profiles are used to ensure accurate and consistent color for output devices. You can access Qimage color management by selecting "Edit" from the top menubar on the main screen and then "Preferences", "Color Management".

Intro:

Accurate color management requires that you address the three devices in your digital imaging workflow equally: your camera (input device) and your monitor and printer (output devices). Since color management requires that you have: (a) an ICC profile that describes the color response of your camera, (b) an ICC profile that describes the color response of your monitor, and (c) an ICC profile that describes the color response of your printer, it can be argued that there is no need to attempt color management or to work with ICC profiles unless you have data (profiles) for all three variables: camera, printer, and monitor. Using ICC profiles to manage color is like using a road map. You need to know the starting point and the ending point and then you can describe how to get from point A to point B. In the world of ICC profiles and color management, this means specifying an input/camera profile (starting point) and a monitor or printer profile (ending point). Your software (in this case Qimage) can then translate how your camera "sees" color into how your monitor or printer "sees" color. What you need to do to manage color properly is described below.

Details:

Device Profiles

First, define the color profiles for your output devices (monitor and printer). Click "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" from the top menu bar and then:

• To set up a monitor profile: Check the "Enabled" box next to "Monitor" and then click the "..." selection button to browse ICC profiles for your monitor. If you do not have a specific ICC profile for your monitor (most systems have some generic monitor profiles located in the C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/spool/drivers/colo folder), you can select the generic sRGB profile from your Qimage folder. Please note that selecting sRGB or even a manufacturer supplied profile can lead to results that vary widely from monitor to monitor, system to system. This method of selecting a "generic" profile may work reasonably well in some cases, and not well at all in other cases. As a result, although it can't hurt to try an existing/generic profile as a first step, results may vary and may or may not be acceptable. sRGB should provide a reasonable middle ground for most monitors and for web display, however, sRGB will not match any particular monitor perfectly! It is best to use a monitor colorimeter (small device that attaches to your monitor with suction cups) to actually measure the response of your monitor. Although there are visual calibration utilities available that walk you through a visual inspection/calibration process, these programs provide nothing better than an educated guess for calibration and can often result in images not being accurately displayed. Also note that if you do not use a hardware colorimeter to create a profile specific for your particular monitor and use a generic color profile like sRGB, you may see too much red in your images, shifts of some colors, other color casts, etc. Note that even monitor profiles supplied by manufacturers can often be inaccurate, as these (although they may be labeled with your monitor model) are often developed for a whole line of monitors and are too generic to describe the response of the monitor sitting in front of you. Therefore, buying and using a colorimeter to produce an accurate profile is always recommended for the most accurate color possible. The colorimeter (most are between $200 and $300 in price range) will create a custom ICC profile for you that you can then activate in Qimage under "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management", "Monitor". It may seem like a bit of an investment, but there is really no need to buy expensive digital cameras or scanning equipment if you have no way to calibrate your output devices to ensure that you are getting accurate color!

• To set up a printer profile: Qimage offers three methods for printer color management:

  1. Printer/driver manages color (default): If you do not have a profile (ICM file) specifically designed for the printer, paper, and ink you are using, it may be best to let the printer/driver handle color.  In its default "out of the box" configuration, Qimage will allow the printer/driver to determine how to adjust color based on the paper type and quality selections made in the print driver.  If you have made other selections for the printer profile in the past and would like to instruct Qimage to revert to allowing the print driver to manage color, simply select "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" from the main menu in Qimage, check the "Enable" box under "Printer" and then press the "Let Printer/Driver Manage Colors" button.  If the button is disabled, Qimage is already allowing the driver to manage colors.  While this mode of operation will ensure good color even with the "ICM" checkbox unchecked in the driver, it is best to select the "ICM" option in your print driver if that option is available.  Also, if your driver offers settings under the ICM heading, be sure to select "Applied by Printer Software" or its equivalent (do not select "no color adjustment").  Note that this option is considered the "normal" mode of operation if you do not have a printer profile or you do not want to take control of color management.  Do not disable printer color management entirely (by unchecking the "Enable" box in the color management dialog) unless you are performing special printer testing or other tasks (see "OFF" below).

  2. Qimage manages color (preferred): If you have a printer profile appropriate for the printer, paper, and ink you are using and you know the driver settings that are appropriate to use with this profile, it is always best to allow Qimage to manage color rather than letting the driver manage color as with the first option above.  Qimage has access to all the information needed for full color management including the color space of the image, the printer profile, the rendering intent, and the status of black point compensation so it is always best to allow Qimage to perform the color management operations whenever possible to ensure the highest quality results rather than trying to pass this information to a printer driver that may or may not be able to handle the job of high quality color management.  To allow Qimage to manage color, simply select "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" from the main menu in Qimage, check the "Enable" box under "Printer" and then click the "..." button to browse for your printer profile.  Once a printer profile is selected, Qimage will manage color rather than the printer driver.  At this point, you must ensure that the printer driver options are set as required for the profile.  This normally entails selecting "no color adjustment" in the driver or "none" for print type plus selecting the proper paper type, quality, and other related settings.  See note below for more details on driver settings required when Qimage is managing color.

  3. OFF: If you do not have a paper-specific profile for your printer, it is best to use option 1 above where the printer/driver manages color.  Only disable printer color management (by unchecking the "Enable" box under "Printer" in the color management dialog) if you want to send raw data to the driver.  This option is useful when you want to print targets to be used for creating custom printer profiles.  Printing photographs with your Prtr ICC turned OFF can result in inaccurate or shifted colors.

  A note about using/selecting your own printer profiles and allowing Qimage to manage color: Please note that most printer profiles only apply to one media type, therefore it is extremely important that: (1) you have the right profile selected for your current media type and (2) your printer properties (under "File", "Printer Setup") are set to the exact parameters required for the profile. For example, most printer profiles are designed for the "no color management" mode in the driver since you are performing color management outside the driver. If so, you'll need to make sure that your driver settings are set appropriately. Please refer to either the software users guide if you created the profile yourself, or the instruction from the web site where you obtained the profile. When in doubt, set the print driver to the most "plain vanilla" settings as possible, i.e. the highest quality settings but NO color management. Remember that when you allow Qimage to manage color, you do not want to have the "ICC" box checked in your print driver unless your driver requires you to select "ICM" first in order to select the "no color adjustment" mode from within the ICM selection. If you do, you'll be doubling up on the profile (Qimage will profile it once and then your print driver will profile it again).  As with calibration of your monitor (above), there is really no way to guarantee a color match unless you use profiling software to create a custom profile that describes exactly how your printer responds. Printer profiles that are available on the web are often too generic in nature to be 100% accurate and may be designed to be used with some other printing software. Once again, a little investment in money and time can ensure an accurate match for your printer. If you want a perfect match for your prints, you'll need custom printer profiling software, and you'll need to follow the instructions below entitled "Instructions for using printer profiling tools with Qimage".

• To customize profile settings on a print-by-print basis: When printing photographs using a printer ICC profile, it is sometimes necessary to select the rendering intent on a print-by-print basis in order to achieve the best color.  Qimage allows customization of printer profile properties, making it possible to select a different rendering intent or even a different profile for each print on the page.  When images are first placed into the queue, they take on the general printer profile characteristics present on the "Job Options" tab on the main window.  To modify these initial settings on a print-by-print basis, simply select the print(s) on the preview page and then right click on the preview page and select "Custom Color Mgmt Settings".  You may then make changes to the color management settings for the selected prints and click "OK" to apply the changes.  Customizing color management settings on a print-by-print basis is useful for testing different rendering intents or even different profiles to select the best fit for your photos.

Next, define the color space used by your input devices (digicam, scanner, etc):

• About the image (input) profiles: You can associate multiple devices with ICC profiles using the grid under "Input profiles" on the color management dialog. The first line in the grid is always a "fall back" selection to be used when a specific device profile cannot be matched. You can add as many lines after this first entry as you like, specifying either the device model name (based on EXIF model number) or the resolution of the images. Using the grid to "tag" your devices with specific ICC profiles allows you to define the color spaces used by different devices. Most cameras and scanners, although their images may look acceptable without profiling, do not normally deliver images that truly conform to any known color space. If you have ICC profiles that define the color space used by your output devices like your printer and monitor, you need an input profile that describes the color space of your camera or scanner to be able to accurately display or print images. For example, if you have an ICC profile that describes the color space used by the Nikon CP990 camera, you could add a new line in the table, enter (or browse to) the profile name to that row in the table by clicking the "Select ICC Profile" button. Next, while still on the same row in the table, click the "Extract EXIF Model Name" button and select an ORIGINAL image (JPG or TIFF) from the CP990 camera. The model name "E990" will be entered in the table. It's that simple. Qimage will now use the specified ICC profile any time an ORIGINAL CP990 image is displayed or printed (provided you enabled the monitor and printer profiles - see above). We all know that EXIF information is not always preserved after modifying originals, so you can also specify the resolution as a last resort. For example, if you leave the EXIF model name blank and enter 2048 and 1536 in the X res and Y res columns respectively, Qimage will use the specified profile on all 2048 x 1536 images. Note that the only reason we need to have an input table that "tags" certain types of images with certain profiles is that most cameras do not embed the ICC profile inside the images they save. If you have a camera that saves the embedded profile information inside its images, there is no need to do this "external tagging": see "About embedded profiles" in the next bullet.

  Some places to find profiles specific to your camera model:

• Manufacturer: Some of the latest model cameras are supplied with ICC profiles on the software/driver installation CD. If you search those CD's for files with extension "ICC" or "ICM", you may be able to find a profile designed for your camera by the manufacturer. At the time of this writing, this is the exception rather than the rule. Most cameras are supplied with no ICC profiles to describe color response.

• Camera itself: Some newer cameras allow you to select a color space (profile) for saved images and may, for example, allow you to select Adobe RGB or sRGB as the profile used to store images. If your camera allows you to specify the profile to use, it may be a generic profile such as Adobe, sRGB, etc. If so, you already have your camera profile. Just browse to \program files\qimage (default) and select the proper profile from that location.

• DDI profile: The developer of Qimage (Digital Domain Inc.) may have developed a camera specific profile for your camera. The list of cameras that DDI has tested and supplies profiles for is available on the ICC Profiles Page. These profiles can be purchased for a very small fee, however, due to the amount of testing required to develop profiles, a profile for your specific model may not be available.

• Custom profile: You could use a tool like Profile Prism to create a custom profile for your camera.  Custom camera profiles often work well when shooting in raw capture mode and using a raw conversion utility.  Custom profiles generally do not work well when shooting in JPEG/TIFF capture mode as these images have already been processed.

• Generic profile: Depending on the camera model, it may be possible to get a relatively reasonable color match by using a generic "working space" profile. If your camera offers the sRGB/Adobe RGB color space settings, Qimage will most likely recognize the proper profile automatically.  If you are unsure, it is best to stick with sRGB for photos from your camera.

• About embedded profiles: Qimage supports embedded profiles which means that if there is an embedded profile, Qimage will automatically recognize it. Images modified in high end photo editors will normally be saved with the editing space (profile) saved in the image so Qimage should have no problem recognizing the proper color space.  Note that if a profile is embedded in an image, the input table under "Color Management" is ignored and the embedded profile is used instead.

How ICC Profiles are Handled at a (Windows) System Level

What about profiles associated with monitors/printers at the system (Windows) level?

• Some versions of Windows allow you to associate specific ICC profiles with your display and your printer(s). For example, you can associate an ICC profile with your monitor by clicking on your "Display", "Properties" and clicking the "Color Management" tab, adding an ICC profile to the list and activating it as the default. Note that this is simply a method of specifying which ICC profile is associated with your devices. Windows does not do anything with this information "internally", nor does it change anything about the appearance of your display at a system level as a result! This entry is nothing more than a placeholder that allows you to specify what ICC profile "belongs" to your monitor/printer. It is up to individual applications to utilize this information. Note however, that due to inconsistencies in how different Windows operating systems function (not all Windows versions even support color management), Qimage will ignore the entries entered here (at the system level, tagged to your devices). Instead, in Qimage, we use the "Monitor ICC" or "Printer ICC" entries to do this association.

About display "auto loaders"

• Most monitor calibration utilities have two steps: (a) a step that allows you to get your monitor into a known working condition, and (b) a step that creates an ICC profile to be used in photo applications. The small "auto loaders" that change the appearance of your display when you boot your computer are designed only to get your monitor into a set of know working conditions. This loader does not load or utilize an ICC profile. The auto loader is used as a kind of pre-calibration that ensures that when the ICC profile is utilized, that it will work properly. These bootup auto loaders should not be confused with ICC profiles, nor should they be thought of as a true "calibration" of your monitor at a system level.

Other ICC Profile Related Issues Applicable to Qimage

About working spaces:

• Working spaces available in your Qimage folder: Most of the popular working spaces (such as Adobe, sRGB, etc) are located in the Qimage folder - usually c:\program files\qimage). If you have the need to convert to/from or use working color spaces, simply click the "Utility Profiles" button on the color management dialog when opening a profile.

Profile to profile conversions:

• Converting from one color space to another: You can convert images from one color space to another color space whenever you use the batch filter or the image converter (right click in the queue, select "convert images"). The simplest way to convert from one color space to another is to add images to the queue and then right click in the queue (or on the preview page) and select "Convert Images".  You can then check "Perform a profile to profile conversion" at the bottom of the window, entering the "from" and "to" profiles.

• Converting multiple files from multiple cameras: If you enter <input> in the "From" box, Qimage will select the appropriate device input profile using the information in the grid under "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management". Using this parameter will allow you to convert a batch of Adobe RGB and ProPhoto RGB images from their respective color spaces into sRGB for example.

Appearance of thumbnail and draft images used in printout previews, etc.

• Thumbnails and draft images: The images that you see in the thumbnail grid and on the small preview page will appear different depending on your settings at the time the thumbnails were created. When you enter a new folder or select "Refresh Thumbs", the thumbnails are saved using the current settings under "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management", "Monitor". In other words, if you have monitor color management turned OFF and you select "Refresh Thumbs", your thumbnails will continue to appear as they do with color management OFF until you refresh them again with monitor color management ON. Similarly, thumbnails will appear as they do with color management ON if they were created that way and have not been refreshed. Qimage uses this method to speed up thumbnail display since profiling numerous thumbnails "on the fly" would slow down program operation.

Instructions for using printer profiling tools with Qimage:

The following tips apply to generating your own printer profiles for use with Qimage. If you are using profile generators such as our own Profile Prism or others like WiziWYG, Monaco EZ Color, etc. the following will help ensure that you get the most accurate color possible when printing with Qimage.

1. In your profiling generation software, use the "Save TIFF" option to save the target as a TIF file.
2. Exit the profiling software and go into Qimage and print the test target that was saved in (1) and print it using Qimage on a portrait page, filling the page. Make sure you use the exact same Qimage and print driver settings that you will be using after you create the profile: print driver color correction turned off, "Max" resolution in Qimage's "Job Properties" panel, etc.
3. Now go back into your profiling software and create your profile using the test target printed by Qimage.
4. Now that you have a profile and want to use it in Qimage, when you print through Qimage, simply ensure that your print driver settings are the same as when the profile was created and use the profile that your profiling software saved under "Printer" in Qimage's own "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" section. Of course, just as important is to ensure that Qimage's input color profile "manager" is pointing all your cameras to the right input profile. Fortunately, that's simple to do: just look at the entry in the queue and the input profile that is connected to all of your images is displayed on the right of every line in the queue.

Even if you don't use Qimage and use another package to print, we would always recommend using the package that you will be using after the profiling to actually print the color targets for profiling. Simply "dumping" the printed target to the printer like most profiling packages allow is not recommended. You should be using the same printing tools on both ends otherwise more variables creep into the equation.

Context Sensitive Help: Remember, you can get help on any function in Qimage by holding the mouse pointer steady over that function for at least two seconds. To turn this feature on/off, click "Help", "Context Sensitive Help".  Note that tool buttons always have their hints activated regardless of the context sensitive help setting.

CCD Noise Filters - Qimage provides filters specifically designed to remove anomalies associated with CCD's  in digital cameras.  These filters can easily be applied to one or all images in the queue by checking the box(es) found in the batch filter screen.

Dark current filter - Use this filter to remove unwanted "specks" of falsely-lit pixels from night shots or shots with long shutter duration.  This filter needs no dark frame reference so it will work under any conditions.

Shadow noise filter - Use this filter to eliminate shadow noise found in most 2.0 or higher megapixel cameras. This filter will eliminate most 'background' or 'shadow' noise while maintaining a high level of sharpness.

High ISO noise filter - This adaptive filter works by comparing signal-to-noise ratio of each RGB channel and filtering each channel appropriately.  Use when noise appears in an image (usually at high ISO values over 200).

D1 ISO noise filter - Specifically designed for the Nikon D1 digital camera, this filter will remove both banding noise and high frequency noise (dots) from images at high ISO. Note that this filter will ONLY work on original images (JPEG or TIF). This filter will NOT work if you have already modified the original image in any way (smoothing, despeckle, etc).

Dark frame subtraction - Use this filter to subtract hot pixels from long exposures. You may simply subtract dark frames from images, or interpolate hot pixels based on the dark frame. Try both options to see which works best for your shooting conditions. If you select a folder, Qimage will look through the entire folder until it finds an image that has the same camera model, shutter speed and ISO speed. If an match is found, the image is subtracted from the original. If no match is found, the filter is not performed and the original image is returned (without dark frame subtraction). If you select an individual image, that image will be subtracted from original(s) regardless of EXIF information match.

To access these filters, add the images to the queue first and then click the batch filter tool button at the top of the main window or click "Actions", "Queue/Preview Actions", "Batch Process", "Batch Filter" from the top menu bar. Check the appropriate box(es) and click "File" and "Save Filtered Image(s)" from the top menubar and click "Ok".

Image Comparator - Qimage can be used to compare two images side-by-side. Simply add two (or more) images to the queue and right click in the print queue at the bottom of the main page (this is where the file names are displayed). If you have more than two images already in the queue, you can compare any two images by selecting the two images first. After right clicking in the print queue, select "Comparator" and Qimage will display the two images side-by-side.

The images are initially loaded at a 1:1 ratio (1 screen pixel = 1 image pixel) so that you can scroll both images to see details, however, by right clicking on either image, you can zoom in/out, rotate the image or brighten/darken the image(s). Note that this screen displays EXIF information above both images. Also be aware that the brighten and darken function are only available as an aid to assist in comparing the two images. Any filtering or editing should be performed first using the batch filter.

To scroll the image when the image is larger than the display box, you can left click and drag the image with the "hand" or scroll using the scroll bars on the bottom and right of the image.

Useful image comparing tips:

• Use your mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
• Right click and use the "Lock" feature to lock both sides so that they zoom/scroll together
• Concentrate on one image and repeatedly press Ctrl-S to detect subtle differences between two very similar images.

Copyright/Signature (only available in Studio Edition) - Select an image on the preview page, right click, and choose "Copyright/Signature".  Select a copyright/signature image and a location for the copyright/signature and Qimage will print the copyright/signature on the print at the identified locaiton.  You may create a copyright of any size by using your photo editor and defining the image size (in inches or cm).  Your copyright/signature will be stamped on the image at the size identified in the copyright/signature image.  For example, if your copyright/signature image was defined as 1.5 inches across by .25 inches tall, your copyright/signature will be stamped at that size on all prints regardless of print size.  The recommended resolution for copyright/signature images is 300 PPI.  Since Qimage reads the embedded image size from your copyright/signature file, it is similar to using a "rubber stamp" on your desk to stamp the photos that you print. 

Note that each copyright/signature image can have an associated mask that works similar to the masks used in Qimage cutouts.  The difference is that with the copyright/signature mask, your mask is separate from your main image, giving you much more freedom.  Your copyright mask should be the same file name with "-mask" appended to the file name.  For example, if you choose "my copyright.tif", the associated mask should be "my copyright-mask.tif" in the same folder.  The mask should contain a level of transparency from black (transparent or "all image") to white (translucent or "all copyright") or any value in between to give various levels of transparency from 0 to 255.  You may open the copyright sample included with Qimage in your photo editor as an example.  Note that copyright/signatures are normally stored in the "Signatures" folder under your Qimage install folder but Qimage will accept images from any accessible folder.

If you would like your copyright/signature to appear on each photo automatically whenever you add photos to the queue, you can select "Edit" from the Qimage main menu, "Preferences", "Automatic Signature/Copyright", and select "On".  Once you select "On", the copyright/signature dialog will open and you can choose a file.  Once you've chosen a copyright/signature file, that copyright will automatically be added to each print when adding images to the queue/preview page.  To turn off the automatic copyright, simply use "Edit", "Preferences", "Automatic Signature/Copyright" and select "Off".

Cropping - You may have noticed that you sometimes cannot fit an entire picture within a "commonly used" frame. For example, there is no way to fit a 1600x1200 image into a 6x4 frame without cutting off (cropping) some of the image. You would normally do this by printing the image a little too large and trimming the edges that overlap the frame. Qimage can do this for you automatically and without wasting ink by printing larger than necessary. If the image fitting button (scissors icon) located on the "Print Properties" panel is depressed, Qimage will crop out the middle of the photo, discarding a portion of either the top and bottom or left and right to force the image to fit in the size selected whenever necessary (when the image aspect ratio is different than your selected print size). In contrast, if the image fitting button is not depressed, Qimage will not crop any of the image. Instead, it will shrink the image so that the entire image fits in the frame selected, allowing some white border to show on the edges if necessary. It is important to note that the image fitting button located on the "Print Properties" panel applies to both new images being added to the queue and can also be used to change the image fitting of existing prints on the page.

Note that when "Crop to Size" is turned on (scissors button depressed), you have given Qimage permission to crop some of the image to force it to fill the entire frame. Qimage will automatically default to cropping out the exact center of the image. If you would like to crop a different section of the image instead of accepting the default center cropping, you can easily move the crop for each print using the cropping tool on the page editor (see example 3a in the Learn by Example section) or even create a multi-purpose crop that is placed on the image itself and applies to multiple print sizes (see example 11 in the Learn by Example section of the help).

The two types of cropping in Qimage

Print cropping - If you just want to adjust the crop for certain size prints, simply click the "Full page editor" button under the preview page on the main window and click on the "Cropping" tab on the right of the page editor window.  Using the cropping tool in the page editor, you can visually adjust the portion of the image that gets printed.  As an example, if you have selected a 5x7 print size and you have auto cropping turned on (scissors button on the main window is in the down position), Qimage will automatically crop out the center portion of your image to create prints that are exactly 5x7 inches in size.  Sometimes the center may not be the best crop, however, so to adjust the area that is getting cropped, just use the cropping tool in the page editor and you can click on the small image in the cropping tool and drag it left, right, up, or down until it shows the portion you would like to include in your 5x7.  You can also use the zoom lever to zoom in on an important part of the photo.  Once you are done, Qimage will always remember the chosen crop/zoom for that particular image at the current size (5x7).  In the future, each time you add that image to the queue at a size of 5x7 you will get the same crop, making it unnecessary to redo your crops each time you decide to reprint at the same size! Note that each time you choose a new size that you have not previously cropped (such as 4x6), Qimage will always default to a center crop and you can adjust from there as necessary.  Since Qimage remembers your preferred crop for each print size separately, it is possible to fine tune all your crops for different sizes to look best at that given size.

Image cropping - Sometimes it is desirable to crop off certain portions of an image if you never want them included.  For example, in a family photo, you may have a trash can on the left and an open door on the right.  If you would like to crop the image so that the trash can and the open door never show and are effectively removed from the image, you can use the batch filter to apply a crop to the image itself, placing your crop around the family members only, cutting off the superfluous objects on the left/right.  To do this, we add an image to the queue and then double click on that image on the small preview page to open the batch filter.  The batch filter will open and you can create a crop rectangle by clicking/dragging on the image from the upper left corner to the lower right corner.  Once your "crop box" has been highlighted, move your cursor inside that box to black out all areas outside the crop so that you can see what the cropped image looks like.  Once satisfied, click "Done" and then "OK" to associate this crop with the image.  Note that when you associate a crop in this fashion, the original image has not been changed: Qimage simply saved information telling it to honor the crop each time the image is opened.  As far as Qimage is concerned, the cropped area is now all that exists for this image (until/unless you delete the crop in the batch filter).  For convenience, note that Qimage allows you to click "Crop lock" and specify a certain aspect ratio for the crop.  Clicking "Crop lock" and entering 4 and 3 next to the check box, for example, will ensure that your cropped area always matches a 4:3 or 3:4 aspect ratio.

Curves - The most common use of the curves filter is to change the contrast of different parts of an image. The following illustrates a common example for use of the levels filter.

The thumbnail above represents an image with contrast that is a bit too low (left side of image). We can use the curves filter to create a typical contrast enhancing "S" curve which will darken the shadows and brighten the highlights. Instead of a straight line from bottom left to upper right which would indicate no change, we have grabbed a point on the graph about 1/4 from the left and dragged that point downward a bit. In addition, we grabbed a point about 3/4 from the left and dragged that upward to create the above "S" curve. The difference in contrast is visible with the original on the left side of the thumbnail above, and the increased contrast on the right. Notice that the gray haze caused be low contrast has been removed from the right/filtered side of the image.

Note that up to 17 individual points can be added to define the shape of the curve, so very complex curves can be created for other purposes. To add a new point to the curve, simply click in the area on the curve to reshape and drag up/down. To move an existing point, just click on that point and reposition it up/down. To remove a point from the curve, simply right click on that point. To see where a particular color in an image falls on the curves, click the dropper and then click on the image to place [red] points on the curves that correspond to the clicked area of the image.

With "lock all" checked, curves apply to all colors equally. You can uncheck "lock all" and apply different curves to individual colors by using the "Apply to" color at the bottom of the window. More information regarding general use of curves can be obtained via any Internet search tool using the keywords "image" and "curves".

Cutouts - Use cutouts to add a "scrapbook" effect to your printouts.

When an image is printed, it is normally printed as a rectangular print like the one below.

Cutting out a portion of the image can add personality to your prints. The "Oval" cutout was used on the print below.

Cutouts can also be used as a blending effect. The "Fade-oval" cutout was used on the print below.

Access: To use cutouts, you must apply the cutout to the image(s) using the batch filter. As with all batch filters that you choose to associate with originals, you are using a mask which is placed on top of the printed image. To use a particular cutout on an image, the image must be in the queue, so it is most efficient to add all images and place them where you like on the page first. Then, to use cutouts on the images, perform the following steps:

1. Using the preview page on the top right of the main window, double click on a print to bring that print into the batch filter.
2. In the "Image Effects" box, click the dropdown box to select a cutout by name or click the "Cutout" button on the left to select a cutout by viewing thumbnails. Note: if no thumbnails appear after clicking the cutout button, click the third button at the top of the "Cutout Preview" window to regenerate the thumbnails.
3. After selecting a cutout, the screen will update to show you what the effect looks like.
4. Note that cropping and cutouts go hand-in-hand so if you crop off an area, you'll see how the cropping affects your cutout area.
5. Close the batch filter screen and apply the filter on your way out of the batch filter.

That's it. The images will remain in the selected cutouts for both display (in the slide show) and on printouts until you remove the associated filter.

The Power of Cutouts!

Note that although some cutouts are provided with Qimage, there is no limit to the cutouts that you can design yourself. Cutouts are a very powerful feature and once you understand how they are created, you can create your own designs. The section below described how to create your own cutout designs.

The simple story: Cutouts are located in your Qimage folder under a subfolder named "cutouts". If you accepted the defaults when installing Qimage, your cutouts will all be located in the "c:\program files\qimage\cutouts" folder. To add a cutout to the list of available cutouts in Qimage, you need only create an image file (in any format) and copy it to the "c:\program files\qimage\cutouts" folder.

How to create a cutout image: To create a cutout, just use your favorite image editor and create a new image in 24 bit (16 million) color format. The image can be anything you like, however, Qimage treats all shades of pure gray as a transparency level: 0,0,0 is 100% transparent and 255,255,255 is opaque and will show as white on the printout. In other words, the original image will "show through" the cutout for any pixel in your cutout that has RGB value 0,0,0. A gray shade of 128,128,128 will show your image "half faded" to white. A value of 255,255,255 in your cutout will show as white in the resulting image (none of the original image will come through). All other shades of pure gray can be used to specify how much of the original image makes it through to the result, with 0,0,0 showing the original image and 255,255,255 having the original image completely "blocked" (white). Given this, if you look at the first oval cutout above, it is no more than an all white image with a circle in the center filled with RGB color (0,0,0). Why is the image above an oval cutout and not a circle? Because the cutout is always stretched first (distorted) so that it fits over the target image exactly. This is handy because if you look at the oval cutout supplied with Qimage (which is actually a circle), the top, bottom, left and right edges always touch the edge of your photo giving you the maximum possible area inside the oval! The second, faded oval, is a cutout with 0,0,0 near the center, fading through 1,1,1, 2,2,2, 3,3,3, etc to the edges where the 255,255,255 completely masks the original image.

The obvious question at this point is, "What if I want a shade of gray to appear as part of the image (in my cutout)"? You might want to do this if, for example, you want to add some black text in the white (masked) areas outside the oval above. Just remember that Qimage will only use RGB values as transparency masks if they are exactly equal in all three RGB channels. So, if you want black text, just set the color of your text to 0,0,1 instead of 0,0,0. Seeing that the blue value is 1, Qimage will not treat the text as a mask and the true color (0,0,1) will show on the cutout rather than the underlying image. Since the difference between 0,0,0 and 0,0,1 is negligible, no one will ever be able to tell that your text has 0.4% blue, and nearly all printers will print that color as completely black. Other shades of gray can be achieved in a similar fashion, for example, middle gray could be very closely approximated by using 128,128,129 instead of 128,128,128.

Complexity: It doesn't take long to realize that you can get pretty complex with your cutouts. Just be aware when creating new cutouts that they are always stretched to fit the image and THEN stretched again to fit on the paper. For this reason, always create cutouts of high enough resolution for the application. If you create a circle cutout that is only 50 x 50 in resolution, obviously the cutout itself will look jagged when printed (but the underlying image may not). Cutout resolutions of at least 1000 x 1000 are recommended.

Creating copyright "stamps" with cutouts: Using your photo editor, simply create an image that is filled with color RGB(0,0,0). Then, in the lower right corner (or wherever you like) add text at a different color (green, yellow, black, white, etc). For example, if you regularly work with images that are 2048 x 1536 resolution, create an image that is 2048 x 1536 that is filled with the color RGB(0,0,0). Then, in the lower right corner, if you want white text that says "Copyright 2003, Your Company Inc.", simply make sure the text color is 255,255,254. Save that image in your cutouts folder and apply it to a batch of images. When applied, you will see the copyright notice where you typed it. It's that simple! And remember, although you can associate the cutout as a filter to be applied to originals, you can also (with any filter) apply the filter to create new images so that the images can be used on the web, etc. To see an example of how professional you can get with copyright stamps, try the "copyright" cutout included with Qimage. This is a copyright "sample" cutout that will show you how to create semi-transparent effects in your copyright stamps!

Frames: cutouts that don't mask part of the image

You may wish to place a cutout around your images, ensuring that the entire image displays inside the cutout. Cutouts are normally used as a mask that is overlayed on the image, however, you can specify that you would like to use a cutout as a frame that surrounds your images by simply adding ".frame" in the cutout's file name. For example, a cutout showing a wood frame may be named wood.tif or wood.frame.tif. If the name of the cutout file is wood.tif, the frame will appear over your image, masking out part of the top, bottom, left, and right of the image. If, however, you change the file name to wood.frame.tif, Qimage will place your image in the center (black) rectangle and "shape" the frame around the image. Note that Qimage "detects" the inner black rectangle within the frame, so frames work best when you have a rectangular black area in the center of the cutout; odd shapes will not "fill" properly.

Fading to colors other than white

While neutral colors from 0,0,0 (transparent) to 255,255,255 (opaque) have special meaning in that they dictate the amount of transparency, it is possible to fade to colors other than white (the default fade color).  Simply add the fade color enclosed in square brackets as part of the file name.  For example, fade-oval.tif fades from transparent in the center to white at the edges.  The same file with the name fade-oval[0,0,0].tif will fade to black at the edges instead of white.  Naming the file fade-oval[0,255,0].tif will cause a fade to green at the edges, and so forth.  Note that regardless of the fade color, 0,0,0 still indicates 100% image and 0% fade color and 255,255,255 indicates 0% image and 100% fade color.  Also note that if you would like your prints to fade into the color set as the page background color, do not use the file name fade override as it will override the fade color without considering the page background color.

Dark Frame Subtraction - Used to remove "hot pixels" or to remove color/brightness bias from frames.

The dark frame subtraction filter serves three purposes, and therefore has three options:

(1) Simple subtraction: When taking long exposure shots of say 8 seconds or more, CCD's will normally produce visible specs of light in the image called "hot pixels". These hot pixels can deter from your image. The simple subtraction method of dark frame subtraction is to subtract a reference (black except for the hot pixels) frame from your original image, thereby subtracting the bright pixels from the original image. To do this, simply take a shot at the same exposure with identical camera settings and the lens cap on the camera. For example, if you take a 16 second shot of a night scene, simply put the lens cap on the camera and take another 16 second shot with all settings identical. The result of the second image is the dark frame: the only image "data" that it will have are the hot pixels. You can then subtract that second frame from the first (which contains your image). This is a common method of removing hot pixels and it normally works well since the exact same pixels are usually "hot" in every frame if the camera settings have not been changed.

(2) Hot pixel interpolation: In very long exposures such as 30 seconds or "bulb" exposures, pixels can be so "hot" that they clip. In other words, they can be too hot to subtract with good results because the hot pixel has "topped out" at maximum brightness in at least one of the color channels (a value of 255). The simple subtraction method doesn't work well in these cases because the hot pixels have maxed out and contain NO image data at all. As a result, when you subtract these pixels from your original image, the pixels will end up black or missing the red, green and/or blue channels resulting in dark (rather than bright) specs in your image. Using hot pixel interpolation, however, you can avoid this problem since hot pixels will be identified in the dark frame and interpolated using data around the hot pixels.

(3) Frame equalization: This is a new method that is not technically related to "dark" frames. Most imaging systems have some level of frame bias due to slight vignetting, electronic interference, etc. For example, many have noticed a very slight green cast toward the left of all images using the Fuji S1 camera due to some internal electronic interference. In addition, even on the most expensive lens and camera systems, most lenses do not pass an equal amount of light in the center of the image when compared to the edges. This is a well known and normal aberration of lenses called vignetting and can be seen in images as a darkening at the edges of the picture or darkened corners. Fortunately, effects like these are normally consistent from shot to shot, at least when using similar focal lengths (zooms). Frame equalization allows you to completely remove these effects by using a single test shot to remove any color/brightness bias across the image. Note that this will NOT work to remove fringing since fringing is based on chromatic aberration and depends on image content. To use this feature, simply take a shot of a white piece of paper where the paper is evenly illuminated and covers the ENTIRE picture. Take the picture slightly out of focus and make sure that the paper is smooth with no specs or other discoloring. Use an uncompressed (TIF) mode if possible and turn camera sharpening OFF for the shot. This becomes your frame equalization reference. It is not necessary that the paper be exactly white or even that white balance is perfect, only that the shot is not over or underexposed. If the shooting conditions are as prescribed, the resulting image should be a frame of one smooth color that covers all areas of the image. In other words, the RGB values across the image should be relatively the same. You will probably notice, however, that due to inefficiencies in the camera and/or lens system, that the color is not smooth across the entire frame. The corners may be slightly darker than the center, etc. When you use the frame equalization filter, Qimage will use this reference frame to "reverse" the bias in the image to produce a smooth, evenly lit scene.

NOTE: In all three methods above, Qimage allows you to select a folder rather than a single image to subtract. If you supply a folder of images rather than an individual image to subtract, Qimage will look through the folder and select (based on EXIF information) the image that matches the closest to the original in exposure time, ISO speed, resolution, etc. Using this feature, you can create a folder of dark frames at different exposures such as 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 8 seconds, etc. This allows you to take all of your dark frames once and refer to them later without the need to take the dark frames in the field as you go.

Default size - identifies the default print size to be used when adding images to the queue without specifying a size (without clicking the size dropdown to select a size).

Delete Filters - Qimage offers a quick way to remove associative filters and revert to the original image. To quickly remove associative filters from images, simply add the image(s) to the queue. Next, select the image(s) in the queue for which you would like to remove filters, right click in the queue and select "Delete Filters". The same selection/right click method will also work from the preview page.

Mark Edges - Check "Edges" on the bottom/right of the main window to produce crop marks or a thin outline around each print to aid cutting.

The two options below produce lines that extend past the edge of prints to aid cutting.  Be aware that since crop marks and guide lines extend beyond the edges of prints and into "unused" portions of the paper, they should not be used if you intend to reuse/refeed the paper into the printer at a later time in order to use more of the paper.

• Crop marks*: crop lines that extend 1/4 inch from all four corners of each print.
• Guide lines*: guide lines for cutting extend from all four corners of each print all the way to the edge of the printable area on the paper.

* Note: crop marks and guide lines will not print on corners/edges that are too close to the printable margins of the paper.  Unless borderless printing is selected, your printer will not be able to extend the crop marks/guide lines all the way to the edge of the paper due to physical printer limitations.

The remaining four options produce hairline borders on the edge/corners of prints.  Since these options produce lines that do not extend beyond the edge of existing prints, they do not use more paper unlike crop marks and guide lines above.

• Solid black line: Produces a solid black hairline border around prints.
• Solid line: use border color: Produces a solid hairline border around prints in the color currently chosen for "border".
• Dashed black/white line: Produces a dashed hairline border around prints.
• Mark corners: Produces a solid black hairline border 1/4 inch in length from each corner of prints.
• Mark corners: use border color: Produces a solid hairline border 1/4 inch in length from each corner of prints in the color currently chosen for "border".

Page Editor Functions

All - apply selected bounds to all images in the queue (document).

Bounds - size of the selected print(s). See "Defaults" under main screen functions for more info.

Click/Drag - click and drag any corner of the selected image to resize the image visually.  Click and drag the center of the image to move the image visually (will set image positioning to "Freehand" mode automatically).

Cropping Tool - click/drag the image in the crop window to adjust the location of the crop. Note that Qimage automatically remembers the crop you prefer for each image based on the aspect ratio of the print so once you identify your preferred crop for a 4x6 print of a certain image, Qimage will honor that crop every time you add that same image at a size of 4x6, 3x2, 8x12, etc.. If you specify a different crop for an 8x10 size of the same image (since that is a different aspect ratio), that crop will be honored for 8x10, 5x4, 16x20, etc.

Details - click details to view embedded image information such as shutter speed, flash, zoom, etc.

Go To - select a page and the page editor will display that page.

HQ Preview - click the HQ Preview button to refine the view of the current page (high resolution print preview) - applicable unless you are already using "All Images" under "View" (see below).

Location - enter a specific location on the page based on distance from the left, right, top, and bottom edges of the paper.

Print Page - click this button to print only the page being viewed. Return to the main menu if you would like to print the entire document.

Right Click - right click on the page to activate a list of functions that apply to the selected image on the page, including text annotations, copy/cut/paste, etc.

Selected - apply the selected bounds to the highlighted image only.

Soft Proof - simulate the color of the current page when printed with the current printer ICC profile (both Mntr ICC and Prtr ICC must be enabled).

Swap - rotate the "picture frame" (bounds) 90 degrees. The effect of this function depends on the "Image Fitting" function (see main screen functions).

View - select the level of detail desired on the page preview.

Edit IPTC Image Info - Qimage allows you to enter IPTC data such as a title, author, copyright, etc. to be stored in the image file. To edit/add IPTC information to an image, simply select image(s) from the thumbnail grid and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Edit IPTC Image Info". You can then edit the available IPTC data fields and save the information to images as you go. Note that IPTC information can only be added to JPEG/TIFF files.

E-mailing photos - Typically, most of your photos will be high resolution original images straight from your camera. Since these are maximum quality images intended for optimal display/printing, they are generally larger than necessary for the purpose of e-mailing snapshots. To avoid sending very large attachments which can cause long download times for the recipient, Qimage provides a method of downsampling (reducing the size of) photos prior to sending via e-mail. If you would like to send some photos from your digital camera to others, first use the Qimage file browser to locate a folder that contains your photos. Then select the photos and right click in the thumbnail grid, select "Send via E-mail", and choose a size (resolution).  You may wish to refer to example 12 for more detailed instructions.

Qimage's {Q}e-mail work folders:

Whether you are using "Send via E-mail" from the thumbnail grid or "Create E-mail/Web Copies" from the queue, Qimage will create/use a folder named {Q}e-mail.  This folder will appear as a subfolder under the current folder (the folder where thumbnails are being displayed).  The "{Q}e-mail" folder should be considered a "scratch" or temporary folder since the {Q}e-mail folder is cleared each time the "Send via E-mail" and "Create E-mail/Web Copies" function is used.  If you would like to keep the new e-mail/web images created by Qimage rather than just creating temporary/scratch copies for sending via e-mail, you should copy/move the files from the {Q}e-mail folder to another folder to ensure that they will not be erased the next time you use the e-mail/web functions.

Note regarding invoking e-mail clients from Qimage:

Qimage uses MAPI (Message Application Programming Interface) to invoke your e-mail client. Unfortunately MAPI is "hardwired" for Microsoft products and most non Microsoft mail clients do not fully support the MAPI spec. As a result, if you use a non Microsoft mail client, Qimage may not be able to fully automate composing a new e-mail with images attached. If Qimage runs into a problem and detects that your mail client is not responding properly to MAPI commands, it will open your default mail client with a new message ready to be sent but without the images attached. A secondary "Explorer" window will open showing the location of the images in question so that you can manually drag images (files) from the explorer window to your mail message's "attachment" tab and then send the message.

If you are using a non Microsoft mail client and you are having trouble with Qimage invoking e-mail, you may wish to install MS Outlook or Outlook Express just to allow them to set themselves as the default mail client. By allowing MS Outlook/Outlook Express to be your default mail client, you can still use your non Microsoft mail client for all your typical e-mail tasks while regaining MAPI compatibility for programs that "spawn" e-mail tasks.

EXIF Hotbar - The EXIF hotbar automatically shows image information on the lower status bar of the main screen as you pass the mouse pointer over images. This allows you to quickly examine f-stop, shutter speed, etc. instantly. Note: if you have images that are corrupted or unreadable, you may want to turn this feature off so that Qimage does not try to examine each file as you pass the mouse pointer over the thumbnails. To turn the EXIF Hotbar on/off, click "View", "EXIF Hotbar" from the main screen.

EXIF and other image information - Any embedded image information (exposure info, f-stop, etc) can be displayed in the following ways:

• If "EXIF Hotbar" is turned on, the most useful information is shown on the bottom status bar as you pass the mouse pointer over each thumbnail.
• From the thumbnail view on the main screen, right click on a thumbnail. When the popup menu appears, select "View image info". Ctrl-I can also be used with the mouse over a specific thumbnail.
• From the slide show (click the "Page/queue actions" tool button at the top of the main window and select "Slide Show"), press the "Details" button in the upper right. Image information will be displayed for the image currently being viewed.

Exposure Compensation - This filter brightens underexposed images by expanding the dynamic range of the image.

To access this filter, add the images to the queue first and then double click on the image on the preview page that you would like to modify. Check the "Exposure" box to add the exposure filter and then click "Done".

File - The "File" menu contains functions related to file operations like recalling/saving jobs or settings and also contains print related functions.

Recall: This function should be used to recall Qimage settings.  Anything from just the main window setup to an entire job including images in the queue can be recalled.

Save: This function should be used to save Qimage settings.  Anything from just the main window setup to an entire job including images in the queue can be saved.

Flash Card Copy/Move: Use this function to download images from a flash card in a card reader attached to your computer.

Import via Twain: This function can be used to import a scan from a scanner or an image from a digital camera that is tethered directly to the computer.

Print To: Use this function to select whether you would like to print directly to a printer or to image files.

Page/Printer Setup: This function is used to access the print driver settings that control things like paper size, type, print quality, etc. or to set up the page for print-to-file.

Print: Use this function to print the images in the queue (on the preview pages).  You may print all pages or just a range of pages.

Open Automated Job Log: Qimage keeps a record of jobs when they are printed.  Use this function to view/recall a previous print job.

Exit Without Saving Settings: Use this function to exit Qimage without saving program settings such as the current folder, main window size, current print size, etc.

Exit: Use this function to exit Qimage normally: all settings in Qimage will be saved and recalled the next time you use Qimage.

Filters (Managing Associative Filters) - Methods for managing the filters that you have associated with images.

Qimage offers a number of methods to help identify which images have associated filters, view/edit/modify those filters, and remove filters associations.

• What are associative filters - An associative filter is nothing more than a small file that describes a set of actions to be performed on an image every time the image is opened. Instead of creating new images every time we want to filter our originals, we can simply create this set of actions so that every time Qimage displays or prints the image, the same set of actions is performed on the image. This associative filtering has a number of important benefits: (1) You can change the appearance of your original without using space to store a second copy of the image, (2) You maintain the integrity of your original image since the image itself is not modified, (3) You can open the filter actions at any time and view what those actions are, changing them as you like, i.e. you don't lose sight of what you did to the image, and finally (4) if you would like to save your images that have associative filters as another (filtered) copy so that other imaging applications can "see" the changes, you can do that as well. Note that since associative filters describe a set of actions in a file that is separate from the original image, other photo software will only see the original (they won't know how to associate the filters). Qimage, however, will treat an image with an associative filter just like an original. In other words, you never have to worry about "applying" the filter when you view or print the images because Qimage knows to do that with every image operation.
• Locating associative filters - When the interface is set to show thumbnails (rather than only file names), Qimage will display the file name under each thumbnail in red if there is a filter associated with that image. When scrolling through a folder and viewing thumbnails, if the file name under the thumbnail is black, there is no filter associated with that image. If the name is red, however, the image displayed directly above that red file name has a filter associated with it.
• Removing associative filters - A red file name in the thumbnail view indicates that the image has an associated filter that is affecting the appearance of that image whenever Qimage displays or prints that image. This associative filter is nothing more than a small file that describes a set of actions to be performed on that image every time the image is opened. Deleting the filter file that corresponds to an image will remove this set of actions and therefore restore the appearance of the image. To do this, simply select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail view and right click in the thumbnail area and select "Delete Associative Filter(s)". Then, simply select "Delete Entire Filter" from the menu.
• Adding a new associative filter or changing existing filters - There are two ways to associate filter actions to your images. You can add multiple images to the queue and then click the "Page/queue actions" tool button and select "Batch Filter" from the top menu bar. This method opens the batch filter window which allows you to "scroll through" the images in the queue one by one, associating filter actions as you go (or applying the same set of actions to all the images in the queue at once). If you don't want/need to add the images to the queue to filter them, you don't need to. Simply select the thumbnail(s) that you would like to filter and right click in the thumbnail area and select "Create Associative Filter" or "Apply Predefined Filter".
• Creating new filtered images instead of associating filter actions with originals - When applying filters from the batch filter window, you can select "Create New Images" instead of "Associate".  This option allows you to save copies of the filtered images rather than simply associating the filters with the originals.

Flash Card Copy/Move - This function transfers images from your camera's memory card to your PC's hard drive (or other drive location).

The "Flash Card Copy/Move" function is designed to be used with flash card readers that allow you to access your digital camera's memory card as a drive letter on your PC (for example, the E: or F: drive). This function cannot be used if you transfer images directly from your camera without a flash card reader unless your camera shows up as a physical drive letter on your PC.

To transfer images using a card reader:

• Simply start Qimage and then insert your memory card into your card reader.
• Click "File", "Flash Card Copy/Move" in Qimage to open the flash card copy/move dialog.
• If "Image folder auto detection" is checked, Qimage should be able to find your flash card and will automatically fill in the "FROM folder" box.
• Next, click the browse "..." button next to the "TO folder" and select a location on your hard drive to store the images.
• Click "Copy" to copy images from the flash card to your hard drive (leaving the originals on the flash card) or click "Move" to move the images to your hard drive while deleting the files from (clearing) the flash card.
• At this point, if an error message appears indicating that the FROM folder is invalid, Qimage was unable to locate the images on your flash card automatically. In this case, you will need to click the browse "..." button next to the "FROM" folder, locate the image folder on your flash card manually, and repeat the copy/move.

Notes:

If "Auto Rename" is checked, Qimage will rename images as they are copied/moved so that resulting names are more informative. Since the default renaming parameters choose date/time for the file name, an image such as IMG00056.jpg on the memory card might be renamed to 2003-05-07 13:31:56.jpg. If you do not wish to rename files as they are copied/moved, simply uncheck the "Auto Rename" option.

If you would like to copy/move all files from your flash card to another location, make sure that *.* appears in the "Copy/Move Files Like" parameter. If you only want Qimage to move files with a JPG extension, enter *.jpg in the "Copy/Move Files Like" parameter. Etc.

After the copy/move operation, Qimage will automatically browse to the "TO folder" that contains the copied/moved images and will display thumbnails for those images if "Browse the TO folder after copy/move" is checked. If you would like Qimage to remain in the current folder after the copy/move, simply uncheck this box.

Floating Text - You can add text to any part of an existing page, including on top of existing photos. To access this feature, locate an existing page by browsing through the pages in the queue using the preview page on the main window. Then click the "Full page editor" button below the preview page to go to the page editor. Once the page is opened in the page editor, you can add text to the page by clicking the small "A" button on the right side of the window or by right clicking on the page and selecting "Floating Text" from the menu. Then simply move over to the page and click in the location where you want the text placed. The following outlines some of the options available when placing text on a page in Qimage.

• Placing text: Click the "A" button on the right side of the window or right click on the page and select "Floating Text". Then move to any area of the page and left click to place text at that location. Use the dialog that appears next to enter your text properties (below).
• Moving text: Move the mouse over the small circle next to the text to be moved. The mouse cursor will change to a pointing hand indicating that the mouse is over a text anchor. While the pointing hand is showing, click and drag the text to a new location by moving its anchor. You will be able to view the text as it is being moved. Hint: Hold the shift key down before selecting/moving a text label to move all labels that are linked to the same print as a group.
• Color of the anchors (small circles): Since text can be rotated at any angle and can be of any size, small circular "anchors" are used to "grab" floating text. The anchor color is significant because it tells you something about the placement of the text. A green circle indicates that the text is free floating and is linked to the page. A red circle indicates that the text is linked to a particular print and the text will move and be sized in coordination with that print (if the print is resized/moved, the linked text is resized/moved accordingly). A blue circle indicates that the text is linked with the print that is currently selected on the page (the print outlined by a red rectangle).
• Changing text properties: To change text parameters like shadowing, amount of rotation, font, color, etc. simply move the mouse pointer over the text anchor (small circle) next to the text in question. When the pointing hand appears, simply right click and the text properties will appear.
• Deleting existing text: There are multiple ways to delete text. First, if the text is linked to a particular print and that print is deleted, the text associated with that print is also deleted. Second, you may delete text by right clicking on the text anchor and clicking the "Delete" button on the text properties window. Deleting (blanking) the text on the text properties window and clicking "OK" will also delete the text label.
• Alignment: There are three buttons that control text alignment at the top/right of the text window. You may use these buttons to align text to the left, center, and right. Note that if your text is linked to a print, the text will be aligned with respect to the linked print. If the text is not linked to a print, the text is aligned with respect to the page itself. Note that the text anchor (little green/blue button on the page) can be moved left/right to allow you to slide the anchor closer to the text if you like, but this will not affect alignment if left, center, or right justify is chosen.
• Linking tip: If you know in advance (before you create a text label) that you want that label linked to a particular print, click on that print first and then right click and select "Floating Text". When you use the right click menu option to add text, the "link to selected print" option is automatically enabled by default. If you use the "A" on the right side of the window, Qimage will assume that you are adding text to the page itself rather than the print and it will not check the "link to selected print" box when the properties window is opened (although you can still check that option if you like).
• Note on rotation: You can rotate text to any angle you desire and that rotation with respect to the linked print will be maintained (if the text is linked to a print). Note, however that this only applies to rotating the print itself. For example, if you have text linked to a print and you select a print on the main window and then right click and select "Rotate frame/size", the print will rotate 90 degrees on the page, and the text will rotate also. It is important to note, however, that rotations entered through the batch filter will not cause a similar rotation of the text because by rotating the image in the batch filter, you are rotating/modifying the image itself, not the print. The text links only link text to prints, not the image content itself.

Folder History - Allows you to quickly navigate to any of the last 16 folders used in Qimage. To access the folder history, simply drop down the combo box located above the thumbnail grid. Note that you may add/remove folders from this list manually by first selecting the folder so that it is the current folder selected in the history drop down, and then right clicking on the arrow on the right side of the drop down box to add/remove that folder from the history list.

Notes on Freehand placement of images on the page

To gain maximum control over the printed page, you may click/drag images on a page even if you are using an automatic placement option such as "Center" or "Optimal". Prints can be resized on the preview page by clicking one of the four corners and dragging to size. Prints can be moved to a specific location on the page by clicking the center of the print and dragging the print to the new location. For higher precision sizing/moving, use the edit page button to open the full page editor. Note that once you drag a print to manually place that image on the page, the page you are working on will switch to "Freehand" placement mode as indicated by the small "F" button at the top/right of the previewed page being down/depressed. For example, if you are working in "Center" placement mode and have three pages in the queue, manually moving a print on page two will result in page two switching to "Freehand" placement while pages one and three remain in "Center" placement mode (as will any new pages added later). To return a page to the current (document) placement setting and remove the "Freehand" flag, simply click the small "F" button at the upper/right of the previewed page and return it to the "up" position.

Note that you can set the entire document to "Freehand" placement at any time as well, which will prevent Qimage from auto-arranging prints altogether.  The Freehand option "locks" the positioning of every image in your document so that they will not be moved automatically. If the entire document is set to "Freehand" placement mode ( "Freehand" is selected in the placement tool button below the preview page), you can add images to the page by clicking/dragging thumbnails and dropping them in their initial location on the preview page. The same click/drag-to-add method can be used on individual pages flagged as "Freehand". To move prints after their initial/rough placement on the preview page, you can simply click the center of the print and drag it to a new location on the page or use the page editor to drag the image in higher precision.

Moving and sizing in the full page editor:

Once a rough placement/sizing has been established on the preview page on the main window, you can refine the exact location and size of prints using the full page editor which has additional functions to help place/size images. Just click the page editor button to open the current page in the page editor. While prints can be moved/resized by clicking and dragging with the mouse, you may also select a print on the page and manually enter a new size in the size boxes on the right of the window to specify exact sizes. In addition, you may select an exact location for your print on the page by changing the location values under "Location" on the right of the window (if the "Cropping" tab is depressed, click "Size/Loc." to see the size and location parameters). For example, if you would like the image to be located 2 inches from the top of the paper, enter a "2" in the top location box. If you want that image to be 3 inches from the right edge of the paper, simply enter a "3" in the right location box. You may also "nudge" the prints by first selecting the print and then using the arrow keys to nudge the print left/right/up/down. Use the Ctrl key in combination with the left/right/up/down keys to nudge the print to the next nearest edge of other prints on the page for a quick and easy way to align a print with other prints. Use the Shift key in combination with the left/right/up/down keys to nudge the print to the next nearest 0.1 inch increment. Finally, to "snap" any print to the nearest 1/10 inch, simply right click on that print and select "Snap to grid".

Here are some useful tips for using "Freehand" placement:

• Add - to add images to the page while in freehand mode, simply go to the page in question and drag the image from the thumbnail grid directly to the preview page on the main window.  Note that the image will be dropped at the mouse pointer.  If you want to move the image after initial placement, you must click the edit page button since the preview page on the main screen is for initial positioning only and is really meant for the rough draft.
• Add a new page - to create a new page while in freehand mode, simply click the right arrow under the preview page on the main window until you reach the last page, or drop the page list down and select the last page.  The next time you click the right arrow, Qimage will ask you if you would like to create a new page.
• "Bring to front" - using freehand mode allows you to place images (all or partly) on top of other images.  An image's position in the queue is what causes it to be "in front of" or "behind" other images.  The easiest way to think of this is that images are placed on the page in the order that they appear in the queue.  Images that are later in the queue will be placed on top of earlier images.  You can use the "Bring to Front" command via right clicking on a print in the full page editor to bring a print to the front if another print is overlapping that print and you want the selected print to be on top.
• Nudge: On the full page editor window, select a print and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the print left, right, up, or down. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and use the arrow keys to quickly align your prints with other prints on the page. Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and use the arrow keys to quickly align your prints to the next nearest 0.1 inch increment.

Fringing Filter - This filter removes or drastically reduces green/purple color fringing found in many 2.0+ MP digital cameras. The filter is designed to remove chromatic aberration of lenses, normally seen as a green or purple fringe around objects near the edge of photos. This filter will work well on most fringing, however, it is not designed to remove purple "halos" caused by intense light or overexposure (highlight blowouts).

To access the fringing filter, add the images to the queue first and then double click on the image on the preview page to open the batch filter. Check the box for "Fringing" under "Auto Correct" and then click "Done" and "OK" to associate the filter with the original image.

Full Screen View - Right click on a thumbnail in the thumbnail view. When the popup menu appears, select "Display Full Screen". Note that this option displays only the thumbnail under the mouse pointer (to view multiple images full screen, use the slide show). Pressing the space bar while holding the mouse over a thumbnail will perform the same function.

Note: to return to the main window, simply press the Esc key.

Global Filter - Qimage filters can be set as "global filters" without associating the filter with images. If you set a filter as a global filter, all images loaded by Qimage will be filtered automatically by the global filter (unless the images already contain their own individual filters). For example, you might have a lot of dark images taken without flash. You could set the exposure correction filter globally and all images will pass through the filter prior to all display operations AND prior to all print operations.

To set a global filter - Add at least one image to the queue so that you can access the batch filter and then double click that image on the preview page to open the batch filter window.  Set up your filter any way you like and click "File" and "Save Current Parameters to File" on the top menu bar. Use a file name that describes your filter such as "exposure filter". Close the batch filter window, return to the Qimage main window and check the "G.Filter" box on the bottom right of the window. Pick "Select Global Filter" from the popup and open the filter file that you saved from the batch filter: your global filter is now active. Any and all images accessed will pass through this filter. Important: individually assigned filters override the global filter, so if you have images that have filters associated with the individual image file, the individual filter will override the global filter. To remove filters associated with individual files, just add the file(s) to the queue, select all the images in the queue and then right click in the queue and select "Delete Filters".

To deactivate the global filter, simply uncheck "G.Filter" on the main window.

If G.Filter is checked, simply hold the mouse pointer over the G.Filter box for two seconds and the name of the currently active global filter will be displayed.

If G.Filter is unchecked, check the G.Filter box and the global filter last used will be listed at the top of the pop up window.

High Quality Work Image - The "High Quality Work Image" option is located in the batch filter window under "View". If enabled, Qimage will display the main/large image using high quality sizing methods to ensure a high quality image at the size displayed on screen. If disabled, Qimage will display the work image using a much faster resizing that will result in faster display updates, however, some "jaggies" may be noticed while using the faster display. Note that this option only affects the quality of the image displayed while you are working in the batch filter window, and has no effect on the quality of the actual filters or the filtered/saved image(s).

Hyper Printing (only available in Studio Edition) - Hyper printing is multi-threaded printing that can make use of dual core and hyper threading processors.  On single processor machines, a speed improvement of up to 20% may be realized then printing photos.  On true dual processor machines, the speed increase will be even greater.  Note that this feature is only available to registered users of the Studio Edition.  If you have the Studio Edition, hyper printing can be turned on/off via "Edit", "Preferences", "Hyper Printing" on the main window.

Image Fitting: Depending on the resolution of your images (whether scanned or from a digital camera), your images may not fit into "common" frame sizes like 5 x 7 because the aspect ratio of your images is different from that of the frame. For example, a 1600 x 1200 resolution image has an aspect ratio of 4:3. Since a 7 x 5 picture frame has a different ratio, namely 7:5, your 4:3 image must be modified in one of two ways so that it fits in a 7 x 5 frame. Qimage supports both of the following methods for sizing/fitting images:

1. Fit in frame: One way to fit a 4:3 image into a 7:5 frame is to reduce the 4:3 image in size so that the entire image fits into the frame. Using this "Fit in Frame" method will result in an image that is 6.67 inches wide by 5 inches tall. If mounted in a frame, there would be a small amount of "white space" on the 7 inch side of the frame, but you would be able to see the entire image. "Fit in Frame" fitting is accomplished by ensuring that the scissors button on the "Print Properties" panel is in the up position.
2. Crop to size: The second way to fit a 4:3 image into a 7:5 frame is to crop a small amount of image off the top and bottom of the 4:3 image to make it a 7:5 aspect ratio. Using this method, you will actually get a print that is exactly 7 inches by 5 inches, but a small amount of your 4:3 image must be cropped (omitted from the picture) to do this. Qimage defaults to cropping out the center of an image when using the "Crop to Size" method, but you can change the crop area if you like since cropping the center of an image may not always be desirable. "Crop to Size" fitting is accomplished by ensuring that the scissors button on the "Print Properties" panel is in the down position.

Image Lock: Turning on the image lock (lock button under the preview page) will ensure that images appear in their original orientation (the orientation shown in the thumbnail area). The prints will not be rotated unless rotation is unavoidable due to the fact that the image is too big to fit on a page in its original orientation. For example, if you add a portrait thumbnail to the queue at a size of 8x10 and you are using a landscape 10x8 paper orientation, the only way to fit the image on the page is to rotate it, so in this case, Qimage will override the lock. Note that for the image lock to be effective, the lock button must be depressed before adding images to the queue. Turning the image lock on (locked icon) can be useful if you do not plan to cut your images from the page but would rather all your image appear upright on the page. As a general rule, if you normally cut your prints off the page, leave the image lock icon unlocked. If you do not plan to cut the prints from the page, but prefer to simply insert printed pages into an album, it may be better to lock your images so that they get added to the printout in their original (upright) orientation and do not get rotated to fit the size you selected.

Note: Adding images to the queue with image lock on simply ensures that the initial print orientation is upright on the current page. Once you have added images to the page, you may take manual control of print orientation by selecting print(s) and then clicking one of the orientation buttons on the "Print Properties" panel on the main window. Also note that if you are using "Optimal" image placement, turning the image lock on will allow you to manually control (and lock) the orientation of your prints while still optimizing printed space given the current orientation of prints. Turning image lock off while in "Optimal" image placement mode returns control of p