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My girlfriend loves using photo editing software, so I decided I would try to make one for her. So far I am pleased with how it is turning out. I still have a lot of work to do, but I would like to get some feedback on my current work.

Just add photos to the "pictures" folder, and run the exe. If the picture is larger than the canvas, use the arrow keys to pan.


Currently the tools only change the whole picture. I will add other tools to change a portion of the photo. Other tools I would like to add are drawing shapes, text, borders, collage templates, cropping, resizing and more.

My back and forward buttons are not working properly so they are not included in this version. And currently if you save the photo, it is saved as "TEST.PNG".

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions.

I forgot, to exit preview just press any key. I didn't put the exit button because I haven't got the zoom and pan buttons completed.

You'll need some screenshots to show your program in action. Also, loading an image took so long I just gave up. Not to be discouraging, but you should try to make the load time much shorter.

not a bad start; the filters are pretty good. right now the app doesn't do anything most free photo editors do so i'm assuming you're doing this for fun/the challenge and while i do get some seriously long load times (upwards of 30 seconds from the thumbnail pic selector page to finally displaying the image (ie, the Loading Image... page)?) and preview times, it's functional at this point so congrats for that.

i'm sure you already have a long list of tools you'll want to add so i won't bother suggesting those. instead, i'll mention my desire for the thumbnail page to show bigger thumbnails (maybe expand when i hover over them?) because, in my experience when working with images in general, i create many versons with different tweaks applied and with the current thumbnail sizes, i won't be able to distinguish 1 from another. to help with this, i'd like the thumbnails to be larger AND either the images filename (and time/date?) printed below it OR the filename/info to hover over top of the image when i move the mouse pointer over it.

i'd also like to see "project" folders that the user can create to keep organized on large projects. this can be as simple as the ability to create folders and perhaps import batches of photos from 1 location to the current project folder.

actually, i think the best thing, really, since this is a "custom" app would be to ask your GF what she would like to see in this app that would help her do what she wants/needs to do

one other concern i have is the fact that your GUI overlay occupies way too much of the screen @ roughly 450-500 pixels wide (overall) and the full height of the screen. it's negating any benefit i'm supposed to have on the 1680x1050 desktop i use.

overall, good start and i'm impressed with the filters so far and look forward seeing this evolve

oh, quick question: are you using "faked" grayscale color averages (ie (R+G+B)/3 ) or (the standard) 30% red, 59% green, 11% blue weights on your "Black and White" filter? (i'd change this to "Grayscale" vs "B/W", btw) this method will produce much more "vivid" grayscale images and it's something i see a lotta homebrewers overlook. i didn't check your conversion myself since it's easier to ask here but converting the photo you've included, it comes out pretty "washed out" which made me think about this

and, afterthought: i want to mention that i think the long "load times" might be a vista issue. are you using vista and do you experience the long load and preview times we are?

finally, here's a screenshot of results for the rest of us:


thanks for sharing!

Not discouraging at all, this is the type of feedback I am looking for. As for long load time, I have not had this problem. It does take a bit longer for a larger image but I don't think it is as long as what you seem to be experiencing. I am still looking for ways to shorten wait time for certain tools. I will add the load time to list of fixes. Thanks

looks like we posted at the same time look up ^

I am using the grayscale for B/W. I did not know there was an actual B/W conversion. Thanks for the info.


I am using Vista. 30 seconds seems about right for that picture as it is around 3500x2500. I did not think that was too terribly long, but I will try to fix it.

Project folders will be added when I get collages working in the program. As for now I tried leaving saving and loading simple to focus on troubleshooting the tools.

Thanks for the input

I have changed the UI to adjust to screen resolution(before it only ran as 1024x768).I have adjusted the buttons to open the canvas wider.



I have also added more buttons. Most are not functional, but they give me an idea of how it will look. I have set global variables a the beginning of the program to make it easier to change things if I decide change the UI again.

I made other minor changes that the user does not see. I still have not made the image load quicker. I am looking at different ways to put the image info into an array to get a quicker load time. Also working on multiple layers of pictures to edit in one project.

Anyway here is the new editor and UI. I would like to hear what you think about it.

definitely an improvement on the gui.

are you using (image) memblocks? i wasn't satistfied that single-pass filters took 30+ seconds to complete in your app so i decided to (finally) take a look at memblocks and was able to convert your image (3648 x 2736) to grayscale (or sepia, now looking at other toning) in ~5.5 seconds using them.

lately i've been doing some research on image rotation and (smart) image resizing (specifically seam carving), too, so i'm interested in hearing how you'll be approaching these types of functions.

thanks for the update!

It does not take that long on my pc. The longest time for me is the sketch and neon, at about 8 seconds. The others take less than a second. (times are for 3648 x 2736 image)



I think I will be working on the speed issues before adding more tools. I would like to find the best way to change and store image info(or at least a better way). I will take another look at memblocks. I did not see any advantage to using them over arrays, but I must admit I don't completely understand them so I may be missing something.

Next time I post an update I hope to have faster load times, faster draw times, scaling, cropping, text, and drawing.

@ Virtual Nomad, thank you for your time. I appreciate the constructive criticism. My girlfriend is very impressed at what I have done, so she does not tell me what she thinks is wrong with it or anything that should be changed. I am making this for her so I should be satisfied that she likes it, but I would like for it to be as good as I can make it.