Celestia Forums

I'm looking for a good program to convert images.

It must be:
- Free
- licensed under GPL or another license that states that the pictures I'm doing stuff with are mine, and that I can do anything that I want with it
- being able to set a directory for input

This stuff (batch conversion) isn't in the Gimp.

duds26 wrote:I'm looking for a good program to convert images.

It must be:
- Free
- licensed under GPL or another license that states that the pictures I'm doing stuff with are mine, and that I can do anything that I want with it
- being able to set a directory for input

This stuff (batch conversion) isn't in the Gimp.

GIMP has of course batch support. But if you want to use another program, how about Nconvert from the XnView distribution. It's cross-platform and a very fast and versatile command-line utility.

Bye Fridger

Not to forget ImageMagick, which in addition to pure CLI tools also provide bindings for a variety of languages.

FWIW, I use ImageMagick and NetPBM

duds26 wrote:- licensed under GPL or another license that states that the pictures I'm doing stuff with are mine, and that I can do anything that I want with it

A program's license has no effect on the license of its output.

The license of the output is more generaly dependant on the license of the input.

Christophe wrote:Not to forget ImageMagick, which in addition to pure CLI tools also provide bindings for a variety of languages.

ImageMagic is often buggy and VERY slow for LARGE images. It is simply UNSUITED for bigger tasks. If you want to read the respective confirmation by the IM author, please let me know

Bye Fridger

Use XnView myself and it provides everything I need but it's only for private purposes.
(So I can't convert images with it and put them on the web like the BMNG)

In the GPL is explicitelly stated that all artwork made with a program is yours. In the licences of the programs like XnView not.

There has been some fuss around the photoshop license that had something in it that could be understood as all your pictures are propertie of Adobe! (It's already fixed in the actual version of Photoshop with patch.)

Gimp has only support for 8-bit (doesn't edit higher color depths), until the new GEGL-core is fully integrated,
but that is going to take a while.


So how do I batch support stuff with gimp from lets say png to tiff or png to jpg ?

duds26 wrote:So how do I batch support stuff with gimp from lets say png to tiff or png to jpg ?

How about reading the tutorial??
With Nconvert you can easily convert whole directories full of images to the desired new format, WITHOUT reading a tutorial


Bye Fridger

Because I can't find it back, that tutorial about batch converting images in Gimp.

duds26 wrote:Because I can't find it back, that tutorial about batch converting images in Gimp.

duds26 wrote:Use XnView myself and it provides everything I need but it's only for non-commercial purposes.

Are you a "commercial" guy? Then I have nothing to add...
You must ask your commercial colleagues.

Bye Fridger

No, I'm not a commercial guy.
It says for private use only. Celestia is not-private and educational so I can't use it for converting the BlueMarbleNextGeneration and upload it to the web you see.
That's why I can't use it.


Nvonvert is a part of XnView.

Found about how to convert images in celestia forums, it isn't explained how to batch support things with gimp.

Gimp: Plugins needed, Gimp only supports it from command line.

Christophe wrote:

duds26 wrote:- licensed under GPL or another license that states that the pictures I'm doing stuff with are mine, and that I can do anything that I want with it

A program's license has no effect on the license of its output.

The license of the output is more generaly dependant on the license of the input.

It is pretty common to claim rights on the output.

duds26 wrote:No, I'm not a commercial guy, just someone who doesn't like restrictions.

Virtually EVERY sensible license includes some restrictions. Notably the GPL2 license. Hence you should better NOT use Celestia!

Bye Fridger

duds26 wrote:It is pretty common to claim rights on the output.

For image manipulation programs I'd say that's pretty rare. Who would use such a program?

if i am converting everything in a folder then i will use imageMagick ( if it is not buggy and the images are smaller than 2048x2048 px. ) or i use netpbm
but in the past i have had no problems with this in cmd or in bash
mogrify -format png *.jpg
to convert all the .jpg images in a folder to png
but i have only needed to convert a whole folder (100+ images) 2 or 3 times
for a single image i will use Gimp or vip's magick++ usage to import the image into nip2

Imagemagick does not comes with visual interface and ready to run.
Need a ready-to-run on windows solution.

duds26 wrote:Imagemagick does not comes with visual interface and ready to run.
Need a ready-to-run on windows solution.

What is a "ready to run" program in your view??

IM has an installation script and uses a set of command line tools for batch operation. GUI programs are NOT suited for batch, in general. You were asking for batch conversion didn't you? Then you should not expect a visual interface.

Yet, IM also has a visual interface, called "display".
It can render all the MANY graphics formats that IM can read.

So what's your problem with IM? (Apart from the fact that you must be lucky to pick a version that is not buggy and that IM does not work well for large textures (>8k, say).

Bye Fridger

as for the gui for ImageMagick under windows it works if MinGW and xfree86 (mingw-build) are installed from the bash shell
but the win installer is good and gives you the test to see if it works when the install is done
convert logo.miff logo.gif

then IM is " ready to use "
start / run / cmd.exe
then
cd c:\\( your folder) or c:\\Documents and Settings/Default User/My Documents

mogrify -format png *.jpg
to convert all the images in the folder

Used XnView to convert it.
Schrunk 1.Gb down to 300MB
Celestia runs much faster with that 300 than with the 1.5Gb.

Don't like CMD, always having to learn tons of commands.
With a GUI, it's intuitive.

Ready-to-run is:
- compiled with documentation
- in one handy .exe package
- and something I forgot
- and not to much cmd

in testing i have found that the FPS is better with uncompressed images than with compressed ones . That is why i all the .png's i use are uncompressed ,though the ones on the ML are at 4 ( my sys default) all the vt i use are set at 0