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New: IMatch 2021.16.4

We’re happy to announce the release of IMatch 2021.16.4 and a compatibility update for our IMatch Anywhere product line. See the detailed release notes for an overview of all new features, changes and bug fixes.

This version is a re-update of the version released last week. An issue was reported that could cause IMatch to display the wrong number of files for categories with the option direct assignments only enabled.

This version introduces the mod operator for the match Variable formatting function.
This operator can be very useful, for example when you work with the duration function or other calculations.

For all other changes and new features, please see the detailed release notes.

New: IMatch 2021.16.4 Read More »

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New: IMatch 2021.16.2

We’re happy to announce the release of IMatch 2021.16.2 and a compatibility update for our IMatch Anywhere product line.
See the detailed release notes for an overview of all new features, changes and bug fixes.

Highlights in this New Release

There are the most important enhancements and new features in the new edition of the digital asset management system IMatch from photools.com.

Favorite Enhancements

  1. Alt + left-click now triggers the “Goto” command, where available (folders, categories, collections, events, people).
  2. Event Favorites now have a primary action (add to Event) and secondary action (remove from Event). This only works if the Favorite was created for a file-based event.
  3. People Favorites now have a primary action (link to Person) and secondary action (un-link from Person).

Content-aware (Smart) Cropping for Design & Print

When you set the Batch Processor or Design & Print to fit an image into a specific size or container (e.g., fitting an image into a square container), cropping the image vertically or horizontally is usually required.

Both features offer multiple ways to align the image and to control where to crop, e.g. top/left or bottom/right.
This version of IMatch introduces a new Smart mode which tries to prevent relevant portions of the image from being cropped.

Consider the following example: Left side: Fill and Center. Right side: the new Fill Smart mode:

The image is automatically horizontally shifted to prevent the faces from being cropped.
This new option will be useful for situations where you process images with different arrangements and sizes in an automatic fashion.

Collection Performance

Performance improvements for collections when adding / removing files to/from collections, e.g. setting, removing or toggling a rating.
Under some conditions (and for larger databases), changing a collection by adding/removing files could take several hundred milliseconds (up to half a second), which could impact user’s workflows.

Map Panel – Support for Drag and Drop

You can now assign GPS coordinates to files by simply dragging the files from a File Window into the Map Panel.

LibRaw Update to support Olympus OM1 Raw Variant

Yes. Olympus introduced yet another proprietary RAW variant with their OM1 model.
And they don’t provide a WIC codec for their cameras, which means that WIC will support this camera only when Microsoft updates their WIC codecs…

LibRaw thankfully supports this new format in their latest version (not in their official snapshot release). We’ve decided to integrate this version into IMatch for timely support for the OM1 variant.

ExifTool and the new IPTC Mapping Guidelines

Updated ExifTool to version 12.41, released on April 7. 2022. Read the ExifTool release notes here.

IMatch and ExifTool now implement the IPTC Photometadata Mapping Guidelines version 2202.1.
See https://iptc.org/std/photometadata/documentation/mappingguidelines/ for more information.

New duration Variable formatting function

The new duration function calculates the difference between two timestamps in units and outputs the result. For example:

{File.DateTime|format:YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss;duration:now,years,one year,$ years,less than a year}

This variable calculates the difference between the File.DateTime and the current date and time, and outputs:
one year, if the difference is more than 0 but less than 2 years,
n years, if the difference is equal or greater than 2 years, where n is the number of years, and
less than a year, when the difference is less than a year.

This variable can be used for a multitude of purposes, e.g. showing a “How long ago did I create this image?” in File Windows, Design & Print or other features.

New Workflow Categories

We have added two new categories to the IMatch Workflow Categories:
No Author (with the formula "@MetadataTag[creator,novalue]") and
No Headline (with the formula "@MetadataTag[headline,novalue]").

See the detailed release notes for an overview of all new features, changes and bug fixes.

New: IMatch 2021.16.2 Read More »

A screen shot of the comprehensive IMatch Help System.

The IMatch Help System

The comprehensive IMatch Help System is available online. It is constantly enhanced and updated.

You can reach it from inside IMatch by pressing the F1 key or clicking the Help button available in IMatch dialog boxes.
This is context-sensitive, IMatch opens the best matching topic from the Help System for the current situation.

You can bookmark the Help System entry page or create a couple of bookmarks in your web browser for topics you want to access quickly.

If English is not your native language, your web browser can automatically translate the content of the Help System into your language. See the documentation of your browser for more information.

The built-in printing or Print to PDF function in your browser allows you to download or print selected pages for quick reference.

A screen shot of the comprehensive IMatch Help System.

The IMatch Help System Read More »

The 'Did You Know`?' App Screen Shot

The ‘Did You Know? App

The Did you Know? app included with IMatch contains a large number of helpful topics, highlighting certain features or options.
The app to be used while you work with IMatch, reminding you of rarely used features or giving you tips for how to work more efficiently.

You can open it from the Help menu or from the App Manager.

New topics are added frequently, often based on questions asked in the IMatch user community.

The 'Did You Know`?' App Screen Shot

The ‘Did You Know? App Read More »

Running the photools.com System Information Utility.

The photools.com System Information Utility

What is This?

IMatch 2020 and IMatch Anywhere™ 2019.11.2 and later include advanced AI-based technology.
To support this, our products require that the processors in your computer support a technology called AVX (Advanced Vector Instructions). This technology is standard in virtually all processors manufactured since 2011. Only very low-end computers or special computers like stick PC’s, Set-top boxes and similar may use processors without this required feature. You cannot run our software on these computers. It will just crash.

Note: For IMatch Anywhere we will provide special versions of our products for a limited time as a courtesy. See the customer portal for more information.

Is Your Computer Compatible?

You can test your computer with this free utility to see if the processor supports AVX.

Download the Utility

Please download the latest version of the photools.com System Information Utility.

Download the file to a known folder on your system, for example into the Windows Download folder.
Open this folder in Windows Explorer afterwards.

Extract and Run

The downloaded file is namedptc-sysinfo.zip and you must extract its contents before you can run it.
Right-click on the file in Windows Explorer and choose Extract from the context menu. This gives you a file named ptc-sysinfo.exe in the same folder.

Hold down the Shift key and right-click onptc-sysinfo.exe. From the menu, choose the Copy as path command. This copies the fully-qualified file name of the file into the Windows clipboard.

Image showing the download folder.

Open a Command Prompt

From the Windows START menu, open a command prompt window. Press Windows Key + S and search for cmd. Then select the Command Prompt App from the result list.

Opening a command prompt

Run the Utility

Right-click into the window that now opens. This pastes the name of the ptc-sysinfo.exe application into the console window. Press Enter on your keyboard.

Running the photools.com System Information Utility.

The Results

The important information is the support for AVX, which is required to run IMatch 2020.

AVX is a technology that has been introduced in 2011 for both Intel and AMD processors. See this Wikipedia Article for more information.

If your computer has a processor produced before 2011 or it uses one of the rare processors without AVX, you cannot run IMatch 2020 or IMatch Anywhere 1019.11.2 or later on that computer.

The photools.com System Information Utility Read More »

Quick Tip: Opening Selected Files in a Result Window

An often overlooked but useful feature in the File Window is to open the selected files in a new result window.

This feature allows you to work on a subset of the images in the current scope, which may provide a better overview in some situations.

Or you use the File Window Search Bar or the Filter Panel to find files in the current scope. Then select these files and open them in a result window, for further searching or filtering. This creates an easy drill-down workflow.

To open all selected files in a new result window, press Ctrl + G , R

Quick Tip: Opening Selected Files in a Result Window Read More »

The App Panel at different scales

App Panel Scaling

IMatch apps are designed to be responsive and adapt to the current screen resolution. But sometimes this may not be enough, for example, when you want to use very small App Panels to maximize the screen estate available for other panels or the file window. Or when you use IMatch on a small tablet or notebook while on-location.

Scaling

Under Edit > Preferences > Application: User Interface you can control the global scale for information rendered in App Panels. You can reduce or increase the scale in 16 steps between -8 (smaller) and +8 (larger).

App Panel Scaling Control

Using the Apply button allows you to see the change in all open App Panels immediately. The App Panel on the left uses a scale factor of 0 (default). As you can see, the buttons in the panel need to wrap because the panel width is too small to display them in one row. By reducing the scale factor to -3, the data and control elements fit neatly in the available panel.

The App Panel at different scales

Summary

The global scaling for App Panels enables you to size the contents precisely to your requirements and liking.

See also the related article Configuring IMatch for High-DPI Screens and Easier Reading.

App Panel Scaling Read More »