December Help

Written by Lyndon Hill, (c) 2011.
See http://www.lyndonhill.com.


December is a browser for Digital Camera Image (DCIM) filesystems.

December will only show views of JPEG EXIF images, JPEG JFIF images, AVI DIB and AVI MJPEG videos.

December is the Zaurus version, December4 is the desktop version.

December depends on libexif, Zaurus users please make sure to install it too.

The Main Screen

The main screen consists of a tool bar and a viewing area that shows the current view. The view shows either the Directory List View for navigation or the Detail View. You may also navigate by thumbnails in a full screen Grid View mode or open a Full Screen View.

On most views, December can be controlled using the stylus or cursor keys, 'OK' and 'Cancel' keys.

The Toolbar

Open available memory cards. If a memory card is mounted, December will jump to its location.
Bookmark this directory (click) or open the Bookmarks menu (hold).
The Directory List View is a simple file browser for navigating the file system.
The Detail View shows detailed EXIF information on the currently selected image.
Click and hold this icon to access a menu to filter what the Directory List View shows.
Refresh the Directory List View.
The Grid View shows a camera-like grid of thumbnails.
The Full Screen View displays an image scaled to fit the screen.
Start Slideshow mode.
Use an external viewer program to open an image or video file.
Delete files.
Settings.
Copyright notice and version information.

Directory List View


Only files with the extension "jpg", "jpeg" or "avi" can be selected for Detail View and then only if they are JPEG EXIF, JPEG JFIF, AVI DIB or AVI MJPEG. The above icons will be shown if the filename matches but this does not indicate that the file is viewable.

After an image or video has been shown in the Detail View or Grid View, the icon in the Directory List View will be based on the thumbnail. The icon will be reused while the image is in the thumbnail cache, this means that if you navigate to another directory and return the icon may be set.

Detail View

Any available EXIF information will be presented in a table of properties. Certain properties have a colour coded background, e.g. video, GPS, photography specific EXIF and basic TIFF. Basic properties from JFIF are displayed.

The image number will be extracted from the filename and shown underneath the thumbnail. The pixel count in megapixels (1024*1024 pixels) will also be shown. Certain standard video resolutions will be shown by name for AVI files, e.g. "VGA" instead of 640*480 = 0.3 MPix.

An icon and thumbnail will be generated from the first image in an AVI video.

Note that some files have EXIF metadata but no embedded thumbnail; on Zaurus a blank rectangle will be shown instead of a thumbnail until the image has been opened in full screen view.


Navigate between images in this directory using forward and back buttons, arrow keys or the jog wheel.

Grid View

When opening Grid View it is populated with thumbnails from the current directory. With cursor keys it is possible to quickly select any image. The jog wheel can also be used.

Trying to selecting above or left of the first thumbnail will navigate to the previous page and trying to select to the right or below the last thumbnail will navigate to the next page. You can use 'b' to navigate back to the previous page and 'n' to navigate to the next page.

Press 'OK' to open the current image in the detail view and 'q' or 'Cancel' to quit.

Note that the grid view will not open if there are no thumbnails in the currently selected directory.

For December on a desktop computer, 'f' will make the grid view full screen.

Full Screen View

This view can be selected when an image or video is in the Detail View. It can be activated by tapping on the thumbnail or the toolbar icon.

The Full Screen View will scale the image if it is larger than the screen. Tapping on the screen will exit or press 'q'.

The first frame from an AVI video will be scaled down to fit the screen.

Slideshow

In this mode a simple slideshow is performed. December will open each image in turn and display it in the Full Screen View; controls in that viewing mode will apply. The image is shown the duration specified in the Settings before loading the next image.

If an image has been selected by clicking on it in the Directory List View then the slideshow will start from that image. After showing the last image the slideshow will be ended.

External Viewers

External viewers for images and videos can be specified in the settings. JFIF and EXIF images and AVI video that have been recognised by December can be opened with another application.

Delete Files

December will delete files: From the Directory List View the selected file or all files with the same extension can be deleted. From the Detail View only the selected file can be deleted. Directories can not be deleted.

Settings

On the Zaurus qcop settings for external viewer programs can be specified; on the desktop external programs can be specified for opening the images and video.

Icons for video files in Grid View are labelled, this can be disabled. The EXIF information and thumbnails are cached, the minimum cache size is 16 but the maximum may be any number provided the memory is available.

Bookmarks

December can store bookmarks to directories on disk. Click the Bookmark icon to add a bookmark. Click and hold the Bookmark icon to open the bookmarks menu. From here you can select a bookmark or you can open a dialog to manage bookmarks: edit, order or delete.

Acknowledgements

December written by Lyndon Hill.

Snowflake icon by Lyndon Hill. Icons from the 1. Tango Desktop Project and 2. Crystal Project by Everaldo Coelho.