The Retriever database and thumbnail functions support any kind of file, not only image files.
Retriever reads and writes JPG (jpg, jpe, jpeg, jif), Windows BMP (bmp, dib), PNG, GIF, TIF and WMF files. You can convert from any of these formats to any other. It is no graphics editor, but has the kind of features you need to maintain and view a collection of images:
File management: copy, move, rename and delete image files while you view them. It takes advantage of the Windows shell for file management, so that you get the standard animations, can use the waste paper basket and your preselected security level (ask back when deleting / overwriting files)
You can open selected files or all files
in a directory or from several folders as thumbnails (small preview images)
in a contact sheet. The size of the thumbnails can be 4x4 up to 512x512
pixels. A larger preview of a thumbnail pops up if you move the mouse over
it. You can save and load these contact sheets. You can use any file management
function on a set of thumbnails at once. Thumbnails are resampled to give
you the best thumbnail possible. Creation of thumbnails is lightning fast
(well, at least if the original images are jpgs :o)
You can also save all the individual thumbnails
as images, even using the edge effects available for contact sheets.
You can print contact sheets and save them as an image (eg. jpg). You can also save them as a website (html pages) just as easily. They can be automatically split into multiple pages, so that each page contains a selected number of images. Contact sheets can have a colored background, a background with a multidirectional gradient, a background image, even all of these at once. Thumbnails can be printed with various effects like borders, shadows etc. You can use multiline title and footer text that can contain dynamic fields like a page number.
Retriever's Dupe Detective can find duplicate images in a directory, or images similar to a given image or set of images. It doesn't matter if the dupes are a different size, have a frame or are a entirely different scan of the same photo, Dupe Detective will find them. You can change his "pickiness" to also find images that belong to a series.
You can create a hierarchical structure of free-text categories or properties for your pictures, that allows you to categorize new images or find images with specific attributes with just a mouseclick. You can maintain an unlimited number of databases.
Color processing - You can change things like brightness, contrast, color contrast and gamma correction in realtime (image changes while you move the sliders)
Resample - You can resize an image using high quality resampling. There is less "blockiness" when you enlarge a picture, and no "snow" if you size it down. Retriever does both things at once.
Image enhancement - With one mouseclick you can do things like despeckle, sharpen, histogram stretching - all at once. Retriever chooses the best things to do for the given image without ruining it.
Color reduction - Reduce the number of colors used by an image, using palette optimization and dithering. Retriever has the best color quantization around and most important: it lets you tweak the process. You can have a full colored image using 5 colors or less (whatever that's good for).
Image cropping - In addition to selecting part of an image with the mouse to get a new image, Retriever can cut images that contain multiple pictures, or pictures spoiled by a fancy frame automagically.
You can switch to full screen mode while you view images - no borders, toolbars or menus. Unlike other viewer's full screen modes you keep having full control of the program, so with Retriever you can actually work in full screen mode.
This allows you to view images from the file explorer or an icon by just doubleclicking them (what? you did somehow expect this?:o) You can also drag & drop pictures on Retriever to view them or drop them on a contact sheet to add them. Even works for multiple files at once. You also get a "print" menu item in file explorer for all the images that Retriever can read, and you can drag & drop images on a printer to print them.
Retriever's user interface makes it easy
to browse through full screen images using the keyboard. But you can also
get an automatic slide show with transition effects and password protection.
These features are where they belong: in a screen saver.The Retriever
Screen Saver is free for download by registered users of Retriever.