Feature Request: Display File Names When Viewing Multiple Images

[strawrocket]

Feature Request: Display File Names When Viewing Multiple Images

Background
Viewing multiple images simultaneously without file names can make it difficult to identify specific images, especially when they are similar in content. Adding the ability to display file names will enhance the user's browsing and organization experience, especially when viewing multiple files at the same time.

Proposed Feature
Implement a feature that shows the file names underneath or above each image when viewing multiple images together in a gallery or grid view.

Use Cases

1. Users can quickly identify and select specific images for editing or sharing without needing to open each one individually.
2. Helps in organizing images with similar content or appearance.
3. Useful for comparing images with minor differences in content or metadata.

Example

• As seen here, Mirage shows the image name at the bottom, sdl_img only shows metadata, not the name.

Alternative Solutions

• Users currently need to click on each image to view its name, which is less efficient in a batch viewing context.

Additional Context
This feature could be implemented as a toggle option, allowing users to hide or show file names based on their preferences.

[rswinkle]

I'm not sure I follow. You talk about displaying file names when viewing multiple images and then you show a screenshot of sdl_img when viewing only 1 image. And in that mode, it does show the file name, in the title bar:

It would be redundant and wasteful to put the file name in the footer as well. I'm not sure why you cropped the title bar off the top of your screenshot.

As for viewing multiple images, there are two ways of doing that with sdl_img. The multi-modes where you can view 2, 4, or 8 images at once, or thumb mode, where you can view dozens at once (how much depends on your settings).

In the former case, the tile bar defaults to the top left image unless you focus on one (by hitting a number 1-n) in which case it will show the title and info for that one till you hit another number (0 to unfocus).

In thumb mode the title shows the file name of the current selection (which you can move around with the mouse, the arrow keys, or the vim keyboard shortcuts).

Of all that, the only thing I can think of that would maybe make sense is to allow using the mouse to focus in multi-mode as well, similar to thumb mode. I guess middle click could be unfocus. I'd have to think about that and how it interacts with other things involving the mouse.

PS Are you using a different version of Mirage than the one here? Because the screenshot there does not show the file name in the footer, just the stats same as sdl_img.

EDITS: typos, PS

[strawrocket]

I now understand that my window manager, Hyprland, doesn't display window title bars, which explains my initial oversight and why Mirage looks different, similar to other tiling window managers like i3.

In multi-image mode, it's difficult to distinguish between similar images without access to their names, which complicates the comparison process.

[rswinkle]

Ah, that makes more sense. The title bar is the only place I show the file name when actually viewing them so without it you're kind of stuck. I assume there's no way to tell Hyperland to include title bars?

[strawrocket]

While there are workarounds I could use, would it be feasible to add a tooltip showing file names on mouse hover? This application is excellent for viewing multiple files, and such a feature would make it perfect.

[rswinkle]

While there are workarounds I could use, would it be feasible to add a tooltip showing file names on mouse hover? This application is excellent for viewing multiple files, and such a feature would make it perfect.

First off, thanks I love hearing that people find it useful. I hope to monetize it (or a successor to it with more polish and a proper name; sdl_img is pretty ridiculous) eventually so that's good to hear. Feel free to send me a small 1 time donation if you can spare it.

To your question, tooltips on hover would be an issue with how it currently works and aren't a good idea in general since that's kind of distracting from the main purpose of viewing the actual image. Think about using the mouse for zooming and panning with a tooltip hovering over your image the whole time.

I think the easiest option is to add it somehow to the footer and hope that it doesn't get too crowded, especially with gifs since they have all the extra stuff on the right.

The alternative would be to ditch the title bar entirely and do the title bar in Nuklear so it will always be there. I could see that as a possible long term solution, but I've never done that before so I'd have to do a lot of testing and think about how it affects everything. Just off the top of my head it would mess up file names with non-latin characters, same as already happens in list mode with the default font I'm using (you just get '?' for unknown characters). Setting the title bar string goes through SDL and it uses the system font so everything displays nicely. Depending on how it works out I could possibly make this a configuration thing, either compile time or live. Again it just depends on what the code ends up looking like and how ugly/complicated it is to do it and to switch between them.

For now I will add the name (or the last part of it if it's too long) to the footer before the next release which will hopefully be in the next couple weeks. Are you compiling it yourself or just using the binaries?

[rswinkle]

Got something very rough pushed, learned more about Unicode blocks and fixed the issue I described in my last comment by adding a few lines of code and choosing a font with more glyph coverage than the default.

I'll keep this open and comment when/if I get the internal title bar working.

[rswinkle]

BTW, if you are using the pre-made binaries, are you using the deb or the AppImage? And have you had any problems with either?

[strawrocket]

I'm building from source on Arch Linux since other methods are unsuitable. The 'make install' works flawlessly. I understand now that tooltips in multi-file view mode would be problematic. I'm looking forward to the new release. Regarding the font issue, accented characters worked with the last release files. Are there specific characters you're having trouble with?

[rswinkle]

I'm building from source on Arch Linux

Nice, so is the change I pushed last night good enough for now? I didn't add it to thumb mode and I'm not sure about the look and how it disappears as you narrow the window. It would be cool to let the user decide what to show in the info bar and in what order but again, I always get ahead of myself. Too many ideas.

since other methods are unsuitable.

Does the AppImage not work or you just don't use them? If the former I'll have to add an Arch VM to test on in the future.

The 'make install' works flawlessly.

That's a relief as it's gone through many changes over time especially in the last few months.

Are there specific characters you're having trouble with?

Characters like these are not supported are not supported in Nuklear's default ProggyClean font. There's also supplemental punctuation and others include the extended Latin blocks as well as Cyrillic characters which I see occasionally.

I think the general punctuation is most important (the directional quote and double quotes are fairly common) but I run into a decent number of files that use other random characters. In the long term I need to decide on an official font with the coverage I want to always guarantee, and in the very long term I need to decide if/how I want to officially support other languages for GUI text, and especially non-latin and non-right-to-left languages. I'm guessing I'll probably decide the latter two not worth the effort, but even to test it out I'd need to go much deeper which blocks are needed for which language families and which fonts support what and how to manage all that extra complexity.

[strawrocket]

I'm not very familiar with Arch's complex package management, which is why I prefer building from source. The latest change is excellent and will simplify my work. I haven't encountered font issues with file names, as most files don't contain special characters.

P.S. I love the included file manager; it maintains GUI cohesiveness, unlike the GNOME file manager that appears with most applications.

[rswinkle]

I'm not very familiar with Arch's complex package management, which is why I prefer building from source. The latest change is excellent and will simplify my work. I haven't encountered font issues with file names, as most files don't contain special characters.

I'm glad since you'll have to build from source to keep the filename in the info bar in the latest release. It just doesn't make sense for 99.9% of people who have window titles, including myself, and I really didn't want yet another run time configuration (I may change my mind on that later, and it'll become moot if I get rid of decorations myself and go full on Nuklear as the window).

P.S. I love the included file manager; it maintains GUI cohesiveness, unlike the GNOME file manager that appears with most applications.

Thank you, I put a ton of effort into it, getting it to look and operate the way people expect while integrating extra capabilities/features, supporting windows and Linux with all their differences in and also support "Recent Files" on both. It spawned it's own library/project and a separate library for windows lnk files (used for recents).

Let me know if you have any issues building/running the new release.