current release: 25.0
Click the image above to see a full-size image.
Short Overview
Fotocx is a free Linux program for editing photos or other images
and managing a large collection. Navigate the collection using a
thumbnail browser, click on an image to view or edit. Import RAW
files and edit with deep color. Fotocx has powerful tools to correct
and enhance photos. Images can be altered with special effects, or
arranged in a montage with text and creative artwork. Select an
object or area within an image (freehand draw, follow edges, flood
into matching tones...), apply edit functions, copy and paste,
resize, blend, warp, etc. Edit functions have fast feedback using
the full image or a selected zoom-in area. View and edit metadata
(dates, tags, titles, descriptions, ratings, location, camera data -
any metadata). Quickly find desired images within a huge collection,
based on folder and file names or embedded metadata. Click a marker
on a scalable world map to view all photos from that location. Batch
functions are available to rename, add/revise metadata, copy/move,
resize, convert format.
A more detailed description and list of capabilities can be found at
the end of this document:
Fotocx Long Overview
Fotocx Demo (YouTube video)
A basic overview of Fotocx.
Fotocx Sample Images
(YouTube video)
A collection of before/after images edited with Fotocx.
Downloads
The latest release can be obtained here: downloads.
Packages for many Linux flavors can be found in the following
pages:
https://repology.org/project/fotocx/packages
https://pkgs.org/download/fotocx
https://sourceforge.net/projects/arch-mod/files/aur-pkgs/
https://xtradeb.net/apps/fotoxx/
https://launchpad.net/~xtradeb/+archive/ubuntu/apps
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fotocx
Hardware
Fotocx works best on a strong computer (4+ CPU cores, 8+ GB memory).
64-bit Linux is required. Lesser computers may be slow or may fail
to edit large images. The monitor should be at least HD (1920x1080)
and have accurate color.
Performance and Limitations
Most image edit functions respond within 1 second for images up to
20 megapixels on a strong computer. 200 megapixel images can be
edited on a computer with 16 GB RAM. Composite functions (panorama,
HDR ...) may need a minute or more when combining many large images.
Image search time is generally below 1 second for collections up to
300K images.
Usage Examples
Click on the small images to see a full-size image.
Navigation
View a large collection of image files using a thumbnail
gallery. Click on a thumbnail to view or edit a full-size image.
Move around within gallery pages and navigate to other pages. A
gallery may be a folder of image files, the output of an image
search, or an album (ordered set of images). The thumbnails can be
large or small and can be zoomed out to any scale with the mouse
wheel. Images can have geotags (via camera GPS or manually added). A
scalable world map shows image location markers. Click on a marker
to get a gallery of images.
RAW file import
The first image is the JPEG produced by the camera. The 2nd image is
the RAW file from the camera, converted to TIFF-16. The 3rd image is
the edited TIFF file saved as a JPEG file. The dark areas were
lightened and color was slightly increased. RAW files can be
directly opened and edited, or you can use a batch function to
select and convert many RAW files at once. The speed is 2-4 seconds
per file on a strong PC. The converted files can be JPEG, TIFF (8 or
16 bits per RGB color), or PNG (8 or 16 bits). All internal editing
is done with 24 bits per color.
Search Images
Add tags (keywords), geotags, titles, captions, dates, and
ratings to images. Search images using these criteria as well as
image file and folder names. Partial matching also works. Matching
images are shown in a thumbnail gallery. Click a thumbnail to view
or edit, or step through sequentially. Search speed is nearly
instantaneous. Tags, etc. are stored inside the images using EXIF
and IPTC standards. They can be shared with other
standards-compliant photo programs.
Search Metadata
Find images with any desired metadata, show thumbnail images
with metadata text. Click a thumbnail to view full-size. There are
also functions to view the key metadata for an image, view all
available metadata, or edit any metadata. The search speed is almost
instantaneous for 'main' (indexed) metadata. The speed is slower (up
to 2000 images / second) for metadata that is not indexed and must
be read from the image files. You can optionally add metadata items
to the index for fast searching.
Geotags
Cameras with GPS receivers can add geotags (location name and earth
coordinates) to images automatically. Fotocx also has a function to
find the earth coordinates for a given location (city, park,
monument ...) and add geotags to a bunch of images at once. If many
photos made in one location are located together in your collection,
you can quickly process all of them. If this work has been done, you
can use the following geotag functions to find and display images
from a given location as a gallery of clickable thumbnails.
Search Images Using Geotags
List image locations: group by country, country/location, or
country/location/date. Click on a list entry to see all the images
in that group as a gallery of thumbnails. The example here shows 28
photos made in Jan. 2012 at Achensee, Austria. If listing by dates,
you can consolidate dates that are separated by less than a given
number of days.
Search Images by Clicking on a Map
Click on a map location to instantly see all the photos made in or
around that location. Location names pop up as you move the mouse
over the map. In this case, "Leipzig" was clicked to retrieve 25
photos of Leipzig.
Search Images Using a Calendar
The calendar report shows image counts by year and month. Click on
any month to get an instant gallery of images for that month.
Edit Selected Object or Area
Little Mermaid was back-lighted. The fix was to select her and
flatten (spread out) her brightness distribution. Areas are selected
using the mouse: freehand draw, follow edges, or spread into
matching tones from the mouse position outwards. Edge effects can be
automatically blended out.
Copy and Paste Selected Areas
Drag into position, resize, edit colors, etc.
Select Complex Edges
Hair and other irregular shapes can be accurately selected. Drag
over the area with the mouse, clicking as needed on colors to be
selected or suppressed. This can be tedious if the background
contrast is weak. This example is about a 10 minute project for an
experienced user. Novices will need time to get the feel of this
tool.
Flatten Brightness Distribution
This tool is an easy way to improve detail in areas that lack
contrast. Uses a single sliding control with live feedback.
Sometimes works miracles and sometimes not very effective. Good for
fog/haze removal.
Global and Zonal Retinex
This tool can be used to restore the full color range for a badly
faded photo or one with an extreme color caste. It can also be used
to add flair to any image. The original and modified images can be
blended in any ratio.
View 360°Panorama Image
This tool is used to view a 360°panorama image. Use the mouse to
rotate the viewpoint through the full 360°. The view window is
90°(right image) and can be zoomed-in for a larger/narrower view.
Sharpen Image
Comparison of different sharpening methods on a blurred image.
The 'gradient' method increases sharpness about as well as the
classic 'unsharp mask' method, but with less "halo" effect around
high-contrast edges. 'Kuwahara' produces excellent sharpness but
small details are lost.
Noise Suppression
Reduce noise in photos made under low-light conditions, or
digitized film photos having lots of noise.
Look carefully at the full-size image. This is a photo from France
in WW-I.
Measure image noise
Noise can be measured and noise suppression can be quantitatively
evaluated.
Watermark an Image
Add embedded text with various styles.
Revise Brightness by Editing a Curve
Edit a brightness curve while watching the live output image.
Note that both overexposed and underexposed areas have been
corrected.
Defog
Remove fog and haze with Defog tool.
Vignette
Compensate radial brightness loss (vignetting) caused by some
lenses. You can also highlight some part of the image. Response
curve can be customized, saved and reused. Use the mouse to set the
center for the response curve. Image can be brightened or darkened,
or a color-caste can be added or removed.
Smart Erase
The power lines and poles were erased. Select an object to erase
using the mouse like a paintbrush. Click to erase. Neighboring
pixels replace the erased area. This usually works well for small or
narrow areas, or even larger areas when surrounded with fairly
uniform background, like sky or grass. Selecting long thin objects
like power lines is done by clicking positions along the length.
Remove Spoilers
Use other areas of an image to copy-over unwanted areas.
Remove Dust
Remove the dust spots from images made from dusty scanned slides or
old photo prints.
Remove Chromatic Aberration (color fringes)
Click to enlarge and view carefully. The left image is a cutout of
the top right corner of a much larger image. Chromatic aberration is
apparent as red and green fringes on dark-bright feature edges. The
right image is a cutout of the same area from the corrected image.
The correction is not 100%, but close. The original image is 18
megapixels. The correction is fully automatic and takes a few
seconds.
Amplify Contrast
Increase contrast where it is weak without changing overall
contrast. Watch the image change as you move a curve or slider.
This one was taken to extremes, giving the impression of an
illustration.
Tools for Brightness and Contrast
5 methods to change brightness and contrast
Remove Motion Blur
Compensate camera or subject motion.
The camera was panned during the exposure to create motion blur.
This was mostly removed using the Richardson-Lucy method. Drag the
mouse to indicate the blur angle and input an estimated blur span.
Vary span to optimize result. For subject motion, use Select Area to
isolate the blurred subject from the sharp background.
HDR - High Dynamic Range Image
The lower image is a composite of the upper ones. Brighter areas
were taken mostly from the darker image, and darker areas from the
brighter image. Optionally use editable curves to adjust the
contribution of each image for each brightness level. Contrast
amplification tool was used after the images were combined. The
camera was hand-held. The automatic alignment works well unless the
camera is shifted significantly between shots. The people moved
between the photos, so ghosting can be seen.
HDR made from photos having significant camera movement and
rotation.
Minor changes in image scale are compensated.
HDF - High Depth of Field
Combine multiple photos of the same subject, each having a different
focus distance. The combined image has a depth of field spanning all
the input images. This function is very sensitive to changes in
camera position or aiming point - these cause parallax errors and
changes in image scale that cannot be fixed with simple translation
and rotation. The software compensates for small errors in scale. If
you are careful not to move the camera too much, you can get good
results. All photos here were hand-held.
This HDF required several minutes of manual work to choose which
input image to use for each area in the output image. This is done
by choosing an image and "painting" with the mouse. This can take
time if there are lots of adjacent near and far areas which must be
painted separately using different underlying images.
This one was easy because there are no adjacent near and far areas.
Stack - Noise Suppression
9 photos were made at ISO 1600 in a darkened room with a
hand-held camera. My strong computer needed 31 seconds to align and
combine them into one low-noise image. This is part of a 4 megapixel
image shown at full size.
Stack - Paint
The two images were taken a few seconds apart, during which time
the cyclist (left image) moved out and the red car (right image,
left side) moved in. The images were combined, and the car and
cyclist were removed by choosing one image or the other and
"painting" with the mouse.
Four photos made in quick succession.
Stack - Paint can be used to make transient objects disappear or
make them appear multiple times.
Panorama
Combine up to six images to make wide-angle images. Rough alignment
is done with the mouse and fine alignment is automatic. All photos
here were hand-held.
Indoor scene (house pet was pasted in).
3 images with poor camera handling. The final image was straightened
and retouched for brightness and color.
6 photo panorama (Richard Nolde)
Mashup
Photo montage. Add images and text to a background layout of
arbitrary size. Images and text can be moved around using the mouse,
resized, rotated, and made party or wholly transparent. Transparency
can be painted gradually or fully. Text can have any font, size, and
angle. Background, outline and shadow can be added to text, with
adjustable color and transparency for all of these. The mouse can be
used to draw and paint on the image.
Magnify Image
Move around over an image with a simulated magnifying glass.
Diameter and magnification are adjustable.
Unbend
Sometimes panorama images must be straightened.
Adjust while watching a live output image.
Fix Perspective
Fix images photographed from an angle, e.g. paintings, buildings,
etc.
Select the 4 corners and transform into a rectangle.
Fix Barrel Distortion
RAW files can have lens distortion if the raw converter has no
correction data for the lens. This can be easily fixed using only
eyeball judgement.
Flatten photo of a curved surface
Flatten the page edges and stretch the squeezed text where the page
curves down at the center binding. Mark the page top and bottom
edges at several points using the mouse. The rest is automatic. Use
for any curved image, e.g. a poster on a round column.
Mouse Painting
Use for retouching. Pick a color from the image or from a palette.
Variable brush size and transparency allow gradual change without
edge effects.
Warp Image, 4 variations
Pull the image with the mouse. The image behaves like sheet rubber.
Unwarp Close-up Photo (selfie)
Close-up portraits exhibit a "balloon face" distortion.
There is a special function just for this problem.
Improve Botticelli
Straighten her eyes and smooth her skin.
Make Mosaic Image
Make any image into a mosaic with tiles created from your
images. Click on a tile to get a larger popup image which you can
resize and drag. This requires that you have thousands of images in
your collection, with an adequate range of available colors. Click
on image to view full size.
Make a Table of Images
Images can be mixed sizes. They are rearranged and resized as
needed to make all the columns as even as possible. You can click on
any image to get a larger popup image which can be zoomed to any
size, and disappears with another click.
Add Texture to an Image
Combine texture with gradients and embossing to get interesting
effects.
Add Background Pattern
A background pattern can be added to an image or selected areas. The
pattern is a small image that is repeated to cover a larger area. If
the pattern repeats, dimensions are found automatically to make the
pattern seamless (left example). The pattern can be a photo of a
texture, as in the right sample. Pattern scale and opacity are
adjustable.
Write Text
Write text on images. Select font, colors, transparencies, shadow,
angle. Watermarks are made by writing faint text and embossing.
Lines, arrows, boxes, and circles/ovals can also be added.
Fix a Lousy Photo
The upper photo had multiple retouches to produce the one below. The
functions used were trim/rotate, flatten brightness distribution,
increase contrast, increase color saturation, and amplify contrast.
These were applied in different areas of the image.
The photo was back-lighted and the Fall colors came out faded.
Functions used: select area, brightness, amplify contrast,
saturation.
Examples: Photo Repair/Refine and Art Effects
Improve detail, remove haze, make a simulated painting, embossing,
cartoon.
These take a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on how long you
want to play with the controls to optimize the result.
Your Veteran Coder
Fotocx Long Overview
Image folders can be viewed as a scrolling
gallery of thumbnail images. Navigation through folders and
subfolders is simple and fast. Click on a thumbnail for a full
window view of the image. The image can be zoomed, panned and
scrolled using the mouse. Gallery thumbnails can vary from small
to huge. Popup windows can be used to view or compare multiple
images at any scale. Thumbnail galleries are also used to display
image search results and albums. Albums are selected images
arranged in a desired order. Fotocx has many editing tools that go
beyond the basics. Images with severe problems (underexposed,
false colors, blurred, uneven lighting, fog/haze) can be brought
back to life. Details lost in shadows or haze can be brought out.
Images with distorted perspective (esp. wide-angle photos) can be
corrected.
Fotocx is standards compliant. Nothing done by Fotocx makes your
images less usable with other applications. Fotocx uses your image
files wherever they are: they are not moved or duplicated. Fotocx
does create an index for fast image searching, and thumbnail
images for fast gallery displays. These typically add 2% to
overall storage requirements. There is no database to manage - the
index manages itself.
Fotocx can import RAW images and perform all processing in deep
color (24 bits per color used internally). Edited images can be
saved as JPEG, TIFF (8/16 bits/color), or PNG (8/16 bits). Convert
single RAW files or selected batches (click thumbnails from
gallery pages).
Image edit functions are interactive with rapid visual feedback,
using the full image or a chosen zoom-in area. Undo and Redo can
be applied serially to all the edits of an image. Intermediate and
final results can be saved as new files or as versions of the
input file (e.g. filename.v02.jpg).
Objects or areas within an image can be selected and edited
separately from the background. Areas can be selected using
several methods: drag the mouse to select and flood into matching
tones, follow feature edges, or outline an area freehand. Complex
feature edges, such as hair or foliage, can be accurately
selected. Selected areas can be copied and pasted into the same or
other images, resized, rotated, brightened, etc.
Layers are not used. Each edit stage can be saved separately as a
file 'version'. These can be re-used to make new versions. You can
create a new version using selected parts from different prior
versions.
An image can be "mouse painted" onto the same or other image being
edited - paint from any source location to any destination
location, with simultaneous rescale if wanted.
Batch functions are available to copy, move, rename, resize,
upright, convert format, convert RAW files, and add or revise
metadata.
Several tools are available to change size and shape: crop, resize
(rescale), rotate, fix perspective, curve/warp the whole image or
selected areas within the image. There is a special tool to
'flatten' photos of curved surfaces, e.g. a page from a thick book
or a poster on a round column.
Text can be added to an image. Any font and size can be used, any
color, any angle. The text can have variable transparency, an
outline, a shadow, or an embossed effect - good for a signature or
copyright. Other basic markups are available: lines, arrows, box,
oval/circle.
Advanced editing functions: Dust spots from old slides or photos
can be removed, roadside trash or power lines can be erased.
Panoramas can be made by stitching photos together seamlessly,
automatically matching brightness and color. Photos with a range
of exposure values can be combined into an HDR image with
adjustable contributions. Photos with varying focus depths can be
combined into an image that is sharp over the combined range.
Photos of one scene taken at different moments can be combined to
remove passing autos or tourists. Multiple photos made under low
light conditions can be combined to reduce noise. Photos made with
a hand-held camera can be combined and aligned together with high
accuracy, as long as the camera is not moved too much. Images and
text can be combined into a mashup (montage), using the mouse to
position and resize the components and adjust overlaps and
transparencies.
Fotocx has a batch scripting tool to speed the processing of
multiple images requiring the same edits: record the edits made to
a base image and then apply these edits automatically to any
number of selected images.
Many special effects ('filters') are available to convert a photo
into a line drawing, sketch, painting, embossing, cartoon,
dithered image, mosaic, or abstract distortions (shphere, tiny
planet, others). Background patterns and textures can be added.
Images can be rapidly searched using folder/file names or partial
names, dates, assigned tags, ratings, locations, and any other
metadata stored in the image. Some data is automatic from the
camera (date, location, exposure data), and other data can be
manually entered (tags, descriptions ...). Search criteria can be
used in combination; e.g. find Chicago photos for years 2008-2020
containing tags 'Barbara' or 'Barbie'.
Locations (from a camera GPS sensor or entered manually) can also
be searched. You can view a map of any region in the world, at any
scale, using an internet map service. Images having location data
show as markers on these maps. Click a marker to get a gallery of
the corresponding images. You can jump from a given photo to its
location on a world map, where you can find other photos from the
same or nearby locations.
Albums can be made using selected images from your collection. The
files are not duplicated. Select images by clicking gallery
thumbnails. Arrange the images with drag and drop. Albums can be
made into slide shows. Choose animated transitions between images,
pan and zoom effects, and places to pause for narration.
Fotocx includes a comprehensive user manual that also serves as
interactive help: press F1 while using any function in Fotocx. You
should take the time to read the overview pages. The function
details can be viewed as needed. Fotocx is easy to use but
unconventional, so RTFM to avoid frustration.
Fotocx Capabilities List
• Organize and manage a very large photo/image collection.
• Comprehensive user guide and popup context help via F1
key.
• Thumbnail browser/navigator with variable thumb size and
metadata view.
• Click thumbnail for full-size view, image zoom in/out and
pan/scroll.
• RAW file conversion, single or batch, output with 8 or 16
bits per color.
• Large set of functions to edit, repair, refine, and
transform images.
• Internal processing in 24 bits per color (float), output
in 8 or 16 bits.
• Edited files have a version number, originals are retained
by default.
• Fast edit visual feedback using the full image or selected
zoom-in area.
• Undo/Redo button - compare original/edited versions
(instant replace).
• Conventional edit functions: rotate, upright, crop,
rescale, add margins,
retouch:
brightness/color/contrast/saturation/temperature/white balance,
markup: text (decorative
features)/lines/arrows/boxes/circles/ellipses,
edit colors using RGB or HSL, convert
B&W/color/negative/positive/sepia.
• Repair functions: sharpen, blur selected areas, denoise,
defog, red eyes,
smart erase (remove spoilers), remove halos,
suppress JPEG artifacts,
anti-alias (suppress jaggies), remove dust
spots, fix color fringes.
• Refine functions: edit or flatten brightness histogram
(enhance detail),
increase local contrast (enhance detail), match
colors to master image,
add soft focus, amplify existing contrast,
global and local retinex,
add brightness ramp in any direction,
add/remove vignette (via curve edit).
• Special effect conversions: sketch, outlines, cartoon,
emboss, painting,
tiles, texture, pattern, dither (5 modes),
engrave, mosaic, shift colors,
add noise (hide color bands), set no. of colors
(per RGB), alien colors.
• Warp image: unbend (wide-angle photos, panoramas), warp
selected area,
fix perspective (photo from an angle), warp
image (linear/curved/affine),
unwarp closeup (fix balloon face), add waves,
twist image, make sphere,
turn inside-out, tiny planet, escher spiral,
flatten curved horizon,
flatten photo of curved surface (thick book
page, poster on a column).
• Edit functions can be 'painted' locally and gradually,
using the mouse.
• Copy areas within and across images by mouse painting and
blending.
• Create or maintain transparent image areas while editing.
• Combine images: HDR (combine bright/dark images, adjust
contributions),
HDF (combine different focus depths),
stack/layer combinations by area,
panorama (2-6 images), make an array or matrix
of many images.
• Mashup: arrange images and text in an arbitrary layout
using the mouse.
(objects can be resized, rotated, overlapped
with transparent areas ...)
• Custom user menu: collect frequently used functions into
one menu.
• Plugins: use Gimp, Imagemagic ... as embedded Fotocx edit
functions.
• Scripts: record image edits, package as an edit function
to re-use.
• Select image objects or areas to edit separately from the
background:
outline by hand, follow feature edges, 'flood'
into matching colors ...
• Complex feature edges can be accurately selected (e.g.
hair, foliage).
• Batch tools: rename, resize, convert, export,
add/revise/report metadata,
convert RAW files, add overlay text, apply
custom edit script.
• Metadata edit and report (tags, dates, titles, geotags ...
any metadata).
• Search images using any metadata and folder/file names or
partial names:
dates, tags, locations, ratings, titles,
descriptions, exposure data ...
• Show a list of images by location and date range, click
for image gallery.
• Show an image calendar, click on year or month for a
gallery of images.
• Scalable internet map, click on marker for gallery of
images at location.
• Add location names and geocoordinates to an image by
clicking on the map.
• View 360 degree panorama image (Google Street View
format).
• Show video files as thumbnails (using any video frame),
play video.
• Show animated GIF files as thumbnails (first frame), play
animation.
• Bookmarks: assign names to folder/file locations, go to
name (gallery).
• Create albums with chosen images arranged by drag &
drop. No duplication.
• Slide show: show album images with animated transitions
and pan/zoom.
• Print an image at any scale. Printer color calibration
tool is available.
• Custom keyboard shortcuts can be assigned to chosen
functions.
• Cycle wallpaper images from a Fotocx album or any folder
of image files.
• Source and binary packages are installable on most recent
Linux flavors.
• Gnu GPL3 license (everything is free to use as you
please).
