Normalization of images within series - Visually aided multi crop

[porg]

Hi, I looked into the manual and saw Convert and Modify has a dedicated multi-crop feature or also the possibility to add a "Add/Remove Border (Margins)…" as a batch action.

Nevertheless what I'm looking for seems to (yet) not exist, or I did not find the feature:

1) Load multiple image files of the same dimension into a special window/view.
2) There you have some controls how to show them combined (especially to see the outlying content)
3) Then you can set your crop dimensions accordingly. And then apply on all images loaded in that window.

Open multiple files visually overlaid and then apply a batch crop on all of them.png (216.42 KiB) Viewed 50781 times

[porg]

@forum_adm what do you think of this feature?

Use cases:

1) SCREENSHOT SERIES

All of those screenshots shall be cropped the same way. Either to get rid of uninteresting/sensitive image zones or to focus on a particular zone of interest.


2) MULTI LAYER IMAGE EXPORT
You exported a multi layer image composition as separate images. You later need to crop those separated images all in the same way because you don‘t have access to the original composition (anymore) for performing the cropping and re-exporting there.

[forum_adm]

Very very special.

Would it be helpful to add to Edit > Smart Crop an option for checking all open windows and crop all open windows?

[porg]

Ideally this needs to happen in a single window app. Because the images need to be aligned and need transparency/blending used for size/position reference. Like a multi layer bitmap editor. Just instead of layers of a single file, each layer corresponds to a standalone file. But most likely GC's internals are not made for this, so I understand that this approach is possibly rather unfeasible.

The best possibly workaround with multiple windows:
1) All involved windows use the same size and position on screen and the same zoom factor.
2) As a hack we apply window transparency (I think macOS offers that). Ideally with a shortcut to quickly toggle this. Ideally the bottom-most window of GC is opaque, so that content below does not blend through.
3) Then you make the selection on the frontmost window and then apply a "Smart Crop".
4) As all images get cut be the same amount, the viewport repositioning (position + zoom factor) should be the same in all windows, hence the content will still be aligned.

If you can achieve #2 with the window transparency options that macOS offers without too much effort, then it would certainly be worth a try.

[porg]

I realize that is not such a niche product, but has some mainstream applications too.

A photo series of e.g. 16:9 content, all available at the same pixel size, which all have a subject in the center taking ca 20-30% of the space.

Goal: Create a 1:1 square crop off all those, which ensures that the subject plus some surrounding remains in any image of that series.

Then that image series is quickly transformed to the new visual goals, ready for use in an image slider, and all images conform to the new style guide line.

With "window transparency or other pixel blending" which allows the user to get a good understanding of the joint content (we will see how realistic that will be...) plus the "Smart Crop in all windows" this workflow should get be possible.

I think we can quite cheaply get a first version of this, and I can then report you with real material, how well suited it is for such workflows.