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Directory Opus 13 - Detailed release notes

Thumbnails

  • Thumbnail labels:
    • Thumbnail, Tile, Icon and List modes now show the full name of the selected entry, even when using visual styles.
    • Improved line-wrapping of wide names under thumbnails.
    • Improved highlighting when using Find-As-You-Type.
  • Thumbnail scaling:
    • You now have a choice of thumbnail scaling modes:
      • Fit, with smooth upscaling.
      • Fit, with pixelated upscaling.
      • Fit, but only reduce; never upscale.
      • Fill (resize & crop), with smooth upscaling.
      • Fill (resize & crop), with pixelated upscaling.
    • Small images can be enlarged with smooth (filtered in some way) or pixelated (nearest neighbor) scaling, or disabled entirely.
    • Pixelated upscaling is good if you're working with small icons or pixel art on high DPI screens.
    • As of Opus 13.3, pixelated upscaling is only used when increasing something to at least 3x its original size; smooth scaling will be used for smaller increases.
    • "Fit" modes reduce large images to fit and, optionally, enlarge small images to fill the space as much as possible without cropping.
    • "Fill" modes scale and crop images so they fill the entire space in both dimensions. (Sometimes called "cropped square thumbnails", but they need not be square).
    • All modes maintain aspect ratio without distortion. (Squares and circles remain squares and circles.)
    • Icons displayed for .exe files are not affected. However, thumbnails for actual .ico files are affected, as are thumbnails for other image and movie formats (.jpg, .png, .mp4, etc.).
    • Different scaling can be configured for different view modes (Thumbnails, Tiles, Details, Power), and for folder thumbnails (changing how the grid of images within them is displayed). Info tips use the Thumbnails mode setting.
    • Scaling type can be set on a per-folder basis, via Folder Formats. For example, you may want different scaling in folders for photos and pixel art. Overrides affect all view modes, but not folder thumbnails.
    • Command: Set THUMBSTRETCH – Modifies thumbnail scaling mode for the current folder tab.
  • Thumbnail styles:
    • (Configured via Preferences / File Display Modes / Thumbnails / Styles.)
    • A new system which lets you to define special rendering styles for folder thumbnails.
    • Similar to the built-in jewel case thumbnails for music albums (which are now a thumbnail style), but you can define your own. For example, you could display folders as Bluray cases with their cover art overlaid.
    • Each style defines an image used as the basis for folders matching criteria you specify.
    • The folder's thumbnail (e.g. folder.jpg) will be scaled to fit a specified rectangle within your image, or scaled to fill the whole image.
    • Alpha channels can be used to blend parts of the two images.
    • The image can be left empty, allowing folder thumbnails with no adornment at all. (E.g. If folder.jpg has everything you want to see, and you don't want a folder drawn around it.)
    • Styles can be triggered by a specific file within the folder (e.g. "MySpecialCoverArt.png"), or based on the types of files in the folder.
  • Folder thumbnails:
    • In new configurations, Windows Shell folder thumbnails are off by default, and Opus generates them itself. (Due to the poor quality of folder thumbnails generated by Windows 11, and ealier OS for that matter.)
    • Added option (on by default) to not generate thumbnails for folders which have custom icons.
    • Folder thumbnails generated by Opus will look for folder.png before falling back on folder.jpg. Alpha/transparency is supported.
    • Album detection for jewel case thumbnails now uses the Music file type group to decide which files are music, instead of a hardcoded extension list.
  • Video thumbnails:
    • New look for video and animated GIF thumbnails.
    • Preferences option to turn off film sprocket overlays. Replaces separate options in the Movie and GIF plugins.
    • Video thumbnails now always come via the Windows Shell, since it does a good job these days. The Movie plugin no longer tries to generate them itself.
  • Miscellaneous:
    • Added "Spread excess space between columns" option to Thumbnails and Tiles modes. Turn off to accumulate excess space on the right instead of spreading it between columns.
    • Added configurable padding to Details/Power thumbnail column. (Column size is unaffected. Changes how large the thumbnail or icon draw there is by adding empty space around it.)
    • Thumbnails can now have bars at the side representing each image's aspect ratio:
      • Similar to older "relative image size" overlays, but represents the dimensions of each image relative to itself (rather than to the respective widest and tallest image in the folder).
      • A visual representation of the aspect ratio can help if you're using the new "fill (resize and crop)" scaling, where it can be hard to tell whether and how much a thumbnail has been cropped.
      • If you haven't turned on cropping, you can obviously see an image's aspect ratio from the thumbnail itself, making the bars redundant except for unusual cases with lots of transparency at the edges.
    • File type icons, if enabled, are no longer confined to the area of the thumbnails themselves (e.g. for thumbnails of very tall or thin images).
    • Removed the "Hide file type icon if thumbnail is too small" option, as it's no longer needed.
    • Thumbnail size can be set on a per-folder basis, via Folder Formats. E.g. A folder of small icons may suit smaller thumbnails than one of photos.

Next: Folder Tabs