image thumbnail browser

[sullosau]

ok one of many dumb questions.
Im finally using illy now but one thing I cant see is an image or thumbnail viewer like wth PSP and Corel
is there such an animal?

thanks guys

Steve

PS Happy New Year

 

[iSign]

I've downloaded a few trials but never began using them beyond a brief experiment with a couple of them. I'm pretty sure Picasa will show thumbnails of .ai files.

Extensis Portfolio is the one I have more recent experience with & it did a great job creating a catalog of some of my vector art collections. I know it showed .eps files, and I'm almost positive it included .ai files as well.

 

[2NinerNiner2]

Just updated and Picasa doesn't do 'AI. See attached screen shot from the latest version. I'll have to give Extensis Portfolio a try.

 

[Tony Teveris]

Adobe has Bridge which I think started with CS or CS2. I does a bunch of file types and if you have Windows Explorer file viewer plug-ins / extensions it will support those also. Omega has a PLT file thumbnail view for Windows Explorer it is considered and "extra".


Not sure you can get Bridge all by itself. May want to check it out.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Adobe Bridge, with cs1 & 2 does a great job, if you have it.

If you don't, then the cheapest option I know is Acdsee, in any version, and the free older versions work fine, with the ghostscript plug-ins added (it'll ask you for them & they can be downloaded free, too), and it'll catalogue bitmap pictures happily, but it'll also catalogue & display eps files (not ai files though). The older versions can crash occasionally- that's life!

Extensis Portfolio I have not tried, but I've not heard a bad word about it!

 

[sullosau]

thanks guys
m just trying to find an easier way of finding ai files I have, with corel and psp it puts up a thumbnail and psp also has a browser type thing.
Jus thought there was an easier way, no wonder I dont use AI much!
thanks again
Steve

 

[Replicator]

I would check to see if IrfanView can read AI files, It pretty much reads every

file in existence - - - http://www.irfanview.com/

Good Luck !

 

[sullosau]

according to the spport addin plugin it diesnt support ai

thanks rep

 

[iSign]

I just double checked my memory of Extensis Portfolio... it does work on .ai files. (It can also create a library of image files for actual files that have been archived off the computer, so you can look at those smaller catalogs of all the work you've stored thumbnails of, even after moving them)

One thng I noticed though, I have saved a lot of .ai files down to version 6 for importing nto Omega. These files are the ones that only show an Illustrator logo & the file name for some reason.

 

[OldPaint]

THUMBS PLUS... http://www.cerious.com/thumbnails.shtml

 

[sullosau]

thanks Doug

Steve

 

[sullosau]

THUMBS PLUS... http://www.cerious.com/thumbnails.shtml

checked the supported format on acdc but they dont support ai
thanks for the link thou

 

[Precision Eng]

I have both 'Irfanview' and 'Extensis Portfolio'
Irfanview will read just about any file type, including .eps
but if thumbnails were not created for the .eps files you won't
see them. It won't read .ai files though

On the other hand, Extensis Portfolio will read .eps files and
creates a thumbnail if none was created.

I took 8000 images this morning and ran them thru Extensis
which took about 2 hrs to process. Takes awhile, but worth the wait.

Mike

 

[Bob Gilliland]

The content below was originally authored around November of 2003 in response to a similar thread on a UK based sign board. I believe it still very much applicable to CS2 versions (and also with CS3 when officially released in a few months).

Hope you are a computer nerd of sorts.

I just went through a major “search” mission for a work around to the fact that PS CS (8.0) doesn’t support thumbnails anymore. That information, for anyone interested, will follow after my comments on Illustrator.

The following has to do with interacting within the Registry. I provide the following for information purpose only. If you were to proceed, do so only after making a backup copy of the Registry first and only if you feel comfortable making changes within.

After AI v9.x is uninstalled, verify that the following keys and values are present. Also, verify that the “aiicon.dll” file is still present on the machine and in it’s proper location (X:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell\AIIcon.dll where “X” is the drive the OS was installed on)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ai\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}\(Default)={0C5B0CED-206B-4c39-B615-0EB23C834612}(REG_SZ)

If not present, enter and set the proper values reflected above.

Some other considerations:

• Verify that “thumbnail” is in fact set to be generated from within the OS. In an OS folder, right click on an .ai file, then select Properties, then Illustrator Thumbnail tab, and make sure a thumbnail is enabled to be generated.

• Delete the “thumbs.db” file in the particular directory you are in. This will force the OS to regenerate the database that reflects the thumbnails. This is normally a hidden file, again, only if you are confortable with this stuff should you do this.

• Not all .ai and .eps files contain thumbnails. Even if the OS is setup and registered properly, it can not display a thumbnail that is not present within the data file.

Here is the “scoop” on Photoshop CS (8.0)

The following is provided for information purpose only and requires alterations to the registry. Proceed at your own risk AFTER making a backup of the registry! If this looks like “Greek” (or is that “Geek”) to you, then DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE ANYTHING! The way it is listed below is for folks that have upgraded from PS7 to PS CS (8.x) and have performed the upgraded on top of, or installed in parallel with, PS7. Others should be able to do it as well, it just may require a little extra effort. Of course this does go on the premise that the file “psicon.dll” is present on the system and in the proper location (X:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell where “X” is the drive the OS is installed) .

Verify the following keys and values, or make them present with these values.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}\(Default) = Photoshop Icon Handler (REG_SZ)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}\InProcServer32\(Default) = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell\PSICON.DLL (REG_SZ)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}\InProcServer32\ThreadingModel = Apartment (REG_SZ)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}\MiscStatus\(Default) = (value not set) (REG_SZ)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}\MiscStatus\IconBits = 1 (REG_SZ)

Then you need the “shellex” structure present under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.8. There is no entry by default, so “you” will need to create and populate it.

Perhaps the easiest way of doing this is to extract (export) the complete “shellex” from under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.7 entry. Remember where you have saved this registry tag (put mine on the desktop) and edit it so that each reference to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.7 is changed to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.8. Once that is done, simply register it (I double clicked on the icon) to the registry.

If you don’t have PS 7 installed, or the “shellex” structure isn’t present to “export”, manually create and populate the following keys and values:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.8\shellex

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.8\shellex\IconHandler\(Default) = {0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}(REG_SZ)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.8\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Photoshop.Image.8\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\PSDPage\(Default) = {0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D} (REG_SZ)

It works and I’m happy to report I’m backing to having thumb support on all our Win XP Pro systems running PS CS (8.x) package. Time to go find what other features or items have been dropped with this “upgrade”.

 

[Bob Gilliland]

CS3 requires additional registry modifications

Update!!!

CS3 will not work with ONLY the above changes. Additional registry changes are required. See a thread started by njsigns on December 15, 2007 titled Viewing PSD thumbnails in Explorer for additional information.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

You may not see them if they were created from another version of AI or exported from Corel. Any time you save an AI file it does save a thumbnail, unless you save down to a low version which did not support thumbnails

I can see most of my ai files when using Illustrator

So what I am saying, is you may have to "resave" to see the thumbnails.