Your photos allow for much more!

Photo Organizer helps you organizing, analyzing and presenting your collections of photos, videos etc.

That is:

• Add coordinates for media files
  • interpolate using tracks which do not necessarily have to be recorded at the same time
  • pasting from maps supporting geo URI format
• Create maps with markers and popups where photos or videos have been taken
• Create responsive web galleries for your media
• Show slide shows in full screen mode
• Add tags and other information to your media files
• Use stacks to organize improved variants
• Analyze the metadata using database queries or ExifTool
• Print photos including both full-page printing and several photos per page (contact print)
• Use the powerful editing options of PHOR (e.g. find/replace for title of all media)
• Rewrite metadata to media files

A relational database is used to collect information for the media files. The path of the files and the metadata are stored in the database. The media files themselves are purposefully not transferred to the database, but thumbnails are cached.

There are many ways to export all data. So you always retain all power over your own data and you will never get locked in.

Installation

To install PHOR:

• Copy the PHOR files to your hard disk.
• Start PHORgui.exe found in the subfolder bin

At the first start of PHOR the PHOR database will be created. By default it is called phor.mdb and will be stored in the directory %LOCALAPPDATA%. In addition, a database is created for the caching of preview images (phorcache.mdb).

Getting Started

When starting PHOR for the first time, you have to set one ore more directories, where media files are stored. You can accomplish this as follows:

• In the "Start" Menu use the item "Directories".
• Insert a row using the "Insert" button.
• Enter the path of the directory (or select it using the corresponding item after pressing the Button "Directory").
• Save the row using the corresponding smart icon or the item "Save" in the "Edit" menu.
• Press the button "Scan For New Media" and bypass the following options dialog by pressing "OK".

In the same way you can add more directories if necessary.

Geotagging with PHOR

Overview

One of the most unique features of PHOR is the support for geotagging. There are several possibilities to accomplish this task especially for older media.

The most obvious option is, of course, to mark a coordinate on a map. With PHOR many different maps can be used, enriched with research tools using Leaflet. The determined coordinate is then transferred using the clipboard.

If photos were taken during a hike, bike ride or other tour, it is more effective to use a track (GPX, KML) for geotagging all the media of a trip. Of course, it is best if the track was recorded at the same time as the media were taken. However, this is not necessary. Tracks recorded at other times or tracks created by hand can also be used. Using these tracks PHOR interpolates the coordinates.

To determine the accuracy and origin of a coordinate, the following cases are distinguished:

• Vague
• Interpolated
• Approximate Manual
• Precise Manual
• Camera

Mark coordinate on map and transfer using clipboard

You can show a map by clicking on the "Geo Tools" button in the "Media" dialog and selecting one of the variants. For media that already have a coordinate, a blue marker is displayed on the map. If no media to be displayed has a coordinate yet, a standard map section (configurable in the settings) is displayed initially after a confirmation prompt. The map is shown using your standard browser. An Internet connection is required for map data.

If you click on a previously added (red) marker, a menu is displayed that offers the option of copying the coordinate to the clipboard. There are more options allowing you to verify the coordinate using Street View or a Mountain Panorama Tool.

After copying the coordinate you have to switch back to the PHOR application. There you can paste the coordinate using the "Edit" menu or the usual short keys. If you transfer the coordinate in this way, it is not necessary to focus on the corresponding input field beforehand.

It is also possible to use other applications or websites to transfer coordinates (e.g. Google Maps), if they offer the option of transferring a coordinate to the clipboard in a supported format.

Using tracks to interpolate coordinates

The Dialog "Track" in PHOR is used to add such tracks.

After inserting a new item you have to select the media belonging to the track. The prerequisite is that these media contain consistent values for "Date Taken". Before you select these media, it is a good idea to set the interpolation mode and the time period of the track.

There are four modes for interpolation: 1. Track Point for Actual Time 2. Track Point for Proportional Time 3. Track Point for Proportional Distance 4. Point Proportional for Time

For the 1st mode a track is needed that was taken at the same time when the media were taken. If no exact time or a wrong time zone was used when recording the track or taking the media, it may be necessary to adjust this beforehand. For this purpose, a time offset for the track or the "Date Taken" of the media can be adjusted ("Metadata" button in the "Media" dialog).

In 2nd and 3rd mode, the track only needs to follow the same route as when taking pictures. This track may have been recorded at a different time and by a different person. You can also create a track as a planned route, for which there are tools such as Outdooractive or Komoot. If the track contains meaningful times, it may be advantageous to use the 2nd mode and make the interpolation proportional to time (e.g. Komoot sets times in the track, which are calculated depending on the type of movement and the incline or decline). For all other cases you can use the 3rd mode that interpolates using the distance. You can significantly increase the accuracy of the interpolation by manually setting the coordinates for the media whose exact recording locations you know. In this case you should set the precision of the coordinate to "Precise Manual". Coordinates with precision "Approximate Manual" are not overwritten during interpolation also, but are not used to calibrate interpolation. A problem can occur if the track contains matching outward and return routes. Then a known coordinate can be assigned to the wrong part, which can result in contradictions. All coordinates leading to contradictions are ignored then. A good solution could be to split the track into an outward and return journey.

The 4th interpolation mode does not require a track. In this case you have to specify the coordinates for start and end by hand. For interpolation a simple track is temporary created connection all known coordinates by lines.

What's new for Version 3.15

• New possibiliy to create fold up patterns for photo polyhedra. Following types of polyhedra are supported:
  • Cube (6 squares)
  • Dodecahedron (12 pentagons)
  • Truncated Octahedron (8 hexagons, 6 squares)
  • Truncated Icosahedron (20 hexagons, 12 pentagons, "Soccer ball")
• Some other improvements and fixes.

What's new for Version 3.14

• Print function improved, especially preview added
• KML-Files are now supported when importing tracks
• New option for crossfading when changing images in a slideshow
• Many other improvements and fixes.

What's new for Version 3.13

• Print function added. This includes both full-page printing of media and several media per page (contact print).
• New general setting for the maximum number of lines to show (can avoid Out of Memory errors in the case of a particularly large number of media).
• Geo URI scheme (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5870) now used as clipboard format for coordinates. This also enables the copying of altitudes and the precision of the coordinates.
• Range for valid longitude values increased to support "Copy of World" strategy when a track crosses the antimeridian.
• Better support for filenames containing non ASCII characters.
• Support of addtional map type Jawg (requires API key).
• New function to evaluate all media along a track for any period of time.
• Individual sorting order per tag now supported.
• Many other improvements and fixes.

What's new for Version 3.12

• New dialog for displaying a structured window list (replaces standard Windows handling)
• Additional choice "vague" for Precision of Coordinate
• Support of additial formats when pasting Coordinates from other applications
• Some other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 3.11

• New possibility to show media that were taken at a similar location (using button "Releation" for current media)
• Show leaflet maps for media: Additional option to include all corresponding tracks
• New option to animate slideshow with random Ken Burns Effect
• Audio files of other formats than wav (e.g. mp3) can now be used for slideshow if ffmpeg is installed
• New option for verbose logging when importing altitudes using GPX files
• Many other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 3.10

• New dedicated (editable) columns for metadata attributes of media
  • Altitude can now be added/changed (was previously r/o)
  • Separate attribute for "Height Above Ground"
  • Direction of View (corresponds to Exif GpsImgDirection)
• Additional parameters when calling geo tools
  • Direction of View supplied for PeakFinder and Street View
  • Height Above Ground supplied for PeakFinder
  • These parameters are also supplied when using Peakfinder and Street View on Leaflet maps
• Interpolation of coordinates using tracks
  • Altitudes can now be interpolated using tracks
• Support of additional map types when creating Leaflet maps
  • TopPlusOpen Color, TopPlusOpen Grey
• Export/Import of GPX files for media
  • Enables adding altitudes for media by using GPS Visualizer (https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation)
• Context menu for slide show added
  • Enables using geo tools directly
• Some other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 3.01

• ExifTool Analysis improved
  • Possiblily to add new tags
  • Import/Export of tag values (particularly important for binary tags)
  • New dialog showing comprehensive table of all ExifTool tags (using -listx)
  • Integration of current productive version (12.76)
  • Possibility to delete backups ("_original") created by ExifTool
• Leaflet Maps
  • More intuitive procedure for creating new markers and copying the coordinate to the clipboard to paste it in PHOR
  • PeakFinder and Street View can now be directly called from marker popup
• Some other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 3.00

• New function to show slide shows in full screen mode. Using F11 you can switch between fullscreen and normal window and drag the window to another monitor.
• Larger thumbnails and reduction of margins in thumbnail view
• Separate database for cache (enables more targeted backup)
• Possibility of automatically creating daily backups of the database
• Display of a note on unsaved changes in the status bar
• Performance improvement in case of large amounts of data
• Precision of the coordinates can now be written back to file (also renamed "Mechanical" to "Camera")
• File types for which a write-back of metadata is normally performed can now be configured
• Upgrade of framework ObjectFrame (5.22)
• Many other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 2.23

• New possibility to create responsive web gallery for photos and other media
• Integration of current productive version (12.70) of Phil Harvey's ExifTool
• Some other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 2.22

• Better support for comparing photos
• New simple possibility to arrange all views of a dialog ("Tile Views of Dialog")
• Many other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 2.21

• Additional geospatial tools can be accessed directly from PHOR for media with coordinates: PreakFinder, Google Street View
• More accurate procedure for interpolation modes "Trk. Pt. f. Prop. ...". In addition, better error diagnosis in case of chronology violations.
• Thumbnail View added for interpolation dialog
• Support of addtional map types: OpenStreetMapDE, USGSTopo, basemap.at
• Additional constraints possible for dialog for displaying random media
• Some other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 2.20

• Tracks used to add coordinates do not need to have been recorded at the same time as the media
• New dialog for displaying random photos or other media using various constraints
• Additional possibility to show the media of the same period as current media
• Upgrade of framework ObjectFrame (5.21.a)
• Many other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 2.10

• Embedding of Phil Harvey's ExifTool. To analyze files with ExifTool use button "Metadata" of dialog "Media".
• Upgrade of framework ObjectFrame (5.21)
• Many other improvements and fixes

What's new for Version 2.00

• Support of stacks to organize variants of photos
• For tags, all related tracks are shown on a map
• Thumbnails are now available for other media files than photos (especially videos)
• For maps, many parameters can now be customized
• There is now a zoomed mode for popups on maps
• Many other improvements and fixes