Basic options
Type of thumbnail format to create
HTML Tables
This option will create an HTML table for each index and
an individual thumbnail image for each original image. The
main advantage with this format is that other information
such as file size can be shown in the table. Also the HTML page
background can show through between the images. The disadvantage is
that a connection back to the server will have to made to get each
image in the table. Also there is greater effort to upload all the
individual thumbs to the site.
Contact sheet image maps
This option will create a single JPEG image map for each index.
This technique can ease the burden on the server because only one
HTTP connection need be made to the server no matter how many thumbs
are in the index. The file size of the index image can be signicantly reduced
by reducing the JPEG quality. File size information is included with the
image map using the "ALT" tag and this will appear in recent browser versions
when the cursor is over the thumbnail.
Thumb width and thumb height
This is the size of the notional box (in pixels) within which the
thumbs have to fit. ThumbFactory will resize the thumbs in order to
preserve the original ratio of width to height
Number across and down the page
ThumbFactory will create index pages with the specified number of
thumbs in them. Increasing these numbers will increase the size of the
index pages.
Use pixel area averaging
It is recommended this is set to "No" for very large numbers of images (eg. 100+).
Setting this to "Yes" will produce the best quality thumbs however there will also
be substantial amounts of memory used to do this and the thumbnailing process may
slow down as it progresses.
Put all images in a directory relative to the HTML
Often websites are arranged so that all images are in a directory
below the HTML directory. By enabling this option the default directory
name of "images" appears but this can be changed to whatever is actually used.
Create copies of original images as well as thumbs
When ThumbFactory creates the index pages and the thumbnails it can also
copy over the original images from which the thumbs were taken. This can allow
you to both test out the look of the thumbs produced and also upload everything
together from one place to your website.
HTML page for each original
The index pages can point to the raw image or by enabling this option, ThumbFactory
will create an HTML page for each image.
Use skeleton with "thumbfactory" tag for HTML
If the above option is enabled so that an HTML page is created for each image, then
it also possible to specify a "skeleton" HTML page to use for the image. This skeleton
can contain anything but must contain the tag "thumbfactory" to specify the place
where the thumbnail index is inserted. This feature is very useful if certain advertising
material is always to be presented along with index's and images.
Other options such as centering in ThumbFactory have no meaning when using a
skeleton. If you want the thumb image centered then you should center tags around
the thumbfactory tag in the skeleton file.
Thumb JPEG quality
This is the JPEG quality with which the thumbnails are created. The default is a
high 75% but it may be acceptable to reduce this down as far as 50% in order to
achieve much faster loading of index pages.