fotocx-26.7   2026.08.01
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 • The internet map is now sourced from OpenFreeMap. Libchamplain is no longer used. 
   This enables packaging for Linux distros that have removed libchamplain.
   C-language interface for OpenFreeMap was generated via Claude-AI [Anthropic].
   Mapping functions include:
    + world map scalable from street to continent level, zoom and pan with mouse
    + map markers denote positions of image files having geocoordinates
    + click on map marker produces thumbnail gallery of images at the location
    + location names and geocoordinates can be added to images via map clicking
 • Display of GIF file animations was removed. The underlying GTK function was
   deprecated by Gnome and will presumably disappear soon (like libchamplain). 
 • Refreshed translations: German Greek Spanish French Italian Japanese Korean 
   Portuguese Russian Turkish Chinese. Translations were made via Claude-AI.

fotocx-26.6   2026.06.18
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 • Seven AI translations of the GUI and User Guide were added:
   Greek, Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian, Romanian, Turkish
 • Appimage package was added, with a shell script for desktop integration.
 • Edit > Rescale does not work in a script unless all input image files have 
   the same dimensions. This is now blocked from use in a script. Batch Convert
   can be used to resize diverse images to fit within given width/height limits.

fotocx-26.5   2026.06.03
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 • GUI and user guide translations are complete for the following languages:
     German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese.
   Other languages will be added over time. These are AI translations.
 • Several edit functions have received minor improvements in the user interface.
 • Metadata > Timeline: new report option: report using files in the current gallery.
 • Edit > Paint Edits and Warp > Perspective can have keyboard shortcuts assigned.
 • The file blacklist feature was removed for performance reasons (large list slows
   indexing and gallery display). Move problem files out from under your declared 
   top image folders, or fix using edit + save/replace, or Metadata > Fix Meta.
 • Minor improvements and bug fixes:
   • Maps > Show on Map failed for first use after Fotocx startup, then worked OK.
   • File count on folder thumbnail: hidden files were included when not wanted.
   • Select Area > Find Gap: nested useage caused the dialog to freeze.
   • Refine > Flatten Histogram: fix inconsistent handling of radius parameter.

fotocx-26.4   2026.05.01
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 • The binary package now contains libchamplain, making it usable on recent Linux
   releases that have removed libchamplain (AKA pulling the rug out). 
 • Combine > Image Array: Retry if invalid output file name or other error.
 • When an image file edited and replaced, update only albums referencing the file.
 • Warp Linear was removed. Warp Curved is more flexible and works better.
 • Tools > Settings: new setting to show | not show hidden files and folders.
 • Several minor bug fixes and improvements made:
     Combine > Image Array: create a new thumbnail if a new file is created.
     File > Rename: add renamed file to recent files list.
     Playing GIF animation was not working for some tiny .gif files.
     Playing video files did not work on some older Linux releases.
     Open image file from command line: failed if current directory not $HOME.
     Refine > Flatten Histogram: finer control at low end of slider scale.

fotocx-26.3   2026.03.22
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 • The user guide was AI-translated into German. F1 Help and internal links work. 
   Very usable, but many translations need improvement.
 • Set Wallpaper: generalized to work for most desktops: GNOME KDE XFCE MATE LXDE. 
   The periodic wallpaper flipper was also updated.
 • Maps: When an image location is set by clicking on the world map, add a new 
   map marker immediately, using a temporary new color. 
 • Image edit: popup message and remain open if image is too large to edit. 
 • Temp folder: moved from /tmp/fotocx (memory mapped) to $HOME/.fotocx/temp.
   This avoids swap thrashing and long execution times if a huge image is edited 
   multiple times, creating a even greater undo/redo stack in mapped memory.
 • Metadata > Fix Meta: allow input of any file, default to current file.
 • Bugfix: set menu-bar width as needed to accomodate a large font-size setting.
 • Bugfix: Image Array: failed if output file type was not jpeg. 

fotocx-26.2   2026.01.22
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 • Tools > Move Fotocx Home: a simple method to move the Fotocx home folder.
   This replaces the prior complicated method described in the user guide.
 • The user guide has a new topic: installing Fotocx on Windows 11. This has become
   more viable with improvements in Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux.
 • Adjust HSL has been restored. It had been removed in 26.0.
 • Bugfix: crash if the image index or geolocations table contains zero entries.

fotocx-26.1   2026.01.08 
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 • Bugfix: images with valid geocoordinates but no location name did not show up 
   when the cooresponding map marker was clicked.
 • Bugfix: locales using a comma decimal point had multiple failures.

fotocx-26.0   2026.01.05
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 • Fotocx GUI translations have been added for 18 languages. An AI translator was used
   for this, so there are likely many errors. Users can correct errors and add new 
   translations (kindly send corrections for inclusion in the next release). See the 
   user guide topic "translations" for details. Languages included: German, Danish, 
   Spanish, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, 
   Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese. 
 • Metadata terminology in the user interface and user guide was updated to be more 
   in agreement with [somewhat] standard naming and common usage.
 • libjxl is now used to load/save JXL files instead of the cjxl/djxl utilities.
   This is faster, and alpha channels are also supported.
 • Metadata Tags: New report: Choose a metadata tag, list all values present in
   the image collection, click on a value to get a gallery of matching images.
 • Places/Dates report: more options were added for country/location/date groupings.
 • Batch Rename Keywords: delete option was added in addition to rename.
 • Batch Purge Keywords: New. Purge unwanted keywords from all image files.
   (handy tool to clean keyword pollution from downloaded image files)
 • Denoise: slight improvement in noise suppression and preservation of detail.
 • Flatten Histogram: five brightness zones can be adjusted separately or together.
 • Local Contrast: improved brightness compensation and faster response time.
 • Keyboard Shortcuts: Some reserved shortcuts were changed to custom shortcuts to
   allow more flexibility for user changes. Some default shortcuts were changed to 
   conform to [somewhat] common practice, and these can also be customized.
 • Copy/Move: if 'use previous file name' is chosen for the output file, the current 
   file version is used with the previous file name. This is more likely to be what 
   the user intends, and can be overridden if not.
 • Markup: draw text/arrow/box/oval: allow bailout if [X] pressed with unsaved mods.
 • Add Glare: New: Add glare radiating outward from the brightest spots in an image.
 • Sketch2: New: Alternative sketch algorithm + variable blending with input image.
 • Crosshatch: New: Convert image to sketch, using lines crossing at ±45 degrees.
 • Bugfix: RAW file loaders: The option to match image colors to the embedded 
   preview image in the RAW file was not working as advertised. 
 • Bugfix: possible crash following image horizontal or vertical flip.
 • Bugfix: Metadata timeline report using latest search results was not working. 

fotocx-25.5   2025.11.18
 • Bugfix: Crash on workstations having >40 CPU cores.

fotocx-25.4   2025.10.25
 • Source code modifications needed for ARM64 build (Raspberry PI etc.). 

fotocx-25.3   2025.08.01
 • Bugfix: Search for multiple location names did not always work.
 • Bugfix: Default raw loader command (prior release leftover) did not work.
 • Bugfix: Edit Main Meta: failed to update active metadata view report.

fotocx-25.2   2025.07.10
 • Bugfix: TOP image folder access failed if it was a symlink to the real folder.
 • Bugfix: fotocx custom spin buttons did not work well with new mouse types having 
   a "smooth scroll" wheel (fractional steps). This is now detected and compensated.
 • Detect cpu processor/core count and use this to set max SMP parallel threads.
 • Metadata search for non-indexed metadata: do not exceed max SMP threads, which
   can make the kernel scheduler go nuts (mouse stick/slip, stalled GUI response). 

fotocx-25.1   2025.07.01 
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 • This release requires a full re-index of your image collection. Some config 
   files in $HOME/.fotocx have been replaced due to format changes. The old 
   versions are retained for reference, if needed. Because of the next point 
   listed immediately below, index time may be much longer (for this time only). 
 • Metadata tag chaos for title and description is compensated: If missing, but 
   alternatives are found (e.g. headline, event, subject, caption, comment ...),
   these will replace the missing tags. You can now view/edit/search reliably
   using only 'title' and 'description'. Nothing is erased.
 • The function 'Batch Move Meta' is now unnecessary and was removed.
 • The following metadata was added to the image index and can be searched
   instantly: camera make, model, lens, exposure, F-length, F-ratio, ISO.
   If you added any of these to the 'extra' indexed metadata, remove them.
 • Batch Convert: now multi-threaded for increased speed. Batch RAW is now 
   included in Batch Convert. RAW files can be converted to TIFF-16 at a 
   rate exceeding 100 files/min. on a strong computer with SSD disk.
 • Batch Convert: Albums can now be updated to reference the converted files,
   if wanted. A rescale option was also added.
 • Search Images: more flexibility to include files related to those meeting
   the given search criteria: the original file and/or edited versions.
 • Albums is now a separate menu (common practice replaces former weirdness).
 • Edit > Split-Screen: New. While adjusting an edit, view before/after using
   a split-screen with sliding boundary. View finished versions the same way.
 • HDR and HDF are about 1.6x faster. Panorama is about 1.2x faster.
 • Help > Monitor Log File: New. The log file can be viewed real-time in a 
   popup window - no need to start Fotocx from a terminal for this purpose.
 • Tools > Grid Settings: new popup list of recent settings, click to choose.
 • Metadata > title and description text limits were increased to 2K chars.
 • Repair > Normal Blur: optional independent horizontal/vertical blur.
 • Repair > Normal Blur and Graduated Blur were made scriptable.
 • Effects > Fusion: New. Suppress fine details while accentuating major image
   features. This arty function can produce some interesting results.
 • Metadata > Tags: New. List all tags [keywords] with count of images using 
   each tag, click tag value to show the corresponding thumbnail gallery.
 • Custom > Scripts > Mosaic: New. Convert a picture into tiles congruent 
   with image features. This is a script combining three fotocx functions.
 • Combine > Image Array: new option: copy metadata from selected input image.
   The capability to view original images by clicking on array members was 
   removed. Albums provide a better method to basically do the same thing.
 • Copyright and license: some included files with restricted copyright were 
   replaced. Now one file has a Creative Commons license, the rest have no 
   copyright or are GPL3 compatible. 
 • User Guide: many small improvements and corrections were made.
 • Bugfix: Settings > Font: did not handle complicated font names like 
   "ubuntu sans condensed regular" (generic "sans" was substituted). 
 • Bugfix: Image index function [seldom] hung dead (but retry worked OK).
 • Bugfix: Compensate JPEG-XL break of legacy metadata naming standards.
 • Bugfix: JPEG-XL image loader failed if first image pixel[0] (red value)
   matched a whitespace character (CR, LF, blank). (champion weird bug) 
 
fotocx-25.0   2025.01.01
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 • The Fotocx binary package is now based on Ubuntu 24.04 (was 22.04).
 • JPEG-XL files (.jxl) are now supported (new lossless JPEG format).
   This requires libjxl, which is not yet available in some Linux flavors.
 • Image hot corner: mouse in NW corner --> popup title and description.
 • Select > Area Edge Blend: made easier to use, functional improvement.
 • Tools > Settings: SMP count (parallel thread count) is user-specified.
   (use P-cores + E-cores, omitting hyperthreads - see the user guide).
 • Repair > Defog: User interface was made easier to use. 
 • Slide Show: 3 complex animated transitions run smoother on a big monitor.
 • RAW loaders: 'darktable' was added to the default list of options. 
   The options file was renamed 'raw_commands_I' (in /home/<user>/.fotocx). 
   Any custom changes must be re-added. Search "RAW Loader" in user guide.
 • Bugfix: save to PNG file (very slow): prevent GTK "not responding" message.
 • Bugfix: User Guide: recent topics picklist was not complete and correct.
 • Bugfix: possible crash if gallery view is used during active edit function.
 • Bugfix: possible crash if the title bar [x] button is used to cancel an 
   active edit after another dialog has overlaid the image window.


