Image Application Performance Optimization

• US 20090204894A1
• Filed: 09/10/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bhatt, Nikhil, Gilley, Greg, Kawano, Mark, Bianchi, Curt, Wallace, Alex
• Application Number:
  US12/208,187
• Publication Number:
  US 20090204894A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Some embodiments provide an image editing application that allows users to quickly preview images and to edit images. The image-editing application provides a quick preview tool for foregoing the loading of a particular image in the display area after the particular image has been selected. Specifically, for each particular image, the image-editing application maintains or generates a preview image for the particular image. In place of a particular image, the quick preview tool when selected causes the image editing application to only load the preview image of the particular image for full or partial display in the display area. When the quick preview tool is not selected, the image editing application loads each image in its entirety for full or partial display in the display area.

Claims

1. A method of previewing a plurality of images, the method comprising:

providing a display area for displaying the images; and

providing a preview tool which when disabled causes a selected image to be displayed in the display area and when enabled foregoes display of the selected image and causes a display of a preview image corresponding to the selected image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a size of a first preview image of a first image is different than a size of a second preview image of a second image.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a size of a first preview image of a particular image at a first point of time is different than a size of a second preview image of the particular image at a second point of time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein user adjustments need to be made to a particular image before the particular image is displayed in the display area, wherein said adjustments are made to the selected image after the image is selected for display, wherein said adjustments are made to the preview image before the image is selected for display.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein user adjustments need to be made to a particular image before the particular image is displayed in the display area, wherein said adjustments are made to the preview image before the image is selected for display, the method further comprising:

based on the image currently selected for display, determining a set of images that are candidate to be selected next for display; and

applying user adjustments to said set of candidate images.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said determining is done using a heuristic method.

7. The method of claim 1, the preview tool for generating preview images, the method further comprising providing an option for changing a size of preview images generated by the preview tool.

8. The method of claim 1, the preview tool for generating preview images, the method further comprising providing an option for changing a compression quality of the preview images generated by the preview tool.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a user interface for editing a set of images, the preview tool for displaying the image and the preview image on the display area at different times without requiring a modal change in the display area and in the user interface.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the preview tool is for providing a same set of tool, menus, controls, and icons during display of an image and during display of a preview image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the image requires processing a set of metadata after being selected for display and prior to being displayed, wherein the preview tool is for skipping said metadata processing prior to displaying the preview image.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is in a raw format which requires decoding into a color space prior to being displayed, wherein the preview image does not require decoding into a color space prior to being displayed.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is in a raw format which represents image pixels as a mosaic of pixel values, wherein the image in raw format requires demosaicing prior to being displayed, wherein the preview image does not require demosaicing prior to being displayed.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is in a raw format, wherein the image in raw format requires processing for noise reduction prior to being displayed.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is in a raw format, wherein the image in raw format requires processing for color correction prior to being displayed.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the image and the preview image are in a same format but the preview image has less data than the image.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the image format is one of JPEG and TIFF.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the preview image format is one of JPEG and TIFF.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the image format is one of JPEG2000, PNG, GIF, PSD, and HD Photo.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the preview image format is one of JPEG2000, PNG, GIF, PSD, and HD Photo.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a display area for displaying a histogram showing a distribution of pixel values in the image, the preview tool for skipping display of the histogram when a preview image is being displayed.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the preview tool is for generating a preview image for a particular image when an updated preview image is not available for a particular image and the particular image is rendered for display.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising providing an option for enabling and disabling generation of preview images, wherein the preview tool is for generating a preview image only when generation of preview images is enabled.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a set of tools for editing an image, the preview tool for enabling the editing tools when an image is displayed and for disabling the editing tools when a preview image corresponding to the image is displayed.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a scaling tool for scaling a selected portion of a displayed image.

26. The method of claim 25, the scaling tool for displaying the selected portion of the image at a different scale than a non-selected portion of the image.

27. The method of claim 25, the preview tool for displaying a non-selected portion of the displayed image from a particular image and the scaling tool for scaling the selected portion of the image from a corresponding portion of a preview image.

28. The method of claim 25, the scaling tool for scaling the selected portion of the image from a particular image and the preview tool for displaying a non-selected portion of the image from a corresponding preview image.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising providing a set of tools for editing the scaled portion of the image.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the preview tool is for generating a preview image for a particular image after the particular image is edited.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the preview tool is for generating the preview image for the particular image a predetermined time interval after an editing operation is performed on the image.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the preview tool is for generating the preview image for the particular image after receiving an indication that editing operations are completed on the particular image.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the preview tool is for receiving said indication when a non-editing tool is selected.

34. The method of claim 30 further comprising providing an option for enabling and disabling generation of preview images, wherein the preview tool is for generating a preview image only when generation of preview images is enabled.

35. A method comprising:

providing a display area for displaying images;

providing a set of tools for editing a displayed image; and

providing a preview tool for automatically replacing a display of a preview image with a display of a master image corresponding to the preview image when an editing tool is selected while the preview image is being displayed.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the preview tool is for automatically displaying the preview image after (1) the quick preview was automatically replaced by the image and (2) receiving an indication that editing of the image is completed.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the preview tool is for receiving said indication when a non-editing tool is selected.

38. A graphical user interface (GUI) of a computer program stored in a computer readable medium, the computer program for execution by at least one processor, the computer program for previewing a set of images, the GUI comprising:

a display area for displaying the images; and

a preview tool which when disabled causes a selected image to be displayed in the display area and when enabled foregoes display of the selected image and causes a display of a preview image.

39. The GUI of claim 38 further comprising an option for changing a size of the preview image.

40. The GUI of claim 38 further comprising an option for changing a compression quality of the preview image.

41. The GUI of claim 38 further comprising a user interface for editing a set of images, wherein the GUI does not make a modal change in the display area and in the user interface when displaying the selected image and the preview image.

42. The GUI of claim 38 further comprising a tool for importing a set of images from a device, the preview tool for causing a thumbnail image to be displayed in the display area when the preview tool is enabled and the devices includes a thumbnail image of an image being imported, the preview tool for causing the image being imported to be displayed in the display area when the preview tool is disabled.

43. The GUI of claim 38 further comprising:

a tool for importing a set of images from a device; and

a tool to determine whether generation of preview images is to be suppressed;

the quick preview tool for causing a preview image to be generated for an image that is being imported when the generation of preview images is not suppressed.

44. The GUI of claim 38, wherein the image is an original image, the GUI further comprising a tool for scaling a selected portion of an image displayed in the image area.

45. The GUI of claim 44, wherein the displayed image is the original image, the scaling tool for scaling and displaying the selected portion from the preview image.

46. The GUI of claim 44, wherein the displayed image is the preview image, the scaling tool for scaling and displaying the selected portion from the original image.

47. The GUI of claim 46 further comprising a set of tools for editing the scaled portion of the image.