What is SimiliFlow?

SimiliFlow aims to be the leading photography workflow application for Linux. As a hobbiest photographer, I've run into troubles finding an application that suited my needs for managing large volumes of photos. Most of the photography software targeted to high-end camera users in Linux do their own RAW conversion, and for some reason they won't process my Olympus E-510 raw files properly. I found that dcraw from a command line would do okay, but I finally standardized on LightZone for Linux. Unfortunately LightZone doesn't go any further than a simple folder browser for management, and is kind of slow for that.

SimiliFlow will allow you to browse folder by folder, but the ultimate goal is to have a database backend and allow you to name, tag and search photos. It's also not a photo editor or even a RAW converter. It relies on external utilities to perform those actions, but will contain a completely configurable interface, allowing you to pick your favorite applications for various functions. Think of it as a pretty-faced Web2.0 mashup... without the web.

Status

Currently you could say that SimiliFlow is in private Alpha. I continue to post news regarding it to my blog but have not yet released the code. As it stands it's not very functional yet - simply a unique thumbnail browser for directories. Soon the database backend will be integrated, then we'll really be getting somewhere!

Architecture

SimiliFlow is written in Python, and relies on GTK and Cairo. This means it's unlikely you'll see a Windows version - but hey, much like Microsoft says about running their applications in Linux: I don't care nor have I any plans to write a Windows version.

License

At this time my intent is to release SimiliFlow under GPL V2. Yes, I said V2. I believe that there shouldn't be commerce restrictions on software if we expect adoption of Linux to continue, and some of the restrictions in V3 would be troublesome. I'd love to see SimiliFlow released on a driver disc with a commercial camera, for instance, as long as they provide the source and credit back to me.

Features

• Uses dcraw to extract jpg thumbnails from RAW images - failing that will create it's own thumbnail from the full RAW image
• Uses the Gimp generated thumbnails for XCF files when available, or creates it's own
• "Kinetic" scrolling controls - just click and drag to flip smoothly through your photos.
• Browse directories and add photos from various directories into a single group
• Tag and annotate photos or entire groups of photos
• Search your collection based on tags, names and timestamps
• Launch external editors such as Gimp, RawTherapee or LightZone
• Export groups of photos into a single directory for printing or uploading
• Future direct support for Flickr or other online services
• Written entirely in Python

Keep checking back or subscribe to my blog RSS feed to find out when the code is released.