Thank you for choosing iSee, The Ultimate Finder Preview Tool. iSee is a small utility that shows a window in the Finder displaying previews of the pictures you select in the Finder. This offers a fast way to find the picture you’re looking for.
How to use it
Things you should know
- iSee is only visible in the Finder. Switching to any other application (including iSee itself) will hide iSee.
- When selecting a picture that doesn’t have thumbnail information in it yet, and custom icon creation is enabled (see ‘Preferences’ for more info), the selected pictures will be deselected by the Finder as the Finder updates the icons. You have to reselect these to see them again.
- When a new selection is made, iSee resizes it’s window to best fit the selected pictures.
- iSee automatically switches to the Finder on launch.
Basics
Launch iSee by double-clicking it in the Finder. iSee will automatically switch back to the Finder for your convenience. Then select some pictures. iSee will show a preview of the pictures you selected. If a preview of some picture is not shown, then you might have disabled previews for that kind of picture, or it is in a format iSee does not understand.
If no pictures are selected or none of the items selected in the Finder are supported pictures, the iSee window vanishes to save space.
Showing the entire imageIf you want to see the entire image without having to open it in it’s creator application, double-click it’s preview in the iSee window or choose ‘Show Full Picture’ from the contextual menu (control-click the iSee window to bring up the Contextual Menu).
Control-clicking the full image brings up a Contextual Menu that allows you to change the view settings.
Getting more info
To get more info on a selected preview in the iSee window, bring up the contextual menu by control-clicking the iSee window and choose ‘Picture Info’.
Printing Preview Sheets
If you have a printer attached to your computer, you can have iSee print tidy Preview Sheets for you. Simply select the pictures you want to print as described in ‘Basics’. Control-click the Browser Window and select ‘Print Thumbnails’. Then follow the onscreen instructions.
To customize the print settings, see the ‘Preferences’ section.
Preferences
You can adjust many settings by choosing ‘Preferences’ from the contextual menu (control-click the iSee window to bring up the contextual menu).
This will show a window with 4 tabs:
a) Preview
Create temporary preview for locked items.
When this is checked, and a selected picture is on a locked volume or simply locked in the Finder, iSee will create a temporary preview for the file which is not stored anywhere. This is slower but it is the only way to show previews for locked items.
Add Custom Icon when making a preview.
With this checked, iSee will try to make a custom icon for each picture. This slows down iSee somewhat, but it is kinda cool. It will adjust the file’s icon to show a preview of the picture.
In the picture, ‘Picture 4’ is a file without a custom icon, ‘Picture 3’ is a file with a custom icon.
Use Custom Engine.
This will force iSee to use a custom engine instead of QuickTime’s. This is only useful if you think the standard previews are too small/big.
Maximum Width/Height (only when ‘Use Custom Engine’ is on).
You can specify the size of the preview here. Either the width of the preview or the height will be set to this value (depending on the width/height ratio of the image). QuickTime’s previews have a size of 76.
Update preview if it doesn’t match this size (only when ‘Use Custom Engine’ is on).
If a preview of a certain picture doesn’t match the size you specified with the ‘Maximum Width/Height’ field and this is checked, iSee will update the preview to match this size.
b) Printing
Page setup
Click this to change the default Page Setup (paper size etc).
Preview Size
Defines the width and the height of the printed previews. The smaller these settings, the more pictures fit on one page.
c) Ignore
If for some reason there are specific filetypes you don’t want to be previewed by iSee, drop a file with that filetype on the list. If you changed your mind, select that filetype and click ‘Delete’.Dropping a file on the list will disable previews for all files of the same filetype. Eg dropping a Photoshop file on it will disable previews for all Photoshop files, not just the one you dropped on it.
d) Save
Click this tab to save the preferences and close the Preference window.
Comparison
Why is this one so much better than Thumb? Let me list some of the advantages:
Multiple Preview Interface
iSee can show more than one preview at a time, while Thumb only shows one of the pictures you have selected in the Finder. It displays an intuitive Picture Browser which also allows you to drag the pictures from the browser as if you were dragging the file itself; hold down the option key and drag the picture to where you want it to be. Each preview carries the name of the file it was taken from.
It also allows multiple selections. Shift-click to add a picture to the selection, regular click to select only one. This way you can use the Contextual Menu commands on more than one picture (see: Comparison - Contextual Menu).
Faster Previews
Thumb generates a preview each time you select a picture, even if the picture has one built in. iSee just uses the QuickTime Preview of the file, which is included in the file and not generated each time. If none is found iSee will create it and store it in the file if possible, so that next time you select the picture, iSee just has to use the preview it made the first time. If you’d like to, iSee can also create custom icons for the picture, containing the picture’s thumbnail.
These previews are also used in the standard file navigation dialogs.
Faster Selection Finder
Whereas Thumb uses AppleScript to determine the selection in the Finder, iSee uses AppleEvents, which are faster and don’t require AppleScript to be installed. It also requires less memory (RAM).
Nicer Interface
Tastes differ, but everyone will prefer iSee’s user interface to Thumb’s. It also uses the standard Finder font to display the filenames under the Previews. Small details make it great.
Picture Viewer
Double-clicking the a preview in the iSee window will pop up a window with the entire picture, full size. This saves you from opening the picture in PictureViewer or PhotoShop (which takes soo long to load).
Contextual Menu
Thumb also has one of these, but iSee has more options in it. Control click in the window and a contextual menu appears. Use this menu to show the entire picture full screen (see: Comparison - Picture Viewer), show picture information (file size, format,...), change preferences, look at the credits or quit iSee. It applies these actions on all of the selected images.
Print Preview Sheets
iSee can print sheets with previews of the selected pictures.
And more
Well, there’s probably more, but I’ve run out of ideas.
Paying for it.
This program is shareware, which means you can use it for a trial of 30 (thirty) days. Within that period you can use it unlimitedly, after that period you will be reminded to pay the shareware fee of $10 and only 5 images will be shown. When you have paid you will receive an unlock code that will remove these limitations and nuisances. You can use the Register application that comes with iSee or you can register online using the ‘Register Online’ link in the iSee folder.
Requirements
- Any PowerPC based Macintosh (PowerMacintosh, PowerMacintosh Performa, PowerMacintosh G3, iMac, PowerBook, PowerMacintosh G4).
- QuickTime 2.5 or newer
Version History
1.6:
- Previews are now generated correctly when Create Custom Icon is off.
- Double-clicking a preview sometimes didn’t open the correct file. That’s fixed now.
- Files that don’t have preview information are shown indicated now.
- The scrollbar is finally fixed now.
- (hopefully) fixed the preferences window (?).
- Control clicking the full view brings up a popup menu allowing you to change the view.
- Fixed other small things.
- When iSee adds a preview to a file, it restores the modification date.
1.5:
- Fixed a bug where pictures without thumbnails had to be selected three times instead of two (I know, having to select the pictures twice is still a pain, but that’s the Finder’s fault.)
- Fixed a scrollbar issue.
- Fixed a bug in the registration procedure that wouldn’t allow full functionality the first time you run the program after you registered.
1.5b1:
- Added the Print Thumbnails feature.
- Added the Custom Engine to support custom preview sizes.
- Added the Ignore Filetypes feature.- iSee now automatically switches to the Finder on launch
- adjusted the Preferences window to match the new features
1.0:
- Fixed a bug that would fail to show previews when you make the same selection as the previous one. (ex: you select some pictures, deselect them, and immediately make the same selection again).
- Added the Temporary Thumbnail for locked items.
- iSee now auto-resizes it’s window to the best dimensions for the current number of selected images.
- Fixed a scrollbar problem.
- Added an About, and a Preferences menu.
- Deleted the auto-hide option: it is now always ON. Nobody seemed to want to turn it off.
1.0b1:
Initial release.
Contacting Me
e-mail: azinenet@kagi.com
homepage: http://azinesw.macos.net/
FAQ
Q - I selected a file in the Finder but iSee won’t display a preview, or I can’t see the iSee window.
A - Probably because the file you selected has no preview and QuickTime isn’t able to create one (it isn’t a picture or not in a format that QuickTime understands).
Q - I get NilObjectException thingies.
A - These are often caused by memory shortage. Try increasing the ‘Preferred Size’ in Get Info>Memory. If it doesn’t solve that it’s likely to be a bug. Please report these to azinenet@kagi.com.
You can freely distribute unregistered and unmodified copies of the software. You can not distribute modified, registered or incomplete (not including all the files you got with it) copies of the package. The author is not responsible for any damage caused directly or indirectly by the use of this software. You may not reverse engineer or disassemble the software without prior permission of the author. You may not use any of the names, artwork, text, code,... of this software without prior permission of the author.
If you wish to put this software on a CD-ROM (shareware collection, magazine covercd,...) you have to wait for my permission first, which you can obtain by contacting me at azinenet@kagi.com, and send me a copy of the cd-rom if possible and not too much trouble.
