Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

pwpphoto · 2014-12-25 04:30:51

I started to finally swap over to the CE4 version from the CE3 version and decided that I'm going to drop the CE4 version as it has little to no control over over the album layout and icons in the CE4 version compared to the CE3 version unless I'm missing something.

1) I can somewhat understand the thumbnail size being in the output settings in CE4 instead of the appearance section of CE3 but it also took away all the option we had for formatting the icons/thumbnails. i.e. rounded corners as I like them to look like large buttons not squares.

2) No more rounded backgrounds for the albums either.

3) limited to 4 columns and aspect ratio instead of an actual size really? yes it can make the auto function work better but when limiting to 4 columns seems to be a waste and another example of less control.

4) Yes I can do everything in CSS but if I wanted to code everything I would not be using CE4/CE3

bgoddard79 · 2014-12-25 23:02:43

I am at about the same place in my transition to CE4. I am really struggling with Iconic setup in my gallery page. I am trying to somewhat emulate what I had on my CE3 site here. http://bradgoddard.com/galleries.php I can live without the lack of rounded corners and drop shadows all I am really looking for is to have the thumbnail fade and white text to show the title and description. See below:

Screen%20Shot%202014-12-25%20at%207.28.31%20AM.jpg

I can work with what is offered in CE4 and if there is really something else I want beyond that I have no issues figuring out the CSS to get there. What I am really struggling with right now is just finding an understanding of how to work with the settings for the iconic appearance section in red below.

Screen%20Shot%202014-12-25%20at%207.21.21%20AM.jpg

Many of these options seem to have an illogical or no effect. I have searched for more documentation on this section but cant seem to find what I am looking for. Some of the things I cant seem to figure out:

Where does one control the size of the thumbnails, Changing the Image Renditions in Output settings seems to have no effect.

The aspect ratio settings are still a bit of a mystery. An explanation of how this setting interacts with thumbnail size would be helpful.

Title/Description text color? I feel like this one has to be staring me in the face.

At the end of the day I would like the faded box to be the same size as the thumbnail with the Title/description to be centered nicely over top of everything.

Im sure most of this is just me overlooking something. This forum is a great resource and has provided many "Aha" moments as I have been working thru other issues. Hopefully some direction here will help others as well.

rod barbee · 2014-12-25 23:33:36

Size of thumbnails always come either from the galleries themselves or from custom thumbnails you create to fill the need. Anything you set in AutoIndex is for design only.
Make sure your thumbnails will fit the design, or design with the size of gallery thumbnails in mind. (The Iconic layout is geared toward custom thumbnails)
http://ce4.theturninggate.net/docs/doku … thumbnails

You can change the size of thumbnails for design purposes in Output settings. You may need to toggle the watermark checkbox or change the jpg quality setting to force Lightroom to rerender the thumbnails.
The Aspect Ratio setting in Appearance is for the size of the Album container.

Title and Description text color are the same as your main text and is set in Site Info > Typography & Core Elements. The settings are at the top of that section directly beneath Base Font Size.
If you need a different color, use custom css.
Here's a post about how to determine the selectors to target
http://ttg-tips-and-tricks.barbeephoto. … selectors/

EDIT: scratch that. See below

bgoddard79 · 2014-12-26 02:11:58

Ok, I am getting somewhere now. Realizing that lightroom was not rendering new thumbnails and the trick to get them to update is what I was missing. What I found worked best for me was to use very large thumbnails so they always fill the album container while I am playing around with the aspect ratio and other sizing options. This makes it easier to visualize what you are changing. Once I had things where I wanted from a size stand point I started bringing the size of the thumbnails down so they just fit in the container. I still have some tweeking to do here but once up and running I will export custom thumbnails at this size.

One issue I still have is the text color. As you can see below I have my main text set to a light color but still get dark album titles. Is there something I am overlooking?

Screen%20Shot%202014-12-25%20at%2010.59.03%20AM.jpg

rod barbee · 2014-12-26 02:52:27

Oh. Right. I keep forgetting about that for some reason.

It's in Appearance > the Auto Index: color and color :hover

http://ce4.theturninggate.net/docs/doku … ex_layouts

Matthew · 2014-12-26 09:07:18

Online, the thumbnails will automatically size to fill the container. If the thumbnails are too small, they will be stretched (ew). If too large, then will scale down to fit. You can see this in action in our showcase, http://ce4.theturninggate.net/demos/showcase/, where I actually use thumbnails 2x necessary size so that they will look nicer on Retina displays.

bgoddard79 · 2014-12-27 22:17:41

That makes sense Matt. I was a little confused by the online behavior of things. I was surprised that my old 200x300px thumbnails from CE3 looked good when I needed to get them to something like 240x358 to fill the container in the lightroom preview. They must be getting stretched slightly. They look ok but that is good to know, I will start kicking out some slightly larger thumbnails as I wrap things up. Thing are coming along nicely though.

http://testenv.bradgoddard.com/galleries.php

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2014-12-25 04:30:51

Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

#2 2014-12-25 23:02:43

Re: Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

#3 2014-12-25 23:33:36

Re: Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

#4 2014-12-26 02:11:58

Re: Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

#5 2014-12-26 02:52:27

Re: Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

#6 2014-12-26 09:07:18

Re: Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

#7 2014-12-27 22:17:41

Re: Disappointed in CE4 version of Auto-Index

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