11.3 Thumbnails

Note: This page only refers the GQview thumbnail caching mechanism, the shared thumbnail cache mechanism is not explained here.

Format

Thumbnails are stored in PNG image format. The thumbnail name is the name of the source image with “.png” appended.

The modification time (mtime) of the thumbnail is set to match the source file. Thumbnails are regenerated when the timestamps of the thumbnail and source file do not match.

Location

Thumbnails are stored in:

($HOME)/.gqview/thumbnails

The directory structure of the thumbnail cache duplicates the location of the source files, for example a source file with the name:

/path/to/image.jpg

will store the thumbnail in:

($HOME)/.gqview/thumbnails/path/to/image.jpg.png

When thumbnails are to be stored local to the source file, the thumbnail will be placed in:

/path/to/.thumbnails/image.jpg.png

Local thumbnail caching is enabled with the option “Cache thumbnails into .thumbnails” on the General tab of the options dialog. If it is not possible to store the thumbnail local to the source file (usually due to no write permissions), GQview will fall back to saving the thumbnail in the user's ($HOME)/.gqview/thumbnails folder.

Size

GQview allows the following sizes for thumbnails:

24x24, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 96x72, 96x96, 129x96, 128x128, 160x120, 160x160, 192x144, 192x192, 256x192, 256x256

The thumbnail is scaled to fit within the preferred size maintaining the aspect ratio. Thumbnails are not cached for images that are equal to or smaller than the preferred thumbnail size.

When a cached thumbnail's width and height do not match the preferred size, the thumbnail is regenerated.