Hotfolder Prints Help

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Overview

Hotfolder Prints is a collection of four programs for event photographers and photo booth operators: Hotfolder Prints which monitors a hot folder for images and automatically formats and prints them, Breeze Viewer which monitors a hot folder for images and displays them in a slideshow and Twitter Hashtag Monitor which automatically downloads photos from Twitter.

 

Hotfolder Prints

Hotfolder Prints is a powerful utility for automatically laying out one or more images on to a single page and then printing them. In addition it can save a JPEG copy of this layout and display it in a slideshow, email it to users or email it to social networking and photo sharing web sites such as Flickr and Twitter. Hotfolder Prints monitors a folder (the "hot folder") for new JPEG images. When enough JPEG images have been added it automatically formats these into a single page ready for printing, emailing or other actions. Hotfolder Prints comes with a copy of Breeze Viewer which runs a slideshow that automatically updates as new images are added to the display folder. When used in conjunction with our photo booth software, Hotfolder Prints provides a complete solution for displaying a rolling slideshow of the event's photos and for emailing copies to users and uploading to social networking sites such as Facebook.

 

In summary, Hotfolder Prints monitors a folder for JPEG or PNG images and then automatically lays them out on to a single page and then:

Optionally prints the page. For example an event shooter might be shooting tethered and want each photo to be resized, sharpened, logos and captions added and then printed automatically. Or a photo booth operator may want to print two copies of each set of photos using different layouts: the photo booth could print out traditional 6x2 strips of four images and Hotfolder Prints could print out a larger 6x4 print of four photos arranged in a 2x2 grid.
Optionally saves a copy of the print layout and then emails it. This could be to a fixed email address to automatically upload the picture to a site such as Facebook or Flickr or it could email the photo to users of a photo booth who entered their email address using a touchscreen.
Optionally saves a copy of the print layout and copies it to a different folder. This could be to your DropBox folder so that the photos are automatically uploaded to your DropBox page where they can be shared and viewed as a photo gallery or to a folder for automatic uploading to an album on Facebook

 

Breeze Viewer

Breeze Viewer is a slideshow utility that comes with Hotfolder Prints. It monitors a folder and displays JPEG images and animated GIFs in that folder as a slideshow, automatically adding new images to the slideshow as as they are added to the folder. This is great for event shooting and photo booths as you can leave the slideshow running on a large monitor or TV display and have it update automatically as more photos are taken during the event.
More information on using Breeze Viewer.

 

Breeze Gallery Uploader

The Breeze Gallery Uploader is a flexible tool for automatically uploading photos, animated GIFs and MP4s to online galleries. The HTTP upload option can upload files to gallery systems such as Photo Booth Gallery (https://www.photobooth-deluxe.de/en/wordpress-photobooth-galerie-dokumentation/) or any other gallery that has suitable scripts for receiving the uploaded files.

Breeze Gallery Uploader can also upload files directly to  Hula Gallery (https://www.hula.co/apps/gallery)).

Please note: "Photo Booth Gallery" and "Hula Gallery" are provided by other companies and require subscriptions that must be purchased separately. Please visit their respective web sites for more information.

 

More information about Breeze Gallery Uploader

 

SmugMug Uploader

The SmugMug Uploader is a tool which monitors a folder for new JPEG images, animated GIFs or MP4 movie files and automatically uploads them to your SmugMug account

More information on uploading to SmugMug

 

Twitter Hashtag Monitor

The Twitter Hashtag monitor is a tool which automatically downloads photos posted on Twitter with a particular hashtag. It works by scanning Twitter for tweets which match the search hashtag and contain a photo. When it finds a matching tweet it downloads the photo, the author's name and profile photo, the text of the tweet and the date of posting. This information can then be used by Hotfolder Prints to create a page showing the Twitter photo and automatically print it or save it as a JPEG image. The JPEG image can be displayed in a slideshow using Breeze Viewer or in kiosk software such as Breeze Kiosk where users can view the images and print, email or text them.

More information on using the Twitter hashtag monitor
Please note that Breeze Kiosk is a separate product. Please visit the Breeze Systems' website for more information about Breeze Kiosk.

 

Topics covered in this help file

Installing and registering Hotfolder Prints

General operation and set up

Automatic layout of photos

Custom layout of photos

Adding captions

Emailing images

Downloading Twitter Photos using Twitter Hashtag Monitor

Running a slideshow using Breeze Viewer

Automatically uploading images to other photo sharing sites

Tokens

How to create PNG images using Photoshop

Release history

 

If you are running a photo booth you may also find this series of articles on photo booth shooting useful