Hotfolder Prints

[inabooth]

THis app does not help me. PSRemote does not have the option to change where it saves the images. No matter what profile PSRemote is using they all goto the same folder. There is no way to say that if they want a photocube, it saves to folder a and prints on printer a, but if they want strips, it would save to folder b and print on printer b. You can run 2 copies of Hotfolder Prints, but without the ability to change where the images are saved with the profiles, it does not help.

[alexsiskahn]

file....preferences
now you can change where phtoos are saved.

[snapshot]

That doesn't help his situation at all. That would just put all the photos in a different folder, not allow him to separate the photos into multiple folders.

It sounds like he would like to setup two different layouts where the user decides whether they want a strip or a photocube. If they choose a strip, they get saved to one folder, PSRemote or hotfolder prints formats it and sends it to a printer. If they choose the photocube, the photos get sent to a second folder where a second copy of hotfolder prints formats it and sends it to a different printer.

Seems like that wouldn't be too hard to implement, as you would just have to be able to add the destination folder to the xml data of the layout. Of course, I have no idea just how hard that would really be to program.

[Chris Breeze]

That's a good point. I need to think about the best way to link the output directory to the profile.

In the meantime here is an AutoHotKey script which monitors the path for the photobooth images and sets the output directory to match:
http://www.breezesys.com/downloads/photobooth_set_output_dir.zip

e.g. you could have two profiles using different photobooth images folders:
C:\Photobooth\Strips
and
C:\Photobooth\Cubes

The script would automatically set the output directory to
C:\Photobooth\Strips\Photos
or
C:\Photobooth\Cubes\Photos
depending on which profile is selected

You could then run two copies of Hotfolder Prints, one for each output folder, and have them print different layouts or send the output to different printers.

[inabooth]

Does this script change the output directory based on which profile is selected? I don't see where it references the current profile, just that it switched from ready.jpg to 1.jpg.

[Chris Breeze]

It reads the pathname of folder where the photobooth images are stored. For this to work each profile needs to use a different photobooth images folder.

[anastassis]

And what if in the ready.jpg, you give the option to the user to select number of picture to 3 or 4? how hotfolder prints will read this information and print the correct photostrip? thanks

[Chris Breeze]

Hotfolder Prints has no way of knowing how many prints were selected in the photobooth software. What you could do is have a different ready.jpg screen for each number of prints (ready_1.jpg, ready_2.jpg etc.) and then modify the AutoHotKey script to read the number of copies so that it can tell Hotfolder Prints how many copies to print. This could be tricky though because Hotfolder Prints isn't synchronised with the photobooth software and so you could finish taking one photobooth sequence, display the ready screen and have the next users change the number of prints before Hotfolder Prints has finished printing the first set.

[anastassis]

Actually i have a different ready.jpg screen for each number of prints and even more a have a different ready.jpg screen for B&W and Color modes (ready_b1.jpg, ready_c1.jpg, etc)

But with my understanding, it will be impossible for hotfolder prints to read the settings and/or the xml file, that the user choose in DSLR remote pro.

[Chris Breeze]

Hotfolder Prints can't monitor the settings selected in the photobooth software but you could adapt one of the AutoHotKey scripts to do this. The script would monitor the filename of the photobooth screen (ready_b1.jpg, ready_c1.jpg etc.) and send commands to HotFolder Prints to change the number of copies or switch from B&W to colour.

I'm working on a minor update to Hotfolder Prints so that it takes a copy of the number of prints and B&W/colour status when it detects a new file so that it can apply these settings when the file is printed. This should prevent problems with users changing the settings in the photobooth before the last set of images have been printed.

[Qapla]

With all the "new features" people have asked for, and the ones Chris has added, would it be possible to have hotfolder prints save the prints to more than one computer/folder?

The idea would be to have two(or more) computers networked together and use the second one for an app that would allow guests to browse the images and enter their email address for the ones they select. (and/or have a remote one that does a slide show)

This would allow the guests to enter email addresses without being "in" the booth causing other guests delays.