Archives For jimingkui

This quick tutorial is going to show you a really simple photo collage maker application called PhotoCollage.

Although Ubuntu has fotowall in its repositories, PhotoCollage make things much easier.

photocollage-baby1

PhotoCollage is a free and open source tool written in Python. It assembles the input photographs you give it to generate a big poster. Photos are arranged to fill the whole poster, however you can influence the algorithm to change the final layout. You can also set a custom border between photos, and save the generated image in the resolution you want.

Features:

  • generate random new layouts until one suits the user
  • choose border color and width
  • save high-resolution image
  • works even with a large number of photos (> 100)
  • integrates into the GNOME environment
  • available in English and French

Install PhotoCollage in Ubuntu:

The project is hosted on github.com, you can run below commands in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) one by one to get the code and install it:

git clone https://github.com/adrienverge/PhotoCollage.git

cd PhotoCollage

sudo python3 setup.py install

Thanks to dhor, the package is also available in his PPA for Ubuntu 14.04. Below commands will add the PPA and install PhotoCollage from that repository.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install photocollage

HP printers in Linux
 

HP print, scan and fax Drivers for Linux just got an update a few hours ago with new printers and Linux Distros support, Linux Mint 17 Qiana is included.

HPLIP (Hewlett-Packard Linux Imaging & Printing) is an HP-developed solution for printing, scanning, and faxing with HP inkjet and laser based printers in Linux. It is free, open source software distributed under the MIT, BSD, and GPL license.

The latest HPLIP 3.14.6 was released on June 4th, which added support for Boss 5.0, Debian 7.5, Linux Mint 17, and following new printers:

  • HP DesignJet Z6600 PostScript
  • HP DesignJet Z6800PS Photo
  • HP DesignJet D5800 60-in Production Printer
  • HP DesignJet T3500 36-in Production eMFP
  • HP Designjet T7200 42-in Production Printer
  • HP Deskjet 2543 All-in-One Printer
  • HP Deskjet 2549 All-in-One Printer
  • HP OfficeJet Pro 8640 e-All-in-One Printer
  • HP OfficeJet Pro 8660 e-All-in-One Printer

Also there are a few bug fixes:

  • Fixed Device Communication Error on launching HP Device Manager
  • Unable to add/remove file in ‘hp-sendfax’ wizard
  • Fax cover page does not get changed after changing recipient second time
  • Improved scan performance for ‘hp-scan’ utility

Install HPLIP 3.14.6:

1. Download the installer:

Download HPLIP 3.14.6

Or check out if there’s a new release at official page.

2. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the installer via:

cd ~/Downloads && chmod +x hplip-3.14.6.run && ./hplip-3.14.6.run

Answer the questions to finish the installing process. Once done, restart your computer.

Install Scribus 1.4.4 Ubuntu 14.04

The desktop publishing (DTP) application Scribus 1.4.4 was released a few days ago on May 29. The new release features exporting to PDF/X-1a, a standard popular with print-on-demand services.

The feature was backported from the development version 1.5 which is still in the making. After activated “color management tool” in Preferences, you’ll see the option in the drop-down box of Compatibility at next launch.

Scribus 1.4.4 save as pdf

According to the announcement, Scribus 1.4.4 will likely be the last release in the 1.4.x branch, and the Scribus Team will from now on solely focus on the development of the next major version 1.6.

Most Important Changes:

  • PDF/X-1a export.
  • The Barcode plug-in has been updated to reflect the latest changes in the underlying Barcode Writer in Pure PostScript (BWIPP).
  • The Autoquote script has been rewritten and enhanced. It now provides more options and adds thin spaces to French texts where appropriate.
  • A script to align images in frames has been added.
  • Full support of the OpenICC Directory Proposal (http://www.oyranos.org/wiki/index.php?title=OpenIccDirectoryProposal).
  • The handling of transparencies in Photoshop-generated TIFF files has been improved.
  • Page borders can now act as guides (and thus be used for snapping of items).
  • The CMYK color palette created by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) for newspaper advertisements has been integrated into Scribus.
  • A new color palette for professional geographers has been added.
  • Export to various bitmap formats has been re-enabled on Mac OS X.
  • Several issues related to the user interface and canvas display have been resolved.
  • Adjustments for Windows 8.x.
  • An issue with the spellchecker, resulting in a crash, has been resolved.
  • Documentation and translation updates and improvements.
  • More details, see the official release note.

Install Scribus 1.4.4:

Before writing this tutorial, there is no repository for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS users yet, so I made Scribus 1.4.4 into PPA (using Ubuntu’s default building rules).

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install scribus

Available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10 and Ubuntu 12.04.

(Optional) To remove it and revert back to original version available in Ubuntu repository, run:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

That’s it. Enjoy!

Popcorn Time, a free and open-source torrent streaming service, becomes stable since release 0.3.1

Popcorn Time allows you to watch movies, TV shows easily streaming from torrents, without any particular knowledge. It’s a good alternative if Netflix is not supported in your country.

Popcorn Time TV shows

Popcorn Time Currently used:

  • YIFY movie torrents API.
  • YifySubtitles for movie subtitles
  • OpenSubtitles for tv shows subtitles
  • Trakt.tv for movies metadata.
  • EZTV for TV Show torrents

The first stable version was release a few days ago with below features added:

  • mirror failback to yify subtitles.
  • icons and links to about dialog
  • methods to mark movie as watched
  • quality filter for movies
  • Advanced Settings with Connection, DHT, Tmp Folder options
  • Pressing ESC to closes modals
  • a help view for keyboard shortcuts. Press ?
  • Draggable subtitles. Move subtitles around the player
  • Drag and drop subtitles on the player to load a custom SRT file
  • Better init screen
  • Added Croatian, Thai and Vietnamese languages

Install Popcorn Time in Ubuntu 14.04:

This repository is currently disabled due to a DMCA takedown notice.

Downloading copyrighted material may be illegal in your country. Use at your own risk.

Thanks to Webupd8 Team, a script has been made into the PPA to automatically download the Linux package from Popcorn Time website and install it on your Ubuntu. Currently, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.10 are supported.

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/popcorntime

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install popcorn-time

When the script starts, you’ll be asked to accept the licence.

Popcorn Time on github: https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-app

Install Google Sketchup Ubuntu 14.04

I’ve posted a tutorial about how to install Google SketchUp 2013 in Ubuntu 13.04, but it seems to be outdated. So I decide to write this how-to and hope it will help those who are trying to get Google SketchUp Make 2014 working in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS through wine.

UPDATE 2024: This tutorial is outdated! It does no longer work in current Ubuntu releases!

First of all, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install the latest development Wine 1.7 from its PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wine1.7

Once wine is installed, config it by running:

winecfg

In “Wine Configuration” window, you may:

  • Change Windows Version to Windows 7 in the bottom of the Applications tab.
  • Under Libraries tab, select ‘Riched20’ library from the drop-down list and add it

wine-configuration

Now download the Windows package of SketchUp EXE from the official link below:

Download Google SketchUp

Right-click on the EXE and select open it via Wine:

open-with-wine

Follow the install wizard and finally you’ll get SketchUp installed with shortcut icons on your desktop.

Tips:

1. On my 64 bit Ubuntu 14.04, SketchUp 2014 hangs after choosing a template. This has been reported as a bug and seemed to be fixed in Wine 1.7.19. However, I still get this error.

The workaround is disable Ruby API by launching SketchUp via:

wine "C:\Program Files (x86)\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp.exe" "/DisableRubyAPI"

Or, in the Properties window of the desktop shortcut, add /DisableRubyAPI to the end of command area:

disablerubyapi

2. If sketch up doesn’t work because of a problem with a graphics card

1. Run below command to bring up Registry Editor:

wine regedit

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Google -> SketchUp version -> GLConfig -> Display

3. Change the value of HW_OK to 1 (so that it shows up as 0×00000001 (1)

Nvidia ubuntu 14.04

Nvidia 337.25 was released yesterday as the latest short lived branch version for Linux. The new driver brings lots of fixes and improvements and adds support for following GPUs:

  • GeForce GTX TITAN Z
  • GeForce GT 740
  • GeForce 830M
  • GeForce 840M
  • GeForce 845M
  • GeForce GTX 850M

For a complete list of changes, read the official announcement.

Install Nvidia Driver 337.25 in Ubuntu:

Below steps will teach you how to manually install the official .run package in Ubuntu:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to remove previous installed proprietary driver:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-331-updates-dev

2. After restarted your computer, download the driver:

32 bit Linux 64 bit Linux 32 bit ARM

3. Switch to command console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2 ~ F6) on keyboard and log in.

4. Kill the graphical session via:

sudo service lightdm stop

For Gnome GDM or Linux Mint MDM, you may replace lightdm with gdm or mdm in the command.

5. Give permission, start the installer and follow the on screen prompts.

chmod +x ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-337.25.run && sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-337.25.run

Tips:You may keep the installer file so that you can remove this driver via below command if for some reason it does not work properly:

sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-337.25.run --uninstall

HDR raw merging app in Uubntu

HDRMerge is an open source tool that makes merging raw images really simple. It fuses two or more raw images into a single raw with an extended dynamic range. It can import any raw image supported by LibRaw, and outputs a DNG 1.4 image with floating point data. The output raw is built from the less noisy pixels of the input, so that shadows maintain as much detail as possible.

HDRMerge-main

To use this HDRMerge, source images must be made with the same camera. Once the input images are loaded, the interface presents you with a 100% preview of the result. The selected pixels from each input image are painted with a different color. You can then pan the result to inspect it.

This tool also offers a bottom toolbar that allows to remove ‘ghosts’ from the resulting image. Once the preview is satisfactory, the Save HDR option of the File menu generates the output DNG file.

Install HDRMerge in Ubuntu 14.04:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hdrmerge

Once installed, start the GUI via command:

hdrmerge

via: github page

Linux Mint 17 Qiana

Linux Mint 17 Qiana, a long term support release which will be supported until 2019, is finally available for download for both the Cinnamon and the MATE flavors.

Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” is based on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS and all future Mint releases will be based only on Ubuntu LTS.

The first flavors released are Cinnamon and MATE and the ISOs come before the official announcement, available for download at Irish mirror:

Linux Mint 17 (Irish mirror)

The official announcement is coming soon, be sure to check out release details at LinuxMint.com

pinta add-in support

Pinta, an open-source, bitmap image drawing and editing program inspired by Paint.NET, has reached release 1.5 with many new features, improvements. Add-in support is one of the great new features.

As you may know, Pinta is a bitmap image editor with many features typical of image editing software including drawing tools, image filters and color adjustment tools. It features unlimited undo history, unlimited Layers, and multiple language support.

pinta image drawing and editing software

Th latest Pinta 1.5 was released on May 24 which brings following new features and improvements:

  • Re-editable text
  • Mouse cursors now resize based on the active brush size.
  • The Move Selection and Move Selected tools can now rotate the selection using the right mouse button.
  • Added an Invert Selection command.
  • New or redesigned mouse cursors for every tool.
  • Improved OSX integration (file associations and improved dock integration)
  • Redesigned Windows installer, which automatically downloads and installs the correct version of GTK# and the .NET Framework if necessary
  • Improved JPEG Compression Dialog (remembers previous settings and has the OK button as the default control)
  • The Open File dialog now shows image previews for ORA files, as well as any file formats provided by add-ins.

User can now use the Add-in Manager (under the Add-ins menu) to browse and install add-ins.The developers are in the process of setting up a community add-in repository which will be included by default in future Pinta releases.

pinta add-in support

Also, there are a lot of bug-fixes. See the release note for details.

Install Pinta 1.5 in Ubuntu:

The latest release has been made into the official PPA for Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty LTS, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy and Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal.

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pinta

(Optional) To remove this app as well as the PPA repository, run:

sudo apt-get remove pinta

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable

sudo apt-get update