Latest posts…

jAlbum 35 is here! A new major release sets expectations, and I think you’ll appreciate this update, especially if you’re a long-time jAlbum user. v35 will help you keep your ever-growing list of jAlbum projects organized and presented in neat folder structures called Project Groups. Another improvement worth mentioning here is Project Previews – Just hover the mouse close to a project icon and a preview will show: The preview will show a screenshot of the final web gallery if such exists and is current, otherwise, it will show a larger version of the project thumbnail. To have previews refreshed, open the Project Gallery…

jAlbum 34 is here. With improved ordering, navigation, and Multi Maker, this release focuses on the needs of power users who maintain large galleries and many projects. Here’s all you need to know: Many of our users maintain many or large galleries with thousands of images and hundreds of folders. jAlbum is appreciated by both collectors, and nature photographers for making product presentations. For these purposes, a gallery can easily exceed 10.000 images in size. jAlbum 34 will be a welcome update for everyone, but especially for those of you who need to manage large image volumes or many projects.…

If you’re an old-time jAlbum user who hasn’t upgraded jAlbum for quite some time, then this is for you. Here we summarize major improvements we’ve made in the last two years (since v25). jAlbum is as relevant today as it was back then as values like integrity and control never go out of style, but you shouldn’t be sitting with a version that’s a decade old. Here is why. Usability Today’s jAlbum is easier to use, more flexible, and robust than ever: Speed It’s common to see software grow big and slow over the years. Not so with jAlbum. You’ll…

jAlbum 33 is here, adding tools for easy backup and restore of projects, and comes with more user-friendly settings. Let’s dive right into it. New settings window Based on support experience, we’ve reworked jAlbum’s settings window to be more user-friendly. The first thing you notice is that it has a much smaller window than before. This is because we’re using a new default skin called “Plain”. Plain only provides the most commonly used settings, and they are therefore easy to find. If you need more “bells and whistles”, go for our advanced skins like Tiger, PhotoBlogger, and Story. The second…

We’re proudly presenting jAlbum 32 to you. Here’s why you should get it: Improved WebP writer Now jAlbum produces far smaller and less blocky WebP images again. When we first introduced WebP images, it was clear that WebP produces the same quality images as JPEG, but uses less disk space. We however eventually needed to retire the WebP generating code as it was “native” (i.e. CPU specific) and didn’t support Apple’s new “Apple Silicon”. The new Java-based code, although fast, didn’t (to our surprise) produce as high-quality images as before: Images were larger and more blocky than we expected. Now…

I dare to claim that jAlbum v31 is the most important update we’ve made in years. Bold words, but even skeptics agree. This release brings jAlbum closer to your mobile phone than ever. We now use QR codes to ease everything from adding images and videos from your phone to previewing galleries on your phone and inviting others to contribute with images. The importance of this integration cannot be overstated: For many people, the mobile phone is now their preferred camera. After all, it fits in your pocket and the image quality has increased drastically over the years. Disregarding that,…

jAlbum 30.1 is a “sharp” release 😉. When we introduced Variants back in 2021, the galleries were given extra sharpness by providing higher-resolution images for screens where it matters. Now, the thumbnails within the jAlbum software appear super sharp as well. Here’s a comparison: For this example, I zoomed jAlbum’s thumbnails to max size using the zoom slider or CTRL+PLUS. The difference is less obvious with the standard zoom level, but anyone with a HiDPI or high-resolution screen will value this improvement. jAlbum’s thumbnails have previously only been rendered at 160×120 pixels resolution due to performance concerns: jAlbum quickly reads the…

With jAlbum 29.3, we’ve added a setting that puts an end to character encoding problems. If you’ve ever had difficulties displaying galleries with file names containing so-called “foreign” characters like “é, è, ü, Á and å”, tick this checkbox under Settings -> Advanced -> Naming: Just tick it and jAlbum will use the “base characters” instead for generated file names, i.e. “e, u, A and a” respectively. If no title has been explicitly set for an object, jAlbum will use the original name without file extension as the title. Character encoding problems can have multiple causes, but it boils down…

With the introduction of jAlbum 29, we now offer a version that runs natively on Apple’s M-series chips. This boosts performance significantly. Earlier versions of jAlbum have been relying on Apple’s “Rosetta 2” emulation to convert Intel code to the ARM64 / AArch64 code that Apple’s M-series chips use. If it wasn’t for the impressive performance of this chipset, the emulation would cause usability to suffer. Instead, even an entry-level M1 MacBook Air has been performing better than a 2015 MacBook Pro, but why stop there? Now with the introduction of direct M1 support, we’re boosting both startup performance and…

Tons of improvements rather than tons of new features. That could summarize jAlbum 29. We now also support Apple’s new M-series computers, boosting performance 3x compared to the Intel-based jAlbum version With jAlbum 29, we’ve leaped Java 14 to 19. That’s 5 generations of major Java releases, including tons of fixes for various platforms and new functionality. We’ve also updated several 3:rd party code libraries providing faster and more robust image processing, native code interaction, better encryption, and updates to the three scripting languages jAlbum supports (BeanShell, Groovy, and JavaScript). These changes are like replacing the engine your car runs…