I'm thinking about upgrading from the demo version so that I can use the command line interface. But I did not find any documentation of how to use that interface, or what precisely I can do with it. NeatImage /? does not output any information in the Demo version.
For example could I do this: just pass NeatImage a directory name, and it will use Auto Match Profile with Auto Fine Tune Profile on each single picture in the directory, overwriting each image with the de-noised one? If Yes: What will happen if I have the Home version and there's more than 50 files in the directory?
And while I'm asking about upgrading : is the 16bit processing of the Pro version only about in- and output, or also about internal processing? More precisely: will the results of NI on 8bit images differ between Home and Pro version, and will the Pro version be slower than the Home version?
Neat Image command line format:
NeatImage.exe <InputImage> [<OutputImage>] [<Profile>] [<Preset>] [/switches] [/?]
<InputImage> - the input image file to be filtered
<OutputImage> - the name of the output image
<Profile> - the device noise profile to be used
<Preset> - the filter preset to be used
Switches:
ap - auto profile image (includes auto fine-tuning)
aft - auto fine-tune specified (or matched) device noise profile to input image
mp - auto match device noise profile to input image
mf - auto match filter preset to input image and device noise profile
sl - process specified image and exit silently (no GUI)
Examples:
NeatImage.exe DSCN4071.JPG DSCN4071_ni.TIF CoolPix950-ISO300.dnp default.nfp
NeatImage.exe DSCN4071.JPG DSCN4071_ni.TIF CoolPix950-ISO300.dnp default.nfp /aft
NeatImage.exe DSCN4071.JPG DSCN4071_ni.TIF /mp /mf
NeatImage.exe DSCN4071.JPG DSCN4071_ni.TIF default.nfp /ap /sl
Using this command line interface you can process one image at a time. To process many images you have to create a BAT or CMD file with many lines like the above examples. You may have to use the START command with the /WAIT key to make Windows process each new line after the previous one is completed (not in parallel).
Regarding the Pro edition, it is different from the Home edition in its input/output capabilities. Internal processing is done with high accuracy in both editions and there is no difference in speed.
I got my Home edition and followed your advice, and it worked!
There seems to be a bit of a strange behaviour of NI, though. When calling NeatImage.exe /? directly from the command line, it finished itself immediately (couldn't even read the screen). NeatImage.exe -? worked, however... also, it took me quite some fiddling with the start /wait until it worked correctly. I haven't seen anything like that with other software so far. Do you have any additional advice on why it is that way, and what I am doing wrong in the cases when NI just exits immediately?
When I am starting it this way: NeatImage.exe /?
it shows the instruction just fine. I do this in the command prompt. It also works in a shortcut.
How do you start Neat Image? Please quote the exact command you run. I wonder what is wrong there, because the command line interface works just fine for me.
thank you for your patience - and sorry: it was a false alert. What really happens is this:
I use cygwin on my windows system. When I say 'NeatImage /?' (without the quotes) from the cygwin command line, a window appears for a fraction of a second and is going away again. If I say 'NeatImage -?' instead, it works. I imagine that probably cygwin is translating the '/' character in some way which causes this.
Apart from that, all my problems came from strange effects of the 'start' command, and from failing to notice that NI was really running in the background in many cases when I thought it just quit immediately on start. As a reference for other users, I include complete examples of successful command lines both for cmd and for cygwin:
Both commands take the image in images\test.jpg, use profile matching and auto fine tuning, write the result in the current directory, exit without ever showing a GUI or taking the focus, and return only after the command has actually finished executing.
To get the desired output quality, make that quality the default in Tools / Options / Output.
: is the 16bit processing of the Pro version only about in- and output, or also about internal processing? More precisely: will the results of NI on 8bit images differ between Home and Pro version, and will the Pro version be slower than the Home version?
