PixiePlus Users Guide: Section 1.3
Unlike the KDE file manager, Konqueror, Pixie does not by default automatically make thumbnail previews when entering a folder. This is because it can be extremely annoying to automatically start generating thumbnails when entering a folder of several hundred, (or thousand!), images. This means that unless you configure Pixie otherwise you have to use the "Make Previews" button when you want to see image previews.
Images without a preview are represented by a photo of me. Yeah, I know it may
seem arrogant to use photos of myself but it's a fringe benefit of writing
free software. If you want to see the thumbnail previews you need to press
this button on the toolbar. The cursor will turn into
an animated spinning cursor and it will start making all the previews. The
progressbar on the bottom will indicate how many you have to make.
Pixie uses persistant thumbnails. This means once you make thumbnail previews you don't have to remake them every time you enter a folder. If you have a couple thousand images it can take awhile to make all the thumbnails, but once finished Pixie is very fast at viewing them from then on. Pixie features an optimized demand-loaded thumbnail preview loader specifically oriented to dealing with hundreds or thousands of previews.
You can still do things while making image thumbnails, but until KDE3.0 comes
out with multithreading it will be slow. If the operation is taking too long
you can press the stop button. Any thumbnails you already
made will stay valid.
If you only have a few dozen images in your image folders it may be more convenient for you to automatically have Pixie generate thumbnail previews for you. While this is annoying when dealing with a couple thousand images, it can also be annoying to have to manually press the "Make Previews" button if you only have a few photos.
To select this option, use the "View" item on the menubar, then select the "Previews" submenu. Click on "Automake Previews" to automatically generate image previews when entering a folder.
This option will still generate persistant thumbnails so they won't have to be remade every time you enter a folder.
Pixie supports four different thumbnail sizes:
To select the size you want use the "View" item on the menubar, then select the "Thumbnail Size" submenu. Larger previews are higher quality but take up more space, while smaller previews are harder to see but you can fit more inside the browser window.
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