Adding "Image resolution" to the file attributes to show as a column

[M.krabs]

Hello Gnome community,

The suggested enhancement aims to include an “Image Resolution” column in the file list view of Nautilus. This column would display the resolution information (width x height) for image files as well as video files.

Currently the list consists of the following ones:

I didn’t find any tickets or discussion about this feature, so I created this one here first, and if needed will open a feature ticket on GNOME / Files · GitLab.

[Mikenux (Michaël Berteaux (GNOME User))]

Hello @M.krabs !

Could you tell why you want to see such info directly ?

[ivarhill]

I would like to second this as well. Seeing image resolution at a glance is widely relevant across many different situations, for instance:

• Viewing a folder with hundreds of images and wanting to sort them by size, or make sure they are the same size, and so on
• Working with image files that aren’t photos, where it’s often more relevant to view or sort by pixel dimensions
• Quickly seeing if a certain file has a desired resolution, without having to open it in another application
• More broadly, virtually any file management when working with photography, graphic design or the like stands to benefit immensely.

One could possibly argue the average user has somewhat less of a need for this, although the same could certainly be said for the owner, group and permissions columns. Regardless I do think it’s not useful strictly for more technical users - even everyday users have needs to check dimensions for printing something, sorting by size, and so on.

Just my personal view though, it’s possible it’s less widely used than I think!

[M.krabs]

Hi @Mikenux,

I could think of many possible and specific usecases, with the core reason for this feature being to quickly see the resolution from the explorer without needing to:

open explorer at path > highlight image > right click > Properties > Image

Instead the user wouldn’t need to do anything (once the vies is active):

open explorer at path (prerequisite that the file view has resolution active)

[Mikenux (Michaël Berteaux (GNOME User))]

Thanks for the answers. The problem is that this can then be done for any property of the files (not just images) that any user finds relevant…

[patriziobruno]

Yes. The same code that reads file properties can be used to add those properties as columns in the file viewer. There was a time when Nautilus supported that. Just like Windows Explorer and MacOS Finder.

[oholy (Ondrej Holy)]

See: GitHub - atareao/nautilus-columns: Adds new columns to Nautilus, so you can view such metadata information. Besides MP3 and FLAC, the script was also updated to support JPEG EXIF shooting data.

[M.krabs]

See: Not available in Ubuntu 22.04 · Issue #20 · atareao/nautilus-columns · GitHub

[M.krabs]

I understand that every property can be used to filter files, which is a good thing = endless possibilities.

What makes some filters (like file type or file size) more important / worth being in the filter list, than others (file resolution) ? This is 100% dependent on the community and the users needing particular filters.

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Windows has the “top filters” on their main menu: source

And “every” single other imaginable filter in a second menu: source

Looking at my beautiful drawing, you can see that this solution does not feel gnome like, which is why I didn’t want to suggest it (even thought it would solve more than just this ticket).

Using a third party solution (see reply above) is more work and risk than just having it natively in nautilus.