Importing & Managing Images

Learn how to add photos to Album3D and manage your image collection effectively.

💡 Tip: In the future, Album3D will support other file types, such as videos.

Import Images Dialog

To import photos into your project:

Click "Import Images..." in the main menu.
Browse and select images from your computer:
- From Folder – select a folder containing images. You can choose to include subfolders; if you do, the same subfolder structure will be created inside the project. You can optionally skip the first N images. If "Max count" is enabled, the importer will import all images in the folder when "Import multiple sets" is enabled, or only up to the last available slide ID in the current set when it is disabled. You can limit how many images are imported by editing "File count".
- Specific Files – select individual image files from your computer. In the file browser, you can select multiple files using Ctrl+Click (Windows) or Cmd+Click (macOS) for individual files, Shift+Click for a range, and Ctrl+A / Cmd+A to select all.
- Click "Show selected files" to see a list of the selected images.
- "From image ID #" – you can edit the starting image ID for the import.
- Optionally, click "Latest ID" to automatically set the starting image ID to the latest selected slide ID.
- If you enable "Import multiple sets", the imported images can span multiple slide sets. The size of each slide set depends on the currently selected view image count.
Configure import settings:
- Frame – choose how imported images are framed. See Import Images: Frame for all frame options.
- Thumbnails – control thumbnail resolution, size factors, and cropping. See Import Images: Thumbnails for details.
- Process Files – choose where images are stored, how they are grouped and tagged, and how source files are copied and auto‑loaded. See Import Images: Process Files for recommendations and advanced options such as geolocation and overwrite behavior.
Click "Import..." or "Test Import":
- "Import..." – starts the import process with the selected settings. You may be prompted to sign in or purchase credits if needed.
- "Test Import" – starts the import process at no cost, but imported images will include a watermark. Use this option to test importing your own photos—for example, to see whether very high‑resolution images perform well on your device and whether your hardware can handle them smoothly.

💡 Tip: We recommend keeping each subfolder under about 10,000 images to avoid potential issues with file systems such as FAT32. If you want the same images in multiple albums, use the "Copy To Album" menu item instead of re‑importing. This opens the "Copy Slides to Album" dialog and helps avoid unnecessary duplication.

💡 Tip: The image ID is not the same as the slide position (index). The slide position is where the slide appears in the current image set, while the image ID uniquely identifies the underlying image within that set. Within each image set, IDs are numbered from 1 up to that set’s image count. Views and layouts can reuse the same image ID on multiple slide positions, so the number of slide positions can be greater than the number of distinct image IDs in the set. You can also import the same photo as separate IDs; they will look identical but count as different images in the project.

Supported Image Formats

Album3D supports the following image formats:

JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg, .jpe)
PNG (.png)
BMP (.bmp)
WebP (.webp)

Import Settings

IMPORT IMAGES: FRAME

Frame style dropdown - select the frame style from the dropdown.
Black & White frames - disable to use custom colors for the frames in the dropdown; otherwise, the dropdown frame colors will be black and white.
Frame on Top - enable to place the frame on top of the image. Otherwise, the frame will be around the image.
Size per N px - enable this to define the frame size relative to a side length of N pixels; otherwise, the frame uses a fixed pixel size regardless of the imported image dimensions.
Frame sizes and colors - enter the outer and inner frame sizes and colors.
Zoom [%] - adjust the zoom level for the frame preview.

IMPORT IMAGES: THUMBNAILS

Resolution:
- Max Resolution – choose a maximum thumbnail resolution from a dropdown (based on the longer or shorter side)
- Shorter/Longer Side Size Factors – adjust the shorter‑ and longer‑side factors to control the final size of imported thumbnail textures. For best performance, these textures use dimensions that are powers of two, but they are still displayed with the correct aspect ratio.
Crop:
- Crop – enable this to crop the thumbnails according to the specified settings.
- Defaults – click this to restore the default crop settings.
- Delta X/Y [%] – adjust the percentage offset from the center for cropping.
- Min/Max Crop Ratios – set the minimum and maximum crop ratios for the thumbnails.

IMPORT IMAGES: PROCESS FILES

Subfolder – choose a project subfolder to import the images into. If you need the same images in multiple albums, you can reuse the same subfolder to reduce duplication—unless you are using different settings such as frame, crop, or thumbnail resolution. A single subfolder should not contain more than about 10,000 images, which is a relatively safe limit even on older FAT32 file systems. The first 10,000 album images (#IDs) go into "Subfolder/01", then into "Subfolder/02", and so on. An empty image slot can also count as an image (#ID).
Group – enter a name for this group of imported images. This helps you identify the group later in the Search dialog.
Tags – enter tags to help you find the imported images later.
Copy Source Files – copy the source images into the project. This is recommended (and effectively required) for auto‑loading to work reliably, especially if you plan to share the project. For more about how source files are used, see Auto‑Loading Source Images. If you don’t copy the source files, auto‑loading will only work if the images were previously copied during earlier imports for other slides or if "Save Original File Paths" is enabled and those paths remain valid.
Save Original File Paths – store the original file paths in the project file. This is not required for auto‑loading, but it can be useful for tracing the original source of the images. Be aware that if you move files (for example, to an external drive), these paths may become invalid. For sharing projects, we strongly recommend enabling Copy Source Files so the project contains its own copies. Avoid putting sensitive information in your file paths.
Auto‑Load ONE Image – automatically load the highest‑resolution available image for each slide. This provides the best visual quality but can increase memory usage if many high‑resolution images are loaded at once. See Auto‑Loading Source Images for details and performance tips.
Save Geolocation If Available – store geolocation information in the project file when it is available. This is optional but useful if you want to keep track of where photos were taken.
Overwrite – overwrite existing files without asking.

Auto-Loading Source Images

What are Source Images?

Source images are the original, high-resolution versions of your photos stored alongside your project. In the Search dialog they are prefixed with "SRC:" and the original file extensions are prefixed with ".src".

Paths to the original source image files (their original locations on disk) are prefixed with "ORIG:" in the Search dialog.

Source File Naming

Original source files copied to the project are renamed to include .src in their filenames before the original file extension (for example, photo.src.jpg). If you later re‑import one of these .src files, Album3D detects the suffix and does not add another .src.

Benefits of Keeping Source Files

Higher quality - Access original resolution when needed.
Re-import - Regenerate thumbnails with different settings.
Editing - Edit originals and re-import.
Archival - Preserve original photos.
Efficient storage – Thumbnails are stored in formats that are fast for your graphics card. At the same resolution, these GPU‑optimized thumbnails can actually take more space on disk than the original photos in formats such as JPEG. This means keeping the originals can not only reduce the total storage your project needs, but also improve the quality of rendered images (see Auto-Loading Source Images).

How Auto-Loading Works

When "Auto-Load ONE Image" is enabled, Album3D tries to load the original source image for a slide when you select it, if that file is available (either because it was copied into the project or because its original file path was saved and is still valid; see Copy Source Files). This gives you the best visual quality but can increase memory usage if many full-resolution images are loaded at the same time.

Album3D first looks for .src.* files in the project src subfolder or at the original file paths (depending on the setting in the SOURCE FILE LOADING OPTIONS dialog).
If a matching source file is found, it is auto-loaded and used for high-quality rendering.
If no source file is found, only the imported thumbnail is shown, at a resolution that depends on your import settings.

In "ADVANCED FILE LOADING OPTIONS" you can also enable "Auto-Load All Source Images". When this is turned on, Album3D loads every available source image into memory at once, using the format you selected.

If you pick one of the "Uncompressed" options and leave "As Thumbnails" turned off, all images are loaded at their full resolution. This is rarely needed and not recommended for normal use, because it can use a very large amount of memory and may cause the app to slow down or even crash on less powerful devices.

If you enable "As Thumbnails", Album3D generates thumbnails from the source files instead of loading every full‑resolution image. To keep memory usage reasonable, choose "Resize to Power of 2 – Compress (Lossy)" and adjust the thumbnail resolution as needed. This mode can still slow the application while thumbnails are being created, but it is useful if you want to increase thumbnail resolution for the current project without re‑importing your images.

In "ADVANCED FILE LOADING OPTIONS" you can also change the default format for "Auto-Load ONE Image". The default is "Uncompressed (Highest Quality)". We do not recommend changing this setting, because other formats can reduce image quality or cause the application to slow down and stutter while showing slides.

Best Practices

Organize before importing - Sort photos into folders first.
Ordered filenames – By default, files are sorted alphabetically by name (for example, 0001.jpg comes before 0010.jpg). If your camera’s naming scheme doesn’t guarantee chronological order, consider renaming the files before importing.
Keep source files - Store originals in the src subfolder by selecting "Copy Source Files" when importing.
Choose appropriate quality - Balance quality and file size.
Import in batches - Group related photos together.

Next Steps

Albums & Slides - Organize imported photos.
Project Management - Save and package your work.
Settings & Customization - Adjust import defaults.

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