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Why are my icons of aliases does not preview images thumbnail?

Hi!


WhenI createaliasestoimage files, only a fewof themhave apreviewimagein thealiasiconandthumbnail viewfinder worksas goodastheoriginalimage files? (I changed the system to os x Lion and continues to be the same as in Snow Leo. ;( )


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MacPro, Mac OS X (10.6.6), MacPro 8-core | 16 GB | Leoprad |ATI 1900 XT | 4 HDD RAID 1|

Posted on Jan 20, 2012 2:05 AM

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9 replies

Jan 20, 2012 2:39 AM in response to art.mariusz

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How the Alias-icon will look, depends on what you see in the "Get Info" panel of the original file,

see the above example:

  • If the "GetInfo" icon of the original file shows the custom icon, the alias icon also will.
  • If the "GetInfo" icon of the original file only shows a generic icon, the alias icon also only will show the generic icon.


To recreate the proper custom icon for an image, open the image in Preview or any other image browser, select all of the image (or any rectangular selection) with cmd-A, and copy the selection to the clipboard. Then paste the clipboard contents into the icon well of the image's "Get Info" panel. After that also the aliases should show your proper custom icons.


Cheers

Léonie

Jan 20, 2012 3:31 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

🙂 Thank You.


But I would like to use very many, many aliases. I do not want to edit manualy each the original images.


Aliases one photo I put in many different folders.
I do not understand why the option CMD + J "View Options / Show icon preview" in the Finder can not create a preview for photos alias as it does for the original file?


In my work is not useful to me to be a solution iPhoto, etc. I have to work on the Finder and aliases.

From what I remember Tiger Finder is a system had such an effect.


According to me it's very useful and essential function for the alias images. There not necessarily must be scaled but should be preserved some miniature

What then?

Jan 20, 2012 3:42 AM in response to art.mariusz

Aliases one photo I put in many different folders.
I do not understand why the option CMD + J "View Options / Show icon preview" in the Finder can not create a preview for photos alias as it does for the original file?


I do not want to use iPhoto, etc.. I have to work on the Finder and aliases.
According to me it's very useful and essential function for the alias images. There must be scaled but should be preserved some miniature

The icon previews in Finder are created on the fly. The views are likely cached, so it may exist as you hope. But, it doesn't appear that an alias brings with it enough information. The preview in column view does display the image of the original.


You might try providing feedback to Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

But, since they already have a built-in photo manager, I wouldn't think it would get a high priority.

Jan 20, 2012 3:56 AM in response to art.mariusz

If you are worried about the size of aliases, you might consider to use symbolic links instead - that depends on what you want to do with your references to the files instead.


Apples alias tend to be large, even if no large icons are included - symbolic links are always small.


If your original file has a custom icon, the symbolic link's icon will have that icon too.

User uploaded file

Compare the sizes of the alias and the symbolic link - the alias has a huge file size compared to the original file, a symlink is much more economical, and even does show the custom icon.


You create symbolic links from the Terminal,

type

man ln

into the window to see a manual entry how to create symlinks. (ln is short for: link)


The short form of the "ln" command is

ln -s path to the file to be linked path to the symlink to be created



for example:

ln -s map.png map.sym


will create a symlink called "map.sym" to the file "map.png" and place the link into the same folder as map.sym.


See A brief tutorial on symbolic links: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643


Regards

Léonie

Jan 20, 2012 6:12 AM in response to léonie

Thanks! The idea of symbolic links seems to be the best solution. This is the first step.

But that still does not solve the problem.

Needed is a simple way to landing the icons to view images from the camera.


The problem is just as when working from the Finder to create such links.

I found a nice article. Both methods work very well. From the Finder menu, create symbolic links.


Symbolic links made ​​simple

http://www.macworld.com/article/153437/2010/08/symlinkservice.html


and: SymbolicLinker takes the hassle out of symlinking

http://www.macworld.com/article/144680/2009/12/symboliclinker.html

Jan 20, 2012 8:29 AM in response to art.mariusz

Thank you for all the suggestions. It helped me solve my problem.



1) I added the file "SymbolicLinker.service" to the directory / home / library / services.

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2) I created in Automator New Service "Make Thumbnail"

* Service Receives "files or folders" in "Finder"

* Add actions: "Get Selected Finder Items"

* Add actions: "Add Thumbnail Icon to Image Files"


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This is not a perfect solution.

Advantages:

+ Small size of aliases

+ Change the icon to change the icons orginału symbolic alias



Cons:

- After adding thumbnail images to the original file is no longer scale the preview icon in the Finder QucikLook and zoom icons.


User uploaded file

Why are my icons of aliases does not preview images thumbnail?

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