FF Librarian - How does it looks and how it works visually?

There is in the buy page an option to buy the Librarian Software and as there is not much information about it, I can not know if it would be interesting, helpful and useful to buy or not, so to be able to decide if I would like to buy it or not, I would like some more information

I do not need to have a library backup of the filters, the reason I am asking is because of the software Librarian that could help to search and view the FF in a different and possibly better way than what is on the website or in the obsolete browser included in FF.

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Filter Forge Librarian simplifies installation of the filter library backup into Filter Forge. Filter Forge Librarian requires the filter library backup to operate. It allows you to view the filters inside the library backup and sel ect specific filters to be installed into Filter Forge. It also generates filter caches for installed filters. Librarian is based on Filter Forge technology: don't try to run Filter Forge and Librarian simultaneously.

Considering what is told, I understand that Librarian is a standalone software that uses the library backup and contains all the filters available until the moment of the last library backup and it is made for viewing and selecting the filters included in the library backup in a visual way with a GUI interface

1 - How does it look the GUI interface of the Librarian?

There is not any kind of screenshots to see what it is and how is organized


2 - How are shown the filters ? I suposse and think that it may be a grid of thumbnails, but how big are those thumbnails?


3 - Can you configure how many thumbnails to be shown and how big they are?

Because on the FF Software all the thumbnails are really very tiny and you can not see anything, only you can see something bigger if you activate the obsolete filter browser


I think that you can search through all the library backup for filters, but

4 - how is done this search?

Works in the same way as in the library website online?


5 - How is shown the filters that are found on the search? In a list ?

and if you select to view a filter fr om the library backup, is it shown as it appears on the library online, or is done in a different way?


6 - What happens with the filter variations of the additional 8 presets included, are they shown in the same awkward way and bad as it happens in the website? i mean that you click on a preset, you go to it and then have to go back to the previous full page and thrn select another one, there is no back/forward buttons on the presets variations images


7 - If the Librarian depends totally on the library backup, what happens with new filters that may appear after I have bought the backup? Does it get updated in some way? Can it connect to the online library and download the new filters?


8 - it has been told that the FF 5 Librarian will not work with FF 6, so will I have to buy again each time the Librarian software for each new software major upgrade? ( FF 6, FF 7, and so on)


9 - why there is no screenshots of the Librarian software showing how it works and looks like, and also would be good to have more information if you are going to pay for it.

I think that maybe if it was more clear, with more information and some screenshots and explaining how it works it could convince more people and could be selling more

So if the Librarian is able to show the filters better than what is avaialble now, I could consider buying it if I think is helpful and useful to use instead of the Online Library

Thanks for your brief answer and showing this well done page that explains well how is librarian working

The link shown gives answer to questions 1, 2, 5, 9

BUT you did not answer to the questions 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8

You do not have to give a detailed answer to these questions, just a brief one or simple yes or no

I would like to buy it, but I can not decide to buy it or not if I do not know all the information about it

For question 7 it seems that as it is now it does not get updated and you are force to buy a new filter backup?

What would be best and good is that once you buy the Librarian it could be able to download any update made to the filter library backup so it is kept updated, as you have paid already for both, or at least be able to be able to download them from website.

From reading this text it may answer question 8

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Both Filter Library Backup and Librarian are linked to a specific Filter Forge version, for example, Filter Forge 5.0 won't accept filters from Librarian 4.0. Librarian requires corresponding licenses for Filter Library Backup and Filter Forge. If Librarian fails to find these licenses, it won't start. Please contact the support team to resolve this issue.

It means then that will have to buy a new Librarian version for each New filter forge version that is released and also of course have to buy a new filter library backup as the Librarian depends on it

SpaceRay,

"7 - If the Librarian depends totally on the library backup, what happens with new filters that may appear after I have bought the backup? Does it get updated in some way? Can it connect to the online library and download the new filters?"

When I read that the FF Librarian only allows you download the Filteres that were made on the day of the purchase I said that can't be. It did not make any sense to me and I assumed that it also did not make sense to the FF management. Probably a typo. Well it was not a typo.

When I got my library card, this allowed me to get any book in the library. As new books came in I was also able to borrow them. They could call it the library archival card but my local Librarian has that sense not to do so.

In the FF World when I got my FF Library card, this allowed me to get any Filter in the FF Library. As new Filters are added My FF library card is useless. My FF Library card is very convenient to use so I asked the FF Librarian to please allow me to get the newer FF Filters but they said no. Because they call it Archival thus we are limited to the old Filters and they cannot change that. Well they can. They simply remove the date limitation. They are the masters of the FF Universe and they can do whatever they please.

Heck FF is such a great product and will have to live with the Librarian date of purchase limitation. Yes you can have the 10,000 or so Filters using the Librarian but not the newer 500.

I will definitely get the FF 6! So when FF 6 is released I get the Librarian 6 witch will allow me download perhaps 100 to 200 Filtes? That's it, no more! Do I have that right?

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SpaceRay wrote: As it already happens with FF software that you can download any new update for free when you buy it, it could be possible that you could download any new Library backup that is available and replace the old one for the new one

Hi SpaceRay,

Yes the upgdate is free but the date of purchase does not change. So I am limited to downloading only the Filters made prior to the date of purchase.

It is hard to believe that yes you can have the 10,000 or so Filters using the Librarian but not the newer 500. Using the FREE OL and OLIFF download methods yes you have access to all the Filter including the 500 newer ones. Unfortunately I had a bad experience using these methods. But using the PAID FF Librarian/Backup no I cannot get the 500 newer Filters. I get a headache just thinking about this convoluted way of doing business. I wonder why these obviously very capable Filter Forge people do business this way.

Thank you, @SpaceRay for asking this, and thanks GMM for posting the info page. I've been getting emails suggesting I buy this product for ages, but it is expensive and I had no idea what to really expect, so I have refrained from purchasing. The one thing that might convince me to buy the product would be an improved search functionality. But since GMM has said it is the same as within FF itself, I'm sure now that I don't need it.

In FF it drives me crazy when I know the name of the filter I want to use, but even when I search for the exact filter name, the filter I want doesn't appear at the top of the search results list. I still have to scroll to find it.

I wish librarian had access to the website so we could easily and quickly download filters threw librarian instead of going to the website, currently I can not even download filters threw the website without Filter forge 5 crashing.

Note: text has been updated since the first time

Maybe there is a confusion with the below quotes.

What I wanted to say about dowloading any new library backup that may become available, I mean that GMM has told that the Library backup gets updated each week, and as FF Library depends on the Library backup you could be able to download any version related available backup ( in the same way that you can do it with FF software) and so you could have any new filters that have been added since the last backup version

I agree with Skybase and that this is a backup library and not a download tool, and understand that it will not be able to download any new filter directly from the FF library as this would need to modify much of the code, but it could recognize and use ANY filter backup version related you could have

So if you are able to download any future library backup udpate you would be able to have any newer filters and not only the ones until the date that you purchased it

This library backup download would be only for owners of Librarian, and not for the ones that only buy the library backup alone without Librarian, it could be done directly from the Librarian software itself

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GMM wrote: Quote does one version of Librarian require a related version of Library Backup? Yes: FF4-compatible Librarian won't work with 5.0-compatible Library Backup.

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SpaceRay wrote: BE ABLE TO DOWNLOAD ANY NEW LIBRARY BACKUP FREE FOR LIBRARIAN BUYERS As it already happens with FF software that you can download any new update for free when you buy it, it could be possible that you could download any new Library backup that is available and replace the old one for the new one

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Kalimera wrote: Hi SpaceRay, Yes the upgdate is free but the date of purchase does not change. So I am limited to downloading only the Filters made prior to the date of purchase.

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Skybase wrote: I'm very sure you understand this by now but by definition "backup" means that you will receive the "current-state" of all files present at the time. This means that you'll of course only receive only the things at the moment and never anything beyond it.