Phatch
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Digital photography |
| Founder | Stani Michiels |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Stani Michiels |
| Products | Raster graphics editor for batch processing of digital photographs and images |
Phatch (an abbreviation of PHoto & bATCH) is a raster graphics editor tailored for batch processing of digital photographs and images. It functions either as a desktop graphical user interface application or as a command-line tool suitable for server environments.
Operation
Its primary capabilities encompass resizing, rotating, cropping, converting file formats, and applying effects such as shadows, rounded edges, perspective distortions, and reflections. Additionally, it facilitates renaming or duplicating files utilizing metadata from Exif or the IPTC Information Interchange Model.
The built-in image inspector displays embedded metadata, allowing users to rename, copy, or imprint data like date, time, aperture, or shutter speed onto images. Multiple inspector windows can be launched concurrently for in-depth comparisons.
Phatch supports the creation of a droplet—a small floating icon—that processes images when dragged onto it.
Users can access an embedded Python console to interact with the software and extend its features through scripting.
Development
Phatch was mainly developed on Linux distributions such as Ubuntu by Stani Michiels. Its visual identity was designed by Admiror Design Studio with assets sourced from the Open Clip Art Library. The software’s image processing functions depend on the Python Imaging Library. Version control and translation efforts are managed via Bazaar and Launchpad. Phatch offers a Python API based on wxPython, enabling extensibility through Python scripts.
Limitations
The application does not provide real-time previews of image edits and lacks support for remote file systems. Although it can be executed from source code on Windows and Mac OS X platforms, no official binary installers are available for these operating systems; only a preliminary OS X installer was briefly released in 2010.
Distribution
Phatch’s source code is hosted on its official website, with precompiled binaries included in major Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, and OpenSUSE. The program requires Python along with the Python Imaging Library and wxPython (version 2.6 or higher) for its graphical interface. An optional package, pyexiv2, improves handling of Exif and IPTC IIM metadata. Presently, the website is offline, and Phatch together with its Python dependencies cannot be downloaded.
Critical reception
Softpedia rated Phatch four stars, commending its intuitive interface, reliability, and efficient batch processing features. The capacity to extend functionality through Python scripting was highlighted as a significant benefit. However, critiques included the lack of a dedicated help file or preferences panel and the occurrence of silent failures during certain operations such as "Convert Mode."
Linux Pratique recognized Phatch version 0.1.3 as effectively filling the gap between GIMP and ImageMagick by offering a user-friendly interface that streamlines batch editing tasks despite having fewer features than those tools.
In May 2009, Phatch 0.1.6 appeared alongside GIMP on the cover of Linux+ magazine.