What is Ethumb?

Ethumb will use Evas to generate thumbnail images of given files. The API allows great customization of the generated files and also helps compling to FreeDesktop.Org Thumbnail Specification.

(http://specifications.freedesktop.org/thumbnail-spec/thumbnail-spec-latest.html)

However, thumbnailing can be an expensive process that will impact your application experience, blocking animations and user interaction during the generation. Another problem is that one should try to cache the thumbnails in a place that other applications can benefit from the file.

EthumbClient exists to solve this. It will communicate with a server using standard D-Bus protocol. The server will use Ethumb itself to generate the thumbnail images and cache them using FreeDesktop.Org standard. It is recommended that most applications use EthumbClient instead of Ethumb directly.

Another difference is that one Ethumb instance can only generate a single thumbnail at a given time, so you must implement some sort of queue mechanism if you need more than one. Instead EthumbClient is a able to receive more than one request at the same time.

Recommended reading:

Ethumb to generate thumbnails in the local process.

EthumbClient to generate thumbnails using a server (recommended).

API Reference

Inheritance diagram