pyPhotoAlbum is a photo album design tool built with PyQt6 and OpenGL, offering a powerful yet user-friendly interface for creating custom photo layouts. It supports drag-and-drop image placement, template-based designs, and high-quality PDF export.

Key Features

Visual Editor: OpenGL-accelerated rendering with real-time preview
Drag & Drop: Direct image import from file explorer
Template System: Create and reuse page layouts
Smart Layout Tools: Alignment, distribution, and sizing operations
Asset Management: Automatic image organization with reference counting
Project Files: Save/load projects in portable ZIP format (.ppz)
PDF Export: High-quality export with configurable DPI
Undo/Redo: Complete command history for all operations
Double-Page Spreads: Design facing pages for book-style albums

Installation

Quick Install (Linux)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://gitea.tourolle.paris/dtourolle/pyPhotoAlbum.git
cd pyPhotoAlbum

# Run automated installer
./install.sh

For detailed instructions: See INSTALLATION.md

Distribution Packages

Fedora (RPM):

rpmbuild -ba pyphotoalbum.spec
sudo dnf install ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/pyphotoalbum-*.rpm

Arch/CachyOS (PKGBUILD):

makepkg -si

See INSTALLATION.md for complete instructions.

Quick Start

Running the Application

After installation, launch pyPhotoAlbum:

pyphotoalbum

Or run directly from source:

python pyPhotoAlbum/main.py

Basic Workflow

Create a New Project - Choose your page size (A4, Letter, etc.) and DPI
Add Pages - Start with blank pages or use templates
Add Images - Drag and drop images from your file browser onto pages
Arrange & Edit - Move, resize, rotate, and crop images to your liking
Save Your Work - Projects are saved as .ppz files (ZIP archives)
Export to PDF - Generate high-quality PDFs ready for printing

Using Templates

pyPhotoAlbum includes a template system to help you quickly create consistent layouts:

Built-in Templates: Grid layouts, single large image, and more
Custom Templates: Save your favorite layouts as templates
Flexible Application: Apply templates to new or existing pages

Architecture Highlights

pyPhotoAlbum is built with clean, maintainable design patterns:

Mixin-Based Composition

The main OpenGL widget is composed of 12 specialized mixins instead of one monolithic class:

Each mixin handles a single responsibility (viewport, rendering, selection, etc.)
Average ~90 lines per mixin for maintainability
Easy to test in isolation with comprehensive unit tests
Clean separation of concerns throughout the codebase

Declarative UI with Decorators

The ribbon interface is auto-generated from decorator metadata:

@ribbon_action - Automatically creates ribbon buttons from method metadata
@undoable_operation - Automatically captures state for undo/redo
@dialog_action - Separates dialog presentation from business logic
No manual UI wiring required - just add decorators to your methods

This approach keeps UI concerns separate from business logic and makes the codebase easier to maintain and extend.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Ctrl+Z - Undo
Ctrl+Y - Redo
Ctrl+S - Save project
Ctrl+O - Open project
Ctrl+N - New project
Ctrl+E - Export to PDF
Delete - Delete selected element
Arrow Keys - Move selected element
Shift+Arrow Keys - Resize selected element
Ctrl+D - Duplicate selected element

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Acknowledgments

Built with:

PyQt6 for the GUI framework
OpenGL for hardware-accelerated rendering
ReportLab for PDF generation
Pillow for image processing