QtPhotobox is a Qt-based C++ application for building a custom Photobox. It is inspired and heavily based on design (software and look-and-feel) of https://github.com/reuterbal/photobooth with a few newly added features and some adaptations to my personal use-case.
The original application is written in Python. While Python is a nice language, it is not the fastest-performing. Plus, I hit some roadblocks when trying to add new features given the software design. Thus, I decided to rewrite it in a language I'm currently more fluent.
If you like my work, consider sponsoring this project via Github Sponsors or by acquiring one of my Amazon Wishlist items.
- Interface to Cameras via gphoto2 (Canon/Nikon DSLR)
- Interface to Cameras via QtMultimedia (Generic Webcams etc.)
- Interface to printers via CUPS or an internal Canon Selphy backend (WiFi or USB)
- GPIO-based LED control (PWM only)
- Support for GPIO trigger button
- Review and reprinting of stored images
- Possibility to wait for a USB drive and save all files there
- If a second screen/projector is attached, slide show on the external screen
- Flexible positioning/arranging of images on the final print (move, rotate, scale, grayscale, multiple times the same image, crop, border)
- Custom background for final print
- Theming support
- Screensaver during idle time (for advertisements etc.)
- Portrait made (it's actually cropped landscape)
- Sending of pictures via E-Mail
- ...
The software was developed on a standard x86-64 computer and then tested on Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 running Raspbian buster. Quite a number of packages need to be installed, since the software has to be compiled from scratch. The software runs on Linux only due to the availability of some libraries.
- Raspberry Pi 3B + Canon EOS 450D + External Flash + 800x480 Official Touchscreen
- Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB) + Canon EOS 1100D + External Flash + 1024x600 Touchscreen + PWM LEDs
- Desktop Computer + Canon EOS 500D
- Desktop Computer + Canon EOS 600D
- Desktop Computer + Nikon D5100 (short testing only)
- Desktop Computer + Logitech HD UVC Camera (short testing only)
- Support Raspberry Pi Camera Module (should work with the generic module if configured correctly)
- Auto-Upload to web service
You need to compile from source, thus you need development libraries and a build system for:
- CMake
- Qt5
- Gphoto2
- libusb
- CUPS
- pigpio
- libcurl
Then you can compile from the command line.
Step-by-step (on raspbian):
sudo apt-get install build-essential libgphoto2-dev libpigpio-dev cmake libusb-1.0-0-dev qttools5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev libcurl-dev
git clone https://github.com/andyboeh/qtphotobox
mkdir qtphotobox-build
cd qtphotobox-build
cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../qtphotobox
make
sudo gpasswd -a pi lp
The last step is necessary for the integrated Canon Selphy USB backend. It may be skipped if no Canon printer is attached via USB or you don't want to use the internal Canon printer driver.
After a successful build, you can run QtPhotobox by typing:
~/qtphotobox-build/qtphotobox
QtPhotobox can be entirely configured using the GUI. All settings are stored
in a configuration file at ~/.qtphotobox/settings.ini.
If you use the GPhoto2 backend, there might be some camera-specific
initialization values required. These values need to be stored in a file at
~/.qtphotobox/<cameraname>.cfg. This file is auto-created on first startup. For now, you can find some examples
in the config folder. The values there are often required to get AF working properly.
As photobooth, the software is available under the AGPL v3.