Slideshow for Raspberry Pi

Document last updated on 26.12.2020

Slideshow is a package written in Python3 that shows a basic slideshow using the Kivy library (Version 2.0.0) on Raspberry OS.

Version: 1.0

Author: Johannes Vogel (Nebelhom)

Installation

This program was written in Python 3.8 using Kivy version 2.0.0 on Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster).

Please refer to the respective installation guides Raspberry OS.

NOTE: It never hurts to utilise a virtual environment to avoid library conflicts.

Python installation (This should already be installed)

Kivy Installation

How to Use

How to start the program

The easiest method to use the program right now is to run python main.py from the folder.

Main Parameters

There are three main parameters to adjust according to your preferences. These are:

• Frame Orientation

  • Defines the orientation of the image frame, i.e whether it is landscape or portrait.
  • The image will be rotated accordingly, if the program can find existing EXIF data.

• Image Directory

  • Defines the path to the directory with the images to be displayed by the slideshow app.
  • Supported Formats are: jpg/jpeg, png, gif, bmp, pcx, tga, tif, lbm, pbm, pgm, ppm, xpm
  • Paths to directories on external hard drives or USB sticks is supported

• Time Delay

  • Defines the time in seconds that the program waits before switching images.

How to adjust main parameters

There are three ways to adjust the main parameters of the program as outlined above.

1. Open the file settings.conf with the text editor of your choice and adjust the parameters accordingly
   • Care must be taken to not introduce invalid input
2. Use the Command Line Tool as outlined below
3. Start the program and left-click into the application. This will open the menu in which you can adjust the main parameters.

Command Line Interface

usage: main.py [-h] [--orientation FRAME_ORIENTATION] [--img_dir IMG_DIR]
               [--time_delay TIME_DELAY] [--menu MENU_START]

Basic Image Slideshow for use on a raspberry Pi as a digital picture frame
(version 1.0).

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --orientation FRAME_ORIENTATION, -o FRAME_ORIENTATION
                        Defines the orientation of the image frame, i.e
                        whether it is landscape or portrait. The image will be
                        rotated accordingly, if the program can find existing
                        EXIF data.
  --img_dir IMG_DIR, -d IMG_DIR
                        Defines the path to the folder with the images to be
                        displayed by the slideshow app.
  --time_delay TIME_DELAY, -t TIME_DELAY
                        Defines the time in seconds that the program waits
                        before switching images.
  --menu MENU_START, -m MENU_START
                        If True, the application will start with the menu,
                        otherwise it goes directly to the slideshow.