Usage Guide for sd-webui-infinite-image-browsing
This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to leverage the powerful features of sd-webui-infinite-image-browsing (IIB) to efficiently manage and explore your AI-generated media.
IIB is built for speed and efficiency when browsing large collections of images, videos, and audio files.
- Caching & Thumbnails: The application generates thumbnails (default 512 pixels) and caches them, ensuring that images display in milliseconds after the initial scan. You can adjust the default thumbnail resolution in the global settings.
- Adjustable Grid: Control the display width of grid images, from 64px to 1024px, to suit your preference and screen size.
- Pre-generation: For even faster browsing, especially with many videos, use the
--generate_image_cache and --generate_video_cover command-line arguments when running standalone to pre-generate all thumbnails and video covers.
- Custom Cache Directory: Specify a custom directory for cache files using the
IIB_CACHE_DIR environment variable to optimize storage.
2. Image Search & Favorite
IIB transforms your image generation metadata into searchable tags, enabling powerful and precise filtering.
- Automatic Tag Generation: Prompts, models, LoRAs, and other generation parameters are automatically converted into tags. These tags are sorted by frequency of use for quick access.
- Tag Autocomplete & Translation: When typing in the search bar, IIB offers tag autocomplete suggestions. It also supports auto-translation of tags (see Issue #39↗ for details on customization).
- Favoriting with Custom Tags: Right-click on an image to open the context menu and toggle custom tags. For instance, you can create a "Like" tag and assign it to your favorite images, then filter by this tag.
- Advanced Search: Utilize advanced search queries similar to Google. You can combine tags using "AND," "OR," and "NOT" logic, as well as specify custom folders to search within.
- Example: To find images generated with
Model: sd_xl_base AND containing girl in the prompt, but NOT having negative_prompt: blurry, you would construct your search query using the tag selection interface.
- Fuzzy Search: Perform a fuzzy search by typing a partial filename or any part of the generated information.
- Custom Search Paths: Add your frequently used folders to "Quick Move Paths" (accessible via the "More" dropdown or global settings) to easily include them in your searches.
3. View Images/Videos & Send To
Enjoy a rich viewing experience with integrated tools for interaction and transfer.
- Generation Information: View detailed image generation information (e.g., prompts, seeds, model, sampler) directly within the grid view or in full-screen preview mode. The information panel can be collapsed if not needed.
- Full-Screen Preview: Enter full-screen mode for an immersive viewing experience.
- Navigation: Use arrow keys or on-screen buttons to quickly navigate to the previous or next image/video.
- Custom Shortcuts: Configure custom keyboard shortcuts in the global settings for common actions within full-screen mode.
- Information Panel: The generation information panel in full-screen mode is draggable, resizable, and collapsible.
Send To Functionality: Seamlessly send images to other tabs and third-party extensions within SD-webui.
- Example: Right-click on an image, select "Send to img2img" or "Send to ControlNet" to transfer its parameters and image directly.
- Remote Video Playback: Play video files directly from a remote server, offering flexibility for various storage setups.
4. Multiple Usage Methods
IIB offers several ways to integrate into your workflow:
- SD-webui Extension: Install it directly within your Stable Diffusion web UI instance for a fully integrated experience.
- Standalone Python Program: Run IIB independently using Python, without needing SD-webui. This is useful for browsing images generated by other AI software like ComfyUI or Fooocus.
- Desktop Application: A pre-compiled desktop version is available in the
releases section for a native application experience.
- Iframe Integration: Embed IIB as a file browser within your own application using an iframe.
For detailed installation instructions for each method, refer to the "Installation / Running" section in the main README or the Overview page.
5. Walk Mode
Walk Mode simplifies browsing vast collections of images by automatically loading and flattening nested folders.
- Continuous Browsing: Instead of navigating in and out of folders, Walk Mode treats all subfolders as one continuous stream, allowing you to scroll infinitely through all media files.
- Activation: When viewing a folder that contains subfolders, click the "Walk" button in the upper right corner to activate this mode.
- Example: If you have
folder_A/subfolder_1/image.png, folder_A/subfolder_2/image.jpg, and folder_A/image.webp, Walk Mode in folder_A will display all three files sequentially without you needing to manually enter subfolder_1 or subfolder_2.
6. Preview based on File Tree Structure & File operations
Manage your media files directly within IIB with intuitive file system operations.
- File Tree Preview: Browse your files using a traditional file tree structure, mirroring your operating system's folder hierarchy.
- Automatic Refreshing: The file tree and grid view automatically refresh to reflect any changes made outside of IIB.
- Basic File Operations:
- Multi-Selection: Hold down
Ctrl, Shift, or Cmd and click on multiple files or folders to select them.
- Delete/Move/Copy: Once multiple items are selected, right-click to access options for deleting, moving, or copying them.
- Create New Folders: Easily create new folders within your browsing path.
- Drag and Drop: Drag and drop selected files or folders to move or copy them to new locations.
- "Keep Multi-Select": This button in the lower right corner allows you to maintain your multi-selection across different operations or views, making batch management more convenient.
7. Image Comparison (similar to Imgsli)
Compare two images side-by-side to quickly identify differences in generation or visual quality.
- Side-by-Side View: The image comparison feature provides a dedicated interface to display two selected images next to each other.
- Generation Info Comparison: Alongside the visual comparison, IIB also displays the generation information for both images, highlighting differences in prompts, parameters, and other metadata.
- Activation: You can drag an image onto the comparison panel (which appears automatically when dragging) or use a context menu option.
8. Multilingual Support
IIB is accessible to a wider audience with support for multiple languages.
- Supported Languages: The application currently supports Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and German.
- Contribution: Translations can be incomplete; pull requests for improvements are welcomed via the
i18n.ts file in the repository.
9. Privacy and Security
Control access to your files and sensitive information with built-in security features.
- Custom Secret Key Authentication: Configure a custom secret key (via the
IIB_SECRET_KEY environment variable) for authentication, especially important when running IIB as a publicly accessible service.
- File System Access Control: When running as an SD-webui extension with public access enabled (e.g.,
--share), file system access control is enabled by default to restrict access to allowed paths.
- Customizable Allowed Paths: Define specific folders that IIB is permitted to access, enhancing security.
- Read-Only Mode: Run IIB in read-only mode to prevent any file modification operations. This is configurable via the
IIB_ACCESS_CONTROL_PERMISSION environment variable. For more details, consult the .env.example file.
10. Packaging/Batch Download
Download multiple selected media files in a single archive.
- Bulk Download: Select multiple images, videos, or audio files from search results, the regular grid view, or Walk Mode.
- Adding to List: Add files to the batch download list through drag-and-drop or by using the "Send To Batch Download" option in the right-click context menu.
- Packaging: Create a ZIP archive of all selected files for convenient downloading.
11. Keyboard Shortcuts
Streamline your workflow with customizable keyboard shortcuts.
- Default Shortcuts: Common actions like deleting files or toggling tags have default shortcuts.
- Customization: Customize trigger buttons for these actions on the global settings page, tailoring the experience to your preferences. Shortcuts are primarily active in full-screen preview mode.
12. Natural Language Categorization & Search (Experimental)
Explore your image collection with cutting-edge AI-driven semantic search.
- Semantic Grouping: This experimental feature groups images based on the semantic similarity of their prompts, allowing AI to automatically discover themes without manual tagging.
- Natural-Language Retrieval: Search for images using full sentences or natural language queries (similar to RAG retrieval).
- Usage:
- Open "Natural Language Categorization & Search (Experimental)" from the startup page.
- Click "Scope" and select one or more folders from your QuickMovePaths.
- Click "Refresh" to generate topic cards for the selected scope. This involves prompt extraction, embedding generation (using OpenAI-compatible models), and clustering.
- Type a natural-language query and click "Search" to retrieve semantically similar images.
- Prerequisites: This feature requires
OPENAI_BASE_URL and OPENAI_API_KEY to be configured as backend environment variables. Python dependencies numpy and hnswlib are also required for standalone or extension modes (desktop app bundles them).
- Caching: Embeddings and generated topic titles are cached to optimize performance and reduce repeated API calls to language models.