Photo cataloging software

LightRoom.

What makes a cataloguing software? What's the difference with freeware like XnView, XnViewMP, etc.?

@radimqu
You've asked a very important question. splash3313 question was quite concise and jeanluc's answer was just as succinct but her answer would be considered accurate.  It really depends on what an individual is looking for. XnView has a cataloging feature that obviously suits your needs. The ability to catagorise, tag, rate and sort photos based on this criteria is the main function of a catalog. But someone may be looking for AI assisted face recognition technology - and there may be a photo cataloging software that can do that well. Also Lightroom is a Raw editor. Is that a feature important to the user or do they just edit jpgs? These are just some of the many factors that need to be taken into consideration when choosing such an application. 

If splash3313 had provided more detail on his requirements perhaps free software such as XnView or Faststone would have met his needs. As jeanluc has suggested, it would be interesting to have members comment on the specific cataloging software they use. Even PSP has catalogs which may be sufficient for most users.  

Hi JCBrown ,

Thankyou for your honest review of Magix Photo Manager. It looks like its on the right track but needs a bit of an update - particularly compatibility with Win 11. I noted another photo app on the Magix site which is compatible with Win 11 called; Magix Photostory Deluxe. Do you know if it builds on the core functionality of Photo Manager and adds a slideshow capability or is it a completely different program?

Also I noticed that you are looking for a feature to add notes to a photo. I believe Faststone Image Viewer may meet your needs.

Faststone Image Viewer

I've attached examples for you to view. Its very easy to add short notes to each photo. Just hit the T key (text) which brings up a little window and add your note. Within this window you can move to the next photo in the folder and continue adding notes to photos. You can then generate a contact sheet with the file name and note. You can also add other fields to the contact sheet if you wish. The only limitation is that the photos must be jpg. 

Faststone can also produce a vertical or horizontal film strip which you can paste into a spreadsheet. You can then add information in the cells along the sides of the photos. Hope this helps. Oh, another thing. If your photo has GPS data, you can view Google Maps, Google Earth and Open Street using Faststone. You can also get it as a portable program so you don't have to install it on your machine and you can link an external Photo app like Paintshop Pro to edit your photos. And best of all, its freeware!! Although you can make a donation to help future development. 






Contact sheet example.pdf (264.9 KB)
 


 

Hi JCBrown ,

Thanks for the feedback on Magix Photostory and what it entails.

To confirm Faststone Image Viewer can only add notes to jpegs (photos). In your post you indicated; "Right now, I'm looking to see if there is a way to print thumbnails along with a description put in the General Details (Caption) of photos. The idea is to have someone go down the list, type in a caption, on to the next one, then print that out or export at least filename and caption to a csv or Excel file. I tried in Photo Manager but the routine is iffy. I was looking to see if this could be done with PaintShop Pro."

In Fastone, its very easy to add notes to photos; not "iffy" at all. 

If you were also thinking of adding notes to video clips, or music then Faststone would only be a partial solution. Pinnacle Studio has a virtual Library where you can star rate, add tags and comments to video clips, photos and music. Other video editors probably can as well but only within the context of the project and not the entire library of elements. The only problem is, I don't think you can export the information from Pinnacle Studio to a csv or excel file. The information stays within the virtual Library itself. But who knows, there may be a way; I'm just not familiar with it.

Thanks again for the summaries of the Magix products. I also heard ACDsee was a good photo management system but I have never used it myself.

If it is only a matter of transferring information from the images(?) into your "own" application (Excel, database...) you could also include Exiftool in your considerations.

Write metadata to images
...path-to-tool...\exiftool.exe -config ExifTool_config.ini -ImageDescription="...description of a picture from italy" -Country="I" -City="Florenz" -Location="market place" -Keywords="bird;pigeon" -Copyright="Copyright ..., ...year..., all rights reserved" ...path-to-image...\1989_florenz_tauben_imagon.jpg

Read metadata from the images
...path-to-tool...\exiftool.exe -config ExifTool_config.ini -ImageDataMD5 -LastPathname -FilePath -Year -Month -Day -Hour -Minute -ScaleFactor35efl -LensID -FocalLength35efl -HyperfocalDistance -Make -Software -ExposureCompensation -ExposureMode -ExposureProgram -MeteringMode -Common -ImageDescription -Country -City -Location -Keywords -Copyright -csv -csvDelim ; -r -ext JPG ...path-to-image... > ...path-to-result...\foto\exif\exiftool\metadata.csv

Example of getting customised tags from existing tags (ExifTool_config.ini)

%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined = (
# Composite tags are added to the Composite table:
'Image::ExifTool::Composite' => {
# Composite tags have values that are derived from the values of
# other tags. ...
Year => {
Require => 'DateTimeOriginal',
ValueConv => 'substr($val,0,4)',
},
Month => {
Require => 'DateTimeOriginal',
ValueConv => 'substr($val,5,2)',
},
Day => {
Require => 'DateTimeOriginal',
ValueConv => 'substr($val,8,2)',
},
Hour => {
Require => 'DateTimeOriginal',
ValueConv => 'substr($val,11,2)',
},
Minute => {
Require => 'DateTimeOriginal',
ValueConv => 'substr($val,14,2)',
},
LastPathname => {
Require => 'Directory',
ValueConv => '(split(/\//,$val))[-1]',
},
},
);
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1; #end



...metadata.csv...
SourceFile;ImageDataHash;LastPathname;FilePath;AspectRatio;Year;Month;Day;Hour;Minute;ScaleFactor35efl;LensID;FocalLength35efl;HyperfocalDistance;Make;Software;ExposureCompensation;ExposureMode;ExposureProgram;MeteringMode;FileName;FileSize;Model;DateTimeOriginal;ImageSize;Quality;FocalLength;ShutterSpeed;Aperture;ISO;WhiteBalance;Flash;ImageDescription;Country;City;Location;Keywords;Copyright

C:/_DATEN/install/foto/exif/Exif-Testbilder/1989_florenz_tauben_2024_imagon.jpg;17dad2f63118138d215397e485cf763c;Exif-Testbilder;C:/_DATEN/install/foto/exif/Exif-Testbilder/1989_florenz_tauben_2024_imagon.jpg;2:3;2024;02;20;19;01;;;;;Canon;PaintShop Pro 23,00;;;;;1989_florenz_tauben_2024_imagon.jpg;768 kB;Canon TS9500 series Network;2024:02:20 19:01:44;1440x2160;;;;;;;;Stadttauben;I;Florenz;In der Innenstadt;"Vogel;Taube;Fahrrad";Copyright 1989 by Juergen ***, all rights reserved


...
(DateTimeOriginal does not fit because photoscan and not further adjusted)





Regards, Jürgen