By Eva Williams 23 days ago, Software Reviews
Photo catalog software is an important tool for arranging a huge number of photographs taken every day on your smartphone and professional camera. It is also a way to save pictures and easily retrieve them, organize by date, star ratings, color labels, locations, and even by a person via face recognition. On average, such programs cost $40-50, but most of them come with a 30-days free trial. Moreover, you can find completely free options.
The operating system of your computer can have quite convenient tools for organizing images, such as MacOS Photos. However, it often cannot keep up with a growing number of photographs, especially if it is RAW files. That’s why I recommend paying attention to the following image cataloging software that brag about convenient interfaces, photo sorting options, and the possibility to create meta tags.
Verdict: Adobe Bridge allows users to organize individual and shared resources, batch edit files, add watermarks, correct colors, and even upload photos to Adobe Stock. As a file manager, it makes it possible to sort image folders using powerful tagging, rating, batch picture editing, and metadata.
The image upload tool is great for importing photos from a digital camera, card reader, or smartphone. You can rename and sort many photos at once. This is the best photo catalog software for work with a large number of pictures, both independently and as part of a larger Creative Cloud package, although it may be superfluous if you just want to work with a few holiday or family shots.
Though the program is available as a free standalone product, few users opt for this offer. The thing is that Adobe Bridge is tightly related to other Adobe products and reveals its full potential when being paired with them. The software is included in the Adobe Creative Cloud plan that costs $52.99. However, you can spend less on programs, getting Adobe discounts.
Verdict: Images and videos are automatically uploaded to the Cloud storage, organized, and are available for search immediately after uploading in Google Photos. You can also share them with everyone without worrying about available storage space.
You can set up backup and sync to view certain folders automatically and upload them to your Google Photos account. They will be displayed on the timeline, using the AI-Assistant function for organizing albums and recommending photos for archiving. It's a little more complicated, but you will get used to it.
The service is free, but if you need more storage, get ready to spend some money. 100GB of storage cost $2/month, 200GB - $3/month, and 2TB - $10/month. Those, who want to get 30TB of storage have to shell out $150 every month.
Verdict: ACDSee provides you with an opportunity to arrange your photos in various ways. You can use keywords or color labels. It has an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface. The program allows you to adjust your photo collection by viewing and editing meta data. Besides, it can search and delete duplicate images.
This is photo catalog software with a reasonable price tag that supports 86 different file formats, so it’s likely that your specific projects are covered. The most common files such as RAW, JPG, TIFF, and PSD are on the list. You can also directly import images from cameras, scanners, and flash drives. Fifty-four available filters make it easy to give photos an artistic look.
You can test the capabilities of this photo catalog software for 30 days without spending a cent. A lifetime license is priced at $109.95. There are also yearly and monthly plans - $89.00 and $8.90 respectively.
Verdict: DigiKam is a cataloger designed for work with digital photos. This photo catalog software allows you to manage open source photos through Windows, macOS, or Linux platforms. Your collection can be sorted by folders, albums, or using tags. This feature makes it flexible.
You can view comments, ratings, and other metadata. Moreover, it is possible to edit and save them in an SQLite database or organize as a file. The built-in lighting table and RAW support simplify the comparison. Plug-in support expands capabilities. The disadvantage is that the application is still being developed.
The software is completely free. However, if you are a loyal user of the company’s programs, and like their quality and feature sets, you are welcome to make donations on the official website, so that the developer can improve tools and release new software faster.
Verdict: Zoner Photo Studio X is an amazing program that offers many tools to organize your images. You will find a convenient interface, divided into four different tabs: Manager, Development, Editor, and Create. You can import photos into Zoner Photo Studio directly from your phone, camera, or Facebook account.
The organization of photos takes place in the “Manager” tab. You can add star ratings, keywords, calendar dates, titles, locations, and color labels to your images. Besides, it is possible to add specific GPS tags to your photos to see where you were on the map and search for your images by location. Using these searching options, you can organize your photos as you like.
The subscription costs $4.99/mo and 49.00/year. If you can’t afford to pay this money, take advantage of a free version. However, you have to put up with limitations in this case.
Verdict: XnViewMP is a kind of media browser with photo viewing options, a converter, and a cataloger. It is a fast photo catalog software that supports over 500 image formats. This program will help you sort out standard JPG or PNG files or less frequent image formats.
Although it will not automatically organize files, this free photo organizing software has tools for editing metadata and image tags in a batch mode. It allows you to distribute tags according to the image value as fast as possible. This image cataloging software will appeal to users with limited funds, as it is completely free.
Verdict: No matter how many pictures you have, WidsMob Viewer allows you to preview either a single photo or an entire collection. The library mode is great if you need to view images from multiple folders. The slideshow mode lets you look at your pics in full size. Besides, you can also add images to favorites in the Favorite mode or learn more info in EXIF mode.
WidsMob Viewer provides incredibly fast image viewing thanks to its advanced algorithm. This software is compatible with the most popular image formats and supports multiple RAW formats. You can upload RAW files from an external drive or SD card. What’s more, you can convert RAW files into other image formats.
There is a free trial version, but it has some limitations. Alternatively, you can invest in a premium version, which costs $25.99 (for a lifetime license) and $15.99 (a one-year license). The software runs lag-free on Mac and Windows devices.
Verdict: Canto DAM is an integrated photo catalog software with advanced business features. It offers revolutionary security, ensuring that sensitive image files are protected from unauthorized use since Canto automatically applies them to saved and loaded images. The main reason why it is so useful for companies is metadata management tools that allow users to find saved images based on keywords.
For example, if you have thousands of images of the Atlantic Ocean in your database, you can search for the “ocean” to find them. Metadata searches can be broad or specific, depending on the peculiarities of your project.
There are 2 pricing plans to choose from. The first is actually a free trial, which means you have to tolerate restrictions. Another option is a full-featured program and you need to contact the company’s representatives to buy it. Keep in mind that the price depends on your needs and business type.
Verdict: FastStone is an image cataloging software designed for Windows. It includes a file manager and database. FastStone comes with many editing tools for basic operations and fine-tuning. Besides, it supports tagging, viewing EXIF data, and other sorting options.
Although this photo culling software doesn’t have functions for uploading images to social networks and Cloud storage, it offers excellent image viewing, picture editing, and organizational tools. Thus, this is not the best photo organizing software but it is a good choice if you store your small image collection on one computer.
The highlight of this program is its free nature. In fact, you can hardly find a better free tool in this group.
Verdict: PaintShop Pro arranges photos by keywords, calendar dates, and categories. It allows you to rate photos and search for them in such a way. You can also access the backup manager and view the EXIF and IPTC metadata of your photos to see what the settings of your camera were when you took the picture. However, the software cannot search and delete duplicate images, so you have to do it manually.
As photo editing software, it also removes unwanted objects from your images and fills the space realistically. I was very impressed when I tested this feature. Sometimes I had to try it several times. However, when it was done, you couldn't say that the deleted item was present in the original photo. There are paintbrushes and pencils, as well as a tool for removing stains and healing.
Many experienced photographers even compare PaintShop Pro vs Photoshop when it comes to managing images. This program comes with a full 30-day free trial. When the period expires and you want to continue using this image catalogue software, get ready to pay $79.99 for the license.
Verdict: Magix Photo Manager Deluxe is good photo organizing software that makes it easy to arrange your photo collection, find and save videos, and optimize your library. This is a universal application for organizing, editing, and sharing photos.
Using it as DAM software for photographers, you can classify images in various ways. For example, you can do it by file name, date, or subject tags. MAGIX also includes a series of image correction tools. The free version doesn’t have such advanced features as panoramic editing and automatic categorization of pictures. But, in general, MAGIX Photo Manager Deluxe works well.
You can use a free trial version, but there are some limitations that may annoy you. The premium version costs $49.99. By the way, I recommend you compare Photo Manager vs ACDSee to understand which tool for photo cataloging fully meets your needs.
Verdict: Eagle is the most approachable digital assets management for small companies and creative experts. Eagle App offers top customer service and agile management of your brand and design content, preview of more than 90+ formats, grouped by colors, shapes and even more.
You are also able to protect your private assets with a password. Another advantage is that it perfectly functions while completing multiple tasks such as multi-selected, classify or add-tag ones simultaneously. With the program you can automatically control file duplication while collecting pictures. Moreover, it enables you to set default folder tag and refer to any of the resources included in the folder.
