The best program for storing photos on your computer. ELiteSort - order in your home photo and video archive

Tools for organizing are in almost every program for working with images. You can often find programs that are both viewers, editors, and catalogers at the same time. These are, for example, Zoner Photo Studio, ACDSee, Nero Kwik Media and many others. No doubt, all-in-one tools are convenient for many users. But if among the many of their features, the main ones for you are those related to organizing photos, it may be worth taking a closer look at specialized programs.

Firstly, such applications are not overloaded with unnecessary options - and therefore, in most cases, they work faster and more stable than multimedia processors. Secondly, specialized programs usually offer more tools for searching photos by different criteria. Read about five applications that simplify the organization of your photo collection in the review.

⇡ Daminion 1.0 RC

  • Developer: Daminion Software
  • Operating system: Windows
  • Distribution: Free
  • Russian interface: yes

Under its current name, the Daminion cataloger has been in development for more than five years, but its creators have much more experience in writing applications for organizing photographs. Previously, the Daminion developers released the PicaJet program, but later decided to write a completely new application with multi-user access to the photo database and other interesting features. At the same time, a single-user version of Daminion is also available, which is distributed free of charge. The multi-user version is called Daminion Server.

Daminion works with catalogs - databases of photographs, and adding files to the catalog is the user's concern. This means that you need to manually specify the path to the folders with snapshots. In this case, files can be physically copied or transferred to a folder that is used to store data, or they can simply be added to the directory without copying. At the same time, Daminion remembers the relative paths to the files, so when transferring photos to another drive, all data in the directory will be saved. When adding photos to the catalog, you can immediately assign tags to them, or you can do it later - everything is at the discretion of the user.

As soon as the files are entered into the catalog, they are displayed in the program window as thumbnails with captions. In the signature, you can see the basic information about the file: name, resolution, size, shutter speed, ISO. In addition, each thumbnail contains tools for organizing: you can quickly set a rating, mark an image, add keywords, set a color label, view detailed metadata. The user can change the way files are displayed by displaying only images without additional information, or, conversely, by removing thumbnails and calling up a list of files with information about them.

If you select an image, you can see more information about it in the Properties panel. There is also an opportunity to supplement this information: indicate the people who are captured on it, the event in which the photo was taken, the place of shooting, the category. For professional photographers, such fields as "Project", "Client", "Copyright" are provided. You can also fill in the fields in the Properties panel in batch mode by simply pre-selecting the desired photos. All changes in the tags are synchronized with the metadata of the files, so information about the files is always present both in the database and in the files themselves.

If the right panel is informational and at the same time serves for data entry, then the left panel - "Tags" - is intended for search. All file search criteria are here at a glance. For example, you can display only pictures located in the same folder, open the "Created Date" list and quickly find a photo by the month it was taken, display only files with the highest rating, and so on. It is very important that, in addition to custom tools for organizing, the program also offers a lot of automatic ones. For example, it's very easy to select geo-tagged photos taken with a specific camera, using a specific lens. There is nothing complicated in using several conditions at once.

There is also an advanced search in the program, which allows you to use up to fifty parameters, including operators AND, OR and others.

There are no image editing tools in Daminion, you can only rotate thumbnails for better viewing. If any changes were made by mistake, you can always roll back to previous version- The program keeps track of revisions. This is especially true for multi-user work with the application.

Daminion works not only with graphic files, but also with video, PDF documents. At the same time, the program is optimized for working with very large collections of images (the test database consists of 500,000 images), so you don't have to worry about the stability of its work when adding new files. By the way, for convenience, you can use several independent directories that can be opened in the program at the same time - each on a separate tab.

⇡IMatch 3.6

  • Developer: photools.com
  • Operating system: Windows
  • Distribution: shareware
  • Russian interface: no

Although latest version IMatch dates back to the end of last year, when you look at the program's interface, you get the impression that it has been around for many years. Really, appearance has always been IMatch's weak point, and against the backdrop of modern interface solutions, small buttons with Windows 2000-style graphics look scary. The author has long promised to redesign the appearance of the application, but so far this has not been done. However, many users still prefer this particular program.

The main reason is the support of scripts, thanks to which you can connect to the program almost any function that is not implemented in it by default. For example, there are scripts for file versioning, for finding files that were incorrectly tagged, for checking the correct names, and others. Scripts do not have to be created manually - many useful additions have already been written by other users of the program and are available on the forum.

Another one important feature IMatch - stable work with large collections of files. The program easily copes with databases containing hundreds of thousands of photos, does not slow down and works quite stably. In addition, IMatch implements a periodic reminder of the need to create a backup.

Like Daminion, this program works with photo databases that need to be manually populated with photographic content. The processes of creating a database and importing images are implemented as a wizard, but despite this, it is difficult to call them intuitive. Too many flags have to be set along the way. By default, the database is sorted by folders in the program window. It is also possible to browse by category, by saved search patterns, by the history of selected files, and so on.

⇡MyPhotoIndex 1.24

  • Developer: My Photo Index
  • Operating system: Windows
  • Distribution: Free
  • Russian interface: no

MyPhotoIndex is inferior in functionality to its more advanced competitors, but the program has several important advantages. First, the program is free and open source. Secondly, it is very simple, and the user does not need to puzzle over where to find this or another option for a long time - they are all at hand.

The program offers the organization of photos by categories, by tags and by rating. Tags can be added immediately when importing images into the database of the program, moreover, several tags that are used most often are already added by default.

Access to all main functions is implemented through the context menu. With it, you can add and remove tags, add and edit comments, change the date the picture was taken, send photos for printing, encrypt them, set them as wallpaper on your desktop. Separately, it is worth noting the possibility of data exchange: with one click, photos can be uploaded to Facebook, Flickr and other services.

Using the built-in search tools, the user can search for photos by tags, by title, and by other criteria. A convenient function is to search for images that were taken between two specified dates.

⇡ Photo Event Organizer 1.3

  • Developer: Gear Mage
  • Operating system: Windows
  • Distribution: Free
  • Russian interface: no

Of course, it's very good when you have the time and desire to keep your photo collection in perfect order: put ratings, sort pictures into categories and add tags. But, unfortunately, even a simple analysis of hundreds of photographs into folders for some drags on for months. Thanks to big cards memory, we can not think about the lack of space and often copy photos to a computer every two months. And then all the events recorded during this time are in one heap.

Photo Event Organizer is simple program, which helps in simple sorting of running photo archives by date. Specify the directory in which all photos are stored, and also set the time interval that determines the duration of one event. After that, the program will show for what period the photos for which will fall into each folder, and will offer to give a name to each event during which they were taken. If desired, you can sort the photos simply by month or year.

After the operation is completed, you will see new folders with neat names like "October" and "November". Photo Event Organizer can either copy photos to new folders or move them, which is faster, of course. If duplicates are found during the copying process, they will not be transferred to the new folder. Thus, the program can also help free up some space on your hard drive.

⇡ Namexif 1.6

  • Developer: Digicamsoft
  • Operating system: Windows
  • Distribution: Free
  • Russian interface: no

And in the end - another simple free utility that helps organize photos by adding information about the time of shooting to the file names. The information is taken from the metadata written to the file at the time it was created. Once you get files with names like 2013-04-01-17h56m56.jpg, it becomes a little easier to navigate them.

Namexif's work is organized in the form of a wizard: first, the user is prompted to specify files or folders. Since the program can look into subfolders, you can immediately select the root directory, and then Namexif will find and rename all the photos at once.

At the second stage, you need to choose the renaming format. For example, an application can leave the original name at the end, or add arbitrary characters to all names.

Unfortunately, there is no preview of changes, as well as rollback, so it's best to practice on small folders first.

⇡ Conclusion

The requirements for image organization programs may vary, but the end goal for the user is always the same - the ability to quickly find the right photo. Each of the programs discussed above helps in this in its own way, so it remains to choose the one that is best for you. Do not forget that the photos that you cannot find are just as useless as long deleted.

Nowadays, computer technology has saved us from having to store photographs in huge albums on the shelves. Now photos are stored digitally, taking up gigabytes on computer hard drives. Great amount"New folders" sometimes do not allow you to quickly find the desired picture in the photo archive. We decided to talk about the best programs for sorting photos on a computer, thanks to which searching and viewing pictures will be a pleasure.

TOP 7 best programs for sorting photos on a computer.

This image viewer has little weight and allows edit photo. IrfanView doesn't overwhelm the system with just the right options and simple design. The speed of the application makes it ideal for use on home PCs. Other benefits:

  • Ability to work with all image formats.
  • The function of adding audio and video files.
  • Convenient options for light editing (removing red eyes, adding effects, etc.).
  • Batch move and convert files.
  • Slideshow in a convenient mode.
  • Clear interface.
  • Ability to take screenshots, trim photos.

In addition, the application is completely free.

This utility allows you to work with the image database and organize photos on your computer. Daminion is designed like a catalog and saves pictures even when they are moved to another location. Pros:

  • Convenient display in the form of signed thumbnails.
  • A complete summary of information about each image (size, extension, exposure, etc.).
  • A variety of functions (pictures can be tagged, rated, add keywords, etc.).
  • The ability to supplement information about the pictures and indicate the place, people on it, category.
  • The presence of the "Client" or "Project" fields, which is especially convenient for professional photographers.
  • Advanced search (the program searches not only by folders and shooting date, but also, for example, by the camera used, geo-tag and other parameters).

Daminion is stable even with huge image catalogs.

This file manager allows you to not only organize photos on your computer, but also convert them to any format. A rich set of tools and a user-friendly interface make the application very popular. Main advantages:

  • Huge number of supported formats.
  • Powerful converter.
  • Ability to work with a scanner.
  • Ease of creating albums, catalogs, slide shows and even HTML pages.
  • Ability to sort by shooting date, weight, name, etc.
  • Clear and easy to use interface.

The program is free and suitable for both beginners and professionals in working with images. Batch editing and a set of filters are highly appreciated by many users.

Despite the very unfinished appearance of the program, IMatch is still popular among users for a number of reasons. The main one is the ability to connect all kinds of scripts to the utility that are not in the basic version. This allows you to customize the application for yourself. Add-ons are available for download on the forum. Advantages:

  • Stability even when working with huge image catalogs.
  • Backup reminders.
  • Convenient image sorting.

You've probably heard of this image browser. ACDSee has earned its popularity due to its speed, ease of use and a large number of printing options. In addition, the developers have focused on the interface: it is simple, understandable and equipped with tips at all stages of work. The graphics editor has basic options: effects, rotation, compression and other simple functions. Main features:

  • Wide range of formats.
  • High performance with low system requirements.
  • Ability to print and write files to media.
  • Convenient converter and editor.

This version of the program is free, but there is also a paid version with advanced functionality.

MyPhotoIndex 1.24 has not so advanced functionality, but some advantages still make it popular. These include:

  • Open source program.
  • Simple interface and feature set.
  • Organization of catalogs by different parameters: tags, categories, rating, etc.
  • Frequently used tags are added by default when uploading to the database.
  • The ability to encrypt images and conveniently add them to sites and servers.

In addition to the basic options for viewing and adjusting the image, the utility has a very useful aspect of image recognition. The application scans your computer's hard drive and allows you to manage all found files in a very convenient way. Main advantages:

  • Easy to organize images.
  • Support for a large number of formats.
  • Ability to batch work with files.
  • The function of setting a password for albums and folders.
  • Clear interface.

Picasa is suitable for the average user, whose goal is to clean up volumes of photos, improve quality, create collages and other simple actions. Plus, the program is absolutely free.

We have considered the most convenient, in our opinion, programs for ordering images. All of them differ in a set of options, and each user will be able to choose what he needs. What application do you use?

Putting things in order in the computer: programs that will make working with photos simple and convenient.

Ever since they appeared digital cameras and phone cameras, we create, download and store hundreds of photos every day. Some of us have a natural gift for organizing and organizing information, while the rest have to sort out gigabytes of files and folders with non-obvious names. And when a certain photo is urgently needed, it can be very difficult to find it, and sometimes even impossible.

The image libraries that we use for work deserve special attention. For example, designers can collect dozens of photos from photo stocks, textures and drawings in one project, copying pictures from one folder to another and creating backup after backup. This not only eats up computer memory, but also complicates further work with images, because then it will be difficult to understand where the source is and where the already edited image is.

Fortunately, there is a solution. We will talk about the most convenient ways and programs for organizing and storing images. With their help, you can not only quickly search and find the necessary photos, but also put down ratings, create albums and much more without unnecessary copying.

picasa

Free tool from Google. It shows all indexed photos in a convenient folder structure. You can let the program scan your entire hard drive for photos, or select specific folders. Double-clicking on any image will expand it to full screen and show you the basic editing tools: crop, straighten, adjust color and light, or remove red-eye, among others.

There are also handy features like face recognition and geo-tagging. You can scan all photos and then search in the database specific people. And geo-tagging will allow you to search by location. Photo viewing deserves special attention - a user-friendly interface and additional editing tools deserve to make Picasa the default viewer.

Zoner Photo Studio Free

Free version of Zoner Photo Studio photo editor. The program can copy pictures directly from the camera and allows you to process them using basic tools and effects. You can also create your own collection of photos, organizing it the way you need, easily find the images you need, print them, send them by email and publish them on the Internet.

Zoner Photo Studio Free has four main control panels: Import for uploading photos, Manager for managing archives on a PC, Editor for processing and enhancing pictures, and Viewer for browsing existing images. The Manager tab includes a tree-like system for displaying folders, navigation and information panels. If the need arises, you can purchase an extended version with more functionality.

StudioLine Photo Basic

Editor and manager of digital images. With it, you can organize your photo archive and edit photo parameters. There is an integrated image format converter function, as well as elements of a graphic editor.

Supports IPTC standard, reads and edits EXIF ​​metadata, RAW support. To use the program for free, you need to request an activation code on the developer's website, which will be sent to your email.

Aperture

If you're on a Mac, then you should check out Aperture, an advanced and more professional version of iPhoto's built-in editor. This program will allow you to catalog, rank and edit photos.

In addition to the wide functionality and capabilities, another advantage of Aperture is that only non-destructive editing of files is carried out here. Instead of changing the original file, the program records and plays back a list of operations performed on it. Any change you make to Aperture can be "rolled back" without issue, eliminating unnecessary duplicates and errors. True, sales of Aperture will be stopped this spring, as Apple will release a new product for working with photos - Photos for OS X.

Phototheca

A free program for viewing photos and organizing personal photo libraries on your computer. Convenient interface in the style of Apple and a large number of a variety of functionality - not all that can surprise this software.

In Phototheca, you can hide pictures, or rather, move them to sections marked as Safe. With the default settings of the program, images from the Safe section can only be viewed in Phototheca, in addition, the "safes" themselves can also be made invisible on the hard drive.

MAGIX Photo Manager 15

A powerful tool for organizing, editing and sharing photos. You can organize images in many ways, such as by name, date, or subject tags. There is a function to automatically organize photos by scanning and analyzing content.

Among other things, the developers have taken care of the ability to restore mistakenly deleted photos and find duplicates. You can also protect pictures with a password.

XnViewMP

A multifunctional application for working with graphic files on a computer, which is an extended version of the XnView program. In fact, this tool can be considered a kind of media browser with the options of a viewer, converter and cataloger. Supports viewing more than 500 different graphic formats, and when saving (converting) - up to 50 formats.

In XnViewMP, you can convert pictures and photos to various formats, including in batch mode, which is convenient when working with large amounts of data, you can view and edit EXIF ​​information, take screenshots, upload data to an FTP server, website, or send on e-mail, organize the graphics library by certain parameters, and much more. Images can be cropped, rotated, resized, adjusted brightness and contrast settings, applied various effects, etc. The well-designed interface of the product, which is similar to Windows Explorer, where everything is laid out and sorted for maximum productive use, is also pleasing.

No matter which program you choose, you will get the desired order in your photos. There will be no more painful searches among thousands of disparate files. A clear organization will allow you to enjoy working or viewing memorable pictures without nerves and surprises. And the ability to edit pictures will eliminate the need to open Photoshop every time you need to fix some little thing.

Free software for photo collection | picasa picasa, a popular tool from Google, is a handy free program which suits the needs of most users. Available - a wide range of tools for organizing a photo collection and basic image processing tools. The user has the ability to sort photos into folders on the computer or create virtual albums to distribute photos within Picasa. A set of labels and geotags allows you to distribute images by the place where they were taken, or by the names of the people imprinted on them. Basic editing tools include cropping, scaling, rotating, and red-eye reduction tools - everything you need to put your photos in order somehow. You can apply various filters and indulge in other fun tricks.

Free software for photo collection | Zoner Photo Studio Free This program is probably not as "sharpened" for organization as Picasa, but at the same time Zoner Photo Studio Free will appeal to those who like to edit photos. This is not just a tool for organizing the archive - it is a complete set of numerous photo editing tools. Included - a wide range of retouching and editing tools, quick filters and much more. Zoner Photo Studio includes everything necessary tools to create various photo projects - from panoramas to calendars.

Free software for photo collection | StudioLine Photo Basic 3 StudioLine Photo Basic 3 allows you to sort your photo collection and slightly edit pictures. Photo editing tools include cropping, rotating, scaling, and red-eye correction, among others. From an organizational point of view, Photo Basic 3 prompts the user to apply tags and geotags, as well as descriptions, to images in a directory that can be organized into folders. Tools slide show creation and online galleries allow you to easily publish your pictures or share them with other users.

Free software for photo collection | JetPhoto Studio 5 JetPhoto Studio 5 offers most of the tools users need for editing and storing photos: organizing an album, applying tags and geotags, but the main advantage of the solution is advanced photo publishing capabilities. Among the many options are the ability to publish images to Flickr and its own JetPhoto Server, as well as the creation of a Google Map gallery from geotagged photos. You can even quickly create Flash galleries and slideshows for web design projects, and view images through the Flash player and browser.

Free software for photo collection | XnViewMP XnViewMP is a free quick image viewer that supports over 500 formats. With it, you can sort common .jpg or .png files, as well as explore rare formats. XnViewMP is perfect for such tasks. It won't be able to quickly sort files automatically (like Picasa), but XnViewMP has editing tools to change image metadata and tags in batch mode to quickly apply tags to entire arrays of images.

Free software for photo collection | FastStone Image Viewer FastStone Image Viewer- A handy image viewer that has the functions of editing and organizing photos. FastStone has a wide range of basic image processing tools, supports tagging, viewing EXIF ​​data, and other annotation and sorting capabilities. Although FastStone does not have the ability to upload photos to social networks or cloud storage, it is a great tool for viewing, editing and organizing your photo archive if you store it on one computer.

Free software for photo collection | MAGIX Photo Manager 12 MAGIX Photo Manager 12 is the latest version of the MAGIX Photo Manager line of software, which combines many functions for organizing, editing and publishing images. With the help of organizing tools, you can categorize pictures and sort them by file name, creation date, or thematic tags. MAGIX includes a number of image editing features. The free version does not support features such as editing panoramas and automatic sorting images, but, in general, MAGIX Photo Manager 12 does its job well.

Free software for photo collection | Phototheca Phototheca is a free photo archive organizing tool that doesn't pay attention to complex functions editing, and instead focuses on getting your photo collection in order. By importing photos into the Phototheca database, they can be automatically sorted by events (for example, if the photos were taken on the same day or are stored in the same folder), placing them on the timeline. The images can then be tagged, assigned to other events, or sorted into their own albums. In addition, the Smart Album feature allows you to create dynamically updated collections based on selected criteria such as camera type, creation date, or label.

Free software for photo collection | DigiKam DigiKam is an open platform for organizing photos, ported to Windows and offering a wide range of functionality. Image collections can be sorted by folders, albums, labels; thus, DigiKam is quite a flexible tool that takes into account your preferences when organizing your photo collection. Metadata such as comments, ratings and other criteria can be viewed, edited and stored in a SQLite database or used in files. Support for tables and RAW format greatly simplifies the process of comparing photos, and available as plugins additional features significantly expand the functionality of this tool. Among the disadvantages of the solution is that this application is still under development and cannot boast of stable operation on Windows.


This is, simply put, a folder for all the new photos that you just have to process. Everything is in accordance with the Getting Things Done methodology.

When you upload a batch of new pictures from a smartphone or digital camera, they are first sent to Inbox. And only after processing - in the main archive. This guarantees the maintenance of order: unparsed shots will not interfere with already structured ones.

If you are just starting to sort out your voluminous collection, then send all the photos you have to Inbox without much thought. And move them to the archive only when you put them in order.

In any large archive, there will surely be a bunch of duplicates that are either absolutely identical or differ slightly. Especially a lot of such photos appear if you like to shoot in series, and then you are too lazy to delete extra pictures. So you should start organizing your archive with the destruction of duplicates.