Comparison of Photo Catalog Software

The following is a summary of the popular photo database / cataloging programs available today, with the main features of each. It should help in trying to compare the differences in important features from a product vs product comparison. Most of the programs are true catalogs (with keyword support), but I have included some which should be more appropriately called "image browsers" (which rely on filesystem organization). I have not included the editing functionality in this chart, but may do so later. Note: Photo catalog software is also sometimes refered to as: digital asset management, image database, photo album software, digital picture album, thumbnail browser, graphic organizer, etc. Return to the Digital Photography articles page. Please see the individual review pages for related comments. Check out the Image Database / Photo Catalog Software articles page for more insight into related topics. Key to Table VS Versioning Support: multiple file grouping (eg. print, web, edit, original, etc.), not simple revision control. See differences between versioning support below. CA Catalog or simply a browser? If Y, has full support for keywords / categories. If N, relies on user to locate images through a Windows-explorer type interface. SC Scripting language that allows one to extract and manipulate full database view. OS Operating system: M=Mac, P=PC RW Camera RAW file formats (viewing) CM Color managed display. VER Latest version along with release date. Note that if the last release was a long time ago, you might be getting yourself into a dead-end or poorly-supported product. Trial SW = Shareware.

If there are certain features or products that you feel are important to incorporate in the following software versus software comparison, please leave a comment below.

Product	Vendor	Cost	Forum	Trial?	OS	CA	VS	CM	RW	SC	Comments
ACDSee	ACD Systems	$49.99	Forum	Yes	P	Y	N	N [4]	Y	N	8 reviews
ACDSee Pro	ACD Systems	$129.99	Forum	Yes	P	Y	N	Y	Y	N	1 reviews
Aperture	Apple	$299.00	Forum	?	M	?	?	Y	Y	?	2 reviews
ArkiPix	ArkiPix	$140.00		14 day	P	Y	N	N	N	N	Add your review!
BreezeBrowser	BreezeSys	$49.95	Y	Yes [1]	P	N	N	N	Y	N	Add your review!
BreezeBrowser Pro	BreezeSys	$69.95	Y	Yes [1]	P	N	N	Y	Y	N	2 reviews
Bridge	Adobe	FREE	Forum	N	PM	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	2 reviews
Cataloguer	CML Software	$25.00		30 day	P	?	?	?	?	?	5 reviews
CompuPic	Photodex	$39.95		15 day	P	N	N	N	N	N	2 reviews
CompuPic Pro	Photodex	$79.95		15 day	P	N	N	N	N	N	2 reviews
Product	Vendor	Cost	Forum	Trial?	OS	CA	VS	CM	RW	SC	Comments
Cumulus	Canto	$69.95	Forum	Yes	PM	Y	N [3]	Y	N [3]	Y	6 reviews
DigitalPro	ProShooters	$179.00	Forum	Yes	P	Y	N	Y	Y	N	2 reviews
Expression Media	Microsoft	$299.00	Forum	60 day	PM	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Add your review!
FastStone Image Viewer	FastStone	FREE		FREE	P	N	N	Y	Y	N	1 reviews
FotoAlbum Pro	FotoTime	$29.95	Forum	21 day	P	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Add your review!
FotoStation	FotoWare	$65.00	Forum	30 day	P	N	N	N	N	N	1 reviews
FotoStation Pro	FotoWare	$599.00	Forum	30 day	PM	Y	N	Y	Y	N	1 reviews
idImager Personal	idPlanner	$59.00	Forum	21 day	P	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	4 reviews
idImager Pro	idPlanner	$89.00	Forum	21 day	P	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	1 reviews
IMatch	Photools	$59.95	Forum	30 day	P	Y	N [2]	Y	Y	Y	11 reviews
Product	Vendor	Cost	Forum	Trial?	OS	CA	VS	CM	RW	SC	Comments
iPhoto	Apple	$79.00	Forum	No	M	Y	N	N	Y	N	1 reviews
iView Media	Replaced by Expression	$49.00	Forum	21 day	PM	Y	N	N	N	N	2 reviews
iView Media Pro	Replaced by Expression	$199.00	Forum	21 day	PM	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	5 reviews
Lightroom	Adobe	FREE	Forum	Y	PM	?	N	?	Y	?	4 reviews
MaPiVi	Martin Herrmann	FREE		FREE	PM	Y	N	N	N	N	Add your review!
MediaDex	MediaDex	$79.95	Forum	30 day	PM	Y	N	Y	Y	N	3 reviews
PFS Manager	ProFoto Software	$49.00		30 day	P	N	N	N	N	N	Add your review!
Photo Album	Corel	$29.00	Forum	Yes	P	Y	N	N	N	N	2 reviews
Photo Mechanic	CameraBits	$150.00	Forum	20 day	PM	N	N	Y	Y	N	5 reviews
Photoshop Album 2	Adobe	$49.99	Forum	Yes	P	Y	N	N	N	N	6 reviews
Product	Vendor	Cost	Forum	Trial?	OS	CA	VS	CM	RW	SC	Comments
Photoshop Album SE	Adobe	FREE	Forum	FREE	P	Y	N	N	N	N	Add your review!
Photoshop Elements	Adobe	$89.99	Forum	30 day	PM	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	12 reviews
PicaJet	PicaJet	FREE		FREE	P	Y	N	N	N	N	1 reviews
PicaJet FX	PicaJet	$39.95		15 day	P	Y	N	N	N	N	4 reviews
Picasa	Google	FREE	Forum	FREE	P	N	N	N	Y	N	7 reviews
PixVue	PixVue	FREE		FREE	P	Y	N	N	Y	N	2 reviews
Portfolio	Extensis	$199.95	Forum	30 day	PM	Y	N	N	Y	Y	6 reviews
Smart Pix Manager	Xequte	$39.50	Forum	SW	P	Y [5]	N	?	Y	N	1 reviews
ThumbsPlus	Cerious	$49.95	News	30 day	P	Y	N	Y	N	N	4 reviews
ThumbsPlus Pro	Cerious	$89.95	News	30 day	P	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	1 reviews

NOTES:

• [1] Trial is watermarked, only first 12 photos in folder.
• [2] No native support for versioning in release 3.4.30, however scripting can allow one to keep tags current between versions. See my Manage Versions script, which is designed to be a workaround until the software provides native support for versioning. It is widely believed that the next release of IMatch might integrate native version support. Other products that have similar extensive scripting could also add such a workaround.
  
  [01/29/05] Mario Westphal announced version support in the next version (ie. IMatch 3.5). In early 2006, version 3.5 was released but unfortunately, it never incorporated version support. It's not clear when this feature will be available.
• [3] RAW is in extra "Photo Suite" $49.95 add-on. Versioning in "Vault" $1295 add-on. Free Viewer for others, but only create with $495 Viewer option.
• [4] Color Management only supported with "photoPro" plugin ($39.99).
• [5] Looks primarily like an image browser, but has support for keywords.

Other features that I would like to incorporate into the matrix are: Editing capabilities, offline image support, importing, printing, duplicate detection.

If you are aware of any corrections or additional details, please let me know in the form below.

Book on Digital Asset Management

Having spent considerable time researching topics relating to digital asset management, I have been surprised by how few books cover this important aspect of digital photography. Recently, I read Peter Krogh's excellent The DAM Book, and would certainly recommend picking up a copy if you're looking for more detail (the companion site has an active community forum).

Versioning: Revision Control vs Multi-file Versions

It is easy to become confused when trying to determine whether or not a particular product supports "version control" and what exactly this means. There are two closely related types of version control, but the differences are significant.

Revision Control

Revision control is simply a mechanism that tracks and stores multiple linear versions of a single file. One might edit a photo and then save it. This is stored as the current version of the file (say 1.1). At a later stage, one opens up the same file and decides to make a further edit. When this further edit is saved into the database, it is kept as version 1.2. Version 1.1 (before the recent modification) is still stored on the drive, and can be recalled by checking-out a previous version of the single file. This is commonly used with documents and source code, but some catalog programs have also incorporated support for this mechanism. Although it adds value for the first version (from original to first edit), it seems less useful for further versions, unless one had a huge number of edits to make over time and wanted to gradually roll in changes. At any point in time, one could roll-back the changes to the last known good state. Generally, all tags will be attached to all revisions as they are in fact referring to the same file. Programs supporting this are marked with a N in the VS column above.

Unfortunately, the problem most photographers face is not one of linear version control, but control over multiple parallel branches / developments from the same original photo. This is where multi-file versions comes into play.

Multi-file Versions

Multi-file versioning (not sure of an appropriate or accepted name for this, although one reader has mentioned the similarities to branched version control) is the ability to associate multiple seperate files with the same original. This allows for parallel streams of development, and also allows for sequential streams (if one were to create additional copies). The key point here is that a catalog program that supports this will need to associate tags with all files that are related to the same source / original. These multiple files are often created to develop versions of an image for different targets. Examples include: one version for the web, another for print, another for color correction, etc.

Unfortunately, there are very few catalog programs that have native support for this feature. Such programs are marked with a Y in the VS column above.

Comparison of Versioning Approaches

The following section will identify the different levels of support for image versioning in the catalog products indicated above. The table lists only those programs that either have native integrated support or those that provide enough scripting to accomplish the multiple-version tag maintenance.

Please see my discussion of multiple version support in catalog programs.

Product	Approach	Comments
IMatch 3.6 ?	Unreleased - Unknown	Mario Westphal announced (as of 01/29/05) version support in the next release of IMatch (3.5). When it was finally released (Feb 2006), it did not have the promised version support. It is not clear yet what approach will be used or when it will become available. See Mario's initial comments on IMatch 3.5. (Though some of these items are clearly waiting for a future release).
Photoshop Elements 3	Native support	Implementation of both version sets and image stacks (collections of photos on the same object).
idImager	Native support	Provides a good implementation of multi-file versioning (not revision control). It groups files into a single entity and allows one to simply drag and drop other versions (even from Windows Explorer) into the "Show Registered Versions" window. In the "Catalog" view it only displays the "Originals", while in "Media" view, it will display all. Now implements a Version Detection Wizard which will find the duplicates which may be additional derivative images.
iView Media Pro	Revision control only	Only revision control, allowing one to rollback to a previous edit on a file.
Photoshop Album 2	Edit control only	Only supports invokation of editing, and replaces entry in catalog with edited version.
DigitalPro	Only JPEG+RAW	Catalog keeps JPEG & RAW files associated together.
PhotoArchiver	Native support	Appears to properly support derivative images / multi-file versioning and possibly revision control. Can also associate other non-picture files with an image.
Photo Mechanic	Only JPEG+RAW	Catalog keeps JPEG & RAW files associated together.

Placeholder or Proxy Assets in a catalog

Very few programs support the notion of a placeholder asset. A placeholder is simply an element in the database that doesn't exist (yet). It might represent a missing photo, or a entire roll of film that you have yet to scan in.

Even though the original asset may not exist on your drive, it is still useful to have the ability to add keywords and organize such images / placeholders. The database program itself should not care, and it would be incredibly simple to implement such a feature. I imagine that this is not a feature that many people ask for, except in corporate situations where there may be many types of assets under control, many of which may not be transferred to the computer.

Even if the catalog program doesn't natively support such a feature, it would be fairly easy to simulate it's behavior, provided that the application supports the concept of offline relocation. Simply create a dummy image / thumbnail which you add into the database, once for each offline placeholder asset. You can tag and categorize at will. If you ever want to bring in the actual element, then you can relocate the item to your hard drive, which will resample the image thumbnail and metadata.