Image file cataloging software?

[James Terry]

I am curious if some of you are using any software to help manage your image, clipart, file library? I am not entirely sure what I want or need other than making it easier to locate something. I have a large amount of sources pulled from cd to the HD but I find that I never use any of it because it is too hard to find something. It all needs to be cataloged with a single program/interface that can make thumbnails out of various filetypes including corel files and then make it really quick to visually search and perhaps also add tagging over time.

What I want is a Google Images search on my hard drive.

This doesn't exist does it?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Search this forum for ROMCAT, ST Thumbnails, ACDSee, XNView, Irfanview to name a few...

[Mike Null]

It would be interesting to know what Frank Corker uses as he seems to have the largest files of anybody here.

[Jiten Patel]

I use CS4 which comes with adobe bridge. I use this to organise my files with the use of folders. It shows previews in anysize you want, and its very useful.

I have around 40-50k vector files, so I know what you mean about organising. Its a pain to sit down and sort everything out into catorgories but its worth it in the end. I am currently working on this and am about half way there...its taken me around 3 months with a few hours here and there.

[Rodne Gold]

Romcat is nice , in corel you have a facilty when saving to include notes or keywords and romcat can use these in it's searches.
Xnview is great for browsing
Both are fully functional freeware

[Darius Ferlas]

What I want is a Google Images search on my hard drive.

This doesn't exist does it?

It does.
It's Google's Picasa (http://download.cnet.com/Picasa/3000-2193_4-10160334.html).

[Mike Null]

Considering the size of my files I'd have to buy that service and I'm not sure it'll save vector art.

[Frank Corker]

I use St Thumbnails - you can just see all the pictures and scroll through whatever you need, drag and drop directly into corel draw. It also uses Ghost script but that is a fee download anyway but helps to see ai files.

[Chuck Patterson]

I use Picaso and Irfanview.

[Darius Ferlas]

Considering the size of my files I'd have to buy that service and I'm not sure it'll save vector art.
With Picasa there is no buying of service. It's a standalone program and it's free. However, it does not read vector graphics indeed.

Another choice would be XnView (http://www.xnview.com/) that can read about 400 file formats. It's free too.

[Mike Null]

Darius

If I altered what you said I'm sorry. I was intending to reply to your post and went to edit without realizing it.

My files are bigger than 1 GB which is the max free storage Picasa offers.

[Lee DeRaud]

My files are bigger than 1 GB which is the max free storage Picasa offers.Picasa works fine on local storage: I have at least 40GB of photos cataloged in it. The 1GB free limit is for storage in the "cloud" on Google's servers.

Either way though, as you said, it doesn't handle vector formats.

[Zsolt Paul]

I use St Thumbnails - you can just see all the pictures and scroll through whatever you need, drag and drop directly into corel draw. It also uses Ghost script but that is a fee download anyway but helps to see ai files.

What advantage (if any) do you see over using Bridge? I had tried all of the software mentioned here and in the end Bridge proved to be the easiest to display all formats correctly. I use a lot of adobe's formats (both ai and psd) and it can do that straight "out of the box". I could not get St Thumbnails to work properly even after installing ghost script. It seemed really confusing, one link sent me to another so I finally just gave up and went to Bridge. Its a pain initially to let it build its cache, but once that's done its pretty fast. It also offers superior integration into other Adobe's software, which for me is important, not sure if it would be for Corel users....

[Frank Corker]

I think when it comes to file storage, it is obvious that everyone has there own requirements, St Thumbnails works fine on my computer, I've never had any issues with it. I found bridge to be slow loading. Each to their own.

[Mike Christen]

I downloaded and installed xnview, it won't show .eps files as thumbnails. any idea why?? It does show up in preview window but not as thumbnail in the browser. This seems to be the problem for me with all programs with the exception of Bridge
Thanks

[Stanley Waldrup]

I use St Thumbnails - you can just see all the pictures and scroll through whatever you need, drag and drop directly into corel draw. It also uses Ghost script but that is a fee download anyway but helps to see ai files.

I was looking at an X5 Vidio and seen they have included a program called Connect. It looks kind of like the St Thumbnails. Have you seen this Frank?
Have not tried it yet but it looks like it will do about the same thing. Just looking for a good reason to Upgrade I guess...
Stanley

[Greg Bednar]

<snip> Just looking for a good reason to Upgrade I guess...
Stanley


This is how it looks inside x5 - Open the folder/s and drag what you want to add to the frame below. - Sorry about pic size. It may not be as robust like Picasa, but I like it for what I do.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=402&pictureid=3838

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/album.php?albumid=402&pictureid=3838

[Mike Christen]

connect don't show eps files for me, bridge is the only viewer that has worked for preview. does anyone else have this problem??