- Sep 28, 2001
- 8,464
- 155
- 106
hi,
this is only a VERY quick preview.
-> I was looking at and evaluating TONS of Photo- Album, Organizer, Management/Cataloging etc. programs. Including big names like Adobe Album 2.0, Jasc Album 5.0, Thumbsplus, Acdsee 7.0, PicaJet, Picasa and MANY many more i am too lazy to list now.
The task was a DIFFICULT one since i had SPECIFIC requirements and *surprisingly* MANY of the known tools (thumbsplus, AcdSee, Adobe etc.) are totally NOT on par.
* ---> The most important feature was that the image managing/catalogue must RECOGNIZE the folder structure within windows. It MUST read a folder recursively and be able to list ALL the contents including subdirs.
Eg. AcdSee Powerpack 7.0 et.al is a nice "Image Viewer" and Editor - but it totally lacks a MEANINGFUL way to handle this problem. There is a odd way to read a folder incl. subfoler in Acdsee - but then Acdsee just throws ALL the imagess on the screen without a separation/grouping WHERE which thumb belongs. (In regards to the physical structure on HD) This is NOT useful at all.
We are talking about a folder with an infinite number of possible subfolder (which can contain subfolders) etc. and an infinite/unknown number of pictures ANYWHERE in that hierarchy.
A BIG MAJORITY of those programs all need to specifically that a user clicks on a folder, then opens a folder, then clicks on a subfolder etc..etc....which totally defies the purpose of a quick overview over image collections with ANY possible folder/file hierarchy.
* ----> The program must allow me to easily delete pictures and folders from withing the thumbnail view. It should NOT just focus on the database aspect of cataloging al images - but it should be a tool for exploring and deleting on HD.
*---> People rave about Picasa.....but this program TOTALLY ignored any folder structure, and, in all honesty, does NOTHING to me for "organizing" or managing and have an overview over image collections.
If you used picasa then you know what i am talking about !
*---> To get an idea about the task and my testing.....ONE of my folders has about 50000 (!) images with subfolders in the 1000s.
Another big fraction of the programs i tested were TOTALLY cranking out and unable to deal with the large number of pictures - or they were EXTREMELY slow. One of those programs is Adobe Album2.0
*** ---> The program i used TIL TODAY was "PicaJet" which did an ok job in reading recursive folder, was "ok" speedwise - but otherwise a bit flakey and didnt feel "solid". It was more like a database program for picture. Eg. AcdSee feels much more solid in handling real-time deleting, previewing and exploringh - IF IT JUST WERE ABLE TO READ RECURSIVE right or bothered in being able to show thumbs GROUPED and sorted according to folders.
----> So, i just got MS Digital Image Suite 2006 and i am VERY happy with the managing/organizing functions.
LIKE COMMON SENSE would demand - i can read in folders recusrsively anbd the pogram even DEFAULTS that it sorts and groups after folders. This is just so obvious.
I had no problems reading in 10000s of images and the speed is acceptable and i didnt experience any crashes like i did with a BUNCH of the other programs. Or/Including weird errors that programs claim certain images are damaged while they are NOT. (Adobe again. ALSO, how much sense does it make while reading in 50k images to display EACH and every image as a thumbnail while reading them in. Some prgorams COULD possibly gain some speed reading in folders just by omiting this totally unnecessary "preview while reading in".
Image Suite 2006 is pretty flawless and it feel SOLID handling and organzing huge numbers of pictures.
AS YOU MAYBE NOTICED - my focus is on browsing, managing, organizing and keeping a database.
I really dont care about the EDITING itself since there is a load of programs out there which MAYBE does a better job editing, PSP or Photshop, whatever.
PROS/CONS: D.I.S. 2006 reads the pictures, and, WHILE YOU work with your image collection, it obviously keeps reading and creating the thumbnail db. The reading takes quite a long time....but ONCE all images are read and in the db it's fine. The inital reading of images probably COULD be faster...but THEN the program overall has a snappy feel and everything from scrolling/viewing/EVERYTHING feels responsive and snappy. (Not like other programs where it takes a minute to drag the scroll bar thru the database
)
The GUI itself is VERY NICE - almost as nice as Picasa and the image quality of the thumbs and pictures viewed SEEMS very good.
The folders are NICELY grouped in the thumbs view - eg. click on a group/folder "header" (above a group of thumbs) it selects the whole folder and you can delete the pics from HD right as you view them.
You wont believe how many programs would not even be able to do such obvious tasks - at least not that easily.
GUI looks and feels actually very similiar to Picasa (which is a compliment since i like Picasa's feel and GUI) - except that D.I.S. allows much more control and organzing while i STILL dont know what users Picasa is actually targetted at
ONE BIG CON is that i am NOT that happy with the Image Suite 2006 viewer, i obviously can only see pictures in fullscreen at original size but NOT zoomed and i would also like more configuration options eg. advance pics with mousewheel etc,
I also miss features like hot-keys and my OWN configurable viewer..what would speak AGAINST eg assigning a 3rd party program to a key....eg. AcdSee/Irfanview and then (instead of using the built in viewer) just press the hot key and use the OTHER program for viewing.
Or just adjust a zoom-level and then advance in viewing the picture WITHOUT the zoom-level resetting again. I also dont like the "top/bottom" bar which, similiar to media player. stays there a few seconds and then automatically slides away for the full screen. I can NOT specify that i do NOT want this bar at all etc..
Anyway still evaluating.
I also want to add that one of the cons is a STEEP price tag ($99,99)....MS offers a total of $40 in rebates ($30 MIR and $10 if you buy a camera w/ the software)....but it is still a relative expensive product !
Edit/ADD:
I counted that DIS reads *roughly* 420 images per minute (70 images in 10 seconds) which is REALLY slow...so reading a 70k folder took me way over two hours. (i have a pretty fast machine w/ 1Gig of Ram and a fast SATA drive)
ALso...i miss tools like "duplicate image finder" etc. which i consider mandatory and i wonder why it doesnt automatically exclude duplicates like other programs.
In my opinion DIS is VERY promising but needs work and progress with certain functions and features - therefore the price seems very high. STILL - i think right now DIS is my preferred managing software.
this is only a VERY quick preview.
-> I was looking at and evaluating TONS of Photo- Album, Organizer, Management/Cataloging etc. programs. Including big names like Adobe Album 2.0, Jasc Album 5.0, Thumbsplus, Acdsee 7.0, PicaJet, Picasa and MANY many more i am too lazy to list now.
The task was a DIFFICULT one since i had SPECIFIC requirements and *surprisingly* MANY of the known tools (thumbsplus, AcdSee, Adobe etc.) are totally NOT on par.
* ---> The most important feature was that the image managing/catalogue must RECOGNIZE the folder structure within windows. It MUST read a folder recursively and be able to list ALL the contents including subdirs.
Eg. AcdSee Powerpack 7.0 et.al is a nice "Image Viewer" and Editor - but it totally lacks a MEANINGFUL way to handle this problem. There is a odd way to read a folder incl. subfoler in Acdsee - but then Acdsee just throws ALL the imagess on the screen without a separation/grouping WHERE which thumb belongs. (In regards to the physical structure on HD) This is NOT useful at all.
We are talking about a folder with an infinite number of possible subfolder (which can contain subfolders) etc. and an infinite/unknown number of pictures ANYWHERE in that hierarchy.
A BIG MAJORITY of those programs all need to specifically that a user clicks on a folder, then opens a folder, then clicks on a subfolder etc..etc....which totally defies the purpose of a quick overview over image collections with ANY possible folder/file hierarchy.
* ----> The program must allow me to easily delete pictures and folders from withing the thumbnail view. It should NOT just focus on the database aspect of cataloging al images - but it should be a tool for exploring and deleting on HD.
*---> People rave about Picasa.....but this program TOTALLY ignored any folder structure, and, in all honesty, does NOTHING to me for "organizing" or managing and have an overview over image collections.
If you used picasa then you know what i am talking about !
*---> To get an idea about the task and my testing.....ONE of my folders has about 50000 (!) images with subfolders in the 1000s.
Another big fraction of the programs i tested were TOTALLY cranking out and unable to deal with the large number of pictures - or they were EXTREMELY slow. One of those programs is Adobe Album2.0
*** ---> The program i used TIL TODAY was "PicaJet" which did an ok job in reading recursive folder, was "ok" speedwise - but otherwise a bit flakey and didnt feel "solid". It was more like a database program for picture. Eg. AcdSee feels much more solid in handling real-time deleting, previewing and exploringh - IF IT JUST WERE ABLE TO READ RECURSIVE right or bothered in being able to show thumbs GROUPED and sorted according to folders.
----> So, i just got MS Digital Image Suite 2006 and i am VERY happy with the managing/organizing functions.
LIKE COMMON SENSE would demand - i can read in folders recusrsively anbd the pogram even DEFAULTS that it sorts and groups after folders. This is just so obvious.
I had no problems reading in 10000s of images and the speed is acceptable and i didnt experience any crashes like i did with a BUNCH of the other programs. Or/Including weird errors that programs claim certain images are damaged while they are NOT. (Adobe again. ALSO, how much sense does it make while reading in 50k images to display EACH and every image as a thumbnail while reading them in. Some prgorams COULD possibly gain some speed reading in folders just by omiting this totally unnecessary "preview while reading in".
Image Suite 2006 is pretty flawless and it feel SOLID handling and organzing huge numbers of pictures.
AS YOU MAYBE NOTICED - my focus is on browsing, managing, organizing and keeping a database.
I really dont care about the EDITING itself since there is a load of programs out there which MAYBE does a better job editing, PSP or Photshop, whatever.
PROS/CONS: D.I.S. 2006 reads the pictures, and, WHILE YOU work with your image collection, it obviously keeps reading and creating the thumbnail db. The reading takes quite a long time....but ONCE all images are read and in the db it's fine. The inital reading of images probably COULD be faster...but THEN the program overall has a snappy feel and everything from scrolling/viewing/EVERYTHING feels responsive and snappy. (Not like other programs where it takes a minute to drag the scroll bar thru the database
)The GUI itself is VERY NICE - almost as nice as Picasa and the image quality of the thumbs and pictures viewed SEEMS very good.
The folders are NICELY grouped in the thumbs view - eg. click on a group/folder "header" (above a group of thumbs) it selects the whole folder and you can delete the pics from HD right as you view them.
You wont believe how many programs would not even be able to do such obvious tasks - at least not that easily.
GUI looks and feels actually very similiar to Picasa (which is a compliment since i like Picasa's feel and GUI) - except that D.I.S. allows much more control and organzing while i STILL dont know what users Picasa is actually targetted at
ONE BIG CON is that i am NOT that happy with the Image Suite 2006 viewer, i obviously can only see pictures in fullscreen at original size but NOT zoomed and i would also like more configuration options eg. advance pics with mousewheel etc,
I also miss features like hot-keys and my OWN configurable viewer..what would speak AGAINST eg assigning a 3rd party program to a key....eg. AcdSee/Irfanview and then (instead of using the built in viewer) just press the hot key and use the OTHER program for viewing.
Or just adjust a zoom-level and then advance in viewing the picture WITHOUT the zoom-level resetting again. I also dont like the "top/bottom" bar which, similiar to media player. stays there a few seconds and then automatically slides away for the full screen. I can NOT specify that i do NOT want this bar at all etc..
Anyway still evaluating.
I also want to add that one of the cons is a STEEP price tag ($99,99)....MS offers a total of $40 in rebates ($30 MIR and $10 if you buy a camera w/ the software)....but it is still a relative expensive product !
Edit/ADD:
I counted that DIS reads *roughly* 420 images per minute (70 images in 10 seconds) which is REALLY slow...so reading a 70k folder took me way over two hours. (i have a pretty fast machine w/ 1Gig of Ram and a fast SATA drive)
ALso...i miss tools like "duplicate image finder" etc. which i consider mandatory and i wonder why it doesnt automatically exclude duplicates like other programs.
In my opinion DIS is VERY promising but needs work and progress with certain functions and features - therefore the price seems very high. STILL - i think right now DIS is my preferred managing software.
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