These are applications that allow you to view and manage digital images in different formats. They are specially designed for quick visualization of images, but also offer interesting functionalities in intake, metadata processing, basic processing and output. There is such a wide range of options that it is sometimes difficult to choose a single or main solution. However, these are not restrictive applications so, for instance, it is possible to use one program for importing, another for embedding metadata in batches and another for selecting images according to the appraisal policies established by the institution.
License: Proprietary software (freeware for noncommercial use).
^*Developer: Irfan Skiljan.
Operating system:Windows.
Main features:
- Desktop application written in C and C++.
- Fast, stable and very light.
- Its interface could be improved in terms of design and usability.
- Supports more than 60 graphic formats even obsolete formats (Amiga, Atari, C64, ZX Spectrum, among others) which is very useful if you’re using it as a tool to migrate files to new formats. It also supports the most common video and audio formats.
- Allows the visualization of EXIF and IPTC metadata and, in turn, the histogram. It also allows the editing of IPTC metadata and some EXIF metadata.
- Has basic photo editing tools (brightness / contrast, cropping, among others).
- Offers several batch processing operations (renaming files, format changes, color profile, dimensions, resolution, among others).
- Good output images (sending by email, presentations, contact sheets, watermarks, among others).
- Multilingual support (up to 35 languages)
License: Proprietary software (freeware for noncommercial use).
Developer: FastStone Soft.
Operating system: Windows.
Main features:
-Desktop application written in Embarcadero Delphi.
- Very intuitive program with an attractive design and different viewing modes.
- Supports the most relevant photographic formats.
- Large and varied quantity of functionalities (Video production, zoom, a lot of editing features like crop, focus, lighting adjustments, color effects, clone stamp, among others).
- Offers various batch processing operations with multiple configuration possibilities (file renaming, format changes, resolution, among others). Has basic image marking tool that subsequently allows you to filter the selection. In turn, it is possible to filter using the following criteria: file name, file type, date, size and dimensions.
- Multilingual support (up to 18 languages)
License: Proprietary software (freeware for noncommercial use).
Developer: Pierre-Emmanuel Gougelet.
Operating system: Cross-platform.
Main features:
- Desktop application written in C and compatible with 32-bit and 64 bit architecture.
- Supports more than 500 graphic formats.
- Intuitive, complete and very customizable interface. It is structured in 3 panels: the first one is for navigation (using folders, categories or favorites), the second one shows the set of images offering different possibilities of visualization (icons, miniatures and labels; miniatures and details; columns or in list mode) and the third one includes a preview of the selected image as well as its properties, histogram, EXIF and XMP metadata and associated categories or descriptors. A second interface allows to view images in a bigger size and to run basic editing operations such as crop, brightness adjustments, filters, effects, among others.
- Enables reading of EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata and allows you to embed and edit the IPTC metadata in JPEG and TIFF formats.
- Offers color management (ICC profiles) in JPEG, TIFF and PNG formats.
- Allows you to carry out batch processing actions such as embedding or elimination of metadata, file renaming, format changes, dimensions or color profiles, among others.
- Includes a basic search engine which allows you to search by name, size, format, dimensions and fields associated with specific metadata such as the copyright field of IPTC.
- Offers good output images (contact sheets, web galleries, advanced slideshows, among others).
- Multilingual support (up to 46 languages).
License: Proprietary software (trialware available).
Developer: Adobe Systems
Operating system: Windows and Mac OS.
Main features:
- Desktop application written in C++; available and compatible with 32-bit and 64 bit architecture.
- As the name suggests, Bridge, was born as a simple browser whose objective was to link the different parts of the Adobe Creative Suite and was created as an intermediate tool within the workflow of a producer (photographer, designer, illustrator, among others).
- Supports EXIF, XMP and IPTC metadata; capable of embedding and editing IPTC and XMP metadata.
- Offers a very intuitive and customizable interface with several visualization options based on a 3 columns structure with several mobile panels (filters, collections, metadata, keywords, previews, folder structure, among others). There are six working spaces by default but it is possible to create other customized spaces.
- Allows you to classify the images using two evaluation systems (stars and colors) that are very useful for making quick selections.
- Has a simple search engine for free text and offers several filtering possibilities (file name, file type, creation date, modification date, file size, rating, among others).
- Offers a good batch renaming tool and metadata processing system. On a photographic level, it acts as a shuttle to the processing programs of the Adobe suite.