[TriLUG] Linux Photo Management Application?

[Owen Berry]

Sounds like you're a KDE user, otherwise I'd recommend taking a look at
gThumb - http://gthumb.sourceforge.net/features.html

Owen

On Tue, Oct 31, 2006 at 07:13:12PM -0500, T. Bryan wrote:
> I'm looking for some recommendations...
> 
> Short question
> ==============
> 
> I'm looking at moving from "big directory of photos" to KPhotoAlbum or 
> digiKam.  Does anyone have experience with one or both applications that 
> they'd like to share?
> 
> Right now, I use Gimp when I need to edit photos.  I download photos with 
> gphoto2.  I use KDE, and it looks like KPhotoAlbum does everything I need.  
> Before I take the plunge with one tool, I was wondering whether digiKam (or 
> some other app?) might be a better choice.
> 
> Long version
> ============
> 
> So far, I have been storing my digital camera's photos in one big directory.  
> I have a few other "album" folders that are just collections of symlinks to 
> the primary storage location.  I keep the output of jhead and some other 
> manually-entered information about each folder in a separate files on my 
> machine.  I browse photos with kuickshow.  
> 
> I'm finally collecting enough photos that I'd like to use some sort of photo 
> management application.  I'm not fond of applications that take my data and 
> store it in some obscure format or in some other way that is inaccessible to 
> me.  If I find a cool tool, I often end up using a bunch of its neat 
> features, so I'm not opposed to something slick and innovative.  I just have 
> a couple of requirements:
> 
> 1) I don't want the application to be messing with my original photos.  Other 
> than adding some info to standard meta-data fields in the photo, I'd like the 
> application to leave my files alone.  Ideally, they'd all still sit in one 
> directory, and the application would just look for them there.  That would 
> make it easier for me to continue to back them up the same way I do now.
> 
> 2) If the application is abandoned by its developers, I'd like to be able to 
> be able to script my way to another tool.  I don't want to lose my original 
> images or any of the metadata that I enter just because I switch to another 
> tool.  
> 
> 3) I really just need a tool that helps me organize the photos and browse 
> through them.  I'd like to be able to enter metadata about the photos that 
> helps me categorize them.  I don't want to create albums and separate my 
> photos.  I just want to enter info about the photos and then "query" the 
> entire set of photos for the ones that match the query.
> 
> Perhaps there are some other cool features that I don't know that I need.  If 
> you've got a favorite solution here, I'm open to recommendations.  
> 
> Happy Halloween!
> ---Tom