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Tag and Search Your Digital Pics Within Windows XP
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8.13.2006
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What's the best way to organize, tag, and search your digital photos? I've pondered this question for years, trying many different methods. But I think I've found the best free solution, and it can all be done with two simple add-ins that integrate right into Windows.
There are literally hundreds of programs that will help you to organize, view, and search your photos. I've tried dozens of them including Picasa, Preclick Organizer, ACDsee, and Photoshop Album. Most of these programs are very capable at helping you view, do simple edits, tag, and organize your digital photos. There are two problems with these programs for me. First, for some reason I have a problem with opening and running a program just to download and tag my digital photos. Some of these programs can take a while to load and seem well, bloated. Second, nearly all photo organizers tag photos in their own proprietary format. This means that if you ever decide to move to another photo organizer, you have to re-tag all of your photos. This could take a very long time if you have tens of thousands of pics.
If you are wondering what I mean by "tagging" your photos, let me explain. Digital pictures contain metadata - that is, non-picture data that is embedded in the picture file. Think of metadata as the information you'd write on the back of an analog photo. Nearly every digital camera inserts metadata into each picture file that contains information like when the picture was taken, the camera model, camera settings when the picture was taken, and more. This is called EXIF data and nearly any photo management program out there (including Windows XP) can read EXIF data. You can also include many other types of metadata such as keywords, categories, photographer, copyright, or just about anything else. Some programs can read this metadata, others can't.
Luckily, there are a couple standards for picture metadata - IPTC and XMP. IPTC stands for International Press Telecommunications Council, which is a news organization that originally developed a framework for describing pictures. IPTC has some compatibility issues and has now matured into XMP, or eXtensible Metadata Platform. This is more than you need to know, but if you really want to learn more about this, see this site.
The difficulty in this whole situation is finding programs that can edit IPTC and XMP-compatible metadata (so you can add keywords, notes, etc.) and search this data so you can find the pictures you're looking for. If you can edit XMP-compatible metadata, you can be almost certain that the data won't become obsolete or proprietary. Many programs can read and search XMP metadata, and many more will support it in the near future.
There are two free programs available right now that meet nearly all the criteria I was looking for in an image organization solution. They support XMP metadata and integrate right within Windows. The first is PixVue. Pixvue installs itself in the Windows right-click menu for pictures. PixVue has a lot of powerful options, not the least of which is the ability to add XMP-compatible keywords to pictures. PixVue even inserts small icons on image thumbnails to indicate which types of metadata a picture contains. To add keywords, just select a picture or pictures, right-click, and choose Annotate > Add. Click the Keywords tab and insert as many keywords as you like.
All of this would be useless if you couldn't search this metadata. The only free program I could find that searches XMP metadata is Windows Desktop Search. The key is to download and install the free iFilterShop XMP Filter add-in that gives WDS the ability to search this data. In my experience, WDS with the XMP add-in is very effective in quickly finding pictures with keywords tagged with PixVue.
I've found the combination of PixVue and WDS with the XMP add-in to be an excellent solution to tagging and searching my thousands of digital pictures. In my extensive Google-searching, this was the only free solution I came across (although I never saw them described together). It appears that XMP metadata is becoming more widely accepted, so any tagging should be compatible in future image management programs. I'm far from an expert on this subject, so I'd love to hear your comments about this or any other free (or cheap) image tagging and searching solutions.
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Make Your LCD Monitor the Best It Can Be
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8.09.2006
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Have you seen how cheap LCD monitors have gotten lately? 19-inch models are down to well under $200 without rebates these days. As LCDs become more and more ubiquitous, I'm amazed at how often I see people running their computers at a resolution that is different than the native resolution of their LCD monitor. When you do this, the LCD looks terrible - everything looks a little fuzzy.
If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, let me explain. LCD monitors are different than their CRT predecessors. CRT monitors can run at nearly any resolution and look fine. The electron gun behind the screen just "paints" more or less lines on the screen depending on the resolution you choose. LCDs, on the other hand, are called fixed pixel displays. This means that they have a fixed number of pixels that make up the screen. A 15-inch LCD usually has 1,024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixels vertically, which means it has a native resolution of 1024x768. 17- and 19-inch models usually have a native resolution of 1280x1024. If you run your computer at a resolution other than the native resolution, the number of pixels your computer is pushing out is different than the number of pixels that the LCD has. So what does the LCD do? It does the best it can to make the picture fit, but because it's getting a different number of pixels it has to interpolate, or guess, the best way to render the picture. Thus, you get a fuzzy picture.
.gif) It should be obvious by now that you should always run your computer's resolution at the native resolution of your LCD monitor. The problem is that many people, especially those of the older generation, find that a 1280x1024 resolution makes text and objects look much too small. Many people just leave their computer at the same resolution they had their computer at before they got an LCD monitor, and don't even realize how bad the picture is. I see this all the time. People are so wowed by the brightness and thinness of their new LCD, they don't even realize how fuzzy the picture is.
Before we do anything, make sure that you set your computer's resolution to the native resolution of your monitor. If you have a 15-inch LCD, it's probably 1024x768. 17- and 19-inch models are most likely 1280x1024. If you are unsure, check the box or the manual that came with your monitor. Now right-click on an empty area of your desktop and choose Properties. Then click on the Settings tab. In the section labeled Screen resolution, move the slider until it matches the native resolution of your LCD monitor (it is probably the highest one, since Windows can usually detect the native resolution of your monitor). See picture above..gif)
Luckily, there are three good options to try if you find that the native resolution of your LCD makes things look too small. All three are very simple and will take a few minutes. Believe me, it's worth it for your eyes.
The first involves increasing the size of Windows fonts. Right-click on an empty area of your desktop and choose Properties. Select the Appearance tab. Under the Font size drop-down, choose Large Fonts and then click Apply (see picture at right). If that's not big enough for you, try Extra Large Fonts. You'll notice that this increases the font sizes within Windows and in most all of the programs you run without sacrificing quality..gif)
Now it may seem like your fonts are huge, but the icons on your desktop are tiny. That's where your second option comes in. Click on the Effects button on the Appearance tab and select the box next to Use large icons, click OK, and then Apply (see picture at left).
Finally, you may notice that the fonts on an LCD monitor look thinner and slightly fuzzier than on your old CRT. Microsoft comes to the rescue with their ClearType Tuner PowerToy. You've heard me rave about the PowerToys before. They are great little additions to Windows that Microsoft's programmers developed, but never made it into Windows. Now they are offered free for download. Download and install the ClearType Tuner, turn on ClearType, and run through the very short wizard to optimize the fonts for your monitor.
Experiment with these options until you find the combination you're most comfortable with. You'll be amazed at how much sharper your LCD is when you are running at its native resolution. Your eyes will thank you.
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