Craig Ramsay Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 I am on the look out for some sort of software to manage the graphics files in the office. We have a server 100gb full with graphics files (PSD's, Tiffs, Jpegs, Freehand, PDF's) that have been named badly, put in the wrong place, duplicated etc etc... Anyway I have been given the task of sorting out everybodys mess orangeno How do you guys go about managing your graphics files? I am looking at archiving software like Fotostation or iView Media Pro at the mo. I am also going to look at keeping an archive of files "off site" using a data management company once this mess is sorted out. I would be interested to hear peoples views on this subject. Cheers, Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 I think this app is very good for finding duplicates of your images. It's amazingly accurate. check it out. Should make your life a lot easier. http://www.somewareonthe.net/dpeg.htm As for archieving image database.. I am interested in those, but so far, I havn't found a commercial application that does that just yet. -RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted July 16, 2003 Author Share Posted July 16, 2003 Cheers richard that looks like a really useful tool and not very expensive. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshenko Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 You might want to check out the industry standards for media asset management: Cumulus Portfolio Both of these apps will catalogue a variety of media - images, documents, etc. - as well as provide thumbnails and other goodies. Otherwise, depending on the strength of your technical staff, you could build something yourself that is web-enabled. We did this and have ended up with a totally customized solution that we can access from anywhere. Good luck - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted July 16, 2003 Author Share Posted July 16, 2003 Do you use either of these two products? Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshenko Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 No, but I've tested them pretty extensively. They both have demo versions that you could try out. I think my preference would be Portfolio. Both apps have their annoyances, but I think that can be said of the whole media asset management industry. It's a difficult task to automate the cataloguing process for all types of users - software ends up with "feature bloat" - which is why we chose to build our own. If you do chose to try out the demo versions, make sure you do so on a set of files that is completely removed from your production environment. If you are unfamiliar with the processes that both apps employ, it can be quite easy to "accidentally" delete real files! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3d-doctor Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 extensis portfolio is one of the defacto standards and i have used/worked with it in a couple of offices ir works but i found it a little wooden adobe have their own app out now as well don't know the name but the heritage even if it's bought in should be sound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyanide Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Or you could do what the guy who looks after our server did not too long ago. Delete every image file off the server. No, I didn't think that was too clever either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 OMG!!! Bet he was popular! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Hey Craig, Check out iMatch ( http://www.photools.com/ ) I use it and it's one of the most aclaimed packages over on dpreview.com It is very powerful and it able to cutomize. I think it will work with most of your file types. AVOID CUMULUS AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!! That is the biggest waste of money ever. I did a ton of developing with that app at SMED and the software finally failed on us after distrubting their browers to nearly 2000 sales reps. I called suport and they said we can't reproduce it here so it's your problem. This is what you get from people who try to support a PC app on a mac...these guys are morons...do not buy Cumulus!!! We scrapped the project after 3 years and moved everyhting online when a co-worker and I programmed an online database and shopping system for renderings. Which is how I learned to program much of CGarchitect. Suported files here: http://www.photools.com/imfs_0002.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Not sure on your budget, but you may also want to check out NXN's alien brain. See today's news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 Nice one Jeff! I think Alien Brain would be overkill but Imatch looks quite good... will take a look Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshenko Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Originally posted by Jeff Mottle: AVOID CUMULUS AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!! That is the biggest waste of money ever. I did a ton of developing with that app at SMED and the software finally failed on us after distrubting their browers to nearly 2000 sales reps. I called suport and they said we can't reproduce it here so it's your problem. This is what you get from people who try to support a PC app on a mac...these guys are morons...do not buy Cumulus!!! That's funny (in a painful sort of way...). I avoided giving my personal opinion on Cumulus because I didn't use it extensively in a production environment, but my gut feeling would have been similar to yours, Jeff. Here's an interesting factoid to back that up: I've been trying to get myself off the Cumulus mailing list for close to 2 YEARS!! Their unsubscribe features don't work, and nobody will answer email requesting that I be removed. Every time I think I've been successful, some pre-packaged press release comes my way with a huge image of their not-so-supermodel CEO plastered all over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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