image cataloging Archives

Putting Some Smarts Into File Names

Using smart file names can be a key for successful digital asset management. Some users prefer to include dates in file names. Other users include project codes or use a globally unique file naming schema. Whatever naming schema you decide to use, IMatch has tools to make the job easier.

IMatch includes a powerful tool named Renamer. With it you cannot only rename files in smart ways, but also copy and move files, add folders on-the-fly, create automatic backups, and more…

The Problem

Cameras often use file names like _DSC12345.jpg, which are not really informative or useful. You cannot tell anything about the contents of the file by just looking at the file name. And, if you use more than one camera, you may even end up with duplicate file names. And that’s never a good idea.

Although the physical file name is not that important anymore when you use a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system like IMatch. But it’s always better to be able to work with your files properly outside of your DAM, e.g. when you upload files to your web site or send them out to clients or a printing service.

The Solution

The IMatch Renamer tool enables you to create consistent and descriptive file names – automatically, when new files are indexed by your database, or later at any time. Whether you use simple numerical file names or you include additional information like date and time, a project code or even metadata like title or job id is up to you.

Some Examples For File Naming Conventions

_DSC12345.ext	This is the file name format used by most digital cameras today. Each image file gets a sequential number and the prefix DSC (Digital Still Camera). A leading underscore is added if the file is in the Adobe RGB color space.
2015-08-01_12345.ext	This file name consists of the year-month-day the image was taken, plus a sequential number. This format is pretty common because the file names are not only descriptive but also ensure that the images are sorted by date in software like Windows Explorer.
P8781-00121.ext P8781-20150801-00121.ext	A file naming schema which uses a project code (P8781) and then a 5-digit sequential number which identifies each file in that project. The second variant also includes the date and time. The Renamer has a special project code feature which prompts you to input a project code automatically.
20150801-usa-new-↵ york-890.ext	A file name which consists of a date stamp, the country and city name where the image was taken and a sequential number. File names like this are great when you travel a lot. The Renamer can construct such file names from the location metadata in the image automatically.
Project_Location_Lab_Cond_↵ 20150801100501_001.ext	A file name how it is often used for files created in research projects. Each file name contains important information about the object(s) shown in the image. The Renamer can construct such file names automatically by accessing both metadata stored in a file and global variables, e.g., the project name or the location and lab data.

Your naming convention make be based on one of these examples, or you create your own unique way of naming files. The Renamer in IMatch is flexible enough to handle (almost) everything you can come up with.

The IMatch Renamer

To rename files, select them in a File Window and then bring up the Renamer by pressing <Ctrl>+<F2>. The Renamer has a comfortable user interface which allows you to produce file names by adding one or more steps. There are steps to:

[list_font icon=”check-square-o” list_item_1=”add date and time in various formats” list_item_2=”add plain text and IMatch variables” list_item_3=”converting the case of file names” list_item_4=”including selected parts of the original file name” list_item_5=”replacing or delete text” list_item_6=”removing (leading/trailing) digits” list_item_7=”adding unique or sequential numbers” list_item_8=”copying and moving files” list_item_9=”creating folders on-the-fly, even with names based on variables” list_item_10=”prompting the user to enter a project code when he renames files” list_item_11=”…”]

While you add or change steps, the embedded preview allows you to see the resulting file names. No changes are made to the file system, the Renamer merely simulates the rename operation. It also checks for and indicates duplicate file names you may produce with your steps.

Example: Date and Sequence Number Format

The Renamr user interface. — The user interface of the Renamer.

In the screen shot above we create file names in the format: YYYY-MM-DD-nnnnn.ext format. At the bottom of the dialog box you see the source file name and destination file name. If you rename more then one file, you can click on the Preview… button to see the resulting file names for all files.

Example: Including the ISO Country Code and City Name

To create the more complex YYYYMMDD-Country Code-City Name-sequence number format explained in the table above, we just need a few more steps:

The first step adds the date in the YYYYMMDD format. Then we add a – and the ISO country code. We follow up with another – and then the name of the city. The country code and city name are retrieved directly from the XMP metadata of the file by using the corresponding IMatch variables. The final two steps add yet another – and a 5-digit sequence number. For the sample image used for this demo, the resulting file name is: 20140321-USA-New York-28190.jpg.

See the Renamer topic in the IMatch help system for numerous additional examples and tips & tricks.

Important: Buddy and Sidecar Files

Most of the RAW processing software in use today (and also image editing software, audio and video processing tools) produce sidecar or ‘buddy’ files for each file you process. A typical example are XMP files which contain the XMP metadata for your RAW fies. If you have a _DSC12345.RAW file, the XMP file will be named _DSC12345.XMP.

RAW processors or image editing software also create a variety of other files with settings, configuration data or history info for each image you process in these applications. Sometimes these files are in the same folder as the image, sometimes in sub-folders.

When you rename an image file, it is important to rename the sidecar and buddy files as well. Otherwise you may break the ‘link’ between the image file and the sidecar files which can have dire consequences.

The Renamer cooperates with IMatch’s unique file relations concept and thus ‘knows’ about buddy and sidecar files – even if these are not indexed by your IMatch database. The Renamer automatically ensures that buddy and sidecar files are renamed together with the image file.

File Names in Digital Asset Management

The Renamer tool in IMatch enables you to create descriptive and consistent file names. It offers easy features to include date and time, arbitrary metadata, text and automatic numeric sequences in file names. By using the embedded preview you can test your rename results without making changes to the file system. The Renamer also cooperates with the unique file relations feature in IMatch to automatically rename buddy and sidecar files when the corresponding image is renamed.

Exporting Metadata and Attributes with the Text Exporter

The ability to export metadata in various formats is a key feature for every digital asset management system. IMatch includes a wide range of export modules which allow you to export attributes, metadata and other data in a variety of formats.

Exporting Metadata and Attributes

This know-how article covers the flexible Text Export module which enables you to create text files in a variety of formats. The export module supports both UTF-8 and UTF-16 (Windows^® UNICODE) encoded text, which allows you to create output which works on all platforms and operating systems. IMatch enables you to output virtually every metadata field and Attribute it maintains in the database, ready to imported into other applications and systems.

These output formats are supported:

CSV Files (e.g. for Import into Microsoft^® Excel or similar products)
Tab-delimited formats (ideal for many databases)
XML Files (popular cross-platform format)
JSON Files (to process the results in JavaScript or similar)

Each format can be customized to match whatever format the importing application expects. As a result, you can export virtually anything that is stored in your IMatch database conveniently into other applications.

What To Export

You control the data to export via standard IMatch variables, which gives you complete access to all metadata and Attributes IMatch maintains for your files. Using variable formatting functions you can further format and modify the output to meet your requirements.

Each file processed by the export module produces one ‘record’ in the output. The resulting record can have any number of ‘fields’. A field has an (optional) name and a value. The name is plain text and the value is composed from one or more variables and literal text. For example:

FileName:{File.NameExt}

The name of this field is FileName and the value comes from the variable {File.NameExt}, which returns the file name and extension of the file (e.g., beach.jpg). Field name and value are separated by a colon:

To export multiple fields per record, just add additional declarations on additional lines:

FileName:{File.NameExt}
DateCreated:{File.MD.createdate|format:YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss}
Description:{File.MD.description}
Credit:{File.MD.credit}

This declaration exports 4 fields per record. To keep things tidy, this example uses shortcodes like createdate instead of the long standard variable names. See the IMatch help for details about shortcodes.

Formatting Variables

By default IMatch exports date and time information in your local date&time format (as configured in Windows). This may cause problems when the importing application expects date and time in a specific format.

To prevent any problems in this area, we use the format function together with the createdate variable to produce a date and time format in standard ISO YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format. This avoids any ambiguities.

IMatch supports dozens of variable formatting functions. Please see the Variables help topic in the IMatch help for a full list and examples.

Tip: Var Toy And Other Helpers

Not only for this case, but in general when you work with variables in IMatch, the Var Toy App can be a big help. This app allows you to enter a mix of literal text and variables and to immediately see the result.

Open an App Panel via View > Panels > App Panel (or <F9>,<1>) and select the Var Toy App in the drop-down list at the top of the App Panel:

The VarToy allows you to interactively try out variables. You can paste variables and text into the upper edit field and the App immediately displays the result. Use the Browse Variables… button to open the standard Variable Browser.

Copy as Variable

The Metadata Panel has a useful command which allows you to copy the corresponding variable for a metadata tag into the clipboard. Right click any caption in the Metadata Panel to open the context menu:

The Copy as Variable command copies the variable for the clicked metadata tag into the Windows Clipboard. From there you can insert it into the VarToy App or into whatever feature you want to use it with.

Running the Text Export

Select the files you want to include in the export and drop them on the Text Export module in the Import & Export Panel. You can also drop one or more folders, categories, collections or time-line nodes.

Drop files or other objects on the Text Export module in the Import & Export Panel

If the panel is not visible, open it via View > Panels > Import & Export or <F9>,<X>.

After you have dropped the objects, the Text Exporter opens a dialog box where you can configure the format and options for the export:

The options in this dialog are mostly self-explanatory. Press <F1> to open the corresponding topic in the IMatch help, which explains each option in detail. The help also contains examples and suggested output formats for a variety or common applications.

We create a standard CSV (comma-separated values) file in this case. Fields are separated with a comma (,) and each row (aka ‘record’) is delimited with a carriage return / line feed pair. This is the format expected by most Windows applications and Office suites.

At the bottom of the dialog you see the field definitions we have defined earlier. We just coped them from the VarToy App into the input field in the Text Export module. You can of course also enter and edit them in this dialog directly.

The Result

After running the export for 3 sample files, we can open the resulting file in Windows Notepad for a quick check:

Or we open it directly in Microsoft^® Excel (or Open/Libre Office):

CSV files like this using , ; or <tabulator> as field separators can be imported by most Office applications, statistic software, database systems etc.

XML Output

If you have more sophisticated applications, they often support XML or JSON as an import format. If we run the same export again, but this time switch the output format to XML, we get a result that can be easily re-formatted and imported by a wide range of applications across all platforms:

Note that the only change was switching the output format to XML. Our field definitions are the same as before. The Text Export module automatically used the field names as node names for the XML file and converted the values into proper XML data records.

Summary

The Text Export module in the digital asset management system IMatch is a flexible tool for exporting metadata and Attributes into other applications. It can produce plain text and CSV files, but also more advanced formats like XML and JSON. Using a mix of IMatch variables and text you can control the data you export, and the format in which the data is exported.

Whether you want to reuse data stored in your IMatch database in Excel or a Word Processor or you want to copy data into other database systems, the Text Export module is a great and easy way to handle this.

See also the related know-how article Using the Copy Data App With Your Office Application for another way to quickly transfer data from IMatch to other applications.

Using Custom Icons in the File Window

IMatch File Windows use a range of icons to present metadata and digital asset states. The file collections, the XMP rating and label, category assignments and more.

Sometimes it may be desirable to display additional icons. Maybe you want to indicate images taken at high-ISO settings, which may require extra care during post processing. Or you want to show a warning icon for files which have no keywords or description – as part of your quality management.

File Window Icons: Final — Some custom icons in the IMatch File Window.

Using Custom Templates

The general idea is to use a custom template in your File Window layout. This allows you to display arbitrary variables inside the File Window panels, and also to use some XAML markup to load and display icons.

To use a custom template, open the File Window Layout Editor, add a new layout (or clone an existing layout) and switch the Attribute property of the cell you want to use to the Custom Template setting.

File Window Icons — Switching the Header 1 cell to a custom template allows us to display a free mix of text, variables and XAML markup directly in File Window panels.

Add a ‘No Keywords’ Indicator

For this example, we want to display an icon when a file has no keywords. The variable {File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords} returns all keywords of a file. If it is empty, the file has no keywords. We use this to produce this variable expression for our custom template:

{File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords|hasvalue:;default:No Keywords}

We combine the hasvalue and default functions (see IMatch help on Variables for details) to output the text ‘No Keywords’ if a file has no keywords. To test this, copy and paste the above expression into one of your file window layouts. Or use the Var Toy App in the App Panel to try things out.

Use <Image> to Load Images

To display a custom icon instead of the text ‘No Keywords’, we add a XAML instruction which allows us to render an image. The <Image> tag does the job:

<Image Source='file://c:\data\imdb\nokeywords.png'></Image>

In this example, we load the image file stored in ‘c:\data\imdb\nokeywords.png’. This file is a 32 x 32 pixel PNG file with a transparent background. This size works best for our layout, but you can of course also use smaller or larger icons.

We combine this markup fragment with the custom template created earlier to produce the final custom template:

Write everything in a single line. The line breaks ↵ here are for layout purposes only.

{File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords|hasvalue:;↵
default:<Image Source='file://C:\data\imdb\icons\nokeywords.png'>
</Image>}

We also set the Size of the ‘Header 1’ cell to 34 pixel to make room for the icon. The result in the File Window looks pretty cool:

File Window Icon

This little icon tells us that the file has no keywords yet. Awesome.

Add a ‘Missing Description’ Icon

You can display custom icons in any of the four header and eight footer cells – and you can even display multiple icons per cell. A lot of flexibility here.

To add a second icon which indicates missing descriptions, use this custom template:

{File.MD.description|hasvalue:;default:↵
<Image Source='file://C:\data\imdb\icons\nodesc.png'></Image>}

As before, we test if a given metadata tag (in this case the XMP description) is empty. If this is true, we use an <Image> XAML tag to load and display an icon.

For this example, I have combined both tests and icons into the same ‘Header 1’ cell:

{File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords|hasvalue:;default:↵
<Image Source='file://C:\data\imdb\icons\nokeywords.png'></Image>}↵
{File.MD.description|hasvalue:;default:↵
<Image Source='file://C:\data\imdb\icons\nodesc.png'></Image>}

The result in the File Window looks like this:

File Window Icons: Final

The left file has keywords, but no description. The file in the middle is missing both, and the file on the right has a description but no keywords. You immediately see which files require some additional work.

A Note on ‘Escaping’

IMatch by default escapes variable values to make them safe to use with XAML. This means that special characters like < or > are replaced by their safe counterparts < or > to prevent metadata contents to accidentally break XAML markup in the File Window. This is usually exactly what you want, to be able to safely display all metadata in File Windows.

If the variables you use actually produce XAML, escaping may get in the way, preventing you from displaying images or other markup content. The default: function used above is an exception, because it does not replace unsafe characters. But if you use markup in other functions, you need to use a trick to prevent escaping. This trick involves the pereplace function, which allows you to replace text after IMatch has performed the escaping when processing variables.

In this example we use two steps:

1. Emit the value HV when the file has keywords (hasvalue) and XAML markup for the default: case

2. Replace HV with XAML markup using pereplace.

{File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords|hasvalue:HV;default:<Image Source="C:\temp\checkbox_unchecked.png"/>;pereplace:HV==<Image Source="C:\temp\checkbox.png"/>}

This way, when IMatch performs escaping on the variable, it only sees the safe value HV. Afterwards we replace these placeholders with XAML markup that loads and displays images.

Summary

By using custom templates in file window layouts you can display arbitrary variables in exactly the format you want. By adding a bit of XAML code, you can also load images or use custom colors for text and background. See the IMatch help for more info on XAML markup supported by IMatch.

Use the techniques presented here to add custom indicators for all kinds of purposes. You can improve your digital asset quality management by adding visual clues right into the File Window. When you catalog images, you can use icons to indicate high-ISO files, files taken with specific cameras, by specific photographers. Or you use icons to highlight files with specific keywords or metadata contents.

The code to load and display the icon is always the same. You just vary the variables you use to determine whether or not to display the icon, or which icon.

Use Metadata Tag Shortcodes To Save Typing

Variables are a flexible tool for displaying custom metadata in features like File Windows, Viewer, Slide Show, Renamer, Batch Processor and elsewhere. The digital asset management software IMatch gives users access to over 10,000 metadata fields, from all relevant formats, including XMP, IPTC, EXIF, GPS, ID3, PDF and more.

Accessing Metadata Fields via Tag Names

IMatch uses a consistent naming schema for metadata variables, based on the native ExifTool syntax. For example, to access the frequently used XMP title and description tags via variables, you use:

{File.MD.XMP::dc\title\Title}
{File.MD.XMP::dc\description\Description\0}

Of course you don’t need to remember or type these rather long variable names. You can just pick them in the Tag Selector dialog. See the IMatch help system for details.

IMatch Standard Tags & Shortcodes

IMatch defines a set of standard tags, which include the most frequently used metadata tags from XMP metadata and other formats. The Tag Selector dialog presents these tags in a separate tab, which makes them extra easy to work with.

A second (and often overlooked) benefit of standard tags is that IMatch defines a shortcode for each of these tags which can be used in variables. The above example using shortcodes would look like this:

{File.MD.title}
{File.MD.description}

A lot cleaner and easier to remember. And when you work with complex sets of multiple variables, shortcodes can improve readability a lot.

Search the IMatch help system index for shortcode to find the corresponding topic which lists all 80 available shortcodes.

How To Find Files Without Metadata

Sometimes you need to find all files which have no data for a given metadata tag. Maybe you need to find files without a description, or files which have no keywords yet. This can be easily achieved with the digital asset management system IMatch.

We use the Value filter for this purpose. Open the Filter Panel via View > Panels > Filter or the keyboard shortcut <F9>,<L>. If no Value filter is visible in the panel, click on the Gear icon in the toolbar and choose it from the drop-down menu.

In the Value filter, select the metadata tag to use. For this example, we used the Description tag. This procedure of course works with all 14,000 metadata tags currently supported by IMatch.

Enable the option Files with value. This tells the filter to search for all files which have data in the selected tag. It removes all files without data from the File Window.

Now enable the option invert the result. The filter now filters out all files which have data for the tag, leaving only files without data in the file window. And this is what we wanted: All files without a description.

As usual, the filter works on the current scope (what you ‘see’ in the File Window). To find all files without a description in a folder, select the folder. Or multiple folders. You can also select one or more categories, collections, time-line nodes…

To find all files without a description in your entire database, just select the Database node in the Media & Folders View or the @All category in the Category View.

[font_full1 title=”” icon=”info-circle” color=”light” size=”large”]If you need this filter often, save it. You can then apply the filter any time by just clicking it in the filter list in the Filter Panel.[/font_full1]

The File Window displaying multiple keywords per row.

Tune Your File Window Layouts

The File Window in IMatch can be customized in many ways using file window layouts. You have full control over whether you use a thumbnail or a tabular layout and over the data to be included for each file.

File window layout customization in the digital image management system IMatch.

This know-how article explains some tricks which you can use with custom templates in conjunction with variables.

See the File Window Layouts help topic in the IMatch Help system for a full overview of all available features and many examples.

Custom Templates and Layouts

When creating a custom layout, you usually just pick the IMatch data elements and metadata tags to display in the file window. Maybe also change the font size, alignment or color. This already gives you a lot of control over the data you see for each file.

Even more options are available when you switch the layout element to use a custom template. This allows you to use IMatch Variables and all related functionality, plus a subset of XAML formatting to control font sizes, colors and other aspects of the output.

You can use custom templates for each of the four headers and 8 footers, mixing them freely with standard elements. In the following example we configured Header 2 left to display the XMP headline. We also changed the font size and the color:

The File Window Layout Editor — The file window layout editor.

The resulting file window layout displays the contents of the XMP headline tag under the file name, in a bigger font and a orange color:

We could use any other variable, or multiple variables in the template. Whatever is needed to produce the output you want.

Displaying Lists

Some variables return lists of elements, e.g., the XMP hierarchicalKeywords variable or the Categories variables. IMatch separates list elements with the list separator character configured for Windows (usually ; or , ) . This results in values like “vacation;summer;family;holiday;Hawaii”.

IMatch offers a wide variety of variable functions, which allow you to manipulate the results of variables. By using the replace function, we can replace the default list separator ; with something different.

For example, if you want to display each keyword in a separate row, replace the ; with a line feed {lf}:

{File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords|replace:~;=={lf}}

Note that we use the short code for the variable instead of the full variable name ({File.MD.XMP::Lightroom\hierarchicalSubject\HierarchicalSubject}). The output is identical, but using the short code makes it easier to read.

To make room for the keywords, we increased the height of the footer to 120 pixel. If there are more keywords than there is room in the thumbnail panel, IMatch automatically crops the excess keywords.

The resulting file window layout displays the keywords assigned to the file in the footer, with one keyword per row:

The File Window Layout with Keywords. — A file window layout which displays XMP hierarchicalSubject values (keywords) in a ‘one keyword per row’ layout.

An Alternative: Let It Wrap

The approach to put each keyword on a single line may be a waste of screen space when you increase the thumbnail size. In this case there is likely enough room to fit multiple keywords per row.

To allow for that, we replace the ; separator with something like ,<blank> (a comma followed by a SPACE character). This allows the file window layout engine to fill the available space, automatically wrapping at the SPACE to create additional rows as needed. This variable

{File.MD.hierarchicalkeywords|replace:~;==, }

yields the desired result:

Displaying IMatch Attribute Data

Attributes allow you to create your own database inside the IMatch database. They are used to store custom data for each file, independent from the file format or the supported metadata. Attributes are great for purposes like keeping notes per file, submission tracking, billing, etc.

You can store any number of Attribute records per file. The corresponding variables return all values for a given attribute in a list semicolon-separated, just like the XMP hierarchicalSubject variable we used in the examples above.

In a recent post in the photools.community, a user asked how he can display this data in the file window. There may be multiple records per file, and each record may have multiple attributes.

For this example, we use a typical submission tracking Attribute Set. The IMatch user keeps track of which stock photo agencies (or web sites) he has submitted a file to, the state of the submission and the revenue. In the IMatch Attributes Panel, this looks like this:

The IMatch Attribute Panel — A submission tracking Attribute Set in the Attribute panel. **Click for a larger view.**

See the Attributes topic in the IMatch help system for detailed information about the IMatch Attribute database. The Submission tracking is used there as an example as well.

The file used in the screen shot above has 3 attribute records, each keeping data about one submission. If you want to display this data (or some of it) inside the file window, you can use the same method described in the keywords example above: You use a custom template for the file window layout, and control the data to display with IMatch variables.

But how to deal with the multiple records per file? When we just use the variable

{File.AT.Submissions.Client}

IMatch returns a list of all values for the Client Attribute, separated with a semicolon : DaguckstDu Stock Fotos;Bright Eyes Stock Photography;Whoa! Stock. The same happens for {File.AT.Submissions.Amount}: 280,00 $;450,00 $;250,00 $. Not really helpful. We would like to see the client, the date the file was submitted and how much money we made from it next to each other, in the same row, somehow.

The Trick: Indexing Variables

To achieve this, we use the index variable function, which allows us to access individual elements (aka records) in the variable. For example:

{File.AT.Submissions.Client|index:0}

returns the name of the Client from the first record (variables start counting at 0). With index:1 we get the second record, and so on. Now, after making some experiments in the awesome Var Toy App which is included in IMatch (see the App Panel and the IMatch help), we created this:

{File.AT.Submissions.Client|index:0}↵
{File.AT.Submissions.Date submitted|format:YYYY-MM-DD;index:0}↵
{File.AT.Submissions.Amount|index:0}

We use three variables to access the Client, the Date Submitted and the Amount attributes. With index:0 we tell IMatch to return only the first record. The resulting output is:

DaguckstDu Stock Fotos  2015-04-06  280,00 $

which is exactly what we want. Now, we just duplicate this variable group a number of times to access the 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4th record (we assume that we don’t sell each image more than five times):

{File.AT.Submissions.Client|index:0} {File.AT.Submissions.Date submitted|format:YYYY-MM-DD;index:0;prefix:(;postfix:)}{File.AT.Submissions.Amount|index:0;prefix: : }

{File.AT.Submissions.Client|index:1} {File.AT.Submissions.Date submitted|format:YYYY-MM-DD;index:1;prefix:(;postfix:)}{File.AT.Submissions.Amount|index:1;prefix: : }

…

{File.AT.Submissions.Client|index:4} {File.AT.Submissions.Date submitted|format:YYYY-MM-DD;index:4;prefix:(;postfix:)}{File.AT.Submissions.Amount|index:4;prefix: : }

Each of these variable groups produces one row in the file window. If a file has only 1 or 2 records (or none), IMatch automatically suppresses the output of the remaining variables., no rows are emitted. Which is of course exactly what we want.

We used the prefix and postfix functions to add ( and ) around the date instead of just adding them as literal text. This means that the parentheses will not show when the variable itself is suppressed.

This may look a bit complicated, but it really isn’t. It’s just variables, but with a neat twist in order to create this advanced example. To give this a try, we created a tabular file window layout and the five groups of variables from above to a custom template:

Each submission is displayed with the name of the client, the date of the submission and the amount of money created from that submission. Awesome!

Summary

File Window Layouts in IMatch enable you to control the data displayed in the file window. You can easily control the attributes or metadata to display, and also choose font sizes and colors.

If you need more advanced layouts, or you want to have fine control over the data to display, and how this data is formatted, you can use custom templates. In combination with IMatch variables this gives you a lot of options to work with.

Ignoring Small Embedded Previews in RAW Images

RAW Previews

Sometimes older RAW files have embedded preview images with dimensions much smaller than the RAW file itself. For example, some early cameras included smallish 1200 pixel previews even if the RAW had 3500 or more pixels in each dimension.

The digital asset management system IMatch by default uses the embedded preview image to produce the thumbnails and cache images. That’s usually a lot faster than extracting and developing the full RAW data. But if the embedded preview is much smaller than the RAW image itself, this may lead to unwanted results and too small images in IMatch (Quick Preview, Viewer, Slide Show).

Modern cameras usually embed 100% previews, but older cameras did not. If your image archive managed by IMatch contains files produced by older cameras, you may run into this problem. But there is an easy solution.

Cache Settings

You can handle this situation easily with the cache preferences in IMatch. Go to Edit > Preferences > Cache to view and configure cache settings.

The trick is to tell IMatch to use the cache image in general (for speed) but only if the cache image dimensions exceed a certain pixel size. For example, if the too small cache images are 1200 or 1600 pixel, set the Minimal Size property to 2000 pixel:

IMatch then uses embedded previews (from your new RAW files with standard 100% size previews) but falls back to developing the full RAW image if the embedded preview is less than 2000 pixel in either dimension. This gives you 100% previews for all your RAW files, old and new.

WIC Codecs

Sometimes the installed WIC Codec is unable to extract the embedded preview. In this case it usually helps to install the most recent WIC codec provided by your camera vendor, or a 3rd party WIC codec.

You can use the built-in WIC diagnosis in IMatch to check if the WIC codec installed on your system supports a given RAW image:

Select the file you want to check in a File Window
From the Help > Support menu, choose WIC Diagnosis

After a few seconds, IMatch displays a text file which lists all installed WIC codecs, the file extensions they support and the results for the selected file. This shows you if the WIC codec was able to extract a thumbnail, a preview and the full RAW image.

See also the knowledge base article WIC Support and Codec Availability for more information about WIC codecs.

Consolidating XMP Color Labels

XMP Labels

XMP metadata includes an optional field named label. A label is a text or tag you can assign to an image. Digital asset management systems with XMP support like IMatch use this label for various purposes.

Common examples are labels like ‘Red’, ‘For Review’, ‘Für den Druck’ or similar. Most XMP-aware applications also associate colors with a specific label texts, e.g. using a red color indicator for files with the label text ‘Red’ or blue for ‘For Review’.

There is no standard for label texts or if and how label names are associated with colors. Or how an application displays labels and colors in the user interface.

IMatch displays XMP color labels in the File Window.

Applications and Languages

The fact that labels are ‘hard-coded’ text stored inside XMP metadata often leads to problems when you work with multiple XMP-aware applications, you switch RAW processors or you work in teams with a mix of tools and user interface languages.

A German RAW processor might write the label ‘Rot’ when you assign a red label to a file, while the English version of the same software writes ‘Red’ instead. Sometimes application vendors also change the label names between different versions of their products.

This may create a challenge for long-term archival, consistency and interoperability. Thankfully, IMatch has the features to handle this.

Labels in IMatch

IMatch supports XMP labels in a variety of features, e.g. in the File Window, the Metadata Panel or the Viewer. In order to be compatible with all label-generating applications out there, it handles any number of labels and allows you to add your own labels and associate colors with each label individually.

To configure XMP labels, open Edit > Preferences > Metadata. IMatch by default ships with a mix of labels which cover the most frequently used applications.

You can add, rename and remove the pre-configured labels to your liking. Add all label names used in your other applications and configure IMatch to use the same color to ensure inter-application consistency.

[font_text icon=”info-circle” color=”dark” size=”medium”]Note that changing a label here has no effect on the labels already stored in your files! To change a label globally, follow the instructions below.[/font_text]

Importing Labels

When you click the Import button, IMatch scans the database and adds all unique label names used in your files to this list. This makes it very easy to pick up the various labels used in your files, to assign colors or to re-arrange their order to make them directly accessible via the keyboard shortcuts <Shift>+<1> to <Shift>+<5>.

Consolidating Labels

Sometimes you need to replace labels in entire sets of files, e.g. in order to consolidate labels between applications or to change the language used for a label.

This can be done in IMatch using only two simple steps:

1. In the Collection View, click on the collection representing the label you want to change:

Label Collections in IMatch — IMatch automatically maintains collections for each label used in your database. To see all files with a specific label, just click on it.

2. Select all files in the File Window and assign the new label – that’s all. After a write-back, all files have the new label stored in their XMP data.

Using Google Picasa™ Face Tags in IMatch

[icon_text icon=”Warning” link=””] This article is for an older version of IMatch.
Since version 2020 IMatch includes AI-powered face detection technology and powerful features for managing people.
See People and Face Recognition in the IMatch help system for more information.[/icon_text]

Viewing, using and editing face tags created in Google Picasa or Adobe Lightroom is easy in IMatch.

When importing files, IMatch extracts face annotations created by these products from the XMP record and converts them into IMatch Face Annotations. When writing metadata, IMatch converts Face Annotations back into XMP regions automatically. This fully integrates faces into the powerful IMatch Annotations concept, while ensuring compatibility with all applications that support XMP face regions.

Face Annotations in IMatch

The digital asset management system IMatch 5 contains a face detection feature in the Viewer which works in conjunction with the unique IMatch 5 Face Annotations. With a single mouse-click you let IMatch 5 detect all faces in an image and then you tag these faces with a name. IMatch optionally converts this face tag into a hierarchical keyword. Working with Face Annotations in the Viewer is easy, and fast.

In addition, IMatch supports XMP face regions created by other applications. Since IMatch handles the conversion between simple XMP face regions and IMatch Face Annotations automatically, you don’t need to do anything – it just works seamlessly.

Working with Face Annotations in the IMatch Viewer. **Click for a larger view.**

Face Tags in Google Picasa™

Picasa is an entry-level image cataloging software from Google. The most notable feature of Picasa is that it employs the very advanced face recognition technology developed by Google.

IMatch can import face tags created in Picasa. If enabled, IMatch automatically converts face annotations into IMatch annotations, and the name tags into hierarchical keywords. It also maintains dedicated collections for images with face annotations, which makes it very easy to find and see all files with one or more persons.

Configuring Picasa

You need to configure Picasa to store face annotations in the XMP metadata inside the image file (Picasa only supports this for JPEG files at this time). Otherwise the data is only stored in the proprietary Picasa database and not accessible for other applications.

For recent Picasa versions, the corresponding option is available under Tools > Options:

Picasa Options — Configure Picasa to store face annotations and tags in the image file.

Configuring IMatch

IMatch offers a number of options which allow you to control if you want to import face tags from Picasa and how to treat the tags assigned to these faces. You find these options under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. Press <F1> when the dialog is open to display the corresponding help topic with detailed information.

[icon_text icon=”Warning” link=””]IMatch 2020 and later don’t directly import XMP face region tags into keywords. Instead, you can add any number of keywords to a person. And IMatch then ensures that the keywords are added to all files containing that person. See Person Keywords in the IMatch help for more information.[/icon_text]

Result

If you tag faces in Google Picasa and save these changes afterwards, IMatch imports the face information automatically and displays them as annotations in the Viewer. Face tags created and written by IMatch are also visible in Picasa.

fdssfsd — An image file with face tags in Google Picasa™

The same image in the IMatch Viewer:

Adobe Lightroom™

Recent versions of Adobe Lightroom also store face tags into XMP, using the format recommended by the Metadata Working Group. IMatch supports these face tags automatically and converts them into IMatch Face Annotations. You can see and edit them directly in the Viewer. When you make changes to Face Annotations or you create new Face Annotations in IMatch, they will be saved to the XMP record associated with the image file. Lightroom then picks them up automatically when you let it reload the metadata.

Summary

By enabling face tag import in IMatch 5, you can reuse existing face tags created in Google Picasa or other software. The only requirement is that these applications have to support the standard XMP metadata face annotation format, as defined by the Metadata Working Group.

IMatch converts the simple name tag added in Picasa into a proper hierarchical keywords and even allows you to specify where in your keyword hierarchy to import face keywords. The dedicated collections maintained for images with face annotations allow you to find images showing specific persons with a single mouse click.

Since IMatch also supports the face annotations managed by Adobe Lightroom, you have a perfect end-to-end workflow with either application.

Use Visual Clues to Improve Your Workflow

Visual Clues

The digital asset management system IMatch offers a range of visual clues which allow you to improve your workflow. These visual clues are shown in the File Window, the Keyword Panel and also in other views and panels.

Using visual clues effectively can save you a lot of time. You can find files faster, notice problems quicker and even judge metadata quality and consistency at a glance.

Using Colors to Highlight Folders

If you work with a large number of folders, you can use color-coding to make certain folders easier to identify. For example, you may use a special color to indicate folders which have been backed up or archived. Or you use different folder colors for different kind of files or topics.

Using colors in the Media & Folders View as visual clues. — Use colors to highlight folders or to group related folders by using the same or similar colors.

Color-coding for Categories

Using color-coding for categories allows you to highlight certain categories or entire category hierarchies by making child categories inherit the colors from their parent category.

In addition to the Category View and the Category Panel, you can configure IMatch show category colors in File Window panels. This makes it easy to display file states, the hierarchies a file belongs to and many other things right in the file window, with easy to see color codes.

Using category color-coding to add visual clues to the File Window. — Color-coded categories and how these colors are displayed in the File Window. **Click for a larger view.**

In the example above, we have colored the entire FAMILY category hierarchy with orange. Every file assigned to one or more FAMILY categories thus displays an orange-colored segment in the File Window. Files assigned to the Children category hierarchy additionally get a light blue color.

We use an Archival State category to indicate which files have been backed up or archived. Color-coding this category allows us to see right in the File Window if a file needs to be backup up or has already been archived.

Which categories and colors you use is entirely up to you. The file window can display 8 to 20 unique category color segments per file, depending on how large you display the thumbnails.

Color-coding Keywords

IMatch 5 automatically mirrors keywords contained in your files in the special @Keywords category hierarchy. This not only makes it easier to work with keywords, but also enables IMatch to implement some special features.

When you color-code @Keyword categories, IMatch can (optionally) display these colors in the File Window and in the Keyword Panel. Whether you color-code the standard 5 W’s (WHAT, WHERE, WHO, WHEN, WHY) keywords or you color-code keywords by topic or even scientific or genealogical criteria, displaying keywords in colors makes it easier to tell if keywords are missing or duplicated.

And if you need to assign many keywords to files (e.g., for stock photo usage), using colors-coding makes it easier to keep things in check.

Quality Control

This feature can also be utilized for quality control. For example, you require at least one Motive, Location and Food keyword per image for your food stock collection.

If you configure each of these category hierarchies to use a different color, you are able to see with once glance at the Keyword Panel if keywords are missing or duplicated.

Color-codes in the Keyword Panel can serve as additional visual clues. — Using different colors for different *types* of keywords makes it easy to see if keywords are missing.

Label Colors

IMatch displays the color of the XMP label assigned to a file in the Rating and Label bar inside the File Window:

Associating colors with XML labels makes them even more useful. — A file with a blue XMP label and a 3 star rating in the File Window.

You can configure the colors associated with each XML label under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. This is especially useful if you work with multiple applications which use individual XML label names or colors.

For a better overview, you can customize a File Window Layout to apply the XML label color to the entire thumbnail panel background. Especially if you combine this with a compact thumbnail arrangement you can quickly get an overview over which labels have been assigned to how many files:

Using XML label colors for thumbnail backgrounds creates excellent visual clues. — Using the XML label color to color-code thumbnail panels in the File Window. **Click for a larger view.**

Summary

IMatch offers a variety or color-based visual clues which allow you to improve your workflow, to find files faster and even to check metadata quality at a glance.