Best Free Digital Photo Organizer [1]

Read this article in Spanish (Español) [3]

Introduction

We don't all have the same requirements when it comes to organising our digital image collection. Some people, like me, want a quick way of importing new images and viewing a large assortment of existing images in various formats. We want the software to show our existing directory structure and allow us to amend add and change it easily. Then we want to be able to export images to email, publish them to the internet and resize, crop and change images without destroying the original image file.

Buried within digital image files are a series of 'tags' which can be used to find and classify images according a whole series of criteria - from date of creation to camera settings and even GPS settings.

There is also a huge demand for software which hunts through a user's drives and finds all image files and, without moving the original, creates an index with predetermined parameters.

Rated Products

[5]

Zoner Photo Studio Free [5] [6]

A photo manager, viewer and editor with a professional feel

Our Rating:

4.5

License: Free (Limited features)
Platforms/Download: [field_blackberry_download] | Windows (Desktop) [7] | [8]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [9]

Our Rating: 4.5/5 4.5

Summary:

Superb design, excellent free slimmed down version of commercial software which works well for everyday use.

Missing some features in free version; tabs between manager, edit and view may not suit everyone.

Read more... [6]

License: Free (Limited features)

Superb design, excellent free slimmed down version of commercial software which works well for everyday use.

Missing some features in free version; tabs between manager, edit and view may not suit everyone.

Read full review... [6]

[10]

XnView [10] [11]

A stable and very fast tool for viewing and converting image files

Our Rating:

4

License: Free (Private/Educational use)
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) [12] | [8]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [9]

Our Rating: 4/5 4

Summary:

A small fast well featured piece of software - in some ways the most versatile of any; Simple to use and very stable; Multi-monitor support.

Very few - but does not seem to offer an easy route to upload images to the web.

Read more... [11]

License: Free (Private/Educational use)

A small fast well featured piece of software - in some ways the most versatile of any; Simple to use and very stable; Multi-monitor support.

Very few - but does not seem to offer an easy route to upload images to the web.

Read full review... [11]

[13]

digiKam [13] [14]

Nicely designed software appealing to amateur and professional photographers

Our Rating:

4

License: Free (Open source)
Platforms/Download: Linux [15] | Mac OS [15] | Windows (Desktop) [15] | [8]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [9]

Our Rating: 4/5 4

Summary:

Could easily be a contender for the first place with a host of features aimed at the professional end of the market.

Large download size; Not really stable in the Windows version; Several features may not work properly such as camera auto detection, right click face tagging, etc.

Read more... [14]

License: Free (Open source)

Could easily be a contender for the first place with a host of features aimed at the professional end of the market.

Large download size; Not really stable in the Windows version; Several features may not work properly such as camera auto detection, right click face tagging, etc.

Read full review... [14]

[16]

Windows Live Photo Gallery [16] [17]

A key component of Microsoft's Windows Essentials for photo management and sharing

Our Rating:

4

License: Free
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) [18] | [8]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [9]

Our Rating: 4/5 4

Summary:

Excellent fast utility with a clean, simple design and a versatile indexing system.

Needs Windows Live sign up; not the most powerful image editor; by default overwrites existing viewer preferences.

Read more... [17]

License: Free

Excellent fast utility with a clean, simple design and a versatile indexing system.

Needs Windows Live sign up; not the most powerful image editor; by default overwrites existing viewer preferences.

Read full review... [17]

Related Products and Links

You might want to check out these articles too:

• Best Free Digital Image Viewer [19]
• Best Free Digital Image Editor [20]
• Best Free Photo Noise Reduction Software [21]

Notes

Does the organizer expect to search your disks for image files?

My best-in-class list has three rated programs that do not expect to search your disks for image files: Zoner Photo Studio Free, XnView and digiKam. ZPS Free can catalog all the image files on your disks but it does not do so by default.

The rated program that expects to search your disks for image files (and videos) is Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Other programs assessed

Other programs provide all the basics and a few of them are no longer supported. Those offerings that I have assessed include: Anti Chaos; Ashampoo photo commander 7.6; BelieveIT Photo Organiser; Bluemarine Photo organiser; Cam2Pic; DigiBook 2005 Light; Faststone Image Viewer; FxFoto; HP Photosmart; Imagic; iTag; JBrout; Jet PhotoKestrel GX; Kodak Easyshare 8.2; Magix Photo Manager; Myphotoindex; Photome; Photoscape; Photozig albums; Phraseanet; PicaJet; Picasa; Pictomio; Preclick Gold; Prostockmaster; Roxio; Serif Plus Starter Edition; SSuite; Stoik Imagic; Studioline; Sunlit Green; Viewer 2; Visipics and WildBit viewer.

I am always happy to learn of other programs.

Editor

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor diny13601. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or questions they might have by clicking here [22].

Back to the top of the article