Stick Software Releases PhotoReviewer 1.1 By
Mike Pasini, The Imaging Resource
(Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 12:32 EST)
Macintosh OS X does a lot of things well, but one thing we miss is a simple slide show program (like Big Picture) that can be pointed to any folder so we can review images. This may be the ticket (and, at $10, it's priced like a ticket, too).
Stick Software explained the problem, "In our experience, there is no tool really well-suited to taking a large collection of images, reviewing them, and culling the bad ones and keeping the good ones."
There are programs that do it (like iView MediaPro and Adobe Photoshop), but sometimes you just want a little utility that just shows you what you've got before you do anything with it.
"PhotoReviewer doesn't try to be all things to all people," the company said. "It is not a replacement for iPhoto or Preview. It helps you wade through the stream of incoming images quickly and efficiently. It belongs between your digital camera and iPhoto. Between your scanner software and iPhoto. Between your news reader and iPhoto."
Built as a slide show application, PhotoReviewer includes a customizable tool bar above displayed images that allows you "to vote." Approve or veto the image and it's moved to a new folder (or deleted).
It can find and eliminate duplicate or corrupted images. It can also sort images using 10 user-choosable folders with assigned custom keys so you can move an image by pressing a key. A renaming command is also available.
Both online help and a separate PDF manual are available. And both are comprehensive. You'll learn how duplicate file names are handled and why PhotoReviewer rotates what you see but not the file itself.
If rotation is important to you, consider Juri Munkkii's Cameraid, which does lossless JPEG rotation as well as simple image display and image rating for $20.
In the few minutes we've had to try the demo (25 times up to an hour each), we've appeciated the quick review of images and the extensive ability to customize the program's behavior. It's clearly been designed by people who understood the problem.
|