Veerle's blog

Digital asset management that is the “fancy” term of the topic from last Friday. Since then I’ve tested several of the applications that were mentioned in the comments. For those that haven’t been following along we we’re talking about archiving solutions for all the files that we have to deal with in our daily job. In our case that is a DVD full of all kind of files like fonts, icons, music, QuickTime files, eps, psd, pdf, Abobe Illustrator, InDesign, Quark etc.

The workflow we use now is burning the disc with Toast and putting all the files into a FileMaker Database. A huge task when you do it manually on a 4,7 GB DVD. Someone mentioned to do it via AppleScript but hey I’m a designer and not a script programmer ;-) FileMaker isn’t ideal since you don’t see a preview of the files etc, sometimes that’s needed to trace the right document.

CatFinder 2.7.0
An old program that has been carbonized to run on Mac OS X but it uses none of all the features that are available in Mac OS X like anti aliasing, previews etc.  Even the folders that show the content look like we are back in system 7. By only looking at the icon you know what the deal is with this app. This application has no future unless it gets a major overhaul.

DiskTracker 2.31
The same explanation from above applies to DiskTracker too. It’s an old Mac OS 8/9 app that got a quick carbon port to Mac OS X. The folders look a little better then CatFinder but not much. No anti aliasing, no icon support like in the Mac OS X finder no preview etc. It does its job of indexing a cd, but if I am going to pay for software it has to at least benefit from all the features that the operating system has to offer. In short I want more. A missed opportunity!

CDFinder 4.3
The first application that has a pretty descent look. At least it supports some of the possibilities of the Mac OS X finder. It has anti aliasing and uses the folders like you have specified if your are using CandyBar for example. The best application so far but that wasn’t too difficult to achieve. It doesn’t preview any file type, also a missed opportunity since this would make it a good shareware app. Why do I want a preview, well if you archive, chances are you’re going to come across files with similar names and a preview would directly give you the answer you need. The fact is, we do not always use the perfect naming scheme so that it is crystal clear what is in that file.

Tri-Catalog 5
As far as indexing a volume is concerned this application is the winner.  It is fast in indexing a complete dvd and uses some of the build-in features of the operating system. Tri-Catalog is also the first application that has a preview but there are some flaws since the preview isn’t sharp but blurry. It seems that when you put the DVD back in you get a slightly better preview. The other applications that are coming, prove that it is possible to show a decent preview of any file type even when the CD or DVD is not mounted. A good attempt but far from perfect since the user interface could be a lot better. To be honest it also suffers from the Mac OS 8/9 syndrome. When you select a folder it shows it flaws, you get a jaggy edge around the folder icons and some of the little previews aren’t anti aliased, but if I would be forced to choose one from all the above this would be the one.

The remaining 3 applications are much more then just a indexing application for burned CD’s or DVD’s.

Portfolio 7
Portfolio is more of an application to manage all your digital files like pictures, psd, ai, eps, pdf’s, ppt, etc. You can do a lot more then just indexing a CD or DVD. So for some this application may be overkill. One important thing you’ll notice from the moment that the program is running is that it is the first application tested so far that has an interface that is Mac OS X worthy. This is how an application should look! Indexing takes a lot longer then all other applications tested but that’s because Portfolio extracts a preview from every file, you can even set the size of the preview when you start importing. So you can see a preview of psd, pdf, indesign, movies, swf, etc. and if you do a preview and then choose switch to original you can see the layers that are present in that particular file.

In circumstances where there is no preview like a dmg file or sit file for example you see the icon as you would see it in the finder. Scrolling through a database of 5000 thumbnails was very fast on our 1 Ghz dual G4. You can also create a catalog and burn it from Portfolio. There is way too much possible to explain everything here with this program so if you want to see it in action you can view a bunch of video tutorials on the Extensis website and get a better idea of the power of this application.

I get the idea that it is not set up to be an indexing program for all kind of files, it’s more a catalog of all your graphic design files BUT it is very usable as an indexing application and the bonus is that you can do a hell lot more with it. One thing is crystal clear if you’re a photographer then this is your app since it’s iPhoto on serious steroids. You can create contact sheets, print them, make a website of them etc. It is recommend that you watch those videos.

DEVONthink
A bit of an outsider since it’s a notepad, outliner, scrapbook manager, information manager, freeform database, archive, bookmark manager and image database, all in one integrated application. So it’s more an information manager since it’s a replacement for a whole bunch of programs. It’s not the right application for what we are searching for but it has and uses some interesting features that could be put to use in an indexing program for CD or DVD. The creators have used all the features available from the operating system like scaling thumbnails, build in browser (based on WebKit), text editor etc. You can save content from the build in browser, advanced text editing including rulers, highlighting and real-time word count etc.

When I was importing dmg files it was cataloging the inner workings like the resources and plist. That behavior alone makes it no candidate for what we are looking for. But as we said above the developers are using a lot of interesting stuff. If some of those features would be implemented in a digital asset management program you would get a first class application.

Mnemo
A review of this program is a bit difficult since there is no demo to download so the info on the Artwork Systems website is all we have. A nice and with attention to details place btw. Artwork Systems is a Belgian company that has products for pre-press solutions. The program exists of Mnemo Server (OS X) and its MySQL Pro database. The database is consulted with the Mnemo client that can be copied to any Mac where access is required to the database. They make great use of Mac OS X technology since it supports Rendezvous which means zero configuration to setup the client. For managing your graphic design files it seems like the ideal solution because when you do a preview on the file you get all kinds of info like separations (Pantone colors), fonts, order number, paper used, barcode etc.

It is also difficult to get an idea without a demo. For example, not sure if it support all kinds of files like dmg, QuickTime, Flash etc. For that information I rely on Frederick, a reader and employee of ArtWork systems. Also as he said in the comments Friday it is not cheap but, have no clue what is “not cheap” ? ;-) All in all it sounds like a very promising application but that all depends on its features and how much it costs.

My ideal application
Since I already own portfolio because I bought the Photo Imaging Suite I will use portfolio for my indexing. We were already planning on using it to manage our ever growing collection of royalty free pictures. This is no sales pitch, but I only want to inform my readers on a great deal that is now available on the Extensis website. From now until December 31st you get 50% off on all sales. An interesting deal that I want to mention.

Next on the list is a mockup on how I see the ideal application. Look for that in an upcoming post.