I'm starting to digiscrap again after a 10 year lag. I have Photoshop and Lightroom. I do all my photo cataloging with keywords in Lightroom, but I suppose I could use Adobe Bridge as well since PS is what I will need to use for scrapbooking. I'm wondering if I can use either of these softwares for cataloging all my digital papers, elements, etc. I would like to use keywording to be able to pull up "all elements that are purple," as an example. Has anyone had success with that in PS or LR, or do I have to buy a whole other program to accomplish this? Also I wondered if the papers and elements come with keywords already imbedded in their metadata? That would be SUCH a timesaver. I tried importing a recent download of papers into Lightroom, just to see if keywords came with it, but it didn't seem to pull anything over. I'd appreciate some advice to get me going in the right direction.
Thanks,
Lisa
PHOTOSHOP-Cataloging papers and elements
Sat, 08/01/2020 - 14:57
#1
PHOTOSHOP-Cataloging papers and elements
Lisa, I have heard of people using Adobe Bridge but not sure about the keywords.
I just had a look at some of the papers I have from here at DigitalScrapbook.com and the solids ones have the color name included and some of the patterns have names.
I use a Windows computer and find the inbuilt search good enough for me as I have a HUGE stash of digital products.
Like Anne-Marie, I just use the built-in Windows search in File Explorer. I use Bulk Rename Utility to add tags to the front of file names so I can search by those (such as putting "fasteners" at the front of all clips, staples, etc. and "stitches" at the front of anything that's stitched). The main issue with this is that the file names can get very long if you're adding more than one or two tags to the front, which can hamper file recovery if it comes to it.
I haven't tried tagging in Bridge, unfortunately.
Thank you for your reply. I'm on a Mac but I can try search and see what happens
Thanks for your reply. When I was doing this 10 years ago there were some software programs used for organizing your downloads. I was hoping there were some easier solutions. I will experiment with using the search on my Mac and see what happens.
Lisa, here is a youtube that may help you with using a MAC..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXIFPtBNt5g
I use Adobe Bridge for making collections, in fact I'm just after spending several days last week organising 16 years worth of downloads using collections and smart collections. Although I do wish bridge had a preview ability of layer styles, actions and patterns etc without having to load them (I lost most of atomic cupcake's previews lol)
https://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/what-is-adobe-bridge/
Aibhne, that's the part where I would just make new previews myself, but then I rely on previews a lot for quickly looking through resources on my computer. I actually spent a chunk of time a few months ago sorting through my Photoshop brushes and making preview images for all of them so I could quickly look through the brushes I have when searching for specific ones for projects.
Thanks for the good ideas.
Thanks. Using a bulk rename is a good thought.
Thanks Aibhne, I'll look into that further.
Great --thanks for sending Anne-Marie.
Unfortunately, that still requires loading them, I've been saving a preview as and when I do, but also noticing a lot of actions which generated specific elements such as bows no longer work. It's been a little heartbreaking
Technically, keywording only works on the .jpg paper files, not the .PNG elements because the JPG files, as well as some others; PSD & TIF, have a metadata section within the compressed file (which is where the keywords are stored). PNG files don't have metadata capability, so whatever you use for your keywording, be it Bridge or windows explorer, or other software, the data for PNG files will be saved to a separate file that works similar to a database.
I use Adobe Bridge, myself; years ago I used something of a softwre called ACDSee, but it was buggy and killed all my layered TIF files, I dropped them like a hot potato & then they spammed me with messages, just because I wanted to unsubscribe (I was told I'd have to login to unsubscribe but I had forgotten my login info & had a new email address (so didn't want to be bothered).
If you have Adobe Bridge, give it a try. And although the entire process can be cumbersome, I find it helpful to keyword the previews for Brushes & other add-ons, as Amanda suggested.
Good luck.