Database app to store a series of photos with some descriptions

[hajime]

Hi, I am looking for a database program to store a series of photos (e.g. photos of components or parts) along with some descriptions (e.g. names, dimensions) of each item. Mac OS X app preferred but also consider iOS app. Any recommendation appreciated. Thank you.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Are you planning to publish or share those photos in some manner, or is it just a personal catalog?

If it's a personal catalog, you could do it in Photos - there's plenty of capability for captioning/sorting/searching when you know how. You can include photos in a Numbers or Excel spreadsheet, for that matter.

You'll also find a fair number of special-purpose programs, mostly intended for collectors, eBay sellers, etc. (many of those are on iOS).

If you need to share that catalog with others... would it be shared on a corporate network, over the web? At that point, the size and scope of the project may determine what you use, but you start moving towards a true database management program. Filemaker, SQL, mySQL, etc. These days, it's a rare database that can't deal handily with multimedia content. A photo is little different than a block of text for today's database management systems. But that could be overkill, depending on the scope of the project.

 

[hajime]

Are you planning to publish or share those photos in some manner, or is it just a personal catalog?

If it's a personal catalog, you could do it in Photos - there's plenty of capability for captioning/sorting/searching when you know how. You can include photos in a Numbers or Excel spreadsheet, for that matter.

You'll also find a fair number of special-purpose programs, mostly intended for collectors, eBay sellers, etc. (many of those are on iOS).

If you need to share that catalog with others... would it be shared on a corporate network, over the web? At that point, the size and scope of the project may determine what you use, but you start moving towards a true database management program. Filemaker, SQL, mySQL, etc. These days, it's a rare database that can't deal handily with multimedia content. A photo is little different than a block of text for today's database management systems. But that could be overkill, depending on the scope of the project.

Just for personal catalog.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Just for personal catalog.

In that case, give Photos a try (presuming you have Yosemite or El Capitan) - it's free. (You can do similar with either iPhoto or Aperture, if you're using those.) You could create one or more Albums (even put those Albums inside one or more Folders). I'd suggest creating Keywords for common properties (helps ensure that terminology is consistent across the catalog), and using the Title and Description fields as appropriate. For easiest access to these, from the Photos Window drop-down menu, select both Info and Keyword Manager, and keep both those windows open while you work.

The use of Smart Albums in conjunction with Keywords and consistent Title and Description conventions would help ensure that each item will be automatically placed into the appropriate Album(s) and immediately locatable based on the desired criteria.