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Linux @lemmy.ml
moondog [he/him] @hexbear.net

File tagging software?

Hey everyone,

I have a ton of pngs, jpgs, webps, mostly of fantasy art. I want to be able to mass-tag them with things like "character", "environment", "elf", "demon", etc. and then view them based on tags. Can anyone recommend software like this for linux? Bonus points if it also works on windows. Thanks!

18 comments

  • mv?

    Honestly, just prefix or suffix the filename. I've been cataloging all my stuff like that for the past 30 years - including, for things like music, the track number, which the filesystem and every portable device under the sun will naturally sort and play in the correct order. Finding things can be done with regular filesystem tools like, well, find. And it will work exactly the same way in all OSes that have a concept of filesystem.

    • That's a really good idea, I'll probably do that. With that method, what's the easiest way to prefix a bunch of file with e.g. "human_"? Put them all in the same folder, and then write a script so every file in that folder gets that prefix?

      • It's whatever works for you.

        Me, depending on the type of file, I either have a more or less full description (so I can find things with find and English words) and/or some sort of short coding system that makes sense for a given type of file. After using the same codes for a long time, I know exactly what they mean.

        For example, I would name an ebook "823-sf-rah-The_moon_is_a_harsh_mistress.epub": that way I can look it up by DDC number (823), genre (SF), author if they're well known (Robert A. Heinlein) and of course the title of the book, or any combination thereof. That's my own system for ebooks.

        For music, I make one directory per album or record named artist-comma-name (e.g. "Al_Di_Meola,Orange_and_Blue") and the individual tracks inside as e.g. "track01-Paradisio.mp3", "track02-Chilean_Pipe_Song.mp3"... The reason I only do one directory deep per album instead of, say, author/album/tracks is because most MP3 players back in the days, and most music apps today, understand that way of organizing music. That's my own system for music.

        Etc etc. Just make up your own system that works for you. Just stick to characters that are acceptable in all OSes' filesystems so you can move your stuff around without problems, and avoid spaces so it's not a pain to type.

      • if they're all already hard linked into the human folder, why rename them

  • I read that you're manually tagging them, so your process can be whatever you want to do.

    For example, you can leave the images in their current folder structure and create a separate folder structure with symbolic links to an image, so in the character folder would be symbolic links to all the images like that. They also don't have to be unique, an image can be in multiple categories.

    Alternatively you can use a spreadsheet and generate lists there.

    Finally there are plenty of photo album applications that allow you to tag images.

    • Alternatively you can use a spreadsheet and generate lists there.

      OK, I'm going to wade in here. It occurs to me that the OP could make use of my Tonto2 Python3 script for Linux and Windows. It puts a spreadsheet-like user interface over a *.csv file or files. You just need to make a home for the tag file(s). You can make bookmark lists that way and open the embedded http:// links in your browser. You could use file:/// links for local images. You could add as many columns as you want for all kinds of tags and sort and search the values to your heart's content.

18 comments