MediaCatalog

As a long-time graphic and software designer I got tired of using expensive image cataloging apps that were way too complicated that kept all my images and catalogs in central proprietary databases and weird formats that ended up becoming obsolete - so I built one myself.

MediaCatalog is not a digital asset manager. You are your own digital asset manager - use the app you want for that.
MediaCatalog is not an image editor - although it can launch images in editing apps and update as changes are made.

MediaCatalog is a free image cataloging app built around ease-of-use, forward and backward compatibility, and data independence. It lets you create catalogs of thumbnails that point to the original images wherever you choose to put them — in a different folder, on an external drive, or on a network share.

Catalogs can be exported as (or imported from) single standalone Web pages you can share with anyone or saved on a shared drive so others can tag, rate, and add notes to thumbnails. The catalog format is non-proprietary (stored using SQLite and JSON), self-explanatory, easy to parse, extendable, and future-proof. In this way MediaCatalog can serve as an intermediary between different digital asset managers.

Features:

Images can be searched for colors, text and objects in them ("red", "vivid", "tree", etc.) as well as duplicates, variants, and similar images. An optional free text search feature allows you to search by description ("dog running on a beach at sunset").
All images (or just selected images or sections) can be batch exported as-is or in the format, dimensions, and quality you choose, with optional text or image watermarks
Display and rate images in multiple zoomable viewer windows with 2-up to 8-up layouts
Open and edit original images in multiple apps
Mark thumbnails with multiple colors, ratings, flags, tags, and notes
Smart sections can be made that change their contents dynamically depending on matching properties
Batch rename original images with dynamic property names and sequencing
Robust image location tracking and relinking allows you to move and reorganize original images wherever you want - nothing is stored in or moved to a central database
A scalable user interface with customizable dark and light themes
Export and import one-page standalone searchable, sortable, and filterable Web catalogs that contain the entire app and require no network access - tested in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox
Create catalog templates/presets optimized for presentation, review, export, and other workflows
MCP client support so you can automate it with Claude or ChatGPT to import, watermark, convert, resize, and export images in batch or create, open, import, edit, and write catalogs as part of your workflow
Catalogs have been designed to hold 50,000 images and beyond
Tested against thousands of files generated by every version of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator made since 1993

Supported formats include (with sidecar support):

Bitmap formats: JPG/JPEG/JFIF, JXL, JPEG 2000 (JP2, J2K, J2C, JPC, JPF, JPX), PNG, TIFF/TIF, GIF, BMP, HEIC/HEIF/HIF, WEBP, AVIF, EXR, HDR/RGBE, TGA, DDS, DPX, QOI, PICT/PCT, ICNS, PGF, MPO, JPS, PSD/PHOTO
Raw formats: NEF, NRW, CR2, CR3, CRW, ARW, ARQ, SR2, SRF, DNG, RAF, ORF, ORI, RW2, PEF, SRW, RAW, RWL, IIQ, 3FR, FFF, ERF, KDC, MRW, X3F, DCR, MOS, MEF, MDC, STI
Vector formats: SVG, PDF, AI, EPS, EPSF, PS, WMF
Video formats: MP4, MOV, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, F4V, TS, M2TS/MTS, VOB, MPG/MPEG, MOD, TOD, MKV, WEBM, AVI, DIVX, FLV, WMV, ASF, MXF (OP1a, OP-Atom), DV/DIF, Live Photos, QuickTime VR, GoPro 360
Professional video codecs: ProRes (422 Proxy, 422 LT, 422, 422 HQ, 4444, 4444 XQ), DNxHD and DNxHR (LB, SQ, HQ, HQX, 444), CineForm, DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD, Apple Animation, uncompressed 8- to 16-bit video (v210, v410, r210, 2vuy, yuv2, b48r, RGB), FFV1, HAP (HAP, HAP Alpha, HAP Q), DXV (DXV3, MOV); each in MOV, AVI, MKV, MXF (XDCAM HD422, IMX)

You can import albums, catalogs, and databases in these formats:

In the spirit of promoting open formats and interoperability, MediaCatalog has been released under the MIT License. The source code repository will be made public in the future after a few more improvements.