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iPhoto is unequalled, on Macs or Windows, at displaying pictures at varying sizes.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
Why iPhoto, the Mac OS X image manager, is so cool


Jan. 15, 2006


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard

   Apple makes all three elements of a modern computer system -- the hardware (the computer itself), the operating system and the software used for common tasks. So it's no wonder things work well together on Apple's Macintosh OS X computers.
   Probably the best example of this sort of synergy is iPhoto, the image-management software that comes free with every Macintosh. Like many other Macintosh OS X programs, iPhoto requires no familiarization period. You can use it to view, catalog, edit and print your digital pictures the first time you turn your computer on.
   In fact, the ease with which iPhoto can do all sorts of photo-related operations sometimes causes a problem. I've encountered savvy Mac users who have never run iPhoto, apparently because they mistakenly assumed it was "entry-level" photo management software that couldn't handle heavy-duty tasks.
   But that's not the case. The current release, iPhoto 5, does a superb job of the three big image-management functions -- displaying, sorting and editing pictures.
   (Apple introduced a newer version just after this column was written. I'll update this article as soon as I have tried the new version of iPhoto.)
   iPhoto is unequalled at displaying pictures at varying sizes. When images are shown smaller than a one-to-one pixel-to-pixel size, the image-management software has to scale everything down. Effective scaling is part science and part art. iPhoto scales images better than any other software I've tried, whether on Apple's computers or on Windows.
   Thumbnails aren't an option with iPhoto; they're the way it works. You always view thumbnails, even while editing a single picture. (During editing, the thumbnails appear in a strip across the top.) This means you have a consistent interface and can always see many of your images at a glance.
   Thumbnails can be tiny or as large as your main iPhoto window. All you do is move a slider to change the size. There's only one slider, and once you nudge it, you always know what it does.
   Sorting could be better with one addition. Although you can sort thumbnails by date, title, keyword, picture rating and "film roll" (groups of photo imports), you can't reverse the sort order.
   But Apple makes up for this mistake by providing an easy way to create both folders and albums in the left pane. Albums can only contain photos, and folders can only contain albums; you use albums to create groups of similar pictures, then arrange those albums into folders. (You might have an album of Uncle Jessie's BBQ and an album of Aunt Bibb's homecoming, both ensconced in a folder called "Family Fun," for example.)
   iPhoto can create slide shows that make most other slide shows look dull. Apple's control over both hardware and software is evident in the smooth horizontal image scrolling and variable rescaling that takes place in iPhoto slide shows. To see this in action, be sure to choose the "Automatic Ken Burns Effect" in the slude show setup.
   (Unlike Picassa, the otherwise excellent Windows image manager I wrote about last week -- see www.technofileonline.com/texts/tec010806.html -- iPhoto can package its slide shows for Apple's outstanding DVD-editing software, iDVD. I've been able to turn out half-hour DVD-based slide shows in 15 minutes, including the time spent burning the DVD.)
   Earlier versions of iPhoto lacked most of the editing functions of dedicated photo editors, but the current version does nearly all regular editing tasks very well. It has a quick-fix button that optimizes most photos as well as any other consumer program I've used, sports a foolproof red-eye correction method, corrects color balance easily and crops images neatly.
   Changes you make are easy to undo -- there's a menu item for that -- and if you really make a mess of a picture, iPhoto has a "Revert to Original" menu option, too.
   Apple says iPhoto can store up to 25,000 images in its database, called the iPhoto Library. I have more than 100,000 images, so I use a utility called the iPhoto Library Manager to store many small- or medium-size iPhoto Libraries.
   For tips on iPhoto, use IPHOTO as the search term in my search engine at www.technofileonline.com/search.html. For more on the iPhoto Library Manager, go to www.technofileonline.com/texts/mac110205.html.