How to Create a Tasty, Trendy Menu Card in Adobe InDesign

by Grace Fussell

• 21
• 129
• 2
• Share

What You'll Be Creating

Menus play a huge part in shaping a diner’s experience, for the better or worse (we’re aiming for the former!). Whether you’re creating a menu for a restaurant, café, or pop-up, or just simply looking for a way to wow friends or family at a special dinner party, you can easily liven up the table with these simple-to-create and trendy summer menu cards.

We’ll be using Adobe InDesign for this tutorial, and you won’t even need to download any images or graphics—the menu designs are based around strong, striking typography and a simple, summer-friendly color palette.

Let’s begin!

This shows the menu layout we’ll be creating—a two-sided, single page menu, at a large size (11.69 inches by 16.54 inches). 

NB: If you want to create a smaller menu, you can export the final menu (see final steps, below) and resize it in Photoshop.

Front:

Reverse:

1. Set Up the Menu Document in InDesign

Step 1

Get InDesign opened up and select File > New > Document.

Keep the Intent set to Print, and up the Number of Pages to 2. Uncheck Facing Pages.

Under Page Size, select Custom... from the drop-down menu, to open the Custom Page Size window. 

Type Menu into the name box, and set the Width to 11.69 in (or 296.926 mm) andHeight to 16.54 in (420.116 mm). Click Add, and then OK to return to the New Document window.

Step 2

Set the Number of Columns to 4, and reduce the Gutter to 0 mm—this splits the page (within the margins) into four even sections.

Set the Margins to different values: 40 mm on the Bottom, 23 mm on the Top,15 mm on the Right and 15 mm on the Left.

Give your document a Bleed (essential for when you send the card to print) of 5 mmall the way round.

Click OK to create your new document.

2. Create Layers to Organize Your Layout

Let’s create a sequence of layers, to help structure our design and make elements easily lockable and editable.

Step 1

Expand the Layers panel from the right side of the workspace, or go to Window > Layers.

Double-click on the default Layer 1 name to open the Layer Options window. Rename the layer as Border and click OK.

Step 2

Select New Layer from the panel’s drop-down menu. Rename the new layer asColor and click OK.

Create a final, third new layer, and rename it as Typography. 

Once you have the sequence of three layers, Lock both the Typography and Colorlayers, and click on the Border layer to activate it.

3. Build a Border on Your Menu

We’re going to start working on the Reverse side of the menu (the side with the most text), which we’ll take as Page 2 of the InDesign document.

Step 1

Move down to Page 2 of the document by scrolling down, or clicking on the Page 2page icon in the Pages panel (Window > Pages).

Remaining on the Border layer, select the Line Tool (\) from the Tools panel (docked to the left side of the workspace). Holding Shift, drag your mouse downwards from the top margin, along the center line of the page (marked out by the column lines), extending it to the bottom margin. 

Open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke), and increase the Weight to 3 mm and select White Diamond from the Type drop-down menu.

Step 2

With the Line Tool (\) still selected, hold Shift and drag from left to right along the border of the top margin. Set the Stroke Weight to 2 mm and Type to White Diamond.

Select the line you’ve just created and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste. Drag one end of the line to reduce its length to 130 mm.

Position on the left side of the page, crossing the two far-left columns, at Y position 136 mm. Copy and Paste the short line, and position on the left side again, this time at Y position 307 mm.

Copy and Paste twice to create two more short lines, positioning both on the right side of the page, at Y positions 165 mm and 329 mm.

Return to the Layers panel and Lock the Border layer. Unlock the next layer up,Color.

4. Pick a Fresh, Summery Color Palette

Your menu should look good enough to eat! Color can play a big part in how attractive the menu looks (and how optimistic people feel when they read the dishes).

Step 1

For this menu, we want to pick a single, strong color that will work well with black and white elements. Here I’ve gone for a grass-fresh green, but feel free to try out a different strong shade (why not try a sky blue, or a hot coral?) when creating your own menu.

To create the green used here, open up the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and click on the New Swatch icon at the bottom of the panel.

Double-click the new default swatch to edit it.

Keep the Color Type as Process, and the Color Mode as CMYK. Adjust the sliders to the following values: C=46 M=5 Y=87 K=0. Uncheck the Name with Color Valuebox at the top of the window, and rename the swatch as Grass Green. Click OK.

Step 2

Remaining on Page 2 of the document, and on the Color layer, select theRectangle Tool (M) and drag to create a shape 307 mm in Width and 18.7 mm inHeight. Position at the bottom of the page, resting against the bottom, right and left bleeds.

Set the Fill Color to Grass Green and the Stroke Color to [None].

Step 3

Move up to Page 1 of the document and use the Rectangle Tool (M) again, this time to create a shape that extends across the whole page, up to the bleed on all sides.

Set the Fill Color to Grass Green and the Stroke Color to [None].

Remaining on the same page, take the Rectangle Tool (M) again, and drag to create a shape 278 mm in Width and 401 mm in Height. Set the Fill Color to[None] and the Stroke Color to [Paper].

From the Stroke panel, or from the control panel running along the top of the workspace, set the Stroke Weight to 3 mm and Type to White Diamond.

Return to the Layers panel and Lock the Color layer. Unlock the top layer,Typography.

5. Choose Fun, Legible Fonts for Your Menu

Unless you're designing a menu for a very formal restaurant, menu cards tend to be on the informal and fun side. After all, their aim is to present dishes in an enticing, exciting way to the diner!

You can have fun with color and fonts, but try sticking to this guiding rule: choose a maximum of three fonts for the text. One can be a fun, quirky display typeface (for the menu title), one a legible typeface which suits sub-headings, and a third which is a simple, easy-to-read typeface for listing the dishes and prices (a sans serif is a good pick).

For this menu design, I will be using:

• Great Vibes: for the menu title on the front and reverse of the card
• Josefin Slab: for sub-headings
• Josefin Sans: for the body text

It’s a great idea to also seek out nice symbol fonts (wingdings) for using to add graphic elements to your menu layouts. Here, I’ll also be using:

• Adhesive Nr. Seven: for easy-peasy banner graphics
• Davys: a quirky symbol font, for vintage elements

Download and install all the fonts above, and then return to your InDesigndocument.

Step 1

Back in InDesign, remaining on Page 1 of the document and on the Typographylayer, select the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a text frame in the center of the page. Set your cursor into the frame and, from the Character Formatting Controlspanel at the top of the workspace, set the font to Adhesive Nr. Seven, Size 350 ptand Align Center.

Open the Glyphs panel (Window > Type & Tables > Glyphs) so you can view the full set of symbols available in the Adhesive Nr. Seven Font.

Double-click on one of the banner glyphs to insert it into the frame.

Set the Font Color to [Paper].

Step 2

Create a second text frame using the Type Tool (T) and type in ‘Summer Menu’ (or your preferred menu title). Set the Font to Great Vibes, Size 70 pt, Align Centerand Font Color to Grass Green.

Layer the text frame over the white banner, as shown.

Step 3

Create another text frame, and position it below the white banner, centrally on the page. Type:

‘Appetisers Starters Mains

(paragraph break)

Sharers Salads 

(paragraph break)

Sides’

Set the Font to Josefin Slab, varying each word between the Bold and Regularweights, and Size to 25 pt. Set the text to All Caps, Align Center, increase theTracking to 50, and Font Color to [Paper].

Step 4

Introduce a new small text frame, click your type cursor into it, and set the Font toDavys. From the Glyphs panel select the pointing hand glyph and double-click to insert. Set the Font Size to 22 pt and Color to [Paper].

Position the text frame to the left of the top line of text beginning ‘Appetisers...’.

Select the text frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste, flipping the frame by Right-Clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac OS) > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Position the second hand to the right of the central text frame.

You’ve finished the Front of your menu card. Great work! 

Now we can fill the Reverse side with typography...

6. Finish the Reverse of the Menu Card

Step 1

Move down to Page 2 of your document, to the Reverse side of the menu.

Take the Type Tool (T) and create a text frame at the top center of the page. Type‘Menu’ into the frame and set the Font to Good Vibes, Size 55 pt, Align Centerand Font Color to Grass Green.

To the left of the ‘Menu’ text frame create another text frame, and type in ‘Summer (paragraph break) Food Menu’, setting the Font to Josefin Slab Bold, Size 12 pt, Tracking 50, All Caps and Align Center.

Take the Line Tool (\) and drag to create a perfectly straight horizontal line (holdingShift), about 57 mm in Length. From the Stroke panel, set the Weight to 1 mm,Type to Thick-Thin and Color to Grass Green.

Position the line below the text frame you just created.

Step 2

Select both the ‘Summer...’ text frame and line, and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste, moving the pasted elements onto the right-hand side of the page. Edit the text to read the restaurant’s opening hours (or any other information you’d like to provide).

Step 3

Create a new text frame at the top-left of the page, below the top margin, and set theFont to Adhesive Nr. Seven, Font Size to 180 pt and Align Center.

From the Glyphs panel, select a banner symbol and double-click to insert.

Repeat the step above, creating five more banner text frames, varying the sort of banner and the color between [Black] and [Grass Green]. Position as shown, at the top of each marked section of the menu.

Step 4

Over the top of each banner text frame, layer another text frame, containing a sub-heading. Set the Font to Josefin Slab Bold, varying the Size from 40 pt for more prominent sections (e.g. Starters, Mains) and 35 pt for others (e.g. Appetisers).

Set the Font Color to [Paper], All Caps, Align Center and up the Tracking to 50.

Step 5

Zoom in to the top-left corner of the menu. Take the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a text frame 63 mm in Width, just shy of the width of the first column. Type in your appetiser dishes, setting the Font to Josefin Sans, Size 13 pt, Leading 24 ptand Align Left.

Highlight the dish and set the Font Weight to Bold, setting the prices in a Light Weight.

Once you’ve set this up, you can Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste the text frame, positioning the second text frame in the second column, resting against the column line. You can then Copy and Paste the two columns of text across all sections of your menu, editing the text content as you please.

Step 6

Text-heavy menus can be overwhelming, and sometimes highlighting special dishes can give your diner something to choose quickly.

Leave some space on different sections of the page free of text (one column’s width, about seven lines high), so that you have room to make a feature of some special dishes, as shown below.

Take the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a tall, narrow text frame. Position it in one of the blank spaces on the page, to the left side of the space. Place your type cursor into the text frame and set the Font to Josefin Sans, Thin, Size 160 pt, and Font Color to Grass Green. Type a square bracket ( [ ) into the text frame.

Select the text frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste, adjusting the text to a left-facing square bracket ( ] ). 

Step 7

Create another text frame, typing in ‘Special (paragraph break) Sharer (or Main, Starter, etc.)’, and set the Font to Josefin Slab, Bold, Size 18 pt, All Caps, andFont Color to Grass Green. Position between the brackets, up in the left-hand top corner.

Create an additional text frame to sit below it, with text aligned center, and the Fontset to Josefin Sans.

As a final touch, create another text frame and set the Font to Davys, Size 22 ptand Color to Grass Green. Use the Glyphs panel to drop in a pointing hand, and position the text frame to the right of the ‘Special...’ sub-heading.

Step 8

Select the two square brackets, the enclosed text and the hand graphic, and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste a couple more times to use them across the page. Adjust the text content accordingly.

The Reverse side of your menu is finished—great work! 

You’re now ready to export your menu, ready for sending to print. Read on to find out how...

7. Export Your Menu for Print

Step 1

Once you’ve checked your InDesign document for spelling errors (Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling), you’re ready to Save the document and Export it to a print-ready format.

Head up to File > Export, and select Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format drop-down menu in the Export window. Click Save.

Step 2

In the Export Adobe PDF window that opens, choose [Press Quality] from theAdobe PDF Preset drop-down menu.

Move down to the Marks and Bleeds options, from the left-hand menu in the window. Check All Printer’s Marks and check Use Document Bleed Settings.

Click Export to create your print-ready file! 

Conclusion

Your menu is finished and ready for sending straight to the printers! Congratulations!

In this tutorial we’ve covered a range of skills and techniques which are really useful for creating print documents in Adobe InDesign. You can now feel more confident in:

• Setting up a basic, two-sided document for print in InDesign
• Using the Line Tool and Stroke panel to create attractive borders for your print layouts
• Choosing simple, purpose-appropriate colors and fonts for your designs
• Layering color, text and simple graphics to create a modern, on-trend look to your print designs
• Exporting your hard work to a print-ready PDF format

Read More

Do You Need a Picture Archive?

by Dawn Oosterhoff

So you have some digital photographs or videos and are wondering if you really need to worry about managing them or archiving them, or whatever it is you do when you have hundreds (or thousands) of digital files. You need at least a basic system to organize your files, but where do you start?

How big or complex your system becomes depends on your needs. In this tutorial we'll work our way through a set of key questions to help you identify your digital asset management (DAM) needs. The answers to these questions will help you start planning an archive that fits your pictures.

University of Michigan Library Card Catalog, by David Fulmer, cropped from the original, CC BY 2.0.

1. Do You Have More Photographs or Videos Than You Can Keep Track of In Your Head?

These days, the answer to this question is yes for many, if not all, people. We love pictures and we're making them in tremendous volume.

Digital images need to be organized so that you can find what you need, when you need it. Colin Rowe, a digital asset management specialist with Archimedia, describes disorganized images as “digital landfill.” If you can’t easily access your pictures, your images are just taking up space.

The collection is one of the key building blocks in a picture archive. A collection is simply a set of images and associated files, and they are a great way to keep your files organized and useful. If you have more pictures than you can manage, the first step is to think about how to break your pictures down into collections. 

2. Can You Quickly Find a Specific Photo or Video Clip?

Beyond simple collections, proper data hygiene starts with naming your image files in a consistent, meaningful way and organizing those files into a logical file structure. Tagging your images with supplemental keywords that describe the content of the images also helps keep your collection healthy. All that organization can be a little tricky, though, without a system to implement it.

The catalogue is a second key structure in your picture archive. The catalogue is a way to organize your collections and the pictures within them. A specialized catalogue program or app will help you standardize filenames, add keywords, and sort your images into collections. Some cataloguing software is simple and free; others are heavy lifters designed to support teams. What you need will depend upon the size and complexity of your collection.

3. Could Someone Else Use Your Collection Without You?

Digital photographs and videos are lost if only one person understands where the files are stored and how they are organized. A system that organizes images with a common set of principles makes it easier for someone else to access or manage the images on your behalf. Also, consider naming a designate and providing him or her with the necessary information to manage your collection should you be unable to do so.

Dawn Oosterhoff, Locked Pictures

4. Is Your Collection or Something in Your Collection Valuable, Unique, or Irreplaceable? 

Do you need to keep a digital file for later access or to fulfill a compliance or business reason, or do you need to set the file aside for security and safekeeping?

A backup system is a critical component of any digital picture archive. Digital files can disappear with one keystroke. Maintaining a second copy of your image files is the only way to protect your collection against a digital misfire.

Keeping a second (or third) copy of your files somewhere other than where you work on your images is your insurance against fire, theft, floods, or other disasters. Minimize the chance that disaster will strike both your original files and your copies by keeping them in two different places. Catalogue and backup software can make this process much less of a headache.

Managing the growth of your collection is one of the fundamental goals of digital asset management practices. Photo by Alex, cropped from the original, CC BY 2.0.

5. Do You Need to Liberate Original Storage Space?

Instead of deleting images that you may—and likely will—want again, archive images that are not currently needed or not needed very often. New images or images that are accessed more frequently need to be stored in a system that is easily and and quickly accessed, but older images or images that are rarely accessed can be stored on slower and cheaper media.

Managing the growth of your digital files can be complex. It's hard to know how many pictures, and how many gigabytes of data, you'll need to keep. Will you upgrade to a new camera with a high megapixel count? Bigger files mean more storage. Will you start recording video? Again more storage. Hire a second camera for your growing wedding business? More storage.

Growth can be unpredictable. It can come when you least expect it and quickly become overwhelming. Your storage needs can change overnight. You don't want to run out of space at just the moment you need it most. A good digital asset management system has room for expansion and takes growth into account.

6. Do You Want to Share Your Collection With Others?

Is there something in your collection that has value? Do you want others, particularly future generations, to be able to access and understand your images?

Some cataloguing software is designed to be used and accessed by more than one person. And while most online services are not suitable for archiving images, many online services work well for sharing image collections. Using a consistent, logical organizational structure (names, folders, and keywords) will ensure that everyone can save and find what they need.

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

Digital asset management for your picture archive may sound like a complex, burdensome task, but a digital asset management system needs to be only as big or as complex as your collection requires. Moreover, the energy you put into creating and maintaining your system will be returned to you tenfold as you find it easier and easier to add images to your collection and later find exactly the images you or others want to see.

To learn more about digital asset management and building the management system you need, follow our series Digital Asset Management for Everyone.

Read More

How to Choose Asset Management Software for Your Digital Picture Archive

by Andrew Childress

Yesterday, in Do You Need a Picture Archive?, Dawn presented six questions to ask before starting a picture archive. We learned about digital asset management, or “DAM,” as a set of best-practices used to guide the way we store our pictures. DAM techniques are really the only sane way to handle digital photographs of any quantity. With no limits to our storage space, however, the need to manage our digital assets have never been greater.

There are many DAM software solutions available. In this article you’ll learn what to look for and how to choose the right application to fit your needs. We’ll also present a few popular options.

Evaluate Your Needs

Choosing the right DAM solution begins with evaluating your needs. Do You Need a Picture Archive? proposed the following questions:

1. Do you have more photographs or videos than you can keep track of in your head?
2. Can you quickly find a specific photo or video clip?
3. Could someone else use your collection without you?
4. Is your collection or something in your collection valuable, unique, or irreplaceable?
5. Do you need to liberate original storage space?
6. Do you want to share your collection with others?

Keeping these questions in mind, whether you’re a professional or casual shooter everyone needs digital asset management to do three basic things:

• organize your pictures
• let you correct and enhance pictures in a systematic way
• store image files safely

Whether you make images to share with friends and family or for clients (or both) you’ll need a software aid to manage your files. Luckily, there are solutions for every type of photo-organizing need.

Organization

If we aren’t careful, our stacks of digital images will quickly turn into a digital disaster. What good is an image collection if we can’t find the captured moments that we’re looking for?

The DAM solution you choose needs to feature the tools to organize your image collection. This could be as simple as giving us a way to explore images by the date of capture, or as complex as a heirarchical keyword system.

Collections

Must-have feature: albums.

When choosing a DAM system, the ability to organize your images is priority number one. To get organized, we need some way to make albums or collections: a feature that allows us to group images together in any way that we wish. Not all applications offer the ability to create albums or group photos.

Ratings

Must-have feature: image ratings.

Tagging our best images with a rating or score can help us keep our best images at short reach. In Adobe Lightroom, the Star rating system is the way this is done; with a rating between 1 and 5 stars, we can score images according to our taste. Most systems include ratings to rank or score the images you hold in high regard.

Metadata

Must-have feature: keywords. Adding keywords to images is one of the most important pillars of image organization.

Digital cameras automatically add a lot fo useful information to image files, but they can’t describe what an image depicts. That function is still up to you!

Keywords, captions, and descriptions are words and text that describe and image. Getting into the habit of adding contextual metadata in a systematic way is anextremely useful thing to do for the health of your picture archive. Even free DAM solutions like Google’s Picasa include keyword tagging options.

Correction

Adobe Photoshop interfaces with Adobe Camera RAW, which allows images to be opened directly after capture. Corrections can be applied in Camera RAW and handed off to Photoshop for further editing.

Most DAM software also includes a way to move from organizing files to working on images. We all want our images to reach their potential; the digital workflow can help us get them there.

As a part of the digital workflow, the DAM tool you select needs be able to take your images from collections managment to image processing or editing in Photoshop (or a similar program) and back again in a smooth way. For most people, that means their chosen DAM application must be able to read RAW files.

Some DAM programs are photo-managers only, handing off RAW processing and image editing to dedicated programs. Others programs offer a suite of integrated tools all in one place. Both strategies have merit, and which you choose will depend on what software you already use and are comfortable with.

Data Security

No matter what DAM solution you choose, consider the safety of your images. No system is completely free from worry, but you do need a few things. The 3-2-1 principle is a good starting place when designing your archive. You want to have:

• three copies of your data
• in two different formats
• at least one copy in a different location

Databases

Some DAM platforms lock your images into a proprietary database that only works with that application. This means that as you apply any organization, and in some cases image processing, the changes will only be available within the application. This makes it bit harder to back up and secure your collection. For some, the features gained make the trade off worth it. For others, the lack of portability and reliance on a database is too much of a constriction. Data security is all about being forward thinking: consider how deeply you’ll be locked into the DAM platform you’re evaluating. Ideally, choose a DAM platform in that will give you long term flexibility.

For example, Apple Photos builds a completely all-encompasing library that stores the images inside of it. Photomechanic will edit the metadata of image files but does not build a central repository of any kind to organize them. Some programs, like Daminion, Bridge, Shotwell, and others use a lightweight database to add an extra level of features but still write most basic data back to the image files. Out of the box, Lightroom stores all of it’s data in the database, which it calls a catalogue, but it can be configured to write key data to the image files, which is recommended.

How to Choose an Advanced Solution

The three factors we’ve covered for choosing a DAM platform—organization, correction, data security—are present, to varying degrees, in most DAM applications. However, commiting to use an application requires some further thought. Here are some key considerations when comparing and deciding between pieces of DAM software.

What Do I Do With My Images?

Each photographer has a different destination in mind for his or her images. Some photographers thrive on printing images and assembling them in albums. Other photographers live strictly in the digital world and exporting for the web is more important.

Some DAM solutions are better suited for printing than others. Photoshop, for example, is a great tool for printing because of its soft proofing features and advanced crop options. Choosing a DAM solution requires consideration of your image destination.

The DAM solution you select may be tailored to a specific type of output. If you’re a print-driven photographer, your DAM solution should include careful consideration for managing color profiles and print settings. If your priority is getting images online, you’ll want to seek a solution that features integrated export tools for sharpening, resizing, and upload.

How Do I Capture Images?

Capture method varies from one photographer to the next. In the last few years, there’s been a huge shift from capturing images with a point and shoot to smartphones instead. Many photographers, however, still capture images with DSLRs and memory cards that need to be connected for synchronization.

If you capture a lot of images with a mobile device it makes sense to use a tool that connects to the cloud. Apple Photos both pulls images directly from iOS devices and tags them on a map. If you do most of your shooting with a mobile device, you’ll want to consider that when choosing a DAM solution.

If you capture images primarily on mobile devices, choose a DAM solution stack that complements this; you’ll want to reduce the friction from capture to processing. If you’re a professional shooter, a DAM solution with tethering capabilities is ideal. In any case, capture method is an essential aspect to evaluate in your DAM choice.

How Do I Access My Images?

Choosing a DAM tool is also about how you access your images. If you regularly need images on demand this has to be considered in the selection of a DAM solution.

Lightroom allows for photo collections to be uploaded to the cloud. This screenshot shows a collection synced to my iPad; the images are accessible but don’t need to be stored locally.

Although all DAM solutions will help us find images more easily, some solutions are more connected than others. If you frequently need to deliver an image to a client at a moment’s notice a cloud connected DAM solution is essential.

A Few Popular Choices

If you’re engaged in capturing images, the need to manage your digital assets is absolutely essential. In this tutorial I’ve outlined some of the key considerations you can use to choose the best DAM for your photographs and situation. Below, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular software choices.

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is one of the most popular DAM tools. Fundamentally, Lightroom is several applications rolled into one: an image importer, organization and archive tool, RAW processor based on Adobe Camera RAW, basic design suite, and batch printer.

To note, however: unlike Camera RAW, Lightroom’s RAW processing is stored in the database. Image corrections are only applied on export. In fact, this is true of all the work you do in Lightroom. To use any of the work you’ve done outside of the program you must export a new image.

Lightroom’s integrated, database-based approach is also it’s weakness as a photo-organizer: files must be imported into the catalogue before they can be managed. It cannot work directly with the files in your operating system’s file system. For some, this lack of file system access eliminates Lightroom from the list of viable choices.

Lightroom CC is available as part of Creative Cloud. Prices vary depending on subscription package but start at $9.99 per month. Lightroom 6, the last non-subscription version of Lightroom software, is available for purchase for $149.

Phase One Capture One

Capture One’s RAW processing tools are highly respected for their precise control of color and tone. Capture One also offers asset management that is roughly equivalent to Lightroom for organizing images. Capture one costs $299 for two “seats,” or installations.

Phase one also makes Media One, a standalone media manager without an image-processing engine, for large photo libraries. Media Pro is $199 for two seats.

Daminion

Daminion Server is a DAM tool for teams that need to access the same image files on network storage. Daminion is uncommon in this regard: there aren’t many DAM programs that can navigate multiple people working on a network, at least not for small teams. Daminion is a good choice if you plan on regualarly working on your images with someone else, like an assistant or retoucher. Licences range from $99 to $999 depending on your needs and the size of the team.

As an organizer Daminion is as good or better than Lightroom or Capture One. It’s media management features are well implemented and fast, and include things like the abilty to check out an image (and lock it for everyone else) and version control. It also offers a smooth round-trip process for opening images in a RAW processor or your image editing software.

Despite being oriented towards teams, Daminion also offers a very capable stand-alone version. The stand-alone software is free up to 15,000 images with tiered licences up to an unlimited version for $99.

Adobe Bridge

Bridge is an Adobe product that’s targeted at navigating your entire media collection, not just images. Like Media Pro or Daminion it’s not used for the actual correction process but does work well with Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop or other RAW processors and photo editors.

Bridge CC is available to anyone with a Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

Apple Photos

Apple Photos is the spiritual successor to two former Apple DAM tools: Aperture and iPhoto. While Aperture was the professional level offering and iPhoto was targeted at beginners, Apple’s new Photos app is somewhere in the middle in terms of features and editing power. Photos thrives at connecting to the the cloud (via Apple’s iCloud) and syncing images and edits between iOS and Mac devices.

Photos is a Mac-only offering, included with OS X Yosemite and newer.

Picasa

Google’s Picasa is a testament to the power of free DAM solutions. It doesn’t offer all of the professional-level features you might need, but it’s close. It’s a great application for getting started with taming your digital images, organizing them with albums, tagging them with keywords, and more.

Photo Mechanic

Photo Mechanic is a special purpose DAM tool that excels at speed. It’s focus is a specific set of workflow tasks: importing, viewing, selecting, captioning, and exporting images. It is lightning quick at loading previews of images and is excellent for commanding the import process. Despite a dated user interface and some idiosyncrasies, Photomechanic is a perenial hit with photojournalists because it’s the fastest way to go from ingest to export and file on time.

Photomechanic is $150 per license.

Shotwell

There are several good photo organization programs available for Linux. Corel Aftershot Pro, digiKam, and Darktable each have their merits. Shotwell, however, is the only one that is stable, mature, free, open-source, and easy to use. Like Bridge and Daminion, it’s a photo-manager-only type program but has all the features you need to keep your library organized, including an image database to create collections and powerful search.

Enterprise DAM Solutions

If you have to deal with a large number of files to serve a complex set of users you’ll mostly likely need an enterprise-level DAM solution like Extensis Portfolio, Canto Cumulus, or ResourceSpace. Whichever solution you choose, all enterprise DAM requires an extra level of planning to take into account not just your needs but the needs of your stakeholders (all who need varying levels of access) and your organization, too.

Checklist

When you’re planning your DAM setup, look for software that can:

• make import easy
• create collections
• add ratings
• add captions and descriptions
• add keywords
• bonus: add heirarchical keywords, import and export keywords
• manage a smooth round-trip to RAW processing or editing
• bonus: integrated RAW processing engine
• do version control
• write data to stand-alone image files or XMP sidecar files
• export the database and be read by other programs
• speed up your workflow
• use cloud storage
• publish pictures online

Happy DAM hunting! The list of software above is by no means exhaustive. If you have a DAM option you think is a great choice we’d love to hear about your experience.

Read More