In my quest to find an alternative for Adobe Lightroom I was told to give iMatch a try because it would do what I need. So I proceeded to try doing the same exercise in keywording that I have done with Adobe Lightroom. However, I can’t really write much about it because I couldn’t do it and I got very frustrated with the software.
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I know I have written keywords in the IPTC fields using Adobe Ligthroom. I was able to see all those keywords with other software like iTag and XnViewer but with iMatch I wasn’t even able to see them. The interface for iMatch looks very confusing and the wizard for importing pictures looks very complicated with a lot of questions I don’t know how to answer.
The features list is very impressive and I’m sure that it is a very powerful software, but I found it very hard to work with and I couldn’t do my task which was to be able to use the existing keywords and create more groups of keywords and assign them to the IPTC fields of those…pretty simple.
Well…if any of you has a simple tutorial for me to be able to create keywords and group them into categories of keywords…I’m really interested in seeing how to do it. For now I’ll remain dissapointed by the software. It’s true though…the price tag is a lot more affordable: $64.99 which is a lot better than $299 that Adobe is asking for Lightroom. But if I can’t do what I need it doesn’t really matter if iMatch is cheaper…I’ll keep looking.
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I’ve been using iMatch for a few months and I think it’s a great tool. Compared to the DAM in Capture One (the world’s worst DAM) or Lightroom, this tool is golden!
Tim…I have not looked at iMatch in a long time, so maybe I should revisit it.
I think that the time you spent badmouthing iMatch in this article could have been better spent actually learning how to use the program. This is an unfair review to write from a self-described “quick evaluation”.
I agree Trey…these were just quick reflections. I certainly was not planning to learn the entire software as it is pretty difficult. This was written a long time ago…I hope it is much better in terms of user experience.
Tom…thanx for the comment. When I did my evaluation of iMatch it was a quick evaluation. I have read quite a bit about iMatch and many people love the product. When I read about its capabilities, they sound very impressive. However, my goal was (and still is) to find a program that allows me to create keywords and assign them to keyword categories and write them to IPTC. My expectation is to be able to do this right after installing the product…this should be a very intuitive process. iMatch was extremely confusing to setup. Lightroom in comparison was very, very easy to use and I was able to do what I wanted in 5 minutes. I really appreciate your comments and details and I will be trying your suggestions. I wanted to look at iMatch again soon anyway…so thanx again.
I don’t concur with this review. I conced that iMatch is not easy to begin with, because it does not follow the look and feelof most SW of this kind. But, iMatch offers several (interchangeable and mergeable) prefabricated lists of “keywords”. Actually these are namend “categories”, i.e. you can use a tree of structered keywords. The best way to approach iMatch is to concentrate on what you want to do: 1) index and import a database that can be updated with the wizard (and it’s fast), 2) in the “database view” click on the folder you want to work on, 3) select either one, several or all pictures, 4) double click at the bottom of the window and begin to tick the categories you want to have your pictures in (the locic notation shown is: keywordL1.keywordL22.keywordL333 etc.) and you are done. Saving etc. is done automatically. Of course you can add any keywords on the fly. If you want to change categories you need to change the view (this is a bit awkward, esp. if you don’t want to use English keywords, but it is at least safe).
After some sessions iMatch turns out to be a really fast tool. You don’t have to type much, everything is done with a few clicks or hot keys. Thanks to this I really keep keywording my pictures.