Manage front / back side of photos

[Remco Viëtor]

On mardi 2 mai 2023 14:45:52 CEST Robert Sneyer wrote:
> Hi mailinglist!
> 
> I'm archiving a batch of old photos with handwritten comments on the back
> sides.
> After a scan of both sides I end up with something like:
> pic001_front.tiff
> pic001_back.tiff
> ...
> pic950_front.tiff
> pic950_back.tiff
> 
> What could be the best way to effectively handle a collection like this and
> keep the corresponding files together?
> 
> * grouping for front & back?
> * multipage tiffs?
> * ...
> 
> Any thoughts?

It will depend on what exactly you want to be able to do. And in any case, if 
you decide to use a feature of a given program, you'll have to take care to do 
all manipulations through that program. 

What you can do until you get help from programs is using naming or storage 
schemes (front/back scans, numbering for multipage tiffs, dedicated 
directories for multifile sets, ...)

In the particular case of scans of front and back, I'd stick with the naming 
scheme you already have in place *and* add the text from the back as metadata 
to the front image. So you keep the back image in case e.g. part is hard to 
read, but have the comments in the front image, where they are easier to keep 
with the image. You could even put the "back scans" in a separate directory, 
to reduce clutter in the with the "interesting" images.
(You may not really need to keep the front and back "physically" together, but 
you need to be able to retrieve the sets quickly and unambiguously).

Remco