Long shot - good, free Document Image Management s/ware?

[Saracen999]

This is probably a long shot, but does anyone know of any really good but free software for DIM?

Essentially, I'm drowning in old paper records and am (or rather, have) commenced Phase 1 of Operatio Declutter. That is, I've started sorting into :-

- dump (recycle bin),
- shred and dump, and
- scan, shred and dump.

It's dealing with the third bit that is a headache. I have a (very) old system that I used for business records, but it's ancient, would be pretty expensive to update and really, just not worth it. And my current need is for personql/home stuff only No business docs. They're destined for dump or shred and dump. Finally.

I am, however, up to my ears in scanners and so want to digitise those records that I want to keep, but don't want to keep the paper versions.

If necessary, I can get away with carefully chosen filenames and a folder structure, but would rather use a software system for storing, securing and if/when needed, retrieving. But it needs to be either free or modestly priced, not expensive commercial-grade stuff that an insurance company might use.

I suspect cheap (under £50) might exist, cheap-ish (up to £100-ish) probably does, but don't want to go above that and, frankly, some free/open-source package would be perfect .... if it exists?

Does it?

Thanks.

[AGTDenton]

Have a look at Google Picasa, it has been discontinued for some time but its one of the best utilities out there for organising photos and might just be the ticket for your scans if you're making them into JPGs. My friend can't live without it. Every time she gets a new laptop I have to install it for her as it makes organising photos such a breeze. And I have to agree with her on this rare occasion, but I don't take anywhere near the amount of photos she does so it's not something I need.

It won't deal with any security that I'm aware of.

If it's not what you need, you could search for Picasa alternatives and it might give you a lead on other software. As Google's own replacement is the cloud unfortunately.

Best source I've found for Picasa is File Hippo.

[AGTDenton]

Found this, XNView that supports PDFs should you want to scan to that instead and use it's own security via a PDF reader.

I can't see what the difference is between the two offerings, the screenshots look identical.

Classic
https://www.xnview.com/en/xnview/

OR MP
https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/

[Saracen999]

Found this, XNView that supports PDFs should you want to scan to that instead and use it's own security via a PDF reader.

I can't see what the difference is between the two offerings, the screenshots look identical.

Classic
https://www.xnview.com/en/xnview/

OR MP
https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/

I get the impression that "Classic" is essentially a 'light' and perhaps older version. The MP one claims to be faster and more efficient, but also (hence the MP) multi-platform, supporting not only Windows (like Classic does) but Linux and MacOS.

I appreciate the suggestion, and did look quickly at XNView when looking for a decent alternative approach for Lightroom and Photoshop. I rummaged around for several months trying everything from Adobe Bridge (free but needs Adobe account) to professional software costing several hundred pounds. I ended up with Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop (which, during lockdown, spent months on a 50% discount, but went back to full price, just under £50, about a week ago), and ACDsee Poto Studio Ultimate (3-licence homepack).

I mention this because XNView isn't really a document management system. It's more of a viewer and (IMHO) isn't bad for free software, gets it's clock thoroughly cleaned by ACDSee (which isn't free).

What XNView really relies on is image viewing, folder hierarchy and metadata. ACDSee is (again, IMHO) superb in those regards as well as far more image control. It's a Lightroom-type "developer" package, and a damn good substitute. The best free alternative I found was RawTherapee and despite the weird name, it's also very good, and powerful. I nearly went that way, but in the end, just clicked better with ACDsee.

I could use ACDSee in the same way XNView works. It sees, understands and views PDFs, has a powerful metadata capability, etc, and perhaps more importantly, I already paid for it and have it installed.

But it isn't really what I'm after.

It can kinda do the job, but isn't designed for it, and the workflow would be a bit clunky. That would apply to XNView too, and for that matter, Picassa (even if it weren't a Google product, which is an utter no-no for me when it's going with 100 miles of my personal documents, by the way).

What I'm really looking for is something designed around documents, primaily PDFs (hence document imaging) and that, yes, has an image viewer that does PDFs (other doc types helpful, especially .doc, .xls and the Libre Writer and Cal equivalents) but where the emphasis is on the "management" bit of document image management. i.e. a specialised kind of database with strengths in store, search, manage etc, but designed for document images, not photos.

It would also be time-saving if such software could directly control document creation, i.e. scan to PDF, as well as being pointed at existing WP and spreadsheet files. Yeah, I can scan manually to PDF, or use a printer driver to 'print' to PDF for WP docs, etc, and then import and set up ACDSee metadata (or XNView) but a good DMS should let me scan to create a document from the paper version, enter doc details (date, sender/creator, type, etc) and then create the PDF, store it, create the database entries etc that then me search, sort, identify matching documents according to my criteria (like Electricity bills 2018-2020, or whatever the need is).

Nuance used to do a thing called Paperport than wasn't bad at this, considering how long ago it was, but it seems to have died on the vine. Development doesn't seem to have moved forward much, even though Nuance has been bought out or changed name or something. It's really a 2021 version of something like Paperport, brought into the modern era (and OS targetting) I'm after.

Otherwise, I do have (among my collection of scanners) an old but still excellent HP scanner designed for document handling, including a (50-sheet, I think) auto-duplexing document feeder. I'm sure I can get current drivers, but I can't remember exactly what software was supplied, which may include some sort of DMS but I doubt I qualify for ny current versions of software suites (short of buying a new scanner, and I already have a lot of them) and I'm trying to avoid built-in obsolesence by basing a system I set up now, needing to last years if not a couple of decades, on software already way out of date. But if I have to ....

Anyway, the short version of all that is thasnks very much for the ideas, but they're not quite what I'm after. The possibility remains that what I'm after doesn't exist at consumer level. It certainly does at business level, butI really want something focussed on or configurable for consumer/home use, not business needs.

On that score, nothing that is client/server based unless they're both on the same machine and all integrated in the setup. Lots of PHP/MySQL stuff exists, but .... nothsanks. It's too much like work.

Also, I want single machine (or LAN) software. I may well put the data files on the new NAS when I get it but drive mapping or iSCSI is not a problem. I don't want a full client/server environment, and emphatically not anything where either the data or the management engine is cloud-based. That is a non-starter for me.

And that's why I said "long shot" in the title. Such a package ought to exist, but if it does, I'm missing it.

P.S. Sorry, the "short version" grew a bit.

[Saracen999]

Oh, and AGT .... if your friend is serious about her photography, you could do worse than get her to look at ACDSee. It's not free but also not expensive and, admittedly in my personal view but after trying half a dozen others and previewing about 20 more, is damn good and very powerful.

I went for the Photo Studio Ultimate version, but there are a couple of less featured but cheaper versions that might be sufficient, depending on how far she is into photography. If she's a happy snapper with a smartphone camera, the basic one may be enough, but so may Picassa. If she's into photography, not just lots of snapshots, look at Ultimate.

And is she is interested, bear in mind they have more or less continuous offers running, but they change about every two weeks. It might be a bigger discount, it might be a BOGOF (basic licence covers strictly ONE machine, though it can be moved if user upgrades to new machine ) or in my case, it cost me about £5 more for the Home Pack (several applications) and three licences on each, than the standard 'discount' price for one licence for the basic app. In other words, if she's buying, wait for the best fortnightly deal to come up.


P.S. I found the best truly free alternate to be RAWTherapee.

[b0redom]

I know you're after something on the cheap, but I went through exactly the same thing a couple of years ago. I had boxes and boxes of stuff that I am almost never likely to use again, stuff like old pay slips/contracts etc, but you never know.

I ended up going with a Scansnap ix500 which came with document management software. It is full colour, full duplex and does something like 18 ppm. It also does OCR on the fly.

I was iirc around £300, but the amount of time and space it has saved me made it well worthwhile. My model has been discontinued, but the software is still maintained. Looks like the replacement model is the iX1400.

[AGTDenton]

Oh, and AGT .... if your friend is serious about her photography, you could do worse than get her to look at ACDSee. It's not free but also not expensive and, admittedly in my personal view but after trying half a dozen others and previewing about 20 more, is damn good and very powerful.

I went for the Photo Studio Ultimate version, but there are a couple of less featured but cheaper versions that might be sufficient, depending on how far she is into photography. If she's a happy snapper with a smartphone camera, the basic one may be enough, but so may Picassa. If she's into photography, not just lots of snapshots, look at Ultimate.

And is she is interested, bear in mind they have more or less continuous offers running, but they change about every two weeks. It might be a bigger discount, it might be a BOGOF (basic licence covers strictly ONE machine, though it can be moved if user upgrades to new machine ) or in my case, it cost me about £5 more for the Home Pack (several applications) and three licences on each, than the standard 'discount' price for one licence for the basic app. In other words, if she's buying, wait for the best fortnightly deal to come up.


P.S. I found the best truly free alternate to be RAWTherapee.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind when I try next time. Her current laptop is falling apart already so it's only a matter of time.
I'll upgrade my gladiatorial armour based on the last time I tried new software.

[Saracen999]

I know you're after something on the cheap, but I went through exactly the same thing a couple of years ago. I had boxes and boxes of stuff that I am almost never likely to use again, stuff like old pay slips/contracts etc, but you never know.

I ended up going with a Scansnap ix500 which came with document management software. It is full colour, full duplex and does something like 18 ppm. It also does OCR on the fly.

I was iirc around £300, but the amount of time and space it has saved me made it well worthwhile. My model has been discontinued, but the software is still maintained. Looks like the replacement model is the iX1400.

It's not just on the cheap, but I can't help but think I have enough scanners. That includes handheld (Logitech) units, portable battery (Canon), A4 flatbeds (several) including that HP with the document feeder, A3 flatbed with A3 transparency/negative lid, a couple of A4 flatbed with film lid, several film (35mm and larger) scanners and, not forgetting, the scanner top in my MF printer. If I buy another scanner, I'm going to end up sleeping in the dog's kennel, and I don't have one (either dog, or kennel).