Do you have scores or even hundreds of photos squirreled away on various drives? And just how many of them are duplicates or near duplicates? Bolidesoft’s Image Comparer ($35 for home use; 30-day free, featured-limited demo) is a simple program that helps you sort through multiple instances of the same picture, select the best, or discard extra copies.
On powering up, Image Comparer steps through a wizard, which includes a short text intro about how to use the software. You can choose to compare images within one “gallery” or between two galleries. Then the wizard asks you to define your gallery by selecting folders with images to associate with it. Finally, it asks you whether you want to locate similar or duplicate images, and where you want to save the results. Then, you click on Process and sit back. Although the software works very quickly, how soon you’ll be able to get to work will depend on how many pictures you are asking the program to crunch. You won’t be able to view and compare your pictures until it has finished processing every file, but it does give a countdown estimate on how long it will take.
Image Comparer’s interface is quite simple, with only two tabs. The Gallery tab displays the images selected. The Image Pairs tab displays similar or duplicate images side by side. You can choose to have the differences highlighted as small boxes in the previews, and use a slider to adjust the percentage of similarity you want. Actions include marking images with higher or lower quality, or to copy, move or delete the marked images. You can also save the comparison log.
Despite its simplicity, Image Comparer is not intuitive; it will probably require reading the help menu. Nor does it have many options or deep customization. But if you have lots of photos to sort through, it might be a nice timesaver for you.
Note: The full functionality of Image Comparer is not available in the Trial version. Specifically, you can’t copy, move or delete found duplicates. This program is available in two licenses, Home ($35) and Business ($50).