Getting Organized!
Image names, photo names, directory or folder names are all extremely important when storing the photos on your computer. The entire reason for having organization is to be able to find your photos later. For the sake of this tutorial, we are using the phrase image names and photo names synonymously and we are only discussing Windows, MacOS and Linux. There are other operating systems and if you use them, research the items we speak about for your operating system but the basics should apply to everyone unless you are using the Tails operating system, for which a discussion is outside the scope of this tutorial.
Once this tutorial is completed and understood, the user should be well on their way to keeping an organized computer but do not expect this tutorial to teach everything because as much as we try, we cannot teach experience or trial and error and that is the best teacher of all. As a full warning, this tutorial has the capability to go full geek speak but we will try to keep the geek speak to a minimum and we will provide definitions of any potential technical terms for which people may not be familiar.
When we first start working with images, there are just a few image names on our computer and this is not difficult to organize or find later when we need them. Let's think about when we fast forward years in the future and we have been working with images for a while. After years, we may end up with tens of thousands of image names on our computer. Having a lot of image names makes it almost impossible to find them later without some type of system in place to easily find these files.
There are several things to understand about your computer to fully get an understanding of the organization capabilities of the operating system such as directory structures, file pathway length, file type, incompatible characters, searching capabilities, indexing, file extensions, and how to find the images later.
| Definitions |
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Characters: These are the letters that we type from the keyboard. Each key that imprints a letter, number or special character to the screen is considered a character. Some characters are not allowed when typing the image names and these are called incompatible characters. There are some characters for which not to use as these may make searching and renaming the image names more difficult. We will discuss these characters later during this tutorial. |
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Directory: This term refers to the folder name without the individual file. Just like a folder within a filing cabinet, if a folder is created and labeled images, the directory's name would be images. Other files and other folders, or directories, can be stored within the directory. An example would be if we created a directory called images and then another directory inside images called sunshine. We then stored all the images of the sun within that sunshine directory. |
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Directory Structure: This scary term simply refers to how our files are stored within our operating system. Think of the directory structure as a filing cabinet. We would use the filing cabinet to find our files later. Filing cabinets have folders and files within them. We discuss more details about directory structures below. |
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File Extensions: The file extension refers to the characters following the last period in the image name such as image-name.jpg or image-name.gif. There are several extensions for image files. Some common raster image file types, also known as file formats, are: .BMP, .GIF, .HEIF, .INDD, .JPEG, .JPG, .PNG, .PSD, .RAW, .TIFF and .WEBP while some common vector image file types are: .AI, .EPS, .PDF and .SVG. The PDF is more commonly utilized as a portable document file but it can be an image type so it is listed here. It is not good practice to save images as a PDF file type. |
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File Name: The image name, photo name or any other references to an individual file is called the file name. This refers to the name provided to just that individual file without the name of the directory. |
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File Pathway: The file pathway refers to the combination directories and the file name. For example, in the Windows operating system, when a file is kept in the Pictures directory, it is not just a single directory. In the background, the pathway to that file will look something like this: c:\users\username\pictures\mypicture.png which consists of 40 total characters and 4 directories names c (root directory), users, username and pictures. |
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Indexing: Indexing refers to the rapid finding of files stored within the operating system. Windows and MacOS use an indexing service to automatically and rapidly store locations of files. The MacOS indexing service is called Spotlight while the Windows is called Search. Depending on the indexing service and operating system being used, the indexing will either create a secondary copy of the file that links to the original or it will create a database that stores and updates the location to files located within the operating system. |
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Operating System: This term refers to the overall software that allows for file storage in the computer. Without an operating system, other software, including photo editing software, would not be able to run properly. We would not be able to store our files anywhere or allow for connecting pieces of hardware like printers and phones for communication. There are several operating systems for various devices but the most common desktop or laptop computer operating systems known are Windows, MacOS and Linux and those are what these tutorials will focus upon. |
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Pathway: The combined directories and file name. A pathway leads from the root or very start of the operating system to the file itself. For example, on a Windows operating system, we might see our picture in the pictures directory but the full pathway would look something similar to c:\users\username\pictures\directory-name\mypicture.png and can only be a maximum of 260 characters. |
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Searching: Searching sounds like it is self-explanatory but there are some caveats to searching that we should familiarize ourselves with to lessen the frustration that appears. Searching is highly dependent upon the tools in which we use to search our computer. Spotlight for the Mac is very good and it uses the index it automatically creates as we, the users, create more files. Spotlight tends to find everything and is very literal so it may bring up items within the search for which we do not want. Windows comes with their own search utility but it has a very difficult time returning any results if those files are kept in a directory from an online storage software such as Google Drive, Microsoft's own OneDrive, Dropbox or any others out there. Agent Ransack is a 3rd party free search software that finds everything on a Windows based computer. The software is amazing and very powerful. I've only seen it fail once on a computer in over 10 years. It has a free light version that is amazing to find anything for which you are seeking on that computer. It can even search words inside of files. Linux searching very highly depends on which one of the hundreds of linux operating systems that are being used but all of them use a command line command to search the hard drive. It is not the easiest item to use but it is there for the die hard Linux fans. |
Reserved Incompatible Characters
Sometimes referred to as reserved characters, these are characters for which are not allowed within a filename or image name.
MacOS does not allow a colon ( : ) within the filename or a period ( . ) as the first character within the filename as these are reserved characters the operating system uses.
The Windows operating system does not allow the following reserved or incompatible characters to be used for their file names. Do not use any of the following characters within image names or any file names when using the Windows operating system.
| Windows Operating System Reserved or Incompatible Characters |
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| 1. Asterisk ( * ). |
| 2. Backslash ( \ ). |
| 3. Close angle bracket or the greater than sign ( > ). |
| 4. Colon ( : ). |
| 5. Double quotes ( " ). |
| 6. Forward slash ( / ). |
| 7. Open angle bracket or the less than sign ( < ). |
| 8. Pipe ( | ). |
| 9. Question mark ( ? ). |
Linux does not have many restrictions in the operating system for file or image names but as a general rule, just because we can do something does not mean we should do it. Linux is powerful in the fact that we have full control over the image names but it is important to know the restrictions of other operating systems because there is a good chance that the image name being created will end up on one of the other operating systems and may cause the viewer some problems if those restrictions are not followed. An example would be Linux being case sensitive while MacOS and Windows are not case sensitive so in Linux Having-An-Image-Name-Like-This.png and having-an-image-name-like-this.png are two different names but if those were transferred to either Mac or Windows computer, those operating systems, by default, would want to overwrite the images during transfer if they are located in the same directory.
Reserved or Incompatible Filenames
In addition to reserved characters, the operating system name has reserved file names that should not be used in an image name. It is good practice to stay away from the following names when naming your image, photo or any file created within any operating system just in case those files are sent to someone using the operating system for which these names are not compatible.
| Windows Operating System Reserved or Incompatible Characters | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. AUX | 2. COM1 | 3. COM2 | 4. COM3 |
| 5. COM4 | 6. COM5 | 7. COM6 | 8. COM7 |
| 9. COM8 | 10. COM9 | 11. CON | 12. LPT1 |
| 13. LPT2 | 14. LPT3 | 15. LPT4 | 16. LPT5 |
| 17. LPT6 | 18. LPT7 | 19. LPT8 | 20. LPT9 |
| 21. NUL | 22. PRN | ||
MacOS and Linux
While MacOS nor Linux do not have a restriction on file names, it is best practice to stay away from using combinations of characters in the file name such as \0 or / or any of the names or characters restricted by other operating systems. For example, when moving files named LPT1.png or CON.png over to a Windows operating system, viewing this file may cause windows explorer to crash. It is important to note that while the Linux operating system is case sensitive, the windows operating system is not case sensitive so LPT1 and lpt1 are the same thing.
Unwise Character Usage
Here are some general characters for which to stay away from using in an image name or any file name.
| Do Not Use These General Characters in Image Names | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ampersand ( & ) | Asterisk ( * ) | At symbol ( @ ) | Backslash ( \ ) |
| Backtick ( ` ) | Colon ( : ) | Dollar sign ( $ ) | Double quote ( " ) |
| Equal sign ( = ) | Exclamation point ( ! ) | Forward slash ( / ) | Left angle bracket ( < ) |
| Left curly bracket ( { ) | Percent ( % ) | Pipe character ( | ) | Plus sign ( + ) |
| Pound ( # ) | Question mark ( ? ) | Right angle bracket ( > ) | Right curly bracket ( } ) |
| Single quote ( ' ) | |||
Bad Image Name Examples
- .mypet&mewith@donny.jpg
- 20%better={withMyDog}.png
- SuPer+Car=`$$$!!!`.gif
Good Image Name Examples
- dog-sasha-sitting-bed.jpg
- dog-ellie-eating-treat.webp
- dog-tasha-running-in-the-field.png
Take note of the all lower case in the good image name examples. While it is okay to use Upper/Lower case, it is important to know that if there is a chance of these images ending up within a Linux or a non-defaulted Windows or MacOS then the upper and lower case will make a difference. Whatever method is chosen, ensure to keep up with consistency with the image names to make them easier to find later.
Directory Structure
Each operating system has a different type of directory structure. All of the operating systems have one thing in common though. Think of your directory structure as a filing cabinet. The operating systems show it differently but they basically act the same. The directory structure is the filing cabinet. Inside the filing cabinet, we have folders that we call directories. Inside directories, we have files. This is the basics of a directory structure. The difference between a real world filing cabinet and a digital one is that in a digital one we can store folders within folders and while you could implement this in the real world, it is not ideal.
Each operating system shows the directory structure differently than the other. While similar, there are differences in the navigation depending on what operating system is being used.
Pathway Length
Each operating system has a default limit to the maximum number of characters a pathway can be but those limits are extendable. Extending these limits is beyond the scope of this tutorial. If we create folders within folders within folders then it is important to know about these limits so we don't create extremely lengthy directory names. Going over these limits may cause the files or image names we created to become unreadable.
For example, Windows 11 has a 260 character limit by default so if we are working in the desktop directory and we create folders there to store our files or image names within, the operating system does start there when it counts characters. The operating system will start in the root directory and count each character in the folder names to get to that file. While spaces are allowed in some operating systems, the following example provided will not contain any spaces, all names used are fictional and the backslash that is used separates each of the directories created until we reach the file at the end designated by the .png extension.
Example of a Bad Pathway Length (283 characters)
c:\users\richardallentown\desktop\projects\clients\out-of-country\north-america\canada\businesses\montreal\east-side\donut-shops\coffee-images\imported\arabic-coffee\dark-roast\coffee-beans\bagged-coffee-with-labels\green-bags-standing-up\super-delicious-fantastic-amazing-coffee.png
While there is a tremendous amount of organization in the above example, there is such a thing as overdoing it and we have gone over the character limit of the operating system. When we attempt to open this file to view it, we will receive an error telling us the file cannot be read because we have gone over the character limit allowed for a pathway length. Know and work within the limits of the operating system that is being used.
| Maximum Default Pathway Character Limit | |
|---|---|
| Windows | 260 characters |
| MacOS | 1,024 bytes or 255 characters |
| Linux | The Linux character limit depends on what format the Linux operating system was created but HFS+ has a 4,096 byte limit. We are not sure of the exact limit in characters but we believe it to be 1,020 characters since we have a 4,096 byte limit. |
