14 DAY TRIAL // ArcherPro is an image viewer and helper whose purpose it to make it easy for you to work with many images, thousands of them, easily sorting, moving and deleting them. In this respect it is very much like ViewIt, and since both programs are shareware and within the same price range, a head-to-head comparison between them is in order.
Viewing images While both applications are excellent for quickly going through a huge number of images, there are some important differences.
When loading a hoard of images, ArcherPro takes time at the beginning to get them all ready, while ViewIt processes them as it goes, allowing you to instantly access the first images. While the think time in ArcherPro is small, if working with it everyday, it can be a bit of a nuisance.
On the other hand, ViewIt processes the images and generates thumbnails for you to see when scrubbing through the all the open files, and in thumbnail view. ArcherPro does nothing of the sort. There is no thumbnails view, and scrubbing is non existent, the program working with a drag and release for update model.
Once the images are loaded, both programs are speedy in switching from one image to the next, and the images look good no matter how much they are resized. The one notable difference is when resizing the view window, something which ArcherPro is very adverse to, becoming choppy and slow.
More to image viewing than just looking Opening up a hoard of images and quickly browsing through them is nice and all, but there is that certain moment when you need to make the most minute of changes, namely rotating an image. This is particularly important when dealing with a lot of images taken with a digital camera.
While ViewIt fares well in this department with its self hiding toolbar, ArcherPro fails miserable by not giving any controls whatsoever. Rotating, flipping (moth horizontally and vertically), zooming in and out, alternating between actual size and fit to window is all done easily in ViewIt either with the mouse or keyboard. However, in ArcherPro, the vast majority of these actions are impossible.
This is a major shortcoming on behalf of the program. I can live with it not saving the changes, but not being able to at least show me the rotated image while the window is open is simply limited.
Organizing images The destinations drawer is a gem in ViewIt, you can define the destination folders, choose for each one whether the images will be copied or moved and then just press a key to make it happen.
ArcherPro beats ViewIt in this respect. Not only can you define folders, but you can assign just about any key to that folder, and you can even create multiple sets of such folders. It offers a lot more flexibility but does make one important mistake. It does not let you specify whether you want to copy or move to those destination folders. By default, you copy images to the destination folders, but using the X key, you can toggle 'Copy Mode' and have the images copied there instead. While this implementation has its merits, the best approach lies somewhere in between.
Easy shortcuts ArcherPro tries to make things easier for the user by eliminating the need for using the Command key when issuing keyboard shortcuts. Almost every command can be issued but just using the appropriate capital key like N for new, and I for import. It even has a software shift toggle so you don't even need to use the Shift key, n and I will do.
In theory this is a good thing. However, I have noticed that it will merrily let you assign a n or N to a destination folder, as with any other key, this can cause to serious overlaps as the application does no checking whatsoever to ensure this does not happen.
Furthermore, ease can be dangerous, to say the least. The program has a 'delete from hard drive' function, which will, without any confirmation dialogue, permanently and irreparably delete an image. The beauty of this function is when you ignorantly bind the A, S and D keys to destination folders, since the program will give you no warning that the letter D is used for deleting an image from the hard drive. The worst part is that the behavior of this command can be set from the preferences to ask before deleting, and even to move the files to the trash instead of deleting them directly. This is poor thought on behalf of the developer as the user can accidentally press the d key. Should anyone wish instant deletion, they should have to go to the preferences to disable the warning and movement to the trash, not the other way around.
The Good Indeed offers very easy interaction with the program letting you do just about anything with just a single keystroke, works well with many images and has powerful organizing tools.
The Bad Makes it too easy to make data-costly mistakes. Also, the inability to rotate or even zoom in and out on images is inexcusable.
The Truth The advantages ArcherPro offers over ViewIt pale when weighed in with the disadvantages. ArcherPro simply does too few things right to be worth it.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
