Image Comparer, Version 2.0
Bob Nicholl

From the Bolide Software press realese:

Got "twin" images? Image Comparer will find them!

While there are quite a few software applications that compare images in order to find duplicates, there is only one solution that has own unique comparison algorithm. While most applications can only locate duplicate images of the same format, Image Comparer will identify the same images even if one is a JPEG and another is a Bitmap image.

Furthermore, Image Comparer can identify duplicate images even if they have different sizes and resolution settings. Program's unique algorithm can even identify similar images. The program shows the degree of similarity; 100% means the two images are identical, 95% means that one of the images was probably altered and so on.

The program is of great interest to professional photographers, designers, and web masters who have "image-heavy" sites to maintain. Image Comparer is incredibly fast; after a minute or two one can see how many duplicate messages are stored and how much disk space will be saved by removing the duplicates. The "dupes" can then be removed all at once with one button click. Alternatively, a user can specify which images need to be deleted, moved or copied.

In addition, the program can be also used to search for images. The list of supported image file formats includes JPEG, J2K, BMP, GIF, PCX, PNG, TIFF, TGA, ICO and CUR.

 Here you can see the result of image comparison. There is an image list at the bottom and currently selected pair of images with similarity percentage at the top. On the right side you see all program controls.

Image Comparer is a very handy little utility that anyone who generates multiple image versions will find very beneficial. I know that in my work as a Graphic Designer I will often have 10 or more intermediate versions of an image. Once a design job is finished and all parties are satisfied. Those earlier versions are really just taking up space. Image Comparer allows you to quickly compare and remove any unneeded images before final archiving of the job.

Besides graphics professionals anyone who owns a digital camera will find this program very useful. The great advantage to digital cameras is that you can take lots of pictures at virtually no cost. The drawback to this is that we tend to take lots of pictures of the same thing hoping for a good one. If you are anything like me you soon end up with your "My Pictures" folder filled with hundreds of pictures named HPIM1871.JPG or something similar. I am always going to organize them someday but I am always way behind in doing so. I turned Image Comparer loose on my own "My Pictures" folder first at a high similarity value. I was quickly able to find and delete all of the virtually identical pictures. I then ran it again on the same folder using a low similarity value. This results in it bringing up all of the pictures in the folder. It was then a snap to select for instance all of my camping pictures from this summer and move them to their own folder.

The interface is simple and user friendly but herein lays my only real complaint about this program. When opened it appears as a fixed size, free floating window with no full screen option. This results in the preview images being pretty small. Another problem with the small interface is that sequentially numbered images with long file names will run off the available space for file names. This makes it difficult to determine which file is which. These are minor issues though and they do not detract from the overall usefulness of the program.

Pros:

At $19.99 Image Comparer is well worth the price and will pay for itself in time saved.
It’s small download size of 1.7 megs. makes it dial up friendly.
User friendly interface.
Easy to learn and use.

Cons:

Smaller than optimal interface.
No Help file. I had to visit the website to find out exactly what the difference between "Compare Folders" and "Compare Groups" was. There is a small FAQ on the website that answered a few of my questions but I still don’t know what all those "Smoothing" options mean.

Summary:

If through your career or hobby you tend to accumulate large quantities of image files this program is for you, Buy it.