What’s In A Filename?
Best Practises to Name Digital Photos
The way you name your digital files can help you stay organised as well as make it easier to find and identify your digital photos. By using a simple framework to name and organise your photos, you will quickly be able to find your photos when you need them.
19721225_FamilyChristmasSydneyHoliday_1234-001.jpg
Above is an example of a descriptive filename. The name gives us a lot of information. It tells us that this photo was taken on 25/12/1972 in Sydney with the family while on holidays at Christmas. The date is written in the ISO 8601 format which is YYYYMMDD. Having the date at the beginning of the filename written in this format results in your digital files being chronologically ordered .
In the example above we have used 4 keywords to provide context. They are written in Camel case, meaning there are no spaces or punctuations and the words are separated by a single capitalised letter.
It’s important to choose keywords that you in the future will use when you will want to search for these particular photos. By naming the files with descriptive keywords, they become searchable and thus easy to find.
File names should only consist of alphanumeric characters, dashes and underscores. There are certain characters, known as special/illegal characters, that should be avoided including ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ` ; : < > ? . , [ ] { } ' " |. Different operating systems and devices can’t recognise some of these characters, therefore in order to future-proof your digital photos, it’s essential to play it safe and avoid these characters.
Illegal Characters that should not be used in filenames
Also, many computer systems cannot handle spaces in file names, so do not use spaces!
Instead, when you want to separate different parts of the filename use dashes (-), underscores (_) and as we discussed earlier, capitalise the first letter of each word but do not leave a space between them.
This is the framework that we use to name the scans that we create for our clients.
YYYYMMDD_KeywordKeywordKeyword_IDnumber-SequenceNumber.jpg
We use dashes and underscores to separate the date, keywords, ID and sequence numbers. The ID number refers to the unique ID assigned to each batch of photos that were digitised. If you have had scans done with us, you will find a sticker with the same unique 4 digit ID number paired with your physical photos. The ID system will help you to quickly locate the physical photo from your digital collection.
We limit the descriptive keywords to being only 3 or 4 in number in order to keep the filename short - ideally between 40-50 characters long. Different computer operating systems have varied limits to the number of characters that can exist in a directory path. Microsoft, for example, can only support 255 characters in its directory path so it’s important to keep the folder & filenames as succinct as possible.
By using this framework to name your digital files you will be able to understand at a glance what content the files contain and you will also be able to search for and find your photos in the future. When you keep the filenames short and avoid using illegal characters you will minimise the risk of losing or corrupting the files over time.
Strategically named files are key to having an organised and searchable photo collection. Being able to find photos quickly will give you access to enjoy and share your memories without the stress that comes with wading through a digital photo mess.
