by Tropy is a free, open-source software that allows the user to organize and describe photographs of research material. The program allows ease of importing your photos and grouping them into lists. Tropy also uses customizable metadata templates to define the contents of the photo; such as its title, date, author, and collection. A search function then lets you find the materials in your photos, using metadata and tags to find them.
For someone who is pursuing the digital humanities, using Tropy was relatively simple and easy to pick up. Upon downloading the application, I quickly found myself immediately being able to figure out how to upload some pictures I had taken for an assignment. It was easy to organize and make notes on as well. Below, you can see the list of the photographic materials I used for the assignment in my Intro to Digital Humanities class.
Tropy’s method of organization is useful for a variety of reasons. For one, this method of digital organization allows for mass importing of photos that are easily combinable to make them as a single document. Secondly, the ease of sorting and reading photos helps provide visual and readable information that can help the user make decisions about whether the photo can be used for research or projects. The “side-by-side” view also allows for easier transcription of handwritten documents. Lastly, the built-in metadata templates and create custom templates help create a personal touch to individuals who access it.
Like all digital applications, there are some drawbacks to Tropy as well. For one, Tropy only works with image file types (i.e. JPG and TIFF) and not printed file types (i.e. PDF). Also, there isn’t a function for Tropy to automatically capture metadata to create citations. This means that all citations must be manually entered. Lastly, while Tropy can be used for research purposes, it is not a platform for writing or presenting your research. For that, you have to use other digital applications like Omeka for presentation.
What I found interesting about this assignment was the use of metadata fields for describing each photograph. These digital materials, as mentioned in the introduction, could be utilized to show the basic metadata fields; such as its title, date, author, and collection. With that in mind, we can look back at some of the pictures I had uploaded into Tropy. Aside from its basic metadata fields, there are other different types of these fields that can answer different questions about each asset. These fields can be identified through its filename, photography type, description, and usage rights. These detailed fields can help organize and find other digital materials, both within my lists and through other people’s lists through Tropy.
