What changes, release after release.

Verifiable certificates with nothing to host, and input examples

One click registers your key in Obscura's directory: your certificates are declared valid online with no file to host. The guide gains a chapter of input examples and CSV files ready to import.

What’s new

• Key directory. Settings › Certificates › Key directory › Register the key in the directory… publishes your public key at an Obscura address that the verification page reads: your certificates are declared valid there without you hosting a key file. The request is signed by your key, which never leaves your Mac. Before sending, Catalog says what becomes public (the key, its fingerprint, the dates and the issuer’s name), and that Oorun does not verify the issuer’s identity.
• Publication address. If you had none, it becomes the directory’s and you can issue certificates right away; if you had one, Catalog asks which to keep. Certificates already issued do not change.
• Compromised key. The revocation also goes to the directory: the verification page then says the key was revoked, and no longer declares the certificates it signed valid. A lost key is revoked from the member area, Certificate keys page.
• Issuer name. When it changes, Update the name… offers to change it in the directory, never without your consent.

Documentation

• Input examples: a new chapter of the guide, screen by screen and field by field, with examples and the expected format (dates, amounts, dimensions, catalogue numbers, confidentiality).
• Sample CSV files, ready to import: works, completing existing works, exhibitions, publications, thesaurus. They are checked at every release by the application’s import.

Complete the catalogue from a spreadsheet, and reliable dates

A spreadsheet fills the empty fields of works already in the catalogue without overwriting anything, every date is typed in one field with a calendar, and the screens speak with one voice.

What’s new

• Complete existing works: in Imports › CSV › Works, a new mode fills, from a spreadsheet, the empty fields of works already in the catalogue. Export works.csv, fill in the empty cells (technique, support, genre, dates, rights…), import it again: a value already entered is never replaced, and the preview shows what will be filled and what is kept. Everything is written at once, stops without leaving anything behind and can be undone in one step; each work’s history keeps one entry per field.
• The works CSV import also reads back the sort date, precision, state rank and reproduction exclusion columns that the export writes.
• One field for every date: dates of the work, provenance, sales, values, interventions, documents, rights, exhibitions, and an agent’s birth and death. Type the digits, the hyphens place themselves, a partial date stays a date; a calendar picks a day, and the arrow keys change the year, month or day. An impossible date (“2018-02-30”) or an end before the start is explained under the field and not saved.
• Date precision: it follows the sort date you type; a coarser precision shows it shortened without erasing anything. Use as the sort date fills the sort date from the date as published when it reads without ambiguity.

Fixes

• CSV imports: a date the calendar does not have (1974-02-30, a 13th month) is refused instead of producing an impossible sort date.
• Interface: one word for each notion. The field that says whether the work still exists is called Existence; two files are related, a work and a file are linked; reports and certificates use the same words as the record (In review, Exhibition copy, Printer’s proof, disputed attribution). Outdated help texts have been brought up to date.

Gallery, installation views and large libraries

Works can be browsed as thumbnails, installation photos are linked to exhibitions, checks take you straight to the field to fix, and a 250,000-file library opens, backs up and imports without waiting.

What’s new

• Gallery: the Works screen can also show thumbnails, next to List and Table. Each work appears through its whole reference image, never cropped; “No image”, “Reproduction excluded” and “Missing” are told apart at a glance.
• Work record: the Files and Relations tabs have a gallery too. The Relations tab shows the work’s files associated in the library with files of other works, and offers to turn them into a relation between works, always on your decision.
• Installation views: installation photos can be linked to an exhibition, from its record or from the library, with the works visible on each. The work record shows them, and the CSV, LIDO and CIDOC exports describe them.
• Checks: clicking a finding opens the tab, puts the cursor in the field to fix and outlines it in orange.
• Exports and Reports: the cards now use the full width of the window.

Large libraries

• Opening no longer waits for the full database check, and the first screens no longer slow down right after.
• A backup no longer makes the app wait.
• During an import, the grid no longer re-reads the whole library every second.
• Duplicates among similar photos are found in one to two minutes instead of half an hour, with bounded memory.

Fixes

• Confidentiality: the full export no longer names a tag, face or collection that only belongs to withheld files, and the confidential exports log counts everything that leaves. An installation view showing a confidential work, or a work whose reproduction is excluded, is withheld.
• Errors: a failed read no longer shows as an empty list, and no technical message in English appears on screen any more.
• Imports: a double click no longer starts two imports; Lightroom counts skipped videos separately; an attached document that is a symbolic link is really copied; exhibitions and publications are no longer capped at 500.
• Interface: confirmations name what will be removed, and the English interface has been fully proofread.

Inventories and catalogue raisonné

Seven inventories to manage the collection (general, insurance, location, exhibition schedule, stocktake, valuation, condition), a catalogue raisonné entry that separates the work, the print and the documentation, and fixes that protect data and confidential information.

Inventories

In Reports, a new Inventories group: plain management documents, in tables, readable in black and white:

• General inventory: the register of works, then a separate completeness check (inventory number, author, date, medium, dimensions, image). No values or locations.
• Insurance inventory: each print, its location, holder, condition and retained insurance value, with its date and source.
• Inventory by location: prints grouped by place, with each place’s value. Two near spellings of the same place are flagged, never merged.
• Exhibition insurance schedule: from an exhibition or a selection, with thumbnails, framed dimensions, lenders and the total value to insure.
• Stocktake: the physical check sheet, blank for an on-site campaign or filled with the latest checks.
• Valuation statement: every value of each print side by side (production, public price, acquisition, estimate, insurance), each dated, with what needs checking.
• Condition statement: each print’s condition and its latest interventions.

Reliable information: totals are kept per currency, never converted nor rounded before the sum; each print is counted once; a value without a date or source is flagged; a report whose lines would not add up to its totals is not produced; generating a report never changes the library.

Inventories that print values, holders or locations are internal: they require a justification, recorded in the confidential exports log, and carry “Confidential — management document” on every page. Confidential works are included only if you ask; otherwise the report says its totals are incomplete.

Catalogue raisonné

• The entry separates the work, the physical print and the documentation: the author and the attribution status; the edition on one line (“Edition of 8 + 2 AP”) and each copy named unambiguously (“3/8”, “AP 1/2”, “Exhibition print”); then the attribution and dating justifications, the sources (the work’s documents with their date and reference), provenance, exhibitions and bibliography.
• In place of the image: Reproduction excluded and its reason, or Reproduction unavailable.

Fixes

• Numbering: if the number registry cannot be read, numbering stays locked.
• Certificates: “Key compromised” no longer revokes anything until the number of certificates has been read.
• CSV imports: a quote that is never closed blocks the import and says on which line, instead of silently losing the rest of the file.
• Work record: publishing with unsaved changes first asks to save them.
• Confidentiality: the supporting document of a sale with confidential amounts, and the free-text place of a confidential agent, no longer appear in exports or reports.
• Licence: a licence issued for another Mac no longer opens anything on this one.

Large libraries

• Catalog is now measured with 250,000 files across several disks, one of them unplugged. The guide (Troubleshooting and FAQ) gives the space to plan for and advises importing folder by folder.
• Stopping an import while metadata is being read takes effect at once.

Reliability and large libraries

A reliability and performance release: the works list no longer skips a work, rules are checked at the moment of writing, and imports, analysis and the library cope better with tens of thousands of files across several disks.

Fixes

• Works list: “Load more” no longer skips a work when several works tie in the sort order (same modification date, same title…).
• Integrity: confidentiality, numbering, status and edition rules are checked at the very moment of writing, even with two windows open.
• Reports: replacing a PDF report and then stopping no longer loses the old one.

Large libraries

• During an import (folder or Lightroom catalogue), the grid stays where it is: new files are added at the end, thumbnails no longer disappear and the selection is kept.
• ⌘A on tens of thousands of files no longer freezes the window.
• Lightroom import: “Stop” takes effect within the file being read.
• Slow or unplugged disks: reading files no longer slows down the rest of the app, and an unplugged archive disk no longer slows down face analysis.
• “Export this table…” no longer freezes the window and can be stopped.
• Reimport: a file with unreadable metadata is no longer read again every time, as long as it does not change.
• Inspector and record: copies of attached documents are no longer re-read on every display.
• CSV imports, faces, file removal, help windows: several slowdowns and a memory leak fixed.

Data checks and the groundwork for reports

Catalog flags what records leave out or contradict, and prepares inventories and the catalogue raisonné: states of an image, excluded reproductions, framing, estimated value, stocktaking. Exports move to LIDO 1.1 and CIDOC CRM 2.0.

What’s new

• Data checks: Catalog flags what records leave out or contradict, and never changes anything.
  • For example: a print dated before its work, a signature bearing the name of another agent of the work, two prints of one edition announcing different edition sizes, a duplicate copy number, an inventory number carried by two objects. For values: a print with no insurance value, a value with no date, no source, or due for reassessment.
  • Each finding has a severity: “Information”, “To check” or “Inconsistency”.
  • In the record, the Checks box counts and lists them, each with a link to the tab where it is fixed.
  • In the Works screen, the With inconsistencies / to check facet and the Checks column.
  • Before saving a catalogue raisonné, the Check before export sheet warns without blocking. Nothing from it is printed.
• States of an image: a State relation between two works and the rank of each state (I, II…). The portfolio and the catalogue raisonné print “State II” and refer to the other state.
• Excluded reproduction: a work whose image must not be reproduced (rights, the author’s choice, the holder’s request). Reports print the reason instead of the image, and the image no longer goes out in LIDO either.
• Catalogue raisonné: the dating justification, the analysis printed as “Critical commentary”, and a catalogue introduction (Settings › Catalogue) printed on the “About this catalogue” page.
• Physical holdings and values, for the upcoming inventories:
  • framed dimensions of a print;
  • estimated value, its appraiser and its supporting document;
  • the organiser of an exhibition and the lender of an exhibited object (confidential);
  • stocktaking, recorded by the app (its screens will come with the inventories).

Changes

• CIDOC CRM export, profile 2.0: an actor is identified by its directory record, no longer by its name. Two namesakes stay two actors, and renaming an agent no longer changes its identifier.
• LIDO export, profile 1.1: states of an image and the exhibition organiser. Nothing written by 1.0 changes.
• CSV exports: new columns, always at the end of the line.
• Licence: free limits can no longer be bypassed by creating another library, the 10 free certificates are counted on the Mac, and the licence cache stays tied to this Mac.
• Capture dates: they no longer carry an invented time zone.
• The library database is updated when opened (schema v28), without inferring anything from existing data.

Reliability and a new portfolio

A reliability release: certificates, exports, deletions, library, files and metadata. And a portfolio redone as an editorial document, to show to a gallery, a curator or a jury.

What’s new

• Editorial portfolio: the Portfolio report becomes a document to show, no longer a reduced catalogue raisonné.
  • A cover, a path through the series, an opening page for each series, then one page per work where the image comes first and is never cropped.
  • An index and a colophon at the end.
  • Organisation (by series, chronological, order of the selection), entry (minimal or standard), cover image and index are set in the Reports screen.
  • A work without an image gets an “Image not available” frame. Discreet statuses drawn from the data appear (“source file not found”, “work known through an archive”…), and variants refer to each other’s page.

Fixes

• Certificates:
  • restoring a backup no longer reuses a certificate number or lifts a revocation;
  • verification detects a modified PDF and shows the signed edition, copy and dimensions;
  • a key declared compromised is no longer accepted, in any library on the Mac;
  • the printed “In the app” link opens verification.
• Exports:
  • every agent is exported to CSV;
  • a stopped or failed export no longer leaves any file behind, and each export goes into a new dated folder;
  • formulas are neutralised in CSV files (a title starting with “=” no longer runs in a spreadsheet);
  • LIDO files stay valid;
  • an outsized amount no longer crashes the export.
• Deletions:
  • a print cited by a certificate can no longer be deleted;
  • the confirmation for deleting a work or a print says everything that goes, with counts.
• Library:
  • moving it checks that the copy opens before removing the original;
  • quitting, restoring or switching libraries takes running tasks into account;
  • a library can no longer be created on a network disk or in a synced folder (Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox), where the database could be damaged.
• Files and metadata:
  • a RAW file and its JPEG no longer share the same XMP file;
  • a title or description entered in Catalog is no longer overwritten on re-import;
  • a renamed or moved file is found again, with its works and documents;
  • a retouched photo is analysed again.
• Entries:
  • the open entry updates when you come back to the Works screen;
  • attaching a work to an exhibition it is already in gives a clear message.

Frozen formats, a new catalogue raisonné, v2 certificates

The 1.0 formats are frozen (database, CSV, LIDO and CIDOC, certificates). The catalogue raisonné has a new layout. Prints carry three dated values, and certificates sign the signature text and the rights.

What’s new

• Catalogue raisonné: a new layout, that of a museum catalogue.
  • A cover, an “About” page, contents with exact page numbers, and an opening page for each series, with its introduction.
  • One entry per page, a large image and an identification table.
  • Appendices: a number concordance and indexes of titles, exhibitions and bibliography.
  • Bookmarks and clickable links to find your way.
  • Entries now print relations between works, rights, public conservation, the signature, the process and the printer. Nothing confidential.
• Certificates: a print’s certificate also signs the signature text and the work’s rights (rights holder and licence). Certificates already issued still verify, in the app and online.
• Print values: the production value, the public price and the insurance value replace the single price. Each is dated, with its source and history. An edition’s public prices can be set in copy ranges. Values stay confidential.
• Auction sales: a Confidential amounts box for a public sale whose amounts stay private.
• Search: sales, conservation, rights and the work’s documents are searchable (sale:, conservation:, rights:, doc:).
• Integrity: the copy of each attached document is checked against its fingerprint. It is reported as intact, modified or missing.
• Compact the library (Settings › Backup) gives back to the disk the space freed by deletions.
• LIDO and CIDOC exports: versioned profiles (1.0), with the other attribution roles (printer, assistant, publisher…), the rights statement in CIDOC, and variants told apart from works from the same negative.

Formats frozen for 1.0

• The database schema, the column order of the CSV files, the LIDO and CIDOC 1.0 profiles and the signed certificate format become commitments. After this version, they only change through a documented migration or a new format version.
• CSV exports write stable codes instead of translated labels: the same collection exported in French or English gives the same files. Files exported before this version can still be imported.
• Completeness now counts rights and conservation (scoring fixed for 1.0).

Changes

• A pre-migration copy is kept for each of the last two schema versions: you can go back up to two versions.
• A single set of document types for a file, a work and a print.

Fixes

• Licence: a Mac beyond the plan’s number of devices no longer shows “session expired”. Account and licence says so, lists the devices and lets you revoke one.

Confidential agents and certified prints

A confidential agent no longer appears in exports, reports and certificates, and is set in its record; a print cited by a certificate keeps its number when an edition is renumbered.

New

• Confidential agent: an agent’s record (person or organisation) has a Disclosure group with a Confidential box.

Fixes

• Confidential agents: an agent marked confidential no longer appears in LIDO and CIDOC exports, reports or certificates, whatever its role (photographer, printer, transferor, acquirer, auction house, conservator, rights holder, exhibition venue). The work or event that cites it is exported as if no agent were given. Only a CSV export that includes confidential data, with a justification, names it. Export this table… follows the same rule. A work whose photographer is confidential can no longer be certified, and the issuing sheet says why.
• Certified prints: Renumber no longer changes the number of a print cited by a certificate, whether valid, superseded or revoked, nor of a print that carries an external certificate number. The other prints are renumbered, and the message names those that keep their number.

Documentation

• Going back to the previous version: the guide (Troubleshooting) explains how to go back to the previous version of Obscura Catalog if an update causes trouble, with the pre-migration copy or a backup.

Inventory numbers without duplicates, 10 free certificates

The inventory number is checked as you type and compared regardless of case and spaces; the free tier issues up to 10 certificates of authenticity; the glossary covers every term of the app.

New

• Inventory number checked as you type: in a work’s record as in a print’s form, a number already given to another work or print of the fonds is flagged under the field, with its holder (“This inventory no. is already given to “Brume sur l’étang” (2026-012).“). Save stays greyed out while the conflict lasts; Open record opens the holder and, with a numbering scheme, Assign the next free number offers another number. Nothing is ever assigned without your click.

Changes

• Inventory numbers: numbers are compared regardless of case and spaces: INV-042, inv-042 and INV 042 are the same number (hyphens, dots and accents still count). The number stays displayed as you typed it. Saving, the CSV import (against the fonds and between two lines of the file) and the proposed number follow this rule, and every refusal names the work, print or line concerned. Duplicates an older library may contain are left unchanged: a banner at the top of Works lists them for correction.
• Certificates of authenticity: the free tier issues up to 10 certificates, signed in or not (a re-issue does not count). Beyond that, an Obscura Catalog licence raises the limit according to the plan. Verifying a certificate, reading the register and revoking stay free.

Documentation

• Glossary: it now covers every term of the app, in French and English: file roles (negative, master, derivative, contact sheet, RAW…), fonds and workspace, plans and limits, prints and editions, metadata.

A work's physical location

Each work can record where it is kept: hard drive, binder, box, drawer, shelf. The grid shows whole images, text areas have a frame, and smart collections follow photos that become eligible again.

New

• A work’s location: in the Identification tab, a Storage location group records where the work is kept in the collection, as many times as needed (the negative in a binder, its scan on a hard drive): a kind (Hard drive, Binder, Box, Drawer, Shelf, Other) and a free reference (“Box 12”). Locations can be searched (storage:box), edited in batch, shown as a column in the works table and imported from CSV. This is internal information: it only leaves the app in a CSV export that includes confidential data, never in LIDO, CIDOC-CRM, a report or a certificate.

Changes

• Library: grid thumbnails show the whole image, at its original aspect ratio, centred on a black background, instead of a square crop.
• Forms: multi-line text areas have a frame, like the single-line fields next to them, in light and dark mode: you can see where to type.

Fixes

• Smart collections: a photo that becomes eligible joins at once (rating, flag, colour label, tag, metadata, import), and one that no longer matches leaves. The sidebar shows how many photos each smart collection holds.
• Rights: the Add rights… sheet is no longer cut off at the sides, and a right’s expiry shows at its precision (“January 1, 2046”, “March 2046”).
• Exports: on an exFAT, FAT or network drive, the full export and the package for Obscura Vault no longer fail at the very end, when naming the folder or archive.

Exporting to an exFAT external disk

Bug-fix release: the full export and the package for Obscura Vault can be written again to an external disk formatted as exFAT or FAT, or to a network volume, instead of reporting zero free space.

Fixes

• Exports: the full export and the package for Obscura Vault refused to write to an external disk formatted as exFAT or FAT (and to a network volume), with “Not enough space on this disk: the export needs …, Zero KB are free”, whatever the free space. These disks report no space for “important usage”; Catalog now reads their ordinary free space instead.

A complete catalogue raisonné: relations, sales, conservation, rights, documents and history

A work's record gains everything a photographic catalogue raisonné needs: inventory number, former numbers, typed titles, new roles, relations between works, auction sales, conservation, structured rights, documents of the work and the print, and the history of its changes. The CSV, LIDO and CIDOC exports follow.

New

• Inventory number: separate from the catalogue number, for the work and for each print, unique in the collection, with an optional numbering scheme. It can be searched, imported and exported.
• Work record: title language, place coordinates, capture details (camera, lens, settings), traceability (UUID, SHA-256 digest) and issued certificates; for a print, printer, current holder (confidential), signing date and place. An exhibition, a citation or a provenance event can point to a specific print.
• Catalogue raisonné fields: former numbers with their source, typed titles (original, translated, former) with their language, circumstances of creation, project, film or sensor, format, scholarly notice (history, analysis); assistant, retoucher, press printer and publisher roles; hors commerce (HC) edition; signature text; scholarly article and poster publication types.
• Relations between works: related work, variant, same negative, same sitting, preparatory work. A shared negative is suggested, never added without you.
• Auction sales: auction house, sale, lot, outcome, estimates, hammer price and currency, attached to the provenance event and as confidential as it.
• Conservation: condition of a work without prints, dated restorations, incidents and condition reports, with conservator, observed condition and attached document.
• Rights: rights holders, licences (including Creative Commons 4.0), terms, reproduction restrictions and expiry, several lines per work, copied from the series.
• Documents of the work and the print: correspondence, invoice, exhibition sheet, archives, external certificate or condition report, attached to the work itself or to a print, copied into the library with their digest, and included in backups. A work’s document can prove a provenance event.
• Change history: what changed in the record, its prints and its attributions, field by field, with the date and the origin. Amounts, holders and internal notes are never kept, and the history is never exported.
• Library: “Locate folder…” relinks a moved or renamed imported folder, checking each file’s digest.
• Certificates: a new library picks up your latest certificate settings, to be confirmed, instead of setting everything up again.

Changes

• Exports: CSV (ten tables, including relations.csv, sales.csv, conservation.csv, rights.csv), LIDO and CIDOC CRM carry the new fields. Amounts, holders and internal notes stay out by default.
• Completeness: the date is worth 10 points and the scholarly notice 5 (total 100).
• Reports: consistent dates in the inventory, empty or identical columns hidden, inventory number of the work or of its prints.
• Accessibility: with “Increase contrast”, secondary text and separators stand out more; symbol buttons follow the text size.

Fixes

• Full export: agents.csv contains every agent the exported tables name.
• Series values: the series’ default agent is now applied as the author of a work that has none.
• Library: an image rated in its file (Lightroom, Bridge…) is found by the filters.
• Settings: the “Settings…” buttons open the right tab again on macOS 14 and later.

Documentation

• The guide has been fully reviewed in French and English, screenshots regenerated, and a walkthrough covers every feature on the demo data.

A toolbar, filters and settings that fit in the window

Bug-fix release: “Import a folder…” is no longer truncated in the Library toolbar, the filters of a narrow list of works wrap onto the next line, Settings › Files and Settings › Catalogue no longer overflow the window, and a few labels move above their field.

Fixes

• Library: “Import a folder…” is no longer truncated in the Library toolbar; when space runs short, Filter, Sort and Size keep only their symbol.
• Works: in a narrow list of works, the filters wrap onto the next line instead of being cut off at the edge.
• Settings: Settings › Files and Settings › Catalogue no longer overflow the window, with their labels above the fields.
• Forms: the certificates’ “Status” filter, “Save to” in “Write the title into the image” and the “Detail” field of the revocation sheets have their label above them.
• Labels: in the French interface, the sheet of a provenance event now reads “Document joint : Aucun” (not “Aucune”); the English “Attached document: None” is unchanged.

Thumbnails prepared in the background

The thumbnails of every imported file are prepared in the background, resumed at the next launch if the app is quit, and the preview of a work's reference image is ready as soon as the work is created. And sheets, records and counts that no longer get cut off in a narrow window.

What’s new

• Library: the thumbnails of every imported file, from a folder (first import, files added or imported again) as from a Lightroom catalog, are prepared in the background, without ever slowing down what is on screen. “Preparing thumbnails: n / N”, above the grid and in Imports, shows how far it has got; Stop suspends it. Quitting the app loses nothing: it resumes at the next launch, without redoing a thumbnail already made. At the first launch of this version, the files already in the library are prepared once.
• Works: the large preview of the reference image is prepared as soon as a work is created from a file or a reference image is linked or changed: the record and the loupe open without waiting.

Changes

• Library: removing a file or an imported folder also deletes its thumbnails and previews, and at launch Catalog deletes those of files no longer in the library (only in Derivatives/, never anywhere else). The previews stored by Lightroom are not read: Catalog computes its own.

Fixes

• Certificates: the message asking you to back up the signing key wrongly said that losing this Mac would make the certificates already issued unverifiable; they stay verifiable with the published public key, and only issuing new certificates under this identity becomes impossible. Same correction in the guide.
• Display: the “Attach to an exhibition” and “Cite in a publication” sheets opened from a work’s record no longer overflow their window (the title and fields were cut off on the left when an exhibition or a publication had a long name). In the narrowest window, the list of works and the record fit in the window instead of being cut off on both sides, and the library’s selection bar keeps only its symbols rather than cutting off its last commands. In a narrow column, a work’s status, its editions, its attributions and the header of agent, exhibition and publication records no longer break into pieces. “Issue…” is no longer truncated in Certificates; the “Edit selected works” sheet keeps a normal width.
• Forms: in the sheet of a provenance event, Reports, “New edition”, “Link a file”, “Link to a work” and the CSV exports, a menu’s label sits above it, as in the other forms. In a narrow list of works, the number column takes the width of the numbers instead of a fixed 130 points, and titles no longer run over three or four lines. Settings › Faces & Analysis is spaced like the other panes.
• Labels: counts agree everywhere (“1 work exported”, “Create 1 work?”, “Issue 1 certificate?”, “1 photo analysed out of 31”, “1 work attached” in the batch sheets) instead of “1 works” or “certificate(s)”.

Bounded offline licence, a protected signing key

Bug-fix release: the licence stays valid for 30 days offline and a clock set back is detected, the signing key is never overwritten when the keychain cannot be read, thumbnails of a replaced file are redrawn, and the full export uses about half the memory.

Changes

• Exports: the full export (and the package for Vault) no longer keeps the metadata of every file in the library in memory; it reads them back page by page to write its tables, and uses about half as much memory on a large library.

Fixes

• Licence: offline, the licence stays valid for 30 days after its last confirmation (or the period set by the server), never indefinitely, even if its confirmation date has gone missing. A Mac clock set back is detected: the paid features then wait for a connection.
• Certificates: the signing key is never overwritten when the keychain cannot be read (locked, access denied). Catalog says so in the certificate settings, with Try again, instead of showing “no key”; issuing, backing up the key and restoring a backup are refused and nothing is changed.
• Thumbnails: the thumbnail and preview of a file replaced by an older version (or by another file of the same size and date) are rendered again, instead of showing the old image. Thumbnails already made are rendered once the next time they are shown, then reused.

The package for Obscura Vault

A package to entrust to Obscura Vault for archiving: a backup of the library, a full export without images and the list of the originals identified by their SHA-256, with an optional verified copy of the originals. And a full export far lighter on memory.

What’s new

• Package for Obscura Vault (Exports, File › Prepare a Package for Vault…): a backup of the library, a full export without images and the list of the originals identified by their SHA-256, in a checked folder or ZIP archive, to entrust to Vault for archiving. Step-by-step progress, and Stop leaves nothing behind; at the end, the number of originals, their volume and the size of the package. No licence needed; the package’s backup always contains the confidential records and the internal notes.
• Package for Obscura Vault: a “Copy the originals into the package” option, for a Vault that cannot reach the disks of the originals. Each original is copied once and checked against its SHA-256 during the copy; an original changed since the import or not found is not embedded, and the outcome says how many and why. Disk space is checked before starting.

Changes

• Exports: the full export (and the package for Vault) writes its tables, LIDO and CIDOC as it goes instead of keeping them in memory; on a large catalogue, it uses several hundred MB less.

Description and title taken from images, a steadier library

Bug-fix release: the app no longer quits while the grid redraws, a work takes its image's description, the Lightroom import brings in titles and counts correctly, and checking a full export stays light on memory.

Fixes

• Library: the app no longer quits when the grid’s list shrinks (search, filter, change of collection, removal of files) while the grid is redrawing.
• Works: a work created from a file takes the description of its reference image (XMP dc:description, Lightroom caption), and the summary says so; linking an image to a work without a description offers to take it over, never replacing an existing description.
• Lightroom import: image titles are imported (Lightroom keeps them in its internal XMP, compressed in recent catalogues). Imports already made are completed at the next re-import.
• Lightroom import: the project shows the right number of files in the library, and the confirmation to remove the project the right count. A project already imported is corrected at the next re-import.
• Exports: checking a full export with the images no longer drives memory up to the macOS limit; it stays bounded whatever the volume.

A clear message when a report cannot be created

Bug-fix release: when a report's PDF file cannot be created, the message now says so clearly instead of mentioning a certificate.

Fixes

• Reports: when a report’s PDF file cannot be created (a folder that cannot be written to, for example), the message says so clearly and suggests checking the chosen folder, instead of stating that no certificate was issued.

Table view, full export and a large work image

Every work in a table, the whole library exported in open formats, the work's image shown large, the record in full window, new settings including language, and a much faster app on a large catalogue.

What’s new

• Works table view: one row per work with all the catalogue raisonné data, columns of your choice, presets, and “Export this table…”.
• Full library export (File › Export All…): catalogue, library data, thesaurus as SKOS, documents, and optionally images, LIDO and CIDOC, in a folder or ZIP archive checked against a manifest.
• Work record: the reference image shown large, opening with the work’s other files; the works list can be hidden (⌥⌘L) and the record shown in full window (⇧⌘F).
• Settings: Catalog’s language (System, Français, English), appearance, fonds name, default confidentiality, series values, RAW + JPEG pairing, analysis after import, default creator and rights.
• A journal of exports that included confidential data, and an operations log attached on request to the problem report (nothing is sent).

Changes

• Much faster on a large catalogue: LIDO, CIDOC and CSV exports, PDF reports, similar photos and thumbnails; the interface no longer freezes during an import.
• Saving a record no longer scrolls the works list back to the top.

Fixes

• Library search: words spread over several fields of one file find it, and “oeuvre” finds “Œuvre”.
• Import: unreadable folders and folders given through a symbolic link are handled and reported correctly.
• A report that could not be made PDF/A compliant is refused instead of being saved silently.
• Accessibility: AA contrast everywhere, and VoiceOver reads the sidebar and the works list.

Search, navigation, backups and settings in one place

Search across the whole catalogue, linked records, library backups, complete provenance, attached documents in exports, settings gathered in one window and a consistent interface.

What’s new

• Search across the whole catalogue: number, titles, agents, series, technique, dates, places, notes, exhibitions, publications and provenance. “Exact phrase”, word*, -exclusion, a single field (artist:, title:, exhibition:…), and relevance sorting (⌘F).
• Linked records: agents, provenance parties, exhibitions, publications and files open from a record, with Back and Forward (⌘[ and ⌘]).
• Provenance: an event can be edited, made publishable, and given an amount with its currency and a proof (citation, attached document or archive reference).
• In batch: link a selection of works to an exhibition or cite them in a publication.
• Work title and image title linked: each completes the other, and a difference is flagged.
• Attached documents: a Documents tab in the record, a “Confidential” box per document, and documents in the CSV, LIDO and CIDOC exports.
• Library backups, automatic or on demand, and restore from Settings › Backup. The library can be moved, and another can be created or opened.
• Settings (⌘,): every setting in one window, one tab per area.
• Thesaurus: used by library search, and its terms are suggested in the keyword editor.
• Complete Mac menus and undo / redo (⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z) for everyday edits.

Changes

• One vocabulary and one layout on every screen; the People section becomes Faces, and every screen fits the narrowest window.
• Provenance and living persons: an event’s amount is kept, and the event stays confidential while a party is living.

Fixes

• A damaged database is no longer opened, and Catalog offers to restore a backup; a library can no longer be opened by two copies of Catalog at once.
• Importing a large thesaurus CSV is much faster.
• The inspector no longer shows “Unknown” for an unknown lens.

Photos linked to works, indexing and attached documents

A photo shows its work and can create one, Edit gains indexing, attached documents and linked photos, publications import from CSV, and unsaved edits are protected.

What’s new

• Photos linked to works. A photo’s inspector shows its work (“Open the record”, “Unlink”), or offers “Link to a work…”. “Create works from the selection…” in the grid, and at the end of a folder import, with a preview of the numbers before anything is created.
• In a photo’s Edit view:
  • indexing in six questions (who, what, where, when, how, why), found by search;
  • attached documents (invoice, letter, condition report), copied into the library;
  • “Link a photo…”, with thumbnails and relation type;
  • “Restore this version…”.
• CSV import of publications, with their work citations; the column mapping of exhibition and publication imports is saved.
• Reports from a selection of works: “Report from the selection…” or “Choose works…”.
• The number of interrupted imports shows next to Imports, and the guide is illustrated, in French and English.

Fixes

• Protected edits: “Modified”, “Save” (⌘S) and “Revert” on records, agents, exhibitions and publications; changing record, closing the window or quitting asks to save.
• Each section keeps its state, and Catalog reopens the last record at launch.
• An agent still cited can no longer be deleted.
• Folder and Lightroom import resumes complete what was missing and count their errors.
• A file missing from disk is marked “Missing”.
• A library saved by a newer version is no longer opened by an older one.
• Faster: metadata reading at import (50,000 files: about 9 s instead of 25 s) and deleting files held in collections.

Exhibitions from CSV, built-in help and a new identity

CSV import of exhibitions, folder import by drag and drop, built-in help, a new visual identity, and some twenty fixes to certificates, the catalogue and imports.

What’s new

• CSV import of exhibitions: Imports › CSV › Exhibitions. One row per exhibition, or one row per work and exhibition; the exported file re-imports with its links.
• Library: “Import a folder…” in an empty library, and a folder dragged from the Finder starts the import.
• Built-in help: Help › Obscura Catalog Help (⌘?), a “?” button that opens the article for the current screen, and “Report a Problem…” (nothing is sent).
• Sidebar and Imports screen translated into French and English.

Changes

• A new visual identity: a new icon, and the logo with the version number at the top of the sidebar.
• Licence: LIDO and CIDOC exports and Lightroom import say before the click that they need a licence.
• Certificates: “Compromised key…” moves to the certificate settings, and the screen is clearer.

Fixes

• Certificates: two issuances started together give two distinct versions; writing into a certified file asks for confirmation and offers the XMP sidecar; a disputed attribution sends the certificates concerned to “To review”.
• Catalogue: a published work stays published when edited; a withdrawn or certified work can no longer be deleted; a retired number is never reassigned; batch publishing applies the same rule as the record.
• Agents: an agent still cited is no longer deleted, and the message says where it is cited.
• Library: removing files says how many are linked to works, and the reference image of a certified work can no longer be removed.
• Lightroom import: two root folders with the same name are no longer confused.
• CSV import: an Excel “Unicode Text” file (UTF-16) is read correctly; an unreadable or oversized file is refused with a message.
• Reports: an empty report says why and offers to include all works.
• Library: it is opened and migrated only once, even when several screens ask for it at the same time.
• Settings › Updates: the message of an unpublished copy says why it does not look for updates.

The first published version

Image library, catalogue raisonné, EXIF and XMP metadata, CSV and Lightroom imports, LIDO, CIDOC CRM and CSV exports, certificates of authenticity and PDF/A reports.

What’s new

• Library. Import a folder as a project: its structure is kept, files stay where they are, and each one gets its SHA-256 fingerprint. Duplicates are recognised, and a RAW is linked to its JPEG.
  • A smooth grid up to 50,000 files, keyboard navigation, loupe and comparison, inspector.
  • Manual and smart collections, tags, full-text search and saved searches.
• EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata. Full reading; writing to an XMP sidecar, or into the file on request, without re-encoding its pixels.
• Catalogue raisonné. Works with their record and its completeness, attributions, prints and editions, provenance, exhibitions and publications. An agents directory with duplicate detection, and batch editing with a preview.
• Hierarchical thesaurus, with synonyms, CSV import and CSV or SKOS export.
• People and similar photos. On-device analysis, on demand: faces grouped into suggestions to name, near-identical photos and duplicates.
• Exchange. CSV, LIDO 1.1 and CIDOC CRM exports; CSV import with a preview before writing; import of a Lightroom catalogue, opened without ever being modified.
• Certificates of authenticity for a work, a print or an edition, as signed PDF/A-2b, verifiable on the site’s verification page.
• Reports as PDF/A-2b: portfolio, catalogue raisonné and inventory.
• Licence. Without a licence, Obscura Catalog browses, searches and describes the catalogue (up to 50 works), imports files and a CSV, exports CSV and verifies certificates. LIDO and CIDOC exports, Lightroom import, issuing certificates and catalogues over 50 works need a licence. Offline, the licence stays valid for 30 days by default.
• Updates offered by the app, and a user guide in French and English.