The words of the guide and of the screens, in alphabetical order. A word in bold in a definition has its own entry.
Accepted attribution — the one that is authoritative for the record, printing and exports. Publishing and certifying require one in the photographer role.
Agent — a person or an organisation the catalogue cites: artist, printer, gallery, museum, collector, auction house, conservator, rights holder… Its role is carried by each link (attribution, provenance, exhibition, rights). An agent still referenced cannot be deleted; a duplicate is merged. See Agents. Not to be confused with a person of the Faces section.
Analysis — two meanings. In the record, the critical commentary of the scholarly notice (Analysis, critical commentary). In the Faces section, the computation, on this Mac, of the objects, text, faces and likenesses in your photos; it never starts on its own. See Analysing the library.
Anonymous — an attribution without an agent: a state of knowledge, not missing data. Accepted in the photographer role, it allows publishing; “Anonymous” is also the wording printed for an Unknown certainty.
Appraiser — the agent who set an insured value or an estimated value: an expert, a gallery, an insurer. Confidential with the value (valuations.csv, column appraiser).
Artistic project — in the record, the artist’s project the work belongs to; distinct from the imported folder (which the code calls a project) and from the series.
Artist’s proof (EA) — an edition type: the copies kept for the artist, numbered apart, “EA” in their number (…-P2-EA1/2).
Attach, remove — put a work in an exhibition, and take it out. In a CSV import, Attach to… links an unknown name to an existing agent.
Attribution — the statement of who made a work, with a role (photographer, printer, assistant, retoucher, collaborator, press printer, publisher), a certainty, an argument and a proof. A work may carry several per role; only one is accepted.
Auction house — the agent that holds an auction sale.
Auction sale — the provenance event that went under the hammer (box This event is an auction sale): auction house, sale title and date, lot, outcome, low and high estimates, hammer price, buyer’s premium included and currency. One per event, as confidential as the event; its amounts only leave in sales.csv, and only with the confidential records when the Amounts confidential box is ticked. See Adding or editing an event.
Backup — a dated, checked copy of the database, the attached documents, the certificates and the settings, in the library’s Backups/ folder: automatic once a day, or File › Back Up Library. It is restored in Settings › Backup; your images are not in it. See Backing up and restoring the library.
Batch edit — an operation on several selected works at once: edit fields, attribute, add to an exhibition, cite in a publication, apply the series defaults. Each one shows what it will do before writing; the last one can be undone. See Batch editing.
Buyer’s premium included — said of a hammer price that includes the buyer’s premium.
Catalogue no. (catalogue number) — the number by which a work is cited, assigned when it is created, never reissued, frozen on publication; it may carry a variant (suffix). Not to be confused with the inventory no.
Catalogue raisonné — the inventory of every work by an author, each one numbered and documented; also one of the three reports.
Certainty — the degree of an attribution: Certain, Attributed, Studio of, Disputed, Rejected, Unknown. A certain attribution is not spelled out in a report’s record.
Certificate no. — two things. The number of a certificate issued by Catalog, <prefix>-CERT-<year>-<sequence> (SB-CERT-2026-00042), independent of the catalogue no. and never reused. And, on a print, the Certificate no. field: the number of a certificate issued outside Catalog.
Certificate of authenticity — a signed PDF/A attesting the authenticity of a work or a print, recorded in the register under a number never reused, with a status: Valid, Superseded or Revoked. Without a licence, Catalog issues up to 10, counted on this Mac, across all libraries, by number (a re-issue does not count); every paid plan issues without limit. See Certificates of authenticity.
Change history — a collapsed group at the foot of the record’s Identification tab: what changed in the work, its prints and its attributions, field by field, before → after, with the date and the origin (Record, Reference image, Batch edit, Batch edit undone, Series defaults, CSV import, Agent merge, Print renumbering, Created from files). The latest 300 changes of each work are kept, a long text as an (excerpt); price, holder, location and internal notes are noted “changed, value not kept”. Never exported. See The change history.
CIDOC CRM — the reference ontology for cultural heritage; Catalog exports a versioned (2.1) twelve-class profile of it, in Turtle, with nothing confidential and no amount.
Citation — the mention of a work (or of one of its prints) in a publication, with pages, figure or plate. You cite a work in a publication and remove the citation.
Code (of a value) — the invariant word that names a value of a closed list (status, existence, edition kind, document kind…): extant for “Extant”, draft for “Draft”. The CSV files of the export write the codes, the same whatever the interface language; the import reads the codes and the labels in French and in English. The table of the codes is in the chapter Exporting the catalogue.
Collection — a group of files put together by hand. A smart collection is recomputed from its criteria.
Colour label — the colour put on a file (as in Lightroom), read from and written to its metadata; it filters the grid and smart collections. Not to be confused with a tag.
Completeness — a score from 0 to 100% measuring what a record contains: each criterion filled in (title, accepted attribution, date, technique and support, reference image, description, print, provenance, citation, exhibition, scholarly notice, rights, condition assessed) brings its points, and the weights always add up to 100. Publishing requires the publication threshold. See Completeness.
Compromised key — a signing key that has leaked. Declaring it compromised (Settings › Certificates) stops it signing, removes it from the public key file and revokes every valid certificate it signed; registered in the key directory, it is revoked there too.
Concordance — the correspondence between a work’s catalogue no. and its former numbers; the catalogue raisonné report prints a Number concordance.
Condition — the state of preservation of a work without a print, or of each print: excellent, good, fair, poor, or not assessed, with a condition note. Condition observed — the one an intervention recorded or left; it does not change the current condition. Note: in the Identification tab and the works table, the Condition field is the work’s existence (extant, lost…), not its state of preservation.
Condition report — the examination of an object whose condition is recorded, without treatment; a kind of intervention, and a kind of document of the work.
Confidential — said of a work (Confidential record), a provenance event, a conservation intervention (Confidential) or a document that goes into no export, report or certificate, except a CSV export, a full export or a package’s export that includes the confidential records, with a justification. An event is confidential by default, and always while a party is a living person; its auction sale follows it. An attached invoice is confidential by default; the proof of a confidential event and the document of a confidential intervention are, as long as the event or the intervention is. An agent marked Confidential is named in no LIDO or CIDOC export, report or certificate, in any role (see Confidential agents). See The confidentiality rule. Not to be confused with the internal note, which never leaves.
Confidential exports log — in Settings › Privacy, the list of every export that included the confidential records: date, format, justification, folder and contents. It follows the library into its backups and cannot be edited.
Conservation — the record’s tab holding the condition of the work or of its prints and the history of its care: the interventions. See Conservation.
Conservator — the agent (a restorer, a studio, a laboratory) who carried out an intervention.
Contact sheet — the contact print of a whole film or shoot on a single sheet. Scanned, it is usually a file with the Documentation role, linked to each of the works it shows: one file can document several works. If the artist considers it a work in its own right, it is catalogued as a work, with its own catalogue no.
Correspondence — a kind of document, of the work, of a print or of a file: a letter, an exchange with the artist, a gallery, a collector. (A file’s document of kind Letter became Correspondence in 0.19.)
Cost — the cost of a conservation intervention. It only leaves in a CSV that includes the confidential records, even for a public intervention, and is never printed.
CSV export — the export of the catalogue as twelve CSV files (works.csv, prints.csv, provenance.csv, sales.csv…), for a spreadsheet or another catalogue; included without a licence. With the full export and the package for Vault, it is the only export that can include the confidential records, with a justification. See CSV.
CSV import — bringing in an inventory of works, exhibitions or publications from a CSV file, in four steps: file, columns (mapping), preview, import. Nothing is written before Import; imported works count towards the plan limits. See Importing a CSV inventory.
Current holder — the agent who holds a print today, with its location: sensitive data, which goes into no report or certificate, nor LIDO or CIDOC; the holder only leaves in prints.csv, in a CSV export that includes the confidential records. The works table’s last holder is derived from the provenance.
Data checks — what Catalog finds on its own in the records: what they leave out or contradict. Each finding has a severity (Information, To check, Inconsistency); it blocks nothing, changes nothing and cannot be hidden. The record’s Checks box, the With inconsistencies / to check facet and the Checks column of the Works screen, and the catalogue raisonné’s Check before export sheet show them. See Data checks.
Date as published — a work’s date as it prints (“c. 1974, perhaps 1975”): it is the one that is authoritative. The sort dates (ISO format, typed in the shared date field: see Typing a date) and the precision (day, month, year, circa, decade, range, unknown) only serve sorting, facets and completeness.
Dating rationale — in the scholarly notice, the sources and the reasoning behind the work’s date; public, printed by the catalogue raisonné, at the end of works.csv (date_argument).
Declaration — on a certificate, a statement signed by a named person (the declarer): printed from the original negative, printed under the artist’s supervision, signed by the artist, print within the announced edition. Without a declarer, it is refused.
Derivative — two meanings. The role of a file made from another file of the work (an edit, an export, a reduced version); when a single work is created for several files, those that are not its reference image are linked to it as derivatives. And a relationship between two files (Derivative).
Device — a Mac that uses your licence. Their number depends on the plan; Settings › Account & Licence › Devices › Revoke this device… frees another Mac’s seat; beyond the limit, Catalog shows “Device limit reached”.
Documentation — the role of a file that documents the work without showing the work itself: a contact sheet, a photograph of the object, an archive. A documentation file cannot be the reference image.
Document (attached to a file) — a document attached to a library file in Edit…: correspondence, invoice, condition report… (the seven kinds of a document of the work). It goes into the exports with the works linked to the file. See Attached documents.
Document of the work — a document attached to a work or to one of its prints, in its record’s Documents tab: correspondence, invoice, exhibition sheet, archives, external certificate, condition report or other, with its date, reference and internal note. Like a document attached to a file, it is copied into the library with its SHA-256, can be confidential and serve as the proof of a provenance event or document an intervention. Delete document deletes the copy, never the original. See Documents.
Dry run — for a Lightroom import, reading the catalog and the library without writing anything, to show what the import would do; it is free, without a licence. See The dry run.
Duplicate — on import, a file whose content (its SHA-256) is already in the library. Likely duplicate — in Similar photos, a photo almost identical to another. Possible duplicates, Duplicates to review — in Agents, entries with the same normalised name, to merge or not: Catalog never merges on its own.
Edition — the set of prints of one work declared together (New edition…), with its edition type — Unique work, Limited edition, Open edition, Artist’s proof, Printer’s proof, Exhibition copy, Hors commerce (HC) — and its size: how many copies it announces, whether or not they have all been printed. A closed edition takes no more copies. See Prints and editions.
Edition tier — the public price of an edition for a run of copies (“1 to 3: €3,800; 4 to 6: €4,500”), dated: the price rises as the edition sells. Each numbered copy of the edition takes its tier’s price; a price entered on the print wins. Confidential, always.
Estimate — the low and high estimates of a lot, in the sale’s currency. Like the hammer price, they only leave in sales.csv.
Estimated value — what a print is worth according to an estimate, which is neither a public price nor an insured value, with its source (artist, gallery, expert, other), its appraiser and its supporting document; one of the four values of a print. Not to be confused with an auction sale’s estimate.
Exhibition — an exhibition where works were shown (solo, group, fair, biennial, online, permanent display), recorded once in the Exhibitions section and shared by all its works, each with its room, wall, number and label. See Exhibitions.
Exhibition sheet — a kind of document of the work: the loan or condition sheet of an exhibition.
EXIF — the technical metadata a camera records in the image (camera, lens, settings, capture date, GPS). Catalog reads them on import, without changing them. See EXIF and XMP metadata.
Existence — what is known of the work today: Extant, Lost, Destroyed, Location unknown, Not traced. The field is called Existence everywhere: Identification tab, works table, facets, exports. A work that is not extant may have no file at all.
Expiry — the date a right ends (year, month or day). Once past, the right is said to have expired.
Export only — a table of the CSV export that the import does not read back in 1.0: relations.csv, sales.csv, conservation.csv, rights.csv, documents.csv (and prints.csv, provenance.csv). These data are entered in the record; an import will come later, as an addition. See CSV.
External certificate — a kind of document of the work: a certificate issued outside Catalog (by the artist, an expert, a foundation), attached as a document. Not to be confused with a certificate of authenticity issued by Catalog.
Face — a face found by the analysis, on the Mac (Faces section). Faces that look alike are offered as suggestions, which you name. Their fingerprints never leave.
File — an item of the library: an image referenced where it is, with its metadata and its SHA-256. A file is not a work and never becomes one on its own. Linked to a work, it holds a role there (negative, scan, master, derivative…); one file can be linked to several works (a contact sheet, for instance), and a work has as many files as needed, among them its reference image. See Work and file.
File no. — the identifier a library file may carry of its own (the file_number column of the full export). It is neither an inventory no. nor a catalogue no.; reports do not print it.
File role — what a file is to the work it is linked to (File role): Negative, Plate, Sheet film, Transparency, Scan, Master, Derivative, Documentation or Installation view. The role describes the file, never the physical object (the print does that); a file linked to several works has a role for each. A certificate’s genealogy orders the files in their physical order, from negative to print. See Files.
Flag — the mark put on a file: Picked, Rejected or unflagged; it filters the grid.
Fonds — the whole that a library’s catalogue describes: an artist’s body of work, a studio, an estate, a gallery. Its name (Settings › Catalogue › Fonds, “Jeanne Valory Estate”) is the source of LIDO records when Settings › Exports gives none, and the name of export files. Inventory nos. are unique in the fonds, and a relation only links two works of the same fonds. See also workspace.
Former number — a number the work carried in an earlier catalogue, inventory or sale, with its source. A work has as many as needed; it can be searched (ancien:) and is never a catalogue no. or an inventory no. Together, the former numbers make the concordance.
Frame — the dimensions of a framed print’s frame: width, height and depth, in millimetres, for shipping and insurance. Public like the mount; in prints.csv (frame_mm), never in LIDO, CIDOC or the certificate. See Describing a print.
From, To — the two parties of a provenance event: who gives up the work, who receives it.
Full export — the whole library and all its data in open formats, in a folder or a ZIP archive, with a manifest and a README: enough to read it without Catalog. It is not restored. See Full export of the library.
Gap — in a provenance, a span of ten years or more with no recorded event (Unexplained gaps).
Genealogy — on a certificate, the work’s files in their physical order (from negative to print), then the edition’s prints and the reproductions.
Hammer price — the price at which a lot is knocked down in an auction sale, with or without the buyer’s premium (Buyer’s premium included). An unsold or withdrawn lot has none. Like the estimates, it only leaves in the CSV export’s sales.csv, never in LIDO, CIDOC, a report or a certificate.
History — in the scholarly notice, the work’s genesis, reception and states. Not to be confused with the change history.
Hors commerce (HC) — an edition type: a copy not for sale, numbered apart, “HC” in its number (…-P1-HC1/5).
Imported folder — a folder you imported into the library (the code and a few messages call it a project). Its files stay where they are; if it is moved, Locate folder… finds it again.
Inspector — the right-hand panel of the Library: all Catalog knows about the chosen file (file, linked work, description, indexing, documents, capture, tags, versions, relationships, all metadata). See The inspector.
Installation view — two senses. First, a photo of the hang from the library attached to an exhibition (Installation views group of its record, or Add to an exhibition’s views… from the library), with the works visible on it; the photo stays in the library (see Installation views). Second, the role of a file linked to a work, showing the work hung, in an exhibition or a place: it cannot be the reference image.
Internal note — a working note: that of a work (Internal notes), a print, an agent, an intervention, a line of rights or a document of the work, and the note on a relation between works. It never leaves: no export, report or certificate, whatever the options.
Insured value — what must be covered for a print in case of loss, with its source (artist, gallery, expert, insurer, other); one of the four values of a print; it names its appraiser and may have a supporting document. Older than the threshold set in Settings › Catalogue (three years by default), it is flagged to reassess.
Intervention — a dated step in the conservation of a work or a print: restoration, incident or condition report, with its conservator, description, condition observed, document or reference, cost and internal note. Public by default; ticked Confidential, it only leaves with the confidential records.
Introduction (of the catalogue) — its rules of inclusion (what the catalogue includes and leaves out) and its conventions (numbering, dimensions, dates, abbreviations), in Settings › Catalogue; printed on the catalogue raisonné’s “About this catalogue” page and written to catalogue/introduction.txt of the full export.
Inventory no. (inventory number) — the number under which a fonds, a studio or a collection recorded an object (a print, a plate, a negative), or a work. Optional, typed freely, as written in the inventory; unique in the fonds, works and prints alike, case and spaces aside (INV-042, inv-042 and INV 042 are the same number; hyphens, dots and accents count). Catalog checks it as you type and names the work or print that already holds it; the save is refused while the conflict lasts. Editable, never derived from the catalogue no. or the print no. With an inventory number scheme, Assign an inventory no. offers the next one, only when you click it. See Catalogue no. and inventory no..
Inventory number scheme — optional (Settings › Catalogue › Inventory numbers, Propose numbers from a scheme): a prefix, a number of digits and a first number (INV-0001). It fills in nothing by itself: Assign an inventory no., next to the empty field, offers the number after the highest already given in the fonds under that scheme, to save with the record. It is never locked.
IPTC — the press-photo standard for descriptive image metadata (title, description, creator, rights, keywords); Catalog reads it like XMP and respects its length limits.
Issuer — the agent in whose name certificates are issued, with their capacity (artist, estate, gallery, foundation, expert, museum).
Justification — the required reason for an export that includes the confidential records. It is written next to the files (CONFIDENTIAL-EXPORT.txt) and into the confidential exports log; the option holds for that export only.
Key directory — Obscura’s service that publishes the certificates’ public key at an address the verification page reads (keys.obscuraflow.app), with its date and, if it comes to that, its revocation. It attests that a key was registered by the holder of an Obscura account, never the issuer’s identity: the name shown is a declared name. Register the key in the directory…, in Settings › Certificates. Not to be confused with the directory of agents. See The key directory.
Keyword — a word written into the file’s IPTC or XMP metadata (also Lightroom’s hierarchical keywords), edited in Edit…; distinct from a tag, which lives only in the library.
Lender — the agent who lent an object to an exhibition, on the line of the work hung. Confidential, always, like the current holder: only in an internal report and in exhibitions.csv (column lender) with the justified confidential records.
Library — the folder where Catalog keeps its database (Catalog.sqlite), the copies of attached documents, the certificate PDFs, the thumbnails, the backups and its settings; by extension, all the referenced files, and the Library section that shows them (grid, loupe, inspector). Your images are never copied into it. A library holds a single fonds: for several fonds, one library each. See Where Catalog keeps its data.
Licence (of a work) — the terms on which a work may be reproduced: all rights reserved, a Creative Commons licence, public domain, another licence or contract, or licence not stated; its terms specify it. See Rights of a work.
Licence (of the app) — the right to use Obscura Catalog’s paid features (LIDO and CIDOC exports, more than 50 works, more than 10 issued certificates, more than one library created, a colophon without the app’s credit, management reports in Pro and Studio), held by an account, under a plan. Without a licence, the free tier. The last checked licence is kept on this Mac, outside the libraries, and only applies to this Mac while an account is signed in. See Licence and free tier.
LIDO — the XML exchange format of museums and collections portals (version 1.1): one record per work and per print, with nothing confidential and no amount.
Lightroom import — taking over a Lightroom Classic catalog (.lrcat): photos, curation, metadata, keywords (which become tags) and collections. The Lightroom catalog is read without being changed; the dry run and the import are free, without a licence. See Importing a Lightroom catalog.
Link, unlink — attach a file to a work, and undo that link. Between two files, you relate them and remove the relationship.
Living person — an agent marked Living person (GDPR), without a death date. While they are marked so, every provenance event they are a party to is confidential; its amount is kept and only leaves in an export that includes the confidential records, with a justification. The mark itself is never exported. See Living persons.
Lot — the number under which a work is offered in an auction sale.
Loupe — the large view of a file from the grid (double-click or Space), from a preview, never the original; Compare shows up to four side by side.
Manifest — the signed description embedded in a certificate’s PDF; it is what verification checks. A full export and a package have their own too (manifest.json, package.json), giving the size and SHA-256 of every file.
Mapping — in a CSV import, the correspondence between the file’s columns and Catalog’s fields; it is saved under a name (Saved mapping).
Master — the role of a work’s main file, its master file: the one whose data the Shooting data group reads first. A work created from a file receives it with this role, as reference image. The certificate calls it “master file”.
Materialise the edition — on a limited-edition print, create the edition’s missing copies at once: the physical attributes are carried over; inventory no., holder, location, condition, certificate no. and internal note stay empty, and no value is carried over.
Missing — the mark of a file Catalog no longer finds at its location (disk unplugged, folder moved).
Negative — the role of a file that is the work’s negative: a scanned film or, for a digital shot, its RAW file. With the plate, sheet film and transparency, it feeds the suggested common negative and, failing a master, the Shooting data group.
Number registry — the list, kept apart from the works, of every catalogue no. ever assigned, including those of deleted works: a number stays reserved there and is never reissued, and the next number is computed from it.
Organiser — the institution or person who organised an exhibition, an agent. Public; never deduced from the venue. See An exhibition’s record.
Origin — in the change history, what produced a change: the record, a batch edit, a CSV import, an agent merge, the creation of works from files…
Other titles — a work’s titles other than its title: original title, translated title, former title or other title, each with its language. The CSV import and export write them in one column per kind (alternate_titles for the untyped other title).
Outcome — what became of a lot in an auction sale: Sold, Unsold or Withdrawn.
Package for Vault — a folder, or a ZIP archive, prepared with File › Prepare a Package for Vault… to entrust the library to Obscura Vault: a backup, a full export without images and the list of the originals, by their SHA-256; optionally, copies of the originals. Its backup always holds the confidential records and the internal notes. See Package for Obscura Vault.
Party — the From or the To of a provenance event, an agent.
PDF/A — the archival form of PDF, made to stay readable over time; certificates and reports use it.
Person — in the Faces section, the name given to a group of faces that look alike. It stays in that section; it is not an agent.
Plan — what your account holds: Free (without a licence), Creator, Pro or Studio. The free tier describes up to 50 works, issues up to 10 certificates and creates one library, without LIDO and CIDOC exports; the Lightroom import, the catalogue raisonné and the portfolio (with “Made with Obscura Catalog” in the colophon), the general inventory, the stocktake and the data checks are free. Creator opens the LIDO and CIDOC exports and lifts the works and certificates limits; Pro adds five libraries and the management reports meant for third parties; Studio, unlimited libraries. Settings › Account & Licence shows the plan limits. See Licence and free tier.
Plan limits — what the plan lets you create, counted by Catalog before each creation and shown in Settings › Account & Licence: works (50 without a licence, in the open library), issued certificates (10 without a licence, on this Mac, across all libraries), libraries created on this Mac (one without a licence and in Creator, five in Pro, unlimited in Studio) and devices. Every record in the catalogue counts as a work, drafts included, and so does each variant; prints and files do not count, and a deleted work no longer counts (its number stays reserved). Certificates are counted by number, revoked ones included. Only creating a library is limited: opening another one, browsing and exporting it never is; a deleted library frees its place. The licence server may adjust these numbers for an account. Browsing, editing and exporting as CSV are never limited.
Plate — the role of a file that is the work’s glass plate (negative on glass), scanned; it counts for the suggested common negative.
Production value — what a copy cost to make (printing, framing, shipping); one of the four values of a print.
Preparatory work, preparatory for — a directed relation: the work (a study, a trial, a first state) that prepared another is preparatory for it; the other’s record names it Preparatory work.
Public price — what a work is offered at to collectors, with its channel (gallery, studio, fair, other); one of the four values of a print, entered on the print or by edition tier.
Press printer — the attribution role of whoever prints a book, a portfolio or a poster; distinct from the printer, who makes the photographic print.
Preview — in a CSV import, the dry run that shows the accepted and rejected rows before writing: nothing is written before Import.
Print — a physical object printed from a work, with its print no., edition, dimensions, process and paper, signature, condition, status and, if it has one, its inventory no. It is what a print certificate describes. A print is not a work and does not count towards the plan limits. Its current holder, location and values never leave. See Prints and editions.
Printer — the role of whoever makes the photographic print; distinct from the press printer.
Printer’s proof (PP) — an edition type: the copies kept for the printer, numbered apart, “PP” in their number (…-P1-PP1/2).
Printing period — when a print was made relative to the shot: vintage, later, modern, posthumous print.
Print no. — a print’s number, derived from the work’s catalogue no. (…-P2-3/8, …-P2-EA1/2), frozen when it is created; Renumber corrects it when the edition has changed. See A print’s number.
Print status — where the object stands: In stock, Sold, Consigned, On loan, Gifted, Lost or Destroyed. Not to be confused with the record’s status.
Proof — the document, or the publication, that establishes a provenance event; an attribution’s published evidence is a citation. The proof of a confidential event is confidential with it.
Provenance — the chain of successive holders of a work or a print: its provenance events.
Provenance event — a step in the provenance: acquisition, sale, gift, bequest, deposit, loan, exhibition, restoration…, dated, with its parties, place, amount and proof. Confidential by default.
Publication — a book, catalogue, periodical, article or website where works are cited, recorded once in the Publications section and shared by all the works cited (see citation). See Publications.
Publication threshold — the minimum completeness to publish a work, from 0 to 100% in steps of 5 (60% by default), in Settings › Catalogue. The completeness ring turns green when it is reached.
RAW — the raw file of a digital camera (.CR2, .NEF, .DNG…), often called a digital negative. On import, Catalog pairs a RAW with the JPEG of the same name (RAW + JPEG relationship); a RAW is never rewritten: its metadata go into an XMP sidecar. Linked to a work, it takes the role you give it (Negative, Master…). See RAW and JPEG of the same shot.
Record — a work’s description, with its tabs (Identification, Attribution, Prints, Conservation, Provenance, Exhibitions, Publications, Relations, Rights, Files, Documents).
Reference image — the file that represents a work; one per work, none if the work has no file. The first linked file that can be becomes it; a Documentation or Installation view file cannot. Its title and the work’s are kept in step (never silently). Reports print it; a work’s certificate qualifies it.
Register — the list of certificates issued from the library, with their status (Register view of the Certificates section).
Re-issue — a new version of a certificate, under the same number; the previous one is “superseded”. It corrects a clerical error.
Related work — the relation between two works linked without further detail.
Relation (between works) — what links two works of the catalogue: related work, variant, same negative, same sitting, other state, preparatory work (the record’s Relations tab). It reads from both records; you add a relation and remove the relation. See Relations.
Relationship (between files) — a link between two files: RAW + JPEG, Derivative, Edit, Stack, Duplicate, Other. Catalog creates RAW + JPEG relationships itself on import, Duplicate when you import duplicates and Stack from a Lightroom catalog; you set the others. You relate two files and remove the relationship. See Relationships.
Remove, delete, unlink — unlink undoes a link between a file and a work; remove takes something out of a set without making it disappear (a file from the library or a collection: it stays on disk; a work from an exhibition; a relation between two works, which stay in the catalogue); delete erases from the catalogue something that exists only there (a work, an agent, a collection, a tag, a document of the work: its copy, never the original).
Report — a PDF/A document drawn from the catalogue: portfolio, catalogue raisonné or inventory. Nothing confidential, no amount and no internal note is printed in it.
Reproduction exclusion — a work whose reproduction is never printed, even when its image is there, for a reason: rights not obtained, artist’s or estate’s choice, holder’s request, other reason (record, Scholarly notice group). The portfolio says “Reproduction excluded” and the reason in place of the image; the catalogue raisonné prints the reason. The reference image stays in the catalogue. Not to be confused with an image not available (no file, or an unreadable one), which is no choice.
Reproduction restrictions — what whoever reproduces the work must know (“no cropping or overprinting”, “estate’s consent required”); part of a line of rights.
Restoration — an intervention that treats the object; also a kind of provenance event.
Revocation — the withdrawal of a certificate for a public reason, from a closed list; it stays in the register, and every verification says it is revoked. It cannot be undone.
Rights holder — the agent (the author, their estate, an agency) who holds the rights of a work; a work may have several, one line of rights each. See Rights.
Rights of a work — the record’s Rights tab: the free rights statement, then the rights holders and licences, one line per right: the rights holder, the licence and its terms, the reproduction restrictions and the expiry. They are the work’s, never a print’s; they leave with the work in the exports, without their internal note.
Rights statement — the free text printed as it is with the work (“© Jeanne Valory, 1978”) and exported as a credit line. A series can pass it on.
Same negative, same sitting — two relations between works: printed from the same negative (or the same plate, sheet film); taken at the same sitting. Both read both ways. The suggested common negative comes from the files linked to both works as negative, plate, sheet film or transparency, and is never recorded automatically.
Saved search — a named advanced search, which runs again in one click and can become a smart collection. See Saved searches.
Scan — the role of a file that is a scan (of a print, of a negative) of the work.
Scholarly notice — in a record, the work’s history (its genesis, reception, states), its analysis (the critical commentary, printed “Critical commentary” by the catalogue raisonné) and the dating rationale, distinct from the description and the artist’s statement. The state rank and the reproduction exclusion are entered there too.
Series — the name of the series a work belongs to; it is a facet, a filter for reports, and carries the series defaults.
Series defaults — the values (work type, technique, support, genre, rights statement) a series passes on to the empty fields of its works, and the line of rights it gives a work that has none yet; they are copied into the work, not read on the fly. Its default agent becomes the accepted author of a work that has none yet. See Series values.
SHA-256 — a 64-character fingerprint computed from the exact content of a file. Two identical files have the same one; the slightest changed byte changes it. Catalog computes it on import and for every attached document; the exports and the package for Vault give it for every file.
Sheet film — the role of a file that is the work’s large-format negative (cut film, 4×5…), scanned; it counts for the suggested common negative.
Signature — two meanings. A print’s: signed, stamped, estate stamp, unsigned, with its text as written and its location. And a certificate’s: the cryptographic seal (Ed25519) that the signing key puts on it, and that verification checks.
Signing key — the key, kept in the Mac’s keychain, that signs certificates; its encrypted backup is required before issuing.
Similar photos — the tab of the Faces section that shows the photos close to a photo, and the likely duplicates (crops, edits, exports of one image), from the analysis. See Similar photos.
SKOS — a standard format for exchanging controlled vocabularies (RDF/XML); the thesaurus exports to it.
Source file — on a certificate and in the record’s Traceability group, the file of the capture (failing that, the reference image), with its SHA-256: what ties the record to one precise file.
Stack — a relationship between files that groups images under one, like a Lightroom stack; importing a Lightroom catalog carries its stacks over.
State (of an image) — the artist taking up the same image again (retouched negative, reworked print, new crop): two works linked by the Other state relation (Relations tab), each with its state rank (I, II…), printed “State II” by the portfolio and the catalogue raisonné. The rank is entered, never worked out from the relations; a variant is not a state. See Relations.
Status — how far a record has come: Draft, In review, Validated, Published, Withdrawn, with only the allowed moves. Publishing requires an accepted attribution in the photographer role and the publication threshold. A published or withdrawn work cannot be deleted; only a validated or published work can be certified. See Statuses and publishing. A print has its own print status.
Stocktake — the dated check, campaign by campaign, of the presence and condition of the fonds’ prints: present, absent, moved, on loan, unknown, to check; expected and observed location. A check never changes a print’s location or status. Internal, always. Catalog records it; its screens and report will come with the inventories.
Storage location — where a work is kept in the fonds: a kind (Hard drive, Binder, Box, Drawer, Shelf, Other) and a free reference (“Box 12”). A work has as many as needed. Internal information: it is searched (storage:) but only leaves in a CSV export that includes the confidential records. Not to be confused with a print’s location, the place of its holder.
Supporting document — the document that supports an insured value or an estimated value (an expert’s report, an insurance schedule), attached to the print or the work. While it supports a value it is confidential, whatever its box says. Not to be confused with the justification of a confidential export.
Tag — a free label put on files, shared by the whole library; the keywords of an imported Lightroom catalog become tags. Not to be confused with the colour label, nor with a keyword written into the file.
Thesaurus — the controlled vocabulary: hierarchical terms and synonyms.
Timestamp — an RFC 3161 token delivered by an authority, attesting that a signature existed at a given date (badge Timestamped). Without it, a certificate’s date is declarative.
To review — the view of the Certificates section where the certificates whose attribution has become disputed or rejected arrive; you decide to Re-issue, Revoke or Keep. Nothing is revoked automatically.
Transparency — the role of a file that is the work’s slide (reversal film, Ektachrome), scanned; like the negative, plate and sheet film, it counts for the suggested common negative.
Unknown agents — in a CSV import, the names missing from the directory. Nothing is created silently: for each one, Create, Attach to… an existing agent or Reject rows (for exhibitions and publications, Keep the name as written too). A name matches an agent by equality after normalisation (case, accents and punctuation ignored), never by resemblance. See Unknown agents.
Unlinked file — a library file linked to no work; Create works from n unlinked files… (⋯ menu of Works) turns them into works, never automatically.
Value not kept — in the change history, what a change to a sensitive field (value of a print, holder, location, internal note) shows: the history says the field changed, without keeping its value.
Values of a print — the production value, the public price, the insured value and the estimated value, each dated, sourced and kept with its history (the latest is the current value). Always confidential: they leave only with the justified confidential records, noted in the log, in valuations.csv (CSV export, full export, Vault package), the value columns of Export this table… and the internal inventories. See The values of a print.
Variant — two meanings. First, the suffix (A, B…) of a catalogue no., which tells two states of one exposure apart: NV-023-A and NV-023-B are two works, each citable, each counted in the plan limits; the variant is frozen on publication. Then, a relation between works: another version of the same image (another crop, another state, another print), which reads both ways.
Verification — checking a certificate: in Certificates › Verify a PDF, offline, which also says whether it was revoked; or online, at the address printed on the certificate, in the browser, without sending the PDF. Always free. See Verify a PDF.
Version — the record of an earlier state of a file (SHA-256 and size).
Work — the citable unit of the catalogue raisonné, with its catalogue no. and its record. It is distinct from the file (an image in the library) and from the print (a physical object): a work may have several files and several prints, or none. You are the one who creates works; a file never becomes a work on its own. Every work counts towards the plan limits. See Work and file.
Work numbering — the form of catalogue nos. (Settings › Catalogue): a prefix, the year if you include it, and a sequence number of 1 to 12 digits (SB-2026-000154 by default). It locks as soon as a work carries a number: set it before the first. See Setting up numbering.
Workspace — the technical name of the fonds: Settings › Catalogue › Fonds gives the workspace’s name. A library holds one. The plan limits count the libraries created on this Mac, which the licence server also calls “workspaces”.
Works table — the Table presentation of the Works section: one row per work, with the columns of your choice, sortable, and Export this table… to CSV. See The works table.
XMP — Adobe’s metadata format, written into the image or into an XMP sidecar next to it; Catalog reads and writes title, description, creator, rights, keywords, rating, label, date and coordinates there. See Where to save.
XMP sidecar — a small .xmp file placed next to an image, carrying its metadata without changing the image.