I don’t want to get into software reviews on this site (hmm that’s the second time I’ve said that in as many posts…), but this one is too cool not to share.

I have multiple Aperture libraries, as I keep some client photos in a unique libraries (like the Seal photos, which number over 17,000 on their own), and I have a personal library that spans photos from 1997 through 2009, and this year I decided to start a fresh new library to speed things up a bit, and so now I have my 2009 and later library as well. While this offers several advantages, one of the disadvantages is that utilizing the OS’s built-in media browser is limited to only the last Aperture library launched. And I like using that browser, as it’s dead fast to find a photo and add it to a blog entry, email, etc. So off I went last night to the great land of Google and looked for a media browser that would show multiple libraries. And I found one.

iMedia Browser by Karelia Software does exactly that. On launch (with no configuring required, honestly not sure how it managed that), it showed all my Aperture libraries at once! Which means no more re-launching an Aperture library just to find the one photo I want… now I can access them all at once from this handy little piece of software. It even has an option to add an icon to the menu bar so that with one click, the browser opens instantly to reveal all my photos, and one more click sends it away. Double-clicking on any image opens the full-size JPEG file in Preview. Nice!

The iMedia Browser looking at all my Aperture libraries at once!