Tropy for Research Photo Management: Create a New Project

Tropy is a free desktop application. It's not web-based. It is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Download Tropy from https://tropy.org/. Then open it and follow the prompts to install it on your computer.

DMC has created two customized metadata templates for exporting metadata to Zotero for citation purposes. Install them if you plan to cite your images using Zotero.

• Zotero Letter
  • It's for exporting Tropy Correspondence items to Zotero for citation purposes. 
  • Download link: Zotero Letter
• Zotero Manuscript
  • It's for exporting generic Tropy manuscript items to Zotero for citation purposes.
  • Download link:  Zotero Manuscript

To install the customized templates, first download them, then open Tropy -> Settings -> Templates -> Import (down arrow), then follow the onscreen prompts.

After installing Tropy, launch the application.
You’ll be prompted to choose between creating a standard project or an advanced project. It's recommended that you create a standard project and create one Tropy project for your entire book manuscript or dissertation. This guide assumes you’ve chosen the standard project option and is tailored accordingly. Click the “Create Project” button and save the file to your preferred location.
In this demonstration, the project is named Tropy-Demonstration.tropy.

Standard Project

• The default recommended option for new Tropy projects is a Standard project (.tropy).  This feature was introduced in 2023. For Windows/Linux, it is a file with a branded folder. For Mac OS, it is a bundle.
• When importing photos to Tropy, images are copied to the project. Note: This means your computer now has two sets of your images; you might want to delete or move your original folder of images to external storage if you are concerned about space.
• Your standard Tropy project file will contain your imported photos. This makes your Tropy project file much more portable. 
• The project file size will be big because it contains both metadata and image file
   

Advanced Project

• This is the old Tropy project type (or the classic mode of Tropy). 
• When importing photos to Tropy, images are linked to the project through an absolute or relative path. The project file doesn't contain the image files. It only contains metadata added to images in Tropy.
• Create an advanced project if you want to control where to store the image files. If the original photos are moved or the path is otherwise broken, Tropy must consolidate items to visualize them correctly. Note: This is why this is the advanced project type; you must be very mindful of your image location(s).
• The project file size will be relatively small, in MB, because it only contains metadata. 

By default, your project saves to your documents folder on your hard drive (My Documents in Windows, Documents in macOS, etc.). You can change the default folder to another folder on your local hard drive, an external hard drive, or a cloud storage. 

If you work on a laptop, your local hard drive space might be limited. 

• Use an external drive if you want fast, local access and control, but be prepared to back it up.
• Use the cloud if you want easy access from anywhere, scalability, and built-in backup—just factor in cost and internet needs.

Locate where your photos are stored. Check the photo file format and see if they are supported by Tropy. 

Tropy currently supports the following file formats:

• JPG/JPEG
• PNG
• SVG
• TIFF
• GIF
• PDF
• JP2000
• WEBP
• HEIC
• AVIF

Drag the selected photos to the middle pane/the item table in Tropy.

• Standard project
  • Tropy copies the photos to the project file.
• Advanced project
  • Tropy makes a thumbnail copy of the photo and links to the original photo (so don't move it!).