Organize photos using the Library inspector

All your imported photos are available in the Library inspector, one of three inspectors in the Inspector pane on the left side of the Aperture main window. The Library inspector holds containers—projects, folders, and albums—you can use to organize your photos.

The Library inspector also provides a number of ways to view items in the library. For example, you can select Projects at the top of the Library inspector to view your photos organized by project, or Places to view the locations of all the photos in the library. For more information, see Library inspector overview.

When you select a folder, a project, or an album in the Library inspector, the images appear in the Browser and Viewer to the right.

Display photos in the Browser and Viewer

You can arrange the Browser and Viewer to suit your work style, showing either one by itself or both at once. To change the main window layout, click a layout button at the right side of the toolbar.

The Browser layout displays a grid of thumbnail images.

When you double-click a thumbnail image in the Browser (or click the Viewer button in the toolbar), Aperture switches to the Viewer layout, displaying the selected photo in a larger format. You can use the Viewer to examine a photo at full size or compare multiple photos side by side.

You can use the tools in the tool strip below the Viewer to adjust and manipulate your photos. For more information, see Work with adjustment tools in the tool strip.

To display the Viewer and Browser at the same time, click the Split View button at the right side of the toolbar.

For more information about changing the configuration of Aperture windows, see Change the main window layout.

Display photos in full-screen view

You can also view your photos in full-screen view, dramatically projecting them onto a solid background for detailed adjustments and comparisons. Full-screen view offers different display layouts that let you view large-format versions of selected photos, view thumbnails, or view photos by project. For more information, see Full-screen view overview.

Display metadata associated with photos

To help identify your photos as you work with them, you can set Aperture to display the metadata associated with photos in the Viewer. You can display keywords, ratings, EXIF information, IPTC information, and more. You can specify whether the information appears below the photos or over the lower portion of the photo.

You can also specify up to two views of information to be displayed with photos in the Viewer—basic or expanded. For example, one view might be configured to show ratings only, and another view to show all the IPTC information associated with a photo. You can then switch between views to change the information that appears with your photos.

For more information about working with metadata views in the Viewer, see Metadata overlays overview.