Standard format for "ordered list of pictures"

Question

Sorry, if I don't get the terminology correct. Newbie question.

I'm finally getting around organizing the family pictures (a few 10s of thousands) and I'm trying to do this in the most compatible and platform agnostic way. Main tools would be to create a decent folder structure, remove the duplicates, and apply tags. I'm currently looking at digiKam.

One thing we want to do is create "photo albums" or maybe "slide shows", which is simply a list of pictures to be displayed in a certain order. In it's simplest incarnation that would just be a list of filenames (maybe relative to a root folder) but I'm not sure whether digiKam can actually do this.

Specific questions:

1. What's the correct term for a sorted list of picture references (file names, links, etc)
2. Is there a standard file format for this that is supported by more than one software?
3. What software (preferably open source) can create, display and manage this type of thing?

No need for online support, this is just for internal consumption.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Time ordered is the standard for organizing pictures files.

Tagging is the standard for organizing pictures by content and metadata.

The advantage of tagging is that a grand scheme is not required ahead of time. This means whatever tagging you do is progress and tags can be added to meet new needs later.

Removing duplicates has no archival value. The more copies the more likely a picture is to survive. And human error means there is a substantial probability of mistakenly deleting the only copy of a picture.

The best way to preserve pictures for the future is to print them and put the prints in a physical album. It has stood the test of time.