P: Support Common Image Formats (EPS, GIF, PDF, BMP etc.)

Interesting history. But now that it's 2013, for real-world tasks many users are demanding additional file support.

It is simply not practical to juggle Lightroom, Bridge, ACDSee or some other combination of tools, just to see our related files. Sheesh.

It's not basic. It's not even close. LR was designed, primarily, to manage and process still images in raw format created by dSLRs:

"On one particular site visit to Greg Gorman’s studio, Mark got a rather rude awakening-he personally had to deal with gigs of images that he shot. Greg, shooting with a Canon 1Ds, shot about 4 gigs of images during the course of the shoot day. Mark, shooting with a Canon 10D, (smaller raw file sizes) shot about 4 gigs of shots of Greg shooting as well as the models; Andrew and Kevin Atherton-twin gymnasts from the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai. Mark also shot Greg’s studio and anything he could think of to aim his camera at. Mark learned firsthand the difficulties of dealing with tons of RAW images."

http://photoshopnews.com/2006/01/09/t...

Because of later advances (primarily dSLR video), LR now also manages videos created by dSLRs, and as somewhat of an accident, it also manages and edits non-raw images created by many different still camera types. It's still limited in this respect, as I mentioned above (it doesn't handle metadata from many Canon video files from non-dSLRs, and it can only use a tiny subset of its editing features on videos). Even getting PSD into LR was a fight against its creators.

Support for dealing with non-camera file types was never part of the Lightroom development story or intent. I'd encourage you to read that article I referenced to see what the team was thinking from the beginning.

If the Lightroom development team can find ways to implement the whizzy new features in LR5 ... they can certainly figure out how to provide the basic file support (that should have been there since the beginning).

"Ideally, it would be nice if Lightroom could also create a preview and allow metadata for cataloging."

See how this slope gets slippery? LR doesn't even support metadata from many digital-camera generated videos yet (I'm not talking crazy edge cases, here, I'm talking mainstream cameras like Canon), despite supporting video for several versions and being able to edit and export those very same videos. When mentioning importing of alternative file types, some say its fine to do nothing with them, others want metadata - and preview generation - and editing - and exporting - and incorporation into the modules. Someone above mentioned exporting in PNG. If it can export, can it edit? What about support for transparency? LR supports PSD but not layers and only has modest support for transparency (and only in LR 4.4 and LR5). Is that higher priority? What about support for vector files, or rendering of thumbs and previews from those files? Is that required? 3D? Solid modeling?

See how this can get out-of-control really quick and why LR generally resists this sort of thing?

Another approach would be to make LR have the OPTION to be used as a BROWSER and then have a "Add to Catalog" mode...
this would be the simple solution for Adobe. (somewhat like PhotoSupreme).

I wish they would allow to separate the interface modules (Lib,Dev,Print,etc), hide the ones you don't want up at the time... but this is not possible in LR.

It would need to watermark, text overlay, resize and place in new folder, batch rename, all kinds of sorting and viewing options with background color options, seeing thumbs with multiple file info options, dual screen support, detachable modules of preview, thumbs and properties, ratings that would sync with Raw dev apps, Edit Exif, metadata IPTC, presets for these and resizes, and watermarkings/text overlays. Printing contact sheets with row and column adjustments and file info options,

These are a few things I do daily. I don't have any affiliation to ACDSee, yet my expereicne tells me it does all the above and much more very well for me. IDImager/PhotoSupreme is another that doesn't do Raw dev, but maybe suited for DAM. ACDSee I find simpler (no forced catalog) to use.

Maybe get ACDSee to import how LR develops files and I would do without LR! But it sure is not like LR dev.

Adobe has other contenders, and if it continues to ignore them, they WILL sneak up close. Capture One is another Dev, DXO that in my opinion do a less destructing dev on the Raw file with higher clarity on certain file types this can be seen in. It is possible.

As the author of the Any File plugin, I'm quite aware of its limitations, and like most others in this thread (and like all Any File users), I'd prefer the asset-managment capabilities of LR expanded so we wouldn't need Any File. However, given that LR 5 Beta has just come out, I agree with Lee Jay that it's very unlikely that we'll see any significant improvements in this regard for at least another 18 months.

So if anyone has specific improvements or additions they'd like to suggest for Any File, please feel free to contact me privately via ellis-adobe at johnrellis . com. (The one thing that just isn't feasible with Any File is the ability to do native editing of additional formats, e.g. PSB.)

managing tools like metadata, tagging for cataloging would be helpful indeed...

Yes, the wheels of progress often turn slowly. I had to wait from CS3 to CS6 for Adobe to finally fix a crashing bug I reported in InDesign.

Many of us would appreciate something along the lines that you suggest. Let Lightroom import and display a wider variety of files, then hand off any editing to the native application, like Illustrator.

Ideally, it would be nice if Lightroom could also create a preview and allow metadata for cataloging. But simply displaying the files would be very useful.

Yes Phil, You're right...Pushing forward is right. I think they OKed PNG as some cameras shoot in this format, so I think that fact and these requests made for the move. But I hope we can get more to vote for this.

Lee , Yes that actually would help a lot, as the main issue is not knowing what resides in the folder. I don't expect to do any edits with PDF Indesign or other non PS "image" formats within LR. PDF and InDesign are ADOBE formats after all. Yes I agree PSB cannot be ignored..I would even override my needs as saying it should be supported before the others, logically. It is a PSD format for larger size files. Just for being large it is out? Doesn't make sense.