Logseq as a visual cataloger

Hi,

I recently started using Logseq. Being used to note-taking software like Joplin, or Trillium, switching to Logseq needed (and still does) a little extra effort in order to understand the logic behind it.

At first, it felt a little confusing. As other users, I expected to work with pages, and folders, only to later understand what an outliner is, and how Logseq networked thinking differs from hierarchical thinking. Now that I start getting the hang of it, I can definitely see the advantages, and I’m finding it way more efficient than any other note-taking software I used before.

While I enjoy the outliner nature of Logseq, I wonder if it’s still the right choice to use it to gather visual references too. In Trillium, I used to import images, paste screenshots, that I use as a visual reference for my work (I’m a graphic designer). The way Trillium formats the images is quite tidy. In Logseq, images are still blocks, which could be OK, though I find it less visually structured than Trillium.
On top of that, I wonder if throwing lots of images at Logseq could cause any lag.

So, I’m curious to hear if there are other users who employ Logseq as a visual catalog too, and if so, I’d love to get your insights on the best way to do it. If not, what other tool could be a good complement to Logseq for a task like this?

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Could you post a couple screenshots that show the difference? I am also capturing screenshots, and I also find the experience suboptimal. For me the main issue is switching back and forth between windows and the difficulty of inserting information between existing blocks or switching out images. I have not noticed any lag issues.

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Sure,

Here’s an example of the same content in both Trillium, and Logseq.


You’ll notice how in Trillium I was able to rearrange the images on the top.
The layout functionalities are basic, nonetheless good enough for a decent customization of the page.

Again, it’s not that in Logseq it looks bad, it’s just I don’t think it’s ideal to store lots of images. The page can become quite long to scroll.

For now, it probably makes sense for me to keep organizing this type of content in Diffractor:

It supports tags, but being an image browser it stops there.

The beauty of being able to somehow have a bridge with Logseq would be the option of adding all the links, and query capabilities. It would be extremely handy when working on a new project, while looking for references, with the ability to pull images from different folders.
That said, I don’t have the slightest idea of how that could be done from a development standpoint. I guess an AI tool could be handy in order to automatically tag the images based on their content. I already see this is probably quite a stretch for what Logseq is meant for.

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Thank you, that at looks much nicer than Logseq.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good solution either. I am not even talking about tagging the images, I take screenshots during meetings, and it is already difficult to keep track of a handful of images, especially when they open and close when they get mouse focus. Sometimes screenshot comes first, sometimes annotation, so it is not very structured and hard to keep track.

The way I would like it is to have an image mode, where for blocks with a certain property images are shown on the left and corresponding text is on the side. Similar to the Powerpoint handout view:

This way one could quickly annotate and sort images.

Here is another relevant discussion:

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Sorry, I was kind of derailing the main topic here with the idea of tagging the images.

I agree, the image switching from code to preview while editing can be distracting.

That type of alignment is doable in Trillium, and it would be already quite handy to have it in Logseq too.
For instance, in this case I chose to keep the main at the top centered, and text-left align the one right after.

In the screenshot you’ll notice the image-bar property overlaid allows also to resize the image, which is handy.

Thanks for the link! I’ll check that out.

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Today I noticed a neat plugin called Productivity Pack
I think it gets very close to what you need in terms of image, and text alignment.

Here’s a test I did:

The idea it’s pretty clever, as it relies on columns that can be easily edited based on your needs. Being columns, I can then use them for image or text, or simply add text in the same image block.

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This may be unrelated, but when I read the title of your post, I thought of the plugin areas:

It allows you to associate pages in Logseq with certain areas of an image.

That may be something to look into in the image cataloguing process.

This looks dope! Thanks for sharing @phoenixart !

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That is so interesting, thanks for pointing it out.
It might come in handy in more than one occasion.

@candide By the way, I’m curious: how did you find that plugin? I looked in Logseq’s plugin from the app, but plugin-areas doesn’t show up.
I’m asking just to see if there are other Logseq plugin sources I can search when in need.

I found it on the Discord group one day, under one of the plugins channels:

Nice, thanks for the info.

Oh boy, this looks like a solution for image-collectors fellas, but on steroids :slight_smile:
https://twitter.com/kepano/status/1599842877533990912

It reminds me of Miro, and other similar solution, but all inside Obsidian.

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Saw this today in my Logseq update: an infinite canvas similar to what you shared @phoenixart

Looks like it’s currently for people who support Logseq monthly, but will be available for free later.

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Thanks @candide that looks great!
Looking forward to testing it out.