Eagle: A Seamless Way to Organize and Store Reference Images

Finding inspiration at random places is part of working with designs. However, keeping track of these images and assets can be tiresome.

Eagle aims to solve this problem by creating a centralized space for storage and organization. Using a well-built interface and powerful sorting/organization features, Eagle offers a collaborative space for illustrators, graphic designers, interior designers, and countless other professionals.

What does Eagle do?

You can think of Eagle as a repository for media assets. The next time you come across a reference image or a sample video, you can store it on Eagle instead of a random Downloads folder. Eagle supports a wider variety of files like Photoshop, Adobe Photo, CorelDraw, Pages, MindNode, MP4, RAW, SVG, PNG, PDF, etc.

But the Eagle library is more than a typical folder on your computer.

Features highlight

• Multiple tools for research design, including a browser extension, video bookmarking, screenshots, drag-and-drop file management, and clipboard integration.
• Use tags, folders, smart folders, and other metadata to organize reference images.
• Advanced organization and filtering options, such as color filter, keyword search, advanced filters, and an advanced file browser.
• Built-in support for a wider variety of media assets along with multiple viewing features like hover preview, spacebar preview, customizable layouts, and precise zoom.
• Hierarchical folders with support for smart folders, annotations, and auto-tagging.
• Dedicated utilities for video, audio, and font management within media assets.
• Impressive compatibility with file formats from apps like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Affinity Suite, Microsoft Office, etc.

New Eagle 4, TheSweetBits review

Recently the developer introduced the all-new Eagle 4, which brings exciting features and enhancements.

From our check, Eagle 4 isn’t just an update; it’s a revolution in how you manage and organize your creative assets.

Setting Up Eagle

Setting up Eagle app on your computer doesn’t take more than a few seconds. Once you download the installer from the official website, the installation is quick. When you set up Eagle, you should also set up the browser extensions for Eagle. These extensions make it easy to add files to Eagle or capture screenshots.

Usability & Interface

Eagle 4 is beautifully organized for a wide range of creatives. We’ve found the smart folder and tagging options especially helpful for finding specific assets quickly. And the interface itself? It’s clean and minimal but gives just enough customization so you feel at home in the app.

However, we’d love to see a more cross-platform-friendly version in the future, especially one that could handle cloud storage and work seamlessly on mobile. Right now, it’s perfect for desktop users, but for those on the go, it might feel limiting.

Plugin System

The new plugin system in Eagle 4 is what we use the most. Developed by Eagle’s team and external developers, this system includes a variety of plugins to boost productivity, handle file conversion and compression, manage downloads, and extend media formats.

With AI-based plugins like “AI image background remover”, Eagle leverages artificial intelligence to streamline the organization of images, enlarging images, erasing inperfect objects, compressing images and more.

Furthermore, Eagle’s updated browser extension now shows the actual resolution of images across various sites, letting you assess image quality before adding them to your collection. The Pinterest “search by image” plugin enables direct inspiration searches within Eagle. Recent improvements make image previewing simpler and faster with click, hover, or spacebar options. After saving images, you can also view and access source links, making it easy to track down original creators for attribution.

Collection and Management

Eagle makes asset collection and organization simple with multiple methods, including a browser extension for capturing web images and videos, drag-and-drop folder import, and clipboard pasting. During web collection, it displays actual image resolutions for easy quality assessment.

For screenshots, Eagle allows instant tagging and categorization. Its advanced preview functions, such as waterfall and adaptive layouts, improve viewing efficiency without needing extra software. Additionally, smart folders organize files automatically based on tags, annotations, and preset filters, making it effective for managing large libraries.

Not Just for Image Management

Eagle goes beyond just image organization, efficiently handling a wide range of media formats. It offers convenient font management with glyph previews to check for missing characters. With a built-in tool for 3D model previews, Eagle makes organizing and viewing 3D assets simple. Additional features, such as a video player and bookmark browser, make Eagle versatile for managing different types of content beyond images. This is why adding a good tag description is an essential part of our workflow.

More Additions

The new audio support feature is huge for those working with multimedia projects—now, in the same app, you can store background scores, sound effects, voice notes, and more. This addition makes Eagle feel more like a complete creative hub than a visual-only manager.

Another standout is plugin integration. We love this feature because it seamlessly integrates with other creative tools, cutting out the hassle of switching between apps to find what we need. For anyone working on design projects across Adobe or even Sketch, it’s a game-changer.

Security Upgrades are also noteworthy. Password-protecting specific folders makes it much easier to separate personal projects from client work or to protect sensitive material.

Pricing

Eagle costs $34.95 per license, which can be used on two devices (Mac or PC). However, the company is offering a 30-day free trial during which all features are available. You can also get a 30% discount if you are a student or a teacher.

Footnotes

Overall, Eagle is a great utility for anyone dealing with media assets. Even if you don’t keep track of icon sets or design vectors, Eagle makes it easy to keep track of videos, images, and fonts.

The UI is effortless to master, and Eagle can boost your productivity a long-needed boost when it comes to collecting and organizing media.

For more details, visit Eagle official website today.