iPhoto 11 vs aperture - Any Reason to use Both?

Can I import everything into Aperture, then keep iPhoto and access the Aperture library just to create calenders and cards?

Yes, exactly. The new unified library format makes it possible to open your Aperture Library in iPhoto.

And you can use the images in the Aperture library to create calendars and cards or send mail using iPhoto stationary.

You can even use iPhoto in parallel to Aperture - view one Aperture library in iPhoto and another one in Aperture, if you want to compare libraries. Bur you will not be able to view the calendars and cards in Aperture. If you want to reveal managed original image files in the Finder, you can do this iPhoto. It is still not possible in Aperture.

Pitfalls to be aware of:

• Unhide all photos you have hidden in iPhoto before importing. You cannot unhide these in Aperture.
• There have been issues with smart albums created in iPhoto. It would be safer to delete the iPhoto created smart albums once you imported your iPhoto library and to recreate them in Aperture.
• The keyword structure in iPhoto is flat, but the Aperture keyword structure can be hierarchical. This may cause duplicate keywords, if you assign and change keywords in iPhoto.

But I found it works really well so far. My iPhoto Libraries date back to the very first iPhoto release, and I have imported and merged quite a few of my older iPhoto libraries into one large Aperture library. It is great to have all images in one single database, and not to have to remember which library to open, when I am looking for a particular picture.

Regards

Léonie

Added:

Have you seen these knowledge base articles?

Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries

Aperture 3.3: Using a unified photo library with iPhoto and Aperture

From what I could discern, it sounded like she meant that the two libraries were shared - as opposed to all the data from iPhoto being imported into Aperture.

She could have meant the old scheme (before Aperture 3.3): Then the recommendation was to import referenced and the two libraries shared the original masters. But that approach has been very risky and was meant as a temperary solution while deciding if to switch to Aperture or not.

Or she meant, that the shared library format: each application can open the other programs libraries - they can both use the same libraries.

Do you know if there is a 'merge' option (which I will assume means Aperture shares the iPhoto library but doesn't actually import all the files)

Aperture has a "merge " option when importing libraries, but this is very restricted. If Aperture imports a library that already has been imported earlier and than changed, Aperture will try to recognize the changes and only import/update the changed images and projects or other library items, if you select to "merge" and not to "add". But when you are importing a library that Aperture has never seen, it will not be able to recognize duplicate images and you may end up with importing duplicates.

or if when I import an iPhoto library, all the info comes across into Aperture with no more technical need for the iPhoto library. (aside from viewing calendars, etc. created in iPhoto)

When you import a library as library, all metadata will come across, as far as possible.

After importing a library you could delete it, but keep a backup copy!

In my case, both my iPhoto and Aperture libraries are referenced, so I would want the images I'm bringing in to be referenced as well. Do you know if I have to handle the import differently?

Also, the images will be imported with the same file status they currently have: referenced files will stay referenced, managed files will be copied. There is no option to control the file status, when you import a library. If you want to import a library referenced, you have to make the source library referenced.

I can't find it in the help section and I'd hate to do the import and then discover that it did so by making the photos managed. There is very little info in the Aperture help regarding importing libraries - it only really talks about sharing libraries. Thanks for any light you can shed on the subject.

If you import a large managed library and want to import referenced, relocate the originals in the source librar. To do that for an iPhoto library you have to open t in Aperure and use the "relocate originals" command.

Regards

Léonie

There is very little info in the Aperture help regarding importing libraries - it only really talks about sharing libraries

Rick,

added: You are right; importing iPhoto libraries is not described in the support articles. And the manual section on "Importing Your iPhoto Library" is no longer valid - it describes the procedure in earlier Aperture 3 versions. Read the section on Working with Library Files instead.

For what I wrote on importing libraries as referenced or managed I could not find any current documentation or written confirmation - it is what I observed when I experimented with small test libraries (Aperture 3.4.3 and iPhoto 9.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.8.2). You may want to do the same, before taking the plunge and merging large libraries. Pick a few test photos and create a small Aperture library to import into and a small referenced iPhoto library to be imported. And then import the test iPhoto library into the test Aperture library and check what will happen on your system.

Regards

Léonie