Guides
Straight answers about local image search: when the free tools are already enough, when a paid one earns its price, and where each option stops working. Written for people choosing between them, not as product documentation.
Which file is this picture in? Searching PDFs, PowerPoint and Word files by image
Spotlight, Windows Search and Office can't find a document by a picture inside it. Here is the free manual method for a few files, and what to use for hundreds.
8 min read
How to find similar images on a Mac — without uploading them
macOS can't search by an example image. What Photos can do, and which free and paid Mac tools find duplicates, burst shots and look-alike photos, with their limits.
9 min read
Reverse image search on your own computer: 7 offline tools compared
Google Lens and TinEye search the web. To search your own files by image, offline: digiKam, dupeGuru, Czkawka, Apple Photos, Excire Foto, Peakto and ImgSeek compared.
10 min read
Found a cropped or resized copy? How to find the original image on your computer
Undo a crop, find a larger copy online, or track down the original file in your own folders: what works for resized copies, crops, colour edits and screenshots.
8 min read
Local reverse image search: duplicate finders vs. semantic search
If you are clearing out duplicates, free tools like dupeGuru and Czkawka already solve it. Finding 'different photos of similar-looking things' is a different problem that perceptual hashing cannot do at any threshold.
8 min read