Organize images without uploading them anywhere
If your collection is private, cloud tools are a bad fit. Here is how to sort thousands of images by character and find duplicates while your images stay on your own PC, and what to check before trusting any tool with your folders.
Why this matters
Many image collections are personal: purchased fan art packs, private commissions, AI outputs you have not shared, screenshots with your own messages in them. Uploading them to a web service just to get them sorted is a trade many people do not want to make, and some sites' terms do not allow redistributing purchased packs at all.
The good news is that the image models needed for sorting (recognizing characters, tagging, measuring how similar two images are) are small enough to run on an ordinary PC.
What to check in any tool
- What leaves your PC? Images never should. Art Sorter sends descriptions of the images to match the order (numeric fingerprints, tag words with probabilities, a perceptual hash, and file size, dimensions and time); image files and readable file and folder names stay on your PC.
- Where do the files end up? Plain folders you can open anywhere are safer long term than a proprietary library.
- Does it delete anything? Duplicate finders should move copies aside, not delete them.
- Can you undo? Look for undo and a way to put files back where they came from.
How Art Sorter does it
- Recognition runs on your PC; the image models are downloaded once on first launch. To finish the sort, the program matches the analysis with our sorting service using descriptions of the images (numeric fingerprints and tag words). Your image files and readable file or folder names are never sent, and sorting needs an internet connection.
- It groups images of the same character, keeps series from the same source together, and puts scenes in order.
- Duplicates, including resized or re-saved copies, go to a separate folder instead of being deleted.
- The result is plain folders on your drive. There is undo, and a "restore to original location" command.
- Camera photos and screenshots mixed into the folder go into their own folders.
Network use is limited to the sorting match above (image descriptions, processed in memory and not stored), update checks, and the free-trial or license check, which sends a device number and an image count, never the images themselves. Sharing anonymous sorting feedback (similarity numbers, never images, file names or folder names) is a choice you make on first launch and can turn off at any time.
Common questions
Does it work without an internet connection? Not for sorting. Recognition runs on your PC, but the sort is finished by matching descriptions of the images with our sorting service, so sorting needs an internet connection. Image files are never sent.
What exactly is sent? Numeric fingerprints, tag words with probabilities, a perceptual hash, and file size, dimensions and time. Not the images, and not readable file or folder names.
Is anything stored on the server? The descriptions are processed in memory and not stored.
Can I undo a sort? Yes. There is undo, and a command that puts files back in their original location.
Try it
You can try up to 300 images for free, then pay once to keep using it. One-time purchase, Windows 10/11.