2.0

28 Chapter 2 Importing Basics
Learning About Where Your Image Files Reside
When you import images, you can choose whether to store the masters in the
Aperture library or store them on a hard disk outside the library.
Managed images are physically placed in the Aperture Library file on your hard disk,
and the files and all information about them are managed and backed up by Aperture.
Referenced images are images whose masters are not stored in the library. They are
located elsewhere on a hard disk or other media, and Aperture merely refers to the
masters in that location. The advantage of using referenced images is that you can
import your portfolio of legacy images as they are currently stored on disk, without
having to physically copy or move them into the Aperture library. You can also give
Aperture access to images on different hard disks. You can simply allow Aperture to
refer to the files, using your current file organization and image filenames. Aperture
doesn’t back up or change referenced images; you must maintain them yourself.
It’s important to plan how you want to import your existing portfolio of digital images.
The Aperture library can easily track any mix of managed and referenced images.
Because you may have many thousands of images previously stored on disk, you can
decide which images to import into the Aperture library and which to import as
referenced images, leaving them in their current hard disk locations. You can also copy
or move images into a different hard disk location when importing them.