Built for today’s archival research
Take control of your research photos with Tropy, a tool that shortens the path from finding archival sources to writing about them. Spend more time using your research photos, and less time hunting for them.
Turn photos into items
Tropy thinks the way you do: like a researcher. Say goodbye to IMG_5261.JPG and IMG_5262.JPG, and say hello to your sources.
Describe your sources
Tropy helps you contextualize artifacts and their photos by capturing your own subject expertise. A friendly editing interface allows customized templates that fit your research like a glove.
Organize your research
Tropy understands that every researcher is different and that every project has its own demands. Break free from the logic of the physical archive and use tags and lists to organize your research items according to your needs.
Annotate your photos
Tropy’s beautiful annotation tools allow you to transcribe documents, select image details, and manipulate photographs to get the clearest view of your sources.
Fully integrated
Whether it’s Linux, macOS or Windows: Tropy blends in with your preferred desktop.
Tailor-made for researchers
Export your research
Tropy exports your research projects as JSON‑LD, CSV, and even directly to Omeka S. Need a custom format? With Tropy it’s possible to create your own export plugin.
Free & open source
Built to encourage sustainable development, Tropy saves your research data using SQLite, the storage format recommended by the Library of Congress for preservation.
Core plugins
Create custom workflows and choose the extensions for your projects.
About Tropy
Tropy is an independent, open-source project designed and produced by an international team of historians and software developers.
Originally created at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), Tropy today is jointly developed by RRCHNM, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), and Digital Scholar, the nonprofit corporation which operates allied projects Zotero, Omeka, and Sourcery. Tropy is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Tropy benefits from the support of its enthusiastic users, who supply essential feedback, feature requests, issue reports, workshops, and interface translations. All Tropy code is open source and freely available on GitHub.