Renamerly
Turn a folder of camera filenames into a consistent product-image library, with previews before anything is exported.
- The work
- Product photography tool
- My role
- Product strategy, interface design and full-stack development
- Year
- 2026
A folder of camera filenames is a poor handoff. Renamerly turns that folder into a consistent set of named files, with a visible preview and a manifest that connects the original names to the delivered ones.
The challenge.
Photographers and product teams need different naming conventions, but they share one expectation: the name in the workspace must be the name in the export. Supporting flexible formats made that consistency an architectural problem as much as an interface problem.
A name you can predict.
Try a small, local example of the product-and-view naming pattern.
DSC_0042.JPG
This interactive example previews text only. Your files stay on your device. The full Renamerly app handles templates, previews and batch exports.
Decisions that
shaped the work.
Use one engine from preview to delivery
I built a deterministic filename engine that parses a format into a structured representation, then renders it against each file’s context. Presets and custom formats use the same grammar. Workspace rows, ZIP exports and CSV manifests all call that engine, removing a separate preview formatter that could drift from the output.
Make a format tangible
The visual builder exposes useful pieces such as SKU, view, sequence and date. A shared normalization boundary handles case, separators and filename characters. Warnings make missing metadata and date fallbacks visible, while tolerant parsing keeps an imperfect format editable.
Keep image work at the edges
Asynchronous metadata extraction stays outside the pure filename core. RAW previews can help someone identify a shot while export preserves its original file extension. Only a small allowlist of camera metadata is available to filenames, keeping location and serial-number fields out of that public artifact.
A usable browser workflow
The live workspace brings file grouping, a format builder, row previews and ZIP plus CSV delivery together. Group-level metadata can be inherited and individual rows overridden, so a shared product description does not need to be retyped for every view.
What I take forward.
The most important output is confidence in the handoff. A flexible naming tool becomes useful when every visible choice has a predictable result.
Keep exploring.