Truly Simple Art Archive

About the App

Truly Simple Art Archive is an artwork inventory and catalog app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It keeps a complete record of every work: what it is, its inventory number, its images, where it came from, where it is now, where it's been, and who has it. It's free for 10 works, and a single $4.99 purchase unlocks unlimited works. No subscriptions.

Most art inventory software is built for big institutions or sold by the month. This is the simple version: a proper archive that numbers your works for good, keeps your photos at full resolution, makes the paperwork you actually send (price lists, certificates, wall labels), and lets you take everything with you in an ordinary folder whenever you like.

Who It's For

• Artists: Catalog your own work as you make it, track what's in the studio, what's consigned to which gallery, and what's sold, and send a price list or certificate of authenticity in a minute.
• Collectors: Record each acquisition with its provenance, purchase price, insurance value, condition, and where it hangs, so the details survive insurance claims, loans, moves, and estate planning.
• Small galleries: Keep stock numbers alongside the artist's own, track consignments in and out with due dates, and make price lists and wall labels for each show.
• Estates and studio managers: Bring a spreadsheet and a folder of photos into one searchable archive, and hand it on as a folder anyone can open.

Features

• A number for every work, for good: Inventory numbers are created in the style you choose (TG-2026-3, TG-P-27, 2026.14), or you can type each one for an existing system. Numbers are never reused, even after a work is deleted, so old labels and records always point to one work. Gallery stock numbers and catalogue raisonné numbers live alongside.
• A proper record: Title, date, medium, dimensions in centimetres or inches, editions and artist's proofs, signature and inscriptions, provenance, exhibition history, literature, condition, and fields of your own. Fields you don't use stay out of the way.
• Your originals, untouched: Images are stored exactly as you add them, at full resolution, with a fingerprint so you can check years from now that nothing has changed.
• Where everything is: Status (available, on hold, sold, on loan, consigned, and your own) and location for every work, with the history of every move.
• Sales and consignments: Record each sale with buyer, price, and commission. Consign works to galleries and see what's out, where, and when it's due back.
• The paperwork, done: Work sheets, catalogs, price lists, certificates of authenticity, museum-style wall labels, inventory reports, and consignment reports, all as clean PDFs.
• QR labels: Print labels for the backs of works. Scan one with your phone to open that work's record.
• Easy to move in: Import a spreadsheet (Artwork Archive exports included) with columns matched automatically, match a folder of photos to works by file name, or add a batch of photos and fill in the details later.
• Easy to move out: One export gives you every record and every original image in an ordinary folder. Your archive outlives the app.
• Private device sync: Your archive syncs through your own iCloud across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. No account, no server, no tracking, and it works offline.
• Native and accessible: Built for Apple devices with VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, keyboard shortcuts and menus on Mac, and light and dark modes. Available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
• Pay once, keep forever: Every feature is free for up to 10 works. Unlock unlimited works with a one-time, lifetime in-app purchase, shared with your family. No subscriptions, no ads, no hidden fees.

How to Catalog Your Artwork

1. Choose what you're cataloging: your own artwork, a collection, or a gallery's inventory.
2. Pick a numbering style, or keep the one you already use. The app shows exactly what your next number will look like.
3. Add your works. Take a photo, add many works at once from your photo library, or import a spreadsheet and match a folder of images to it.
4. Fill in what matters to you: dimensions, medium, location, provenance, price. You can always come back to the rest.
5. Make what you need: a price list for a studio visit, a certificate for a buyer, wall labels for a show, or QR labels for storage.

Tips & More Info

• If you already number your works, choose "I'll Type Each Number" during setup. The app still checks that no number is used twice, and shows the last one you used so you don't lose your place.
• Coming from a spreadsheet? Name your image files after the inventory numbers (TG-P-27.jpg, TG-P-27_2.jpg, TG-P-27 detail.jpg) and Match Images in a Folder will attach them all in one go.
• Deleted works go to Recently Deleted first, and their numbers are retired rather than reused, so a label on the back of a canvas can never end up pointing at the wrong work.
• This app started with an email. An artwork photographer wrote to me about Truly Simple Inventory: it was close to what they needed, but artworks aren't inventory. They needed numbers like TG_P_27 that never change, the places a work has hung, who it's consigned to, what it sold for and the commission, and photos kept at full resolution. Everything I found that did this was a subscription. So I built its own app, and I hope it gives your work the archive it deserves.

Privacy Policy

The app does not collect any personal data and contains no tracking. Your archive is stored on your devices and in your own private iCloud account, which only you can access.