How to rename manuscript photographs to folio numbers

You leave the reading room with three hundred photographs named IMG_4471.CR2 through IMG_4770.CR2. Six months later, when you need the verso of folio 41 for a footnote, those names are worthless. Renaming files to their foliation (MS_Bodley264_041v.jpg) is the single highest-value step in processing a photography session, and it's worth doing before anything else, while you can still reconstruct the sequence.

Decide on a naming convention first

A good manuscript filename pairs an identifier for the manuscript (usually a compressed shelfmark) with the folio number and side. Pick a pattern and never vary it within a project:

• MS_Bodley264_001r.jpg: shelfmark, then a three-digit folio and side
• W106_002v.jpg: terser, fine if you work in one collection

Zero-pad the folio number (001, not 1) so files sort correctly in every application. Keep the recto/verso letter lowercase and attached to the number; it's the convention most publishers and image libraries expect.

Handle the pages that aren't arabic folios

Most manuscripts don't start at 1r. Flyleaves are usually foliated in roman numerals (i_r, ii_v), and printed books use quire signatures (A1r, B4v) rather than foliation at all. Decide how your convention represents these before you rename anything, because retrofitting them later means renaming twice.

The manual workflow

1. Sort your photographs by capture time rather than filename; cameras roll over their counters.
2. Find your anchor: the first photograph that shows a numbered folio. Everything before it is binding shots, flyleaves, fore-edge views, or color charts.
3. From the anchor, sides alternate (recto, verso, recto, verso) except where you re-shot a page, skipped an opening, shot a detail, or photographed an insert. Check every re-shoot against its neighbors.
4. Rename copies, never originals. Keep the camera files untouched in a separate folder; rename exports.
5. Spot-check every tenth file against the image itself. One offset early in the sequence silently corrupts every filename after it.

With a batch renamer (or Finder's rename, or a spreadsheet generating mv commands) this takes an hour or two per manuscript, and the alternating-sides bookkeeping is where errors creep in.

The same workflow in Recto/Verso

Recto/Verso is a desktop app built around this task. You point it at a folder of working copies, click the first true recto, and auto-sequence assigns alternating sides to the run; you correct repeats, omissions, details, and inserts by clicking them. Roman-numeral flyleaves and quire signatures are built-in numbering modes. The project controls the filename prefix, separator, and zero-padding, while each file keeps its existing extension.

Applying the changes writes IPTC/XMP metadata into the files you opened and renames those files on disk. It preserves the image pixels, but it changes the files and their names. Keep untouched camera files elsewhere and open copies in Recto/Verso. The metadata guide explains what the same operation writes.