A number of people, myself included, have been grumbling about how Aperture does not have the ability to label images a certain color. For instance, I might label an image blue if I want to upload it to my website, and red if I want to submit it to my stock agency. We've periodically recommended using keywords instead, but your label keywords end up getting exported with your images' metadata unless you're careful. Thankfully, there is a nicer way (after some initial setup) to add label-like metadata to Aperture using custom metadata and metadata presets.

What we're going to do is make it so that each time we import an image, we add a Label field to its metadata with a default value of None.

In the inspector, under the metadata tab in the action menu, you will find commands to help you create Metadata Views and Presets (these existed in Aperture 1.X and are covered in detail elsewhere, such as in Ellen and my book, Aperture Exposed). Metadata views let you see a collection of metadata fields, such as all IPTC information or image captioning fields. Metadata presets are a saved set of values for certain fields, such as your name in the copyright field, that you can quickly load and apply to images.

The first thing we'll do is make a new metadata view for importing. I call mine "Import Basic." To this metadata view, add any fields and values that you always set on import, such as Copyright. You can find the possible fields by clicking on the buttons on the bottom of the inspector labelled "EXIF," "IPTC," "Other," etc..

Here's where the magic begins:

1. Click on Other and notice the two text fields at the top. These fields let you add your own metadata keys and values.
2. Click in the New Custom Metadata field and type in Label
3. Click in the Metadata Value field and type in None
4. From the action menu, select Save as Preset and give this preset a helpful name, such as Basic.
5. Bring up the Importer
6. Under the Add Metadata From popup, select the preset you just saved (it'll be at the bottom)

Each image you import, when you've loaded this preset, will have a Label field added and set to None. When you're working with your images, you can change the label by switching to the Import Basic metadata view and typing in the label field, just like you would with any other piece of metadata. As one more quick tip, go edit your other commonly-used metadata views, such as General, to include the Label field so that you don't have to switch to the Import Basic view.

The filter field will search through the Label text, making it easy to filter your images based on what you type in to Label.

And best of all, when you export your image, your labels won't show up in your keywords!