Sharing something I received from a friend...
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A Long List Of Aperture's Advantages Over Lightroom
Flexible Workflow - (Note: When inspiration strikes at any time, you can immediately implement it anywhere you are in Aperture. Lightroom, on the other hand, follows the structured approach of 5 modules - Library, Develop, Print, Slideshow and Web. Tools and operations are limited to particular modules only. Even changing views within a module can pull you out of what you were working on.)
Project Pane - (Note: Better options for importing and storing photos, and its project structure is better tuned than Lightrooms collections-based and folder-based approach.)
Automated Back-up with Vault Feature - (Note: There is no automatic back-up feature in Lightroom that is equivalent to the function that the Vault performs.)
Smart Albums & Smart Web Galleries (Automatic Update Based On Criteria) - (Note: In Lightrooms Collections, you cannot manipulate and create stacks. Although you can create sub-collections, to group together images, you have to create and update these groupings manually. There is no automatic functionality of smart albums and smart galleries. You cannot also save web or slide-show settings in Collections.)
Loop Anywhere & Everywhere - (Note: View any image in the loop, whether in the Viewer Pane or Browser Pane for instant comparison. This is extremely hepful when youre looking at a group of images and want to focus on special detail without having to zoom in and pan around. Not possible with Lightroom.)
Multiple Display Support - (Note: If you are using dual or more than 2 displays, Lighroom cannot project a separate image into the other displays.)
Light Table - (Note: Aperture offers a free-form environment. Move the images, group them together, slide them around, resize the images, rearrange images. No equivalent in Lightroom.)
Search Feature - (Note: More helpful as the library of images grow. It lets you search based on multiple criteria, and it can create albums and galleries from your search results so you dont have to perform the same searches again.)
List View - (Note: Offers a different way of looking into your photo collection. You can show or hide data columns/information and sort on a column by clicking its title. Cant be done in Lightroom.)
Stacks - (Note: Apertures stacking features and functions are more robust and flexible than Lightroom. You can designate different images in a stack as the pick in different albums. In Lightroom, you cant create stacks when looking at images in a collection or when youre filtering by keywords.)
HUDs (Heads-up Displays) - (Note: Editing tools appear in translucent floating windows so you can eliminate the panes and maximize your image-viewing real estate. Not possible in Lightroom.)
Create & Save Editing Pre-Sets - (Note: Apertures method of single-adjustment pre-sets is cleaner and more practical, instead of Lightrooms group of adjustments pre-sets. In Aperture, you can choose to apply the pre-sets individually.)
Tight Integration With iMovie HD and iDVD - (Note: Library and Projects appear automatically in these programs, among other programs, so you can take advantage of movie-editing and DVD-creation tools to create stunning slideshows that you can export to multiple formats.)
On-Screen Proofing - (Note: You can do on-screen proofing right inside Aperture - and it is available throughout the application so you can see how your output to different media will look like. Not possible in Lightroom.)
Book Mode - (Note: You can design and publish books, have them printed, to showcase your work. Lightroom doesnt have an option to create and output in Book layout.)
Automator Actions - (Note: Extend the functionality of Aperture by applying automator actions that can automate repetitive tasks or processes. No such thing in Lightroom.)
3rd-Party Export Plug-in Architecture - (Note: More functionality is made available to Aperture by allowing it to interact directly with and output directly to 3rd-party websites such as stock photo agencies, commercial printing services, and even photo-sharing sites such as Flickr. More and more plug-ins are being developed. Nothing like this in Lightroom.)
Web Output - (Note: Every Aperture project can have multiple web galleries or web journals (two types of templates in Aperture while Lightroom only has 1 type of web template), each with a unique identity. Aperture lets you save a Web-specific albums as part of a project, with its own settings. Lightroom doesnt save any Web-specificd information with its collections or sub-collections. And, returning to a Web project in Aperture to add new photos or alter settings is quick and easy. No need to rebuild the gallery like in Lightroom.)
Verdict: Aperture is the more mature product with features and functions designed clearly to address the most important needs of the photographers. But this does not mean to say that Lightroom is shoddy. It has a lot of feature-for-feature competitiveness.
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