Catalog Variety Photos

I have a Scott specialized US catalog checked out from my library (for months now - nobody else seems interested). I recently checked out a couple sections of the Scott world catalog to browse, and was disappointed to find that most stamps in a series are not pictured. I get that this would take up way more space, but I love browsing a physical book and looking at the designs.

Do any of the other worldwide catalogs include more pictures? The other options I've seen are:

Other brand worldwide catalog sets - I like this, except I'm unsure if they have any more pictures than Scott. I think it's likely my library would purchase a copy, which would be nice to just check out one or two volumes at a time and not need the investment/space.

Specialized catalogs for different countries/regions - at first I thought this made sense since I'm especially interested in a few countries so far (Japan, Romania, France). On the other hand, I am also interested in a few specific topics and just like flipping through looking at pictures. I'm not interested in varieties of stamps with effectively the same image, which seems to be a big plus for others with the more specialized specific catalogs. I also unfortunately only speak/read English, so I'm worried other country/region specific catalogs may not be as helpful, although I suppose I could always browse them for photos and look up more info in English when I find something interesting. I also find the idea of researching, paying for, and organizing a bunch of different catalogs a bit overwhelming.

I'm interested if anyone has advice or suggestions about catalogs for me. Or wants to tell me my assumptions are wrong - I'm really new at this.

Sorry if I missed an existing post answering this question!

You are correct in that Scott won't show most every stamp in the world; they do usually provide a description in the footnotes for a series; such as 1 cent - Bob Smith, 2 cent - Steve Jones, 3c - historical building and so forth. I've used ebay and Hip from time to time to identify or confirm that I'm buying a correct set though if that's your issue. I just search based on catalog number and check out the listings to make sure I'm buying what my (Scott or SG or other) catalogs confirm.

If you don't mind spending the time, you can usually find out what you are looking to identify online. Some stamps will be harder to identify online due to lack of specialists or specialty websites, but that's totally dependent on what you are looking for. To answer your question though it will depend on the catalog in regard to photos/scans but in general you are not going to find catalogs that show all photos of the same design for an entire series.

If you really do want to specialize, then Sakura is the go-to for Japan, Yvert for France/Colonies. Don't be at all afraid to buy used catalogs unless you are trying to collect right up to present day. I'm still using 2015 Scott catalogs for WW and a 2018 for US when needed and they work just fine.

I will add that if you really want to dive in to any particular area of philately; own a catalog that covers what you intend to collect. Online look-ups are fine but you sometimes won't get the details you might want like perf/shade/watermark varieties that you will get from a catalog.

If you're collecting France, Maury (now published by Spink) shows everything. Its French Colonies catalogues are superior to Yvert, but aren't in print, and can be a little hard to find. Gibbons is a long way behind Maury in illustrating material.