A picture file system including a recording medium having a picture zone and a reduced picture zone divided therein. In a picture recording mode, a full-size picture data is recorded in the picture zone and a reduced picture of a predetermined data size corresponding to the full-size picture is recorded at a predetermined address in the reduced picture zone. In a picture retrieval mode, a plurality of the reduced pictures of the predetermined data size recorded at their predetermined addresses in the reduced picture zone are sequentially reproduced and displayed at the same time.