Gert Says

a rather irreverent discusssion

 

A Menu of Image Databases

This question was sent to us the other day and I thought its answer might be of interest to all of you.

I work for an architectural firm which is seeking the best available software for managing a variety of images (within a limited budget) Ease of access and management are imperative. This is rather vague but is it possible to provide a list of a variety of software packages that offer different levels of sophistication in management. Or can you simply put me on the right track? We are currently looking at Cumulus but are interested in anything similar.

Thank you. Penny Jackson Librarian

Different levels of sophistication in management is the perfect way to describe the major differences of the systems available to you. At ZDTV's downloads a search for image management found more than a 100 programs.

The lowest level is a simple file management system which includes imaging. Many Architectural offices actually only look for images based on which project they represent and so a folder system by projects is adequate. Simple cataloging software such as ThumbsPlus, CompuPic or Ulead Photo Explorer 6.0 can work quite well. Of course if you provide more information, people might use the images more effectively. A cataloger which also allows you to add and search on text information is ADC See or Thumber. The other benefit of these catalogers is that they can help you manage your images: rename, move, copy etc. Some also allow you to do some slight image editing.

At the next level of sophistication is Canto's Cumulus, Extensis' Portfolio and DAS Corp's ImageAxs Pro. These programs are image databases ( image libraries) and therefore allow you to maintain more extensive data about the images. I would like to interject here that I think image databases should only contain information about the images not information about the subject matter. That information can be stored more efficiently in a text based database. All three are good with different strengths. Cumulus is geared to prepress publishing work and therefore is a good workflow system. I find Portfolio better at importing and exporting data and like its management system. ImageAxs Pro is currently somewhat of an orphan as its current distributor - Scansoft- is experiencing some difficulty, but the developer, DAS corp. is still actively involved in the process with their Museum Image Management systems.

Which brings us to the next level of images as Information or as Media assets or as Knowledge or as Work flow. You get the gist. Image management becomes part of a larger picture and larger cost. If you are not looking for this type of enterprise wide management system, then my advise is to build your own on the Web using a solid textbased database which includes a link to your image. Then you can start adding tools such as zooming, security, and payment and become as sophisticated as you want in the same database structure which the rest of your business uses and maintains.

7/24/00

Thumbers
ThumbsPlus
CompuPic
Ulead Photo Explorer
 ACD Systems
Canto's Cumulus
 Extensis' Portfolio
ImageAxs Pro - currently ot available but not gone
DAScorp