Title: Image Database Software Helps Track, Manage and Utilize Art
Abstract: As more and more visual elements become available in the form of clip art on diskette or stock photography on CD-ROM, it becomes increasingly difficult to track and manage all of these images. Image database products assist educators and media managers in this task. Image database products offer myriad functions--from screen capture to generating thumbnail (postage-stamp size) images to compressing images. All provide impressive search and retrieval functions. Compression capabilities include JPEG and Lossless options that reduce the amount of memory images consume and make working with them easier. Some programs even support network environments, so numerous educators or students can access the same image database simultaneously. * Peek a Boo Billed as software that simplifies the process of placing photos into documents, PhotoFlash, a Macintosh product from Apple Computer, Inc., boasts three main components: A browser for viewing and selecting images, photo preparation tools to enhance images, and scripting capabilities that place images into page-layout and presentation documents. Browser displays thumbnails of photos in standard file formats and allows users to drag and drop an item from PhotoFlash to Aldus PageMaker or QuarkXPress. Users can adjust brightness and contrast; remove scratches; straighten scans; and rotate, crop or perform other adjustments to images. PhotoFlash ships with integrated image compression from Storm Technology that lets users compress different areas of a photo at different levels. Also included are a sampler of color photos and AppleScript and QuickTime system extensions. With Multi-Ad Services' Search 2.0, another Mac product, one can catalog files, CDs or entire hard drives by dragging those icons over Search's icon. Once done, the program compiles image information such as name, volume, size, source application and dates. This new version stores 160,000+ images per catalog in file formats such as EPS (Mac/PC), PICT, TIFF, JPEG and MacPaint. Users can search across up to ten catalogs at one time, and images can be mounted locally or off-line. Other features include a mergecatalog command, zoom capabilities and Boolean searches. One can print thumbnails, keyword lists, catalogs or actual images. Multiple-user support controls the adding of images, keywords and descriptors plus allows more than one person to search the same catalog simultaneously. And Xing Technology Corp. has announced an update for its Windows-based Picture Prowler software. Version 2.0 is an image management and slide show program that employs JPEG compression to shrink images by up to 25:1 and organizes color and greyscale images as thumbnails. It provides quick visual search-and-retrieval features via keyword, filename or location on hard drives and removable media. Drag and drop features help educators create slide shows; one can include text or perform realtime markups such as adding arrows, circles and lines without affecting the original image. In addition, split-screen viewing enables side-by-side comparisons. Network support is another bonus. * Gotcha! One subset of image database products incorporates screen capture along with image enhancement, format conversion and compression features. These programs are generally affordable, with several priced at under $100. The following programs fall under this category and run on Windows computers. DoDOT 4.0 from Halcyon comprises several modules that perform the above-listed functions. Of note is Do Thumbnail, which creates miniature images and saves them in a database that can be searched by keyword or filename. Thumbnails can be annotated with text descriptors and associated with a host application. ImageManager Version 3.5 from Electronic Imagery, Inc. builds a universal electronic file folder that includes images, documents and associated text files in an SQL database. …
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot