Image Management/Editing Software

Today I’m researching and writing about image management software (IMS) and image editing software (not to be confused with Digital Asset Management Systems!). I’ll sketch out a general definition of these kinds of tools, however, since we are talking about different, unique software programs that do very different things, there is often crossover in terms of functionality. It just really depends on what the software you decide to get can actually do, and what you need for your particular digitization project.

My professor Maria Esteva gives a good general description of these image management/editing programs in a report that she wrote in 2007 for the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative called, “Recommendations and Best Practices for Management of Derivative Digital Objects,”

“The purpose of IMS is to aid imaging projects from image creation in a scanner or digital camera, through storage in a hierarchical file storage system, digital assets management system (DAM), or institutional repository system (IR). Available in the market and as open source free tools there are various types of IMS with different functionalities. “

Image management software and image editing software help between the stages of capturing the image and getting the image to its somewhat final resting place, when it is published or somehow made available to users. Esteva further states that image management/editing software can be used to enhance and edit images (crop, color correct, resize, rename, etc.), while other products edit and help to organize and describe images, which can be very helpful if you are dealing with a great number of images.

While depending on your project you may decide that you need to purchase a product, there are also freeware versions of image management software items that can be used if you are operating on a shoestring, as many preservation projects are. Some of these are open-source, which means that they can be played with and manipulated to suit the purposes of your program. It is important to have someone on your team with some programming background if this is the option that you choose.

TASI (a non-profit digital media resource center from the UK) did a survey of different types of image management software and compares them here: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/delivering/imsoftware.html

It was updated in Februrary, 2008, so it should be pretty up-to-date, though these things are always changing.

Just a few (of many) things to keep in mind when looking for the image management software for your projects are:

• What file formats does the software support? Just a few, or tons? You may just need a few, but it helps to have different formats if you want to have master files, and derivatives.

• Are you able to rename, resize, convert formats, easily copy/move/delete images from various locations, create categories of images, view thumbnails or other versions of the images, and edit/crop? Can you do these things in batches? That’s important because batch processing can save lots of time, which saves money.

Also, in terms of image editing, TASI writes, “Some systems will apply edits directly to the image as you make them - which makes it impossible to recover an earlier version if you change your mind. Some systems will create a copy, providing you with a level of version control. Other systems store details of the edits you make and only actually apply them to the image when it is exported or saved into a different size or format” (http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/delivering/choose-ims.html).

• Can you easily navigate and search within the images?

• Can you use descriptive metadata to search, retrieve and track the project status (in batches)? Can this descriptive metadata and other technical metadata be moved to other systems easily?

• Does it automatically create backup copies?

• Is it easy to record who did what to which images? Can you control who is able to do what? Since IMS can be used to manage workflows this can be important. The TASI site states, “If you're using a system to manage your workflow, then versioning and auditing features (e.g. who edited the image) are worth looking out for. These can support your quality assurance (QA) processes, helping you to pick out where any errors may be being introduced” (http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/delivering/choose-ims.html).


The TASI site points out that with commercial products it is important to keep in mind that the vendors may not stay in business in order to be able to update the systems or provide service on them. You also may not be able to change or even know about certain parts of a commercial software package. And finally, many of these software products are not made for educational or heritage markets, but instead for professional photographers and corporate clients (http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/delivering/ims2.html).