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Image Management: House of Images HPAC

Last updated: 27 May 2008
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software |

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JISC Digital Media has surveyed a range of image management software developers to gather specific information about their systems. These are the responses from House of Images HPAC.

Please note: The following information has been provided by the system developer/vendor in answer to a detailed survey carried out by JISC Digital Media, but has not been independently verified. It is provided to help you identify systems to evaluate in more detail, but you are advised to check with the system developer/vendor to see if the system has changed or there are later versions available.

There are a wide range of different image management systems available. To help identify those most suitable, we would recommend you also look at our introductory papers on Systems for Managing Digital Media Collections and Choosing a System for Managing your Image Collection.

To compare this system's features with those of others, please see the full list of systems who have responded to our survey on the Image Management Software page.

Information supplied: May 2008

House of Images HPAC www.hoimages.co.uk
We asked the system developer to use 50-100 words to sum up and promote their system to a very broad audience: HPAC has been developed over a number of years with the active participation of our customers ensuring that we can provide a package that meets the needs of the users. The package has been supplied to many library, museum and archive customers who insist on the highest standards of usability and accessability. We actively encourage our users to suggest improvements and incorporate these whenever possible. The front end package provides users with the ability to provide additional descriptive metadata which may be incorporated at the discretion of the Administrator.
Current version	1.7
Current version released	January 2008
Next version due (approx)	January 2009
Main sectors aimed at	Corporate or professional (private sector); Government (public sector); Charitable/not-for-profit
Main users aimed at	Professional photographers; Picture Library staff; Creative staff (e.g. illustrators, designers); Marketing staff; Records Managers; Librarians; Archivists; Museum/Gallery professionals; Educators; Medical professionals
Type of system		Folder viewer/image browser
		Web gallery system
		Image/photo management system
		Digital asset management system (DAM)
		Musem/gallery/library/achive collection management system
		Virtual learning environment (VLE)
		Content management system (CMS)
		Digital repository system
		Digital library system
Open-source/Proprietary?	Completely open source
Complexity	Complex 'off-the-shelf' system - will require IT or programming expertise to install and set up
Maximum size of the catalogue (e.g. number of records or filesize)	Unlimited
Handling of images
Image- object- or workflow-centric?	Image-centric - seperate record for each image
Adding images to system		Captures images directly from a scanner from within the system
		Captures images directly from a tethered camera from within the system
		'Drag and drop' into system
		Scans a computer for new images
		Scans external drives/memory devices for new images
		Scans network servers for new images
		Sets up automatically 'watched' folders
		Keeps system and folders in 'sync'
		Other
File formats supported		RAW formats
		DNG
		TIFF
		JPEG
		GIF
		PNG
		JPEG2000
		PSD
		PDF
		EPS
		Flash
		SVG
		Audio formats
		Video formats
Where can images be located?	Can be anywhere on or offline (i.e. system keeps record of offline storage such as CD-ROMs)
Image management		Ability to manage original image files (e.g. move, copy, rename or delete) from within the system
		Ability to organise images into virtual 'folders', 'galleries' or 'categories' to aid management and retrieval
		Image versioning
		Rating system (e.g. star or numbers for best images)
		Automatic generation of thumbnails and preview images
		Ability to zoom image to 100% (full size) within data entry interface
Image editing provision	Provided by third party software
Specific image editing functions		Resizing
		Rotating
		Cropping
		Sharpening
		Red-eye removal
		Dust/noise removal
		Brightness and contrast adjustments
		Levels adjustments
		Curves adjustments
		Support for ICC colour management
		Creative filters
Other significant editing functions
Print templates
Auditing of who did what/when to image
Other image-related features
Handling of metadata
Metadata structure	XML-based system
Customising fields		Add new catalogue fields
		Delete catalogue fields
		Hide catalogue fields from data entry interface
		Re-label catalogue fields
		Re-order catalogue fields
Time saving features		Set up templates or defaults
		Clone or duplicate records
		Automatically catalogue images upon import
		Batch edit metadata
		Global find and replace
Controlled vocabularies		Create drop-down pick-lists
Controlled vocabularies		Support for theasauri (with broader and narrower terms)
Spell-checking/validation		Spell-checking
		Validation of terminology
		Validation of dates and numbers
Support for UNICODE (non-Latin characters)
Importing		Import existing metadata in standard delimited formats
Importing		Import existing metadata in XML formats
Exporting		Export of metadata in standard delimited formats
Exporting		Export of metadata in XML formats
Metadata interoperability (e.g. metadata harvesting, cross-searching)		Automatic exposure of metadata as OAI-PMH data
		Support for Z39.50 searching
		Support for search scripts
Embedded metadata support		Read IPTC metadata from within the image file
		Read EXIF metadata from within the image file
		Read XMP data
		Read other metadata from within the image file
		Write IPTC metadata into image file
		Edit EXIF metadata
		Write XMP data
		Write other metadata
Data-entry interface		Client-based/program-based data entry interface
Data-entry interface		Web browser-based data entry interface
Reporting/auditing		Auditing of who did what and when to the metadata
Reporting/auditing		Editable templates or scripts for generating reports
Other metadata-related features
Delivery to users
Web browser-based end-user interface
Customisability of interface		System manager can customise interface
Customisability of interface		End-user can customise their view of interface
Publishing of images		Publish as static gallery to Web
		Publish as dynamic searchable Web catalogue
		Publish to CD-ROM
		Email images from system
Search/browse features		Browse collection by categories
		Search the collection
		Search via thesaurus
		Advanced search features (e.g. Boolean logic, wildcard or 'sounds like' searching)
		Content-based image retrieval (CBIR)
Zooming functionality
User interaction		Users can 'bookmark' or store images
		Users can annotate bookmarked images
		Users can upload their own images to the system
		Users can create slide shows
Security/Digital Rights Management (DRM)		Access control based on roles or profiles
		Access control based on individual usernames and passwords
		Compatibility with standard educational authentication services (e.g. Athens or Shibboleth)
		Built-in Digital Rights Management technology (e.g. watermarking) - visible watermarking can be applied to images as required
Interoperability/interaction with other systems
Other significant delivery functionality
Company and support information
Country in which system developers are based	UK
Approximately how many UK users are there?	30
UK office, representative or primary reseller	House of Images Suite 4, Hamilton House 205 Bury New Road, Whitefield Manchester M45 6GE Tel 0161 766 3331
Independent user-group for this system?
UK-based training available?		On site training for up to six users is provided on installation and the cost is covered in the cost of the purchase price of the software
System support		Support is provided through an annual service contract. This covers both email and telephone support during extended office hours. The support contract also covers the provision of annual software updates
Other services available		Customisation is available on a project basis. Data migration can be undertaken and a data entry service is available in conjunction with our digitisation service for the creation of a complete database package

Please note: The above information has been provided by the system developer/vendor in answer to a detailed survey carried out by JISC Digital Media, but has not been independently verified. It is provided to help you identify systems to evaluate in more detail, but you are advised to check with the system developer/vendor to see if the system has changed or there are later versions available.

To compare this system's features with those of others, please see the full list of systems who have responded to our survey on the Image Management Software page.

Last updated: 27 May 2008
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software |

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