Seek and ye shall find your photos - digitized image database

Back in the mid-seventies when I was editing the "Random Notes" column for Rolling Stone, I'd regularly hike into photo research, where I would list which pictures of which rock acts would run in that issue's column. The researcher would fulfill my photo fantasies, and art would then be sent to production and later filed by hand.

In those days, we never envisioned the changes that desktop publishing would bring--neither the beauty of working with digital images nor the growing dilemma of how to save and retrieve those massive files once they had been scanned for output.

"Magazines are looking at this problem, but it's a big job," says Lynn Crimando, the former director of operations at Sports Illustrated who is now assistant managing editor at Money. "When you talk about saving, what are you saving? the slide? the crop? the whole page? People are grappling with these issues."

Nonetheless, Crimando ultimately sees "great customizable potential" for publishers to create revenue-generating image databases. One publisher well on the way to realizing digital archiving's potential is Newtown, Connecticut-based Taunton Press. Production executive Kathleen Davis recently began using Aldus Fetch to cross-reference approximately 5,000 images from the company's hobbyist titles. Although photos were previously cataloged electronically by publication and story, editors couldn't find, for instance, all pictures in the library pertaining to coping saws. For Davis, Fetch offers creative design advantages and facilitates the reuse of images for promotional material. "As more magazines get involved in pre-press, they definitely will move toward these programs," says Davis.

The newspaper world, on the other hand, is way ahead in using a searchable database of digitized images. The reason: In 1991, the Associated Press began distributing photos in digital format. As a result, newspapers began prodding suppliers to develop systems that could store and retrieve images via specific words that had appeared in captions or were attached by photo librarians.

These "systems" come in two flavors--pre-packaged, complete hardware environments and application software. If you choose the software-only route, be prepared: You'll need a fully configured Macintosh--at least a Quadra 650, with 64mb of RAM and a 230mb hard disk. You'll also need a large external disk drive, an off-line storage system such as a SyQuest removable cartridge system or an optical drive system, a JPEG compression card and a CD-ROM drive. Figure on adding around $12,000 to the application-only prices listed below. Herewith, then, some current systems:

ALDUS FETCH: This Mac-based software supports 27 file formats, including TIFF, and EPS. Fetch links applications and the database, allowing the images to be stored until printing. With an Apple Workgroup fileserver, up to 32 users can access the database. The program lets users group images from a variety of databases. About $200.

ASSOCIATED PRESS MACARCHIVE: A spiffed-up version of Aldus Fetch, it provides full NAA/IPTC header support, so pictures can be sent from computer to computer with full caption, photographer and usage information intact. Around $5,000 per copy.

KODAK SHOEBOX: Shoebox was developed to assist Photo CD users organize their images, and comes in PC and Mac versions. It assembles "catalogs," which store up to 30,000 images each. Images are indexed with keywords, captions and customized fields; users specify simple or Boolean searches. Shoebox lets you port images to other application formats. Lists for $345, but often sells for less in software catalogs.

MEAD PHOTOVIEW: The 486 PC-based system can search two billion images, and archives at 10:1 JPEG compression. The 600 mb erasable optical platter holds about 1,100 black-and-white and 1,100 CYMK images. The interface complements the NewsView text archiving system, but also stands alone. PhotoView supports the full NAA/IPTC header environment. About $20,000.

MULTI-AD SEARCH: The feature set of Search 2.0 exceeds that of Fetch, with 160,000 images per "catalog," and the ability to search across up to 10 catalogs at once. The product also supports Apple Events, which means "macros" can be written to handle automatically many of the mundane tasks of digital image archiving. A copy costs $249, five-user packs are $935, and 10-user packs are priced at $1,800.

NIKON IMAGEACCESS: An application similar to Fetch, but with a much more limited feature set. ImageAccess supports only four image formats and doesn't have Fetch's "hot link" ability to double-click on a picture and launch the application in which it was created. Available through Nikon and software dealers, Nikon ImageAccess retails for $499.

SCITEX RIPRO SERVER: The file management system is slated for release early this year and reflects Scitex's effort to go desktop. Essentially an SQL-compliant database with image compression and storage capabilities, Ripro server runs on a RISC 6000 workstation. Company officials say its potential is fully realized in a Scitex environment, but that it works well in Mac-based operations. Scanned images, including EPS and TIFF, can be accessed via various desktop programs. Price range is $60,000 to $115,000, depending on memory.

T/ONE MERLIN: This product uses a 486 PC running Microsoft's FoxPro database with storage on RAID drives. T/One Merlin runs on Ethernet or PC networks, and also handles full JPEG compression and NAA/IPTC headers. The cost: approximately $30,000.

A San Francisco-based consultant, David M. Cole is also editor of "The Cole Papers," a monthly newsletter covering publishing technology.

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