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keywording
Better microstock metadata handling in v1.5.1
Jul 9th
We release v1.5.1 with multiple additions and fixes. Please consult the latest release notes for the list of changes.
As we promised in the past, this time we expand our coverage also to Linux systems, providing the stock photographers with ProStockMaster for the three platforms: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (tested on Ubuntu 8.04.1).
You can either download now your copy of the new version or you can wait some time until we’ll switch on the auto-upgrade flag on our web, so your application will upgrade itself automatically.
Release Notes for version 1.5.1
September 2008
This software release adds more than 25 new skins and multiple context menus, adds temporary missed Title and Description fields in copying metadata to multiple images, allows the images deletion from the upload queue, introduces Cut/Copy/Paste menues for all text fields and adds fine-grained upload progress bars. This is just a partial list of changes and improvement introduced in v1.5.1. The full list of changes follows:
1. v1.5.1 introduces 25+ new GUI skins , available from “View->Skins” menu. The application will start with the default gray Look and Feel skin, but you can change it anytime according to your taste. Here are some examples of GUI skins distributed with ProStockMaster:
Windows Native
Mac Quaqua for Windows and Mac
Sahara
Gray-Blue business style
Red marble
2. Cut/Copy/Paste and a few more related context menus are added to any text filed in the application
3.“Manage Metadata” window now sports Title and Description fields, thus allowing to apply the entire metadata set to the multiple selected images .(This functionality already existed with some different user interface in the v1.4.1, but these “title” and “description” fields were lost in v1.5.0 metadata dialog due to the massive changes in the application. This version brings this stuff back)
4.Statistics for Fotolia are improved , showing now monthly numbers along with the totals. Also Fotolia statistics are fixed for users registered at all the international Fotolia sites, e.g. es.fotolia.com, fotolia.co.uk, de.fotolia.com and fotolia.fr.
5. Added the ability to delete already selected images from the upload queue for any agency
6.Context menu added to the image preview area
7. Added an ability to open the full-size viewer by double-clicking on a thumbnail in any upload queue.
8.Upload progress window is changed to provide fine-granulated upload progress both for the current file and for the entire batch:
9.Duplicate keywords are now automatically removed from the keywords text pane in the IPTC panel when you press “Save” button or switch to another image, while saving the metadata changes you made.
10.“Exit application” confirmation dialog now got “never remind me again” check box
11. “Refresh – F5 ” button added to multiple menus. F5 will also work directly from the keyboard allowing you to refresh the currently viewed images folder if its content was changed by an external application.
Release Notes for version 1.5.1
September 2008
This software release adds more than 25 new skins and multiple context menus, adds temporary missed Title and Description fields in copying metadata to multiple images, allows the images deletion from the upload queue, introduces Cut/Copy/Paste menues for all text fields and adds fine-grained upload progress bars. This is just a partial list of changes and improvement introduced in v1.5.1. The full list of changes follows:
-
v1.5.1 introduces 25+ new GUI skins , available from “View->Skins” menu. The application will start with the default gray Look and Feel skin, but you can change it anytime according to your taste. Here are some examples of GUI skins distributed with ProStockMaster:
Windows Native
Mac Quaqua for Windows and Mac
Sahara
Gray-Blue business style
Red marble
-
Cut/Copy/Paste and a few more related context menus are added to any text filed in the application
-
“Manage Metadata” window now sports Title and Description fields, thus allowing to apply the entire metadata set to the multiple selected images .(This functionality already existed with some different user interface in the v1.4.1, but these “title” and “description” fields were lost in v1.5.0 metadata dialog due to the massive changes in the application. This version brings this stuff back)
-
Statistics for Fotolia are improved , showing now monthly numbers along with the totals. Also Fotolia statistics are fixed for users registered at all the international Fotolia sites, e.g. es.fotolia.com, fotolia.co.uk, de.fotolia.com and fotolia.fr.
-
Added the ability to delete already selected images from the upload queue for any agency
-
Context menu added to the image preview area
-
Added an ability to open the full-size viewer by double-clicking on a thumbnail in any upload queue.
-
Upload progress window is changed to provide fine-granulated upload progress both for the current file and for the entire batch:
-
Duplicate keywords are now automatically removed from the keywords text pane in the IPTC panel when you press “Save” button or switch to another image, while saving the metadata changes you made.
-
“Exit application” confirmation dialog now got “never remind me again” check box
-
“Refresh – F5 ” button added to multiple menus. F5 will also work directly from the keyboard allowing you to refresh the currently viewed images folder if its content was changed by an external application.
Stock photography software update, soon
May 13th
So, what you can expect in the upcoming version?
Let me give you a brief preview.
As usual, we listen very carefully to our customers, knowing that what they ask for is what they need.
We are working on:
1. Altering file statuses & stock photos upload time, so you can mark any image on your HD as “already uploaded” to some microstock agency. This will help to avoid re-uploads, providing one source for the stock image archive data.
2. Speeding up the images browsing. Like many other application, ProStockMaster will now store the generated thumbnails in the DB, thus making the browsing of the folder fast & efficient.
3. The keywords generation user interface will change, allowing you to play with the list of existing and generated keywords for each new keyword you enter.
4. StockXpert issue is solved in this release.
I am thinking about adding “find a duplicate image” functionality (anyway PSM keeps the images DB and anyway the app knows a lot about each indexed image), but I am not sure that there is a demand for that. Drop me a message/comment if you think it is something required.
We do not plan adding any new stock photography agency this time. Instead, we had to remove Lucky Oliver microstock from the list.
We are checking what else we can do in the short term, not delaying the upcoming release for too long.
We plan releasing the new version of PSM microstock tool in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
David
Keyphrases handling by various stock photo agencies
Mar 8th
So here is the trick that Terry pointed me out a few months ago and Jorgen confirmed the same issue for some more agencies:
IPTC keyphrases interpreting differs between various stock agencies.
It means that if you index your image with a keyphrase like blue water, it will be retrieved OK from IPTC data on e.g. iStockphoto, but will become two keywords blue and water on e.g. Shutterstock. If you will try another trick by doble-qouting your keyphrase (note that PSM is a rare applications which allows you doing that without any problem) and your original keyphrase becomes to be “blue water”, Shutterstock will show it correctly as a blue water keyphrase, but iStockphoto will not show it at all (BTW, why is that iStockphoto.com?)
Uploading stock photos to iStockphoto.com and maximum number of IPTC keywords
Jun 5th
The automated keywords suggestion mechanism implemented in ProStockMaster brings you tens of relevant keywords matching your stock photo or an illustration. You can enter keywords in virtually any language and our microstock software will save them all with the image, in an IPTC section of the file. Thus your stock images will always carry IPTC metadata and can become searchable by IPTC-reading software like ProStockMaster or Adobe CS family.
Probably the fastest and the easiest way to add keywords and metadata to stock photos and raster illustrations, multilingual
Some stock agencies, like iStockphoto.com restrict maximum number of keywords a stock photo can contain. (Anyone can tell me why they do it? I have absolutely no idea. I can not find any logic why they limit maximum amount of keywords. In my understanding, the more keywords an image has, the better it will be found in the searches – what’s wrong with that? However, it seems that iStockPhoto has a different point of view)
Current keywords limit defined by iStockphoto stands for 50 keywords. ProStockMaster does not limit the maximum number of IPTC keywords in a stock image, but it do counts how many keywords the photograph got. And once it is more than 50, the keywords counter become red.
