BIOS: Technology Means Business

FotoWare's FotoStation Pro 5.1 is a high-end imaging and archiving software solution. Don't let that put you off though - the software is a breeze to use and in no time at all authorised users on your network will be able to search, share and organise a central pool of digital files. FotoStation Pro also allows you to edit images, add or change text, acquire files from media, send files by e-mail or via FTP, as well as create actions for automatic workflow and batch processing. The software's real strength is its search tools, however, which make light work of sorting files by attributes, image similarity or text content. There's no doubt it's an overkill for individuals, but networked companies will struggle to find such an effective and easy-to-use DAM (Digital Asset Management) application.

Pros: Excellent search tools; supports batch renaming; customisable
Cons: Some files require source application on server

Those who work with images for a livelihood, or even keen digital photographers, will appreciate the importance of a searchable digital archive. FotoStation Pro is pitched at these types of uses, but in particular at organisations that work with digital assets and need to build and organise an archive that can be shared across workgroups. Individuals that don't require the high-end needs of the software may be interested to know that FotoWare offers a cut-down version, FotoStation 4.5 (£52.90 ex. VAT).

Version 5.0 of the software, released in December, included a number of key new features such as integrated colour management, a workflow-oriented interface, configurable 'Actions' for the automation of time-consuming operations and better printer output. Version 5.1 offers more than 39 new features and bug fixes that are available as a free upgrade for existing FotoStation 5 owners. Some of the key new features include improved support for digital camera raw files, four new Actions, improved slideshow capabilities, as well as support for IPTC Text (data fields used to describe JPEG images).

FotoStation Pro is an overkill for those who simply want to manage their holiday snaps. If this sounds like you, you'd be much better off using a low-cost application such as ACD System's excellent ACDSee (£26.72 ex. VAT). Business users managing masses of images will appreciate the way FotoStation Pro lets you search media files, write IPTC text (Photoshop compatible), acquire new multimedia files from different sources, as well as enhance and colour correct images. You can group and organise your archives on side panels or create custom views to organise your files, sort files by attributes, image similarity or text content, or make a custom arrangement by dragging and dropping files.

The software's new configurable Actions feature helps you to automate mundane processes, such as applying a text template, resizing images to fit a certain layout or uploading files to a Web server, while its search tool lets you perform multi-archive searches. The search tool also lets you specify file attributes to help narrow the search. Archive maintenance is made possible through search and replace functions to update the text in your archived files. For large archives, and for the added benefit of phonic, synonym and fuzzy searches, FotoStation Pro can be connected to an Index Manager server, which can handle thousands of files without too much of a hit on speed.

The software's text editor can be customised to include the fields you require, and the text editor's layout and available fields also change depending on the type of file being captioned. You can create and apply text templates using a macro tool, or import and apply an IPTC template from an external file. The text editor can also make use of the auto-complete and spell-checking capabilities of Microsoft's Office, if installed on your computer. In terms of colour management, FotoStation Pro now offers ICC profiles to help ensure the correct display of thumbnails and previews in your archive.

The software's interface is clean, uncluttered and easy to use. Similar to other Windows applications, all of the commonly used functions can be accessed via graphical buttons on the menu bars or via keyboard shortcuts. For instance, from the main toolbar you can search for and acquire files, add captions to images, crop and edit images, create slideshows and print files. A search field is located below the toolbar, and to the right of the searchbox are buttons for making selections, selecting views, sorting files and adjusting the size of the thumbnail grid.

On the left-hand side of the screen is a panel that lists your archives. From here you can also browse your computer or network for files. On the far right of the screen is another panel that houses 'Actions', which provide one-button access to popular features such as copying a file to another destination or burning it to a CD/DVD. The final major element of the interface is a text preview panel that displays information saved to the selected file. There are also buttons that allows you to switch between text info, EXIF camera information (if any) and file information, such as format and size.

The real strength of FotoStation Pro is its search facilities. Entering text into the search box is the quickest way to get results, although the accuracy of file naming will determine the success of a search. Files found can be isolated by name, modified date, camera date, or other criteria. One of our favourite ways to search is by date. From a calendar view, the software can be used to filter out files with a certain date. For example, clicking on a date brings up all of the images that were handled on that particular day. So, for instance, you could see all files that were added to your database or those that were modified on a certain day.

FotoStation Pro also offers a number of useful views. By default, the software uses a regular thumbnail grid. However, you can adjust the number of thumbnails displayed on-screen to suit (2 to 128). Thumbnails can also be viewed with selected text files alongside, or you can opt for a detailed view that displays a list of files with more information, such as assigned categories. The Classify view lets you define your own classifications or categories, which then displays files in separate columns, while the Multi-search view lets you set up a number of columns, each displaying the results of a pre-defined search. You can then drag and drop files between the columns and have FotoStation Pro update the text information contained in the files. Finally, the Quick Text view lets you add text to several files at the same time on ITC fields.

Workgroups will really appreciate the way the software lets you organise images into projects. This feature is useful for grouping and arranging files from several different locations which can then be shared on a network. Thankfully, access rights can be assigned to networked project folders, which is useful when you're working on sensitive documents.

Links:
FotoStation Pro 5.1 Web site
FotoStation Pro 5.1 release notes
FotoStation Pro 5.1 30-day trial