What is Image Library Software?

Image Library Software helps photographers, marketers and designers organize and share their images. Some solutions focus solely on image management, but most image libraries are managed in a Digital Asset Management solution. This will allow you to manage all your content in one central place. Not just your images, but also your documents, design files and videos.

Why is smart image management important?

If you are working with big amounts of images (pictures, stock photos, design files or any other rich media content) a good solution is crucial for an optimal workflow. A good Image Library or Digital Asset Management platform will eliminate any wasted time spend on searching a certain file, and will enable you to share your content instantly.

What are the benefits of Image Library Software?

Benefits of a Image Library may seem not so obvious to an inexperienced content manager. “Why would I need a Digital Asset Management in place, if I have Dropbox or Google Drive?” you may ask. The trick is — a Digital Asset Management system is a tool with extensive features that go far beyond any simple image storage solution.

Visual overview

Get an instant visual overview of all your images. A good Image Library should have thumbnails and full previews of not only your images, but also your videos and design files.

One central place for all your files

Create a 'single source of truth' for your visuals. Eliminate the need to search for your images in servers, desktops, mailboxes from you and your colleagues.

Fast and easy search

You and your team or clients can not only browse your visual content, but are also able to find the right material with an intuitive search. By adding tags and other relevant metadata you will make sure that everyone can always find the right images within seconds.

Keep track of all your versions

Automatic versioning should keep track of all the different versions of your file, so you never lose a version again!

Share with ease

Either share your images with direct share links, or publish your image library in a branded portal. Choose between a public portal for your brand images, or create multiple private portals for client material.

Store files safely

Even if we speak about millions of assets, they should be stored securely and confidentially.

Control permissions

Sharing is great, but not all of images should be accessible by everyone. A good Image Library software should allow you to set granular permissions, to control who can see, download or edit your files.

Home of your brand

Your images are beautiful and deserve to be viewed in an equally beautiful place. You should be able to brand the environment in which your content is viewed, to make it really the home of your brand.

How can I organize my image management?

There are many different ways you can handle the management of your visual content. Before you choose your path it is worth the time to evaluate the different options and consider the unique advantages and disadvantages. In this section we will analyse the most commonly used options.

Fileserver

For most companies this is the first obvious choice, because they are usually already using a local or network server for the management of their general files and images are automatically added as well.

Advantages
  • Costs: if a fileserver is already used in your team than no additional costs are involved
  • Control: you have full control of your image management
Disadvantages
  • Accessibility: giving remote access is often tricky for colleagues, and almost impossible for clients or other external parties
  • No visual overview: servers usually lack a good visual overview of all your content
  • No branding: file servers don't allow for any branding
  • No included sharing options: you will always have to use other file sharing methods to share your images with the outside world
  • No advanced search: if you don't know the file name or file location, it will be very hard to retrieve the image

Cloud storage

Using cloud storage providers like Dropbox and Google Drive can be a reasonable option for solo entrepreneurs or small teams.

Advantages
  • Costs: cloud storage providers are generally very affordable
  • Accessibility: easy syncing allows for worldwide access to your images
  • Sharing: most providers include file sharing
  • Versioning: some sort of versioning may be included, you would need to judge yourselves if this fits your requirements
Disadvantages
  • Low quality of visual overview: some file formats are usually supported, but this is not where solutions like this excel
  • No branding: the branding options are limited and your clients will be confronted with the brandin gof the provider
  • No advanced search: cloud storage providers lack advanced search, filter and metadata capabilities

Why Swivle?

Swivle is the most intuitive Image Library solution in the cloud. The perfect place to organize, share and distribute your images and other rich media.

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"I have evaluated 4-5 different DAM solutions but Swivle is by far the most complete one. Low starting cost and easy to add on users and features as you go makes it perfect for an evolving business."

Fredrik Nelson, Chief Information Officer - Stenströms

"We've used lots of different options for our storage needs and they have all been too expensive, slow, inaccessible or lousy user experience. Before we switched to Swivle, the organization of our more than 150,000 files was nightmarish. Now, it's easy."

Andrew Jason, Editorial Director - Spotlight Media

"We compared many different Digital Asset Management systems and Swivle was the most flexible solution at a very reasonable cost and easy to set up. You can start using it within a day, not within weeks like with other DAMs."

Martin Dominik Zemp, Editorial Staff Member - Entlebucher Anzeiger

Swivle is all about beautiful and intuitive image management

Visual overview

With Swivle you will always have an instant visual overview of all your content: we have thumbnails and full in-browser preview for all your design, marketing and sales content.

Metadata

Swivle automatically adds metadata to your assets to improve file search capabilities. Basically, this is information about your files, such as date, name and file type. More importantly, you can add custom metadata such as keywords and tags.

Lifecycle and rights management

All copyright and license info is available in Swivle. Expired content is automatically made unavailable for your team or your clients.

Share and build your Brand Image Library

Home of your brand

Your beautiful visual content deserves to be housed in an equally beautiful place. Swivle can be fully branded and is so pretty you can show it directly to your clients.

Create multiple portals for each project, brand or each team

With Swivle you can easily create multiple portals, each with unique content, unique content and a unique subdomain.

Public or password-protected access

Create a password-protected environment for your private content and a public portal for your public brand assets.