U.K. consultancy Electric Lane has announced the availability of Javascript Photoshop plugins ImageVisa and ImageText. Compatible with Adobe Creative Suite 2 and later versions, the easy-to-install scripts can be customized to suit photographer and agency workflows.
The two plugins are designed to prepare images for the market by addressing technical and metadata issues. When used together, the two scripts can greatly simplify the agency/photographer collaboration: the agency can specify its requirements and supply the customized script to contributing photographers to automate most of the submission workflow.
ImageText helps handle image metadata, including fixing problems. The plugin locks in photographer credit, Web site URL and copyright notice, while removing illegal characters, duplicate commas and extra spaces. It also changes image filenames as required. As photographers fill out ImageText fields, the plugin panel shows the image’s status from the agency perspective: as fields are filled out in compliance with an agency’s specifications, their color changes to green—while incomplete fields remain orange and empty fields are red.
Once data is filled in, a photographer can use ImageVisa to check technical aspects such as file size, layers, bit depth, resolution, color space and numerous other parameters. ImageVisa is available as a standalone product, but ImageText requires ImageVisa.
The plugins create a folder to store pass, fail and audit files related to a particular agency. The pass files are ready to be submitted to the agency, while audit records offer additional information on the reasons why certain images failed and what data is missing.
The agency can use the plugins to automatically check the submitted images to ensure compliance with preset preferences. Electric Lane also offers to work with agencies to customize the software beyond pre-designed fields.
Electric Lane offers the ImageVisa/ImageText bundle for £360 (appx. $545), which covers 20 contributing photographers. Per-photographer fee is £50 ($75). The company also offers discounts for larger agencies.
According to Electric Lane founder Sarah Saunders, the plugins are much cheaper than having staff members manually check submitted images. The software also frees photographers to focus on shooting and post-production, making everyone’s time more efficient.