Hugo & Cat - Online strategy and user experience

Clients and work

Managing your image collection


H&C Images is our industry-leading software for managing online picture libraries. It is a powerful and versatile platform that includes CRM and e-commerce support, and can be tailored to meet almost any requirements.

Our proven track record working with commercial image libraries for a number of years means H&C Images is a platform built on a genuine understanding of your needs. Rather than a ready-made, one-size-fits-all solution, this is a collection of powerful and flexible tools that are implemented and customised to work the way you do.

National Gallery image library search results page

Your image collection is managed through a dedicated browser-based interface that is easy to use and can be accessed from anywhere. Batches of high-resolution images can be uploaded as ZIP files, and are automatically converted and prepared for online use. Keyword tagging is easy and flexible, and there is full support for EXIF, IPTC and XMP Meta data embedded within the files.

Both customers and internal users will benefit from a fast intelligent search engine which is specially optimised for image searching. There is full support for Boolean searches, as well as a built-in thesaurus that can correct spelling errors and suggest alternative related search terms. Searching typically takes no more than 0.2 seconds on a database of over 10,000 images, and results are intelligently prioritised to display the most relevant images first.

The customer-facing website benefits from a range of other powerful tools, including shared light boxes, rights calculator, shopping cart and checkout with e-commerce and card payment integration. Images are individually marked with Meta data about the image rights and approved uses (including the customer details), and are delivered via the site in the required file format and resolution.

A built-in CRM system looks after all your customer data, and can be integrated with existing CRM systems if required. You can view your customers’ transactions, change their details and account settings, re-issue passwords and add images to their light box or cart. Customers can be divided into Web Customers and Account Customers, with support for credit facilities and pro-forma invoices for Account Customers. Built-in email communications tools ensure consistent, branded delivery of email correspondence, including welcome emails, transaction confirmations, pro-forma invoices and more.

A rights and cost management module makes light work of keeping your usage rights and image prices up to date. The simple but powerful formula-based price list means you can update hundreds of prices in a few seconds. You can also create discounts and promotions and apply these to groups of customers or specific images or image categories.

H&C Images integrates seamlessly with H&C Analytics to give you detailed data about customer transactions, interactions and image usage. You can track individual downloads, monitor specific images and produce executive summaries at the click of a button. The platform also integrates with H&C Mail for targeted email marketing to specific customer segments.

Our track record of producing image library solutions for the Natural History Museum, the Royal Geographical Society and The National Gallery means H&C Images is a highly evolved and stringently tested solution. We know that each client is different, and we work with you to understand your unique requirements and tailor the software to meet your needs. Combined with our excellent reputation for design and information architecture, we believe our solution is the best in the market, whether for commercial image libraries or internal image management requirements.

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Features

  • Fast image search with Boolean queries, thesaurus and spelling correction
  • Advanced browsing galleries to improve the visibility of your images
  • Fully featured light boxes with sharing, emailing, presentation mode and sorting capabilities
  • Shopping cart with cost calculator and rights management features
  • Image price and rights management module
  • Support for multiple file formats
  • Advanced EXIF, IPTC and XMP Meta tagging with Dublin Core support
  • Multi-format downloads, including high resolution TIFF or JPEG
  • Support for video and audio files
  • Customer management (CRM)
  • Image Meta data management directly from site
  • Transaction export
  • Discount manager
  • Support for trade accounts with pro-forma invoices
  • Credit card payment integration
  • Online delivery in different formats and resolutions
  • Fast, easy image management
  • Fully accessible and compliant code
  • Search engine friendly
  • Built on Microsoft .NET 2.0 and SQL Server

Contact information

To find out more about H&C Images and how it can benefit your business, contact Johannes Smith.

T +44 (0)20 7375 0909
E email us