Hosted Grid - using the Grid

Using the Grid

Complete common tasks using the Grid.

Choose your Grid

Sign into Hosted Grid and select a Grid to use.

Uploading images

Upload images into the Grid by clicking the upload button on the search page. You can also drag and drop multiple images onto the search page.

After uploading an image you will be able to review and correct any problems with the image's metadata.

Finding images

The search view lets you scroll through your image library, searching and filtering to locate images.

Keyword search

Use the search box to locate images by keyword. The Grid indexes the metadata fields it finds in your original images. EXIF and IPTC metadata is indexed and can be searched against.

Filter for free to use images

Use the Free to use only filter to restrict the results to images which your organisation has usage rights for. Manage costs by considering in house images or those you have usage rights for over paid for images.

Advanced search

The Grid offers many advanced search options to help locate specific images.

Image details

Clicking on an image thumbnail from the search screen takes you to the image details screen for that image.

Filtering by metadata fields

The metadata fields on the single image screen are indexed. You can click on them to search for related images.

Images from the same event can often be located by filtering on one of the supplier's metadata fields or on Title

Usage rights

When an image is uploaded or ingested from a feed provider, the Grid attempts to infer the usage rights for the image.

Usage rights are used to indicate if an image is free to use or is a paid image.

Knowing the usage rights for a set of images can help editors select the most cost-effective images to illustrate their content.

Cropping images

Crops are scaled and optimised copies of the source image which are intended for digital use.

Use search to locate your image. Click through to the image details screen.

Check that the image is correctly credited. Crops require the source image to have at least a credit and description.

Any problems with the image will be highlighted. You can edit the metadata to set a credit and description.

Click the Crop Image button.

Select one of the preset crop aspect ratios or free form for a custom crop.

Make your crop by dragging the crop box.

Your crops will be resized and exported to your public doc-root.

The URLs of the crops various crop sizes are visible under the Show Crops tab.

Leases

If an image is not free to use, you can set a lease to record that a paid for image has been used.

Open the leases menu on the images details screen.

Add a new lease to cover your intended use.

The lease will be visible on the image details page.

Usages

The Grid API provides away for your production systems to record image usages.

Usages can record online, print and manual download usages of a specific image.

Usage data helps when an image needs to be recalled or when calculating contributor payments.

Usages are visible on the image details screen.

Quotas

Curating your images

Make your images more discoverable to your colleagues by tagging them with additional metadata.

Editing metadata

Labels

Make the image topic visible by adding a label.

Labels appear on search screen results and can be filtered on.

Keywords

Images supplied by agencies will often be pre-populated with keywords.

Additional keywords can be added from the image details screen.

Keyword names are matched when searching for images. Adding keywords can make your images more discoverable.

Collections

Arrange your images into a browsable hierarchy using collections.

Top level collections include the contents of their child collections.

Batch operations

Use batch operations to apply the same edits to groups of images.

Select a group of images by ticking them in the search view. Click Show info panel.

Batch edit the metadata or add labels or keywords.

The changes will be applied to each ticked image.

Bulk image uploads and ingesting agency feeds

The Grid can accept bulk image uploads and agency feeds via an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket.

Access details for your upload bucket are available on request.

Images arriving in the upload bucket are immediately queued for indexing. This method allows you to easily upload existing image archives into the Grid.

You can arrange for your feed suppliers to deliver their content directly into your S3 bucket.

Soft and hard deletion

Images deleted from the Grid, either manually or by the reaping process (below) are not deleted immediately.

Deleted images are initially soft deleted. They are no longer visible in image searches but can still be retrieved if are discovered to have been accidentally deleted.

After a period of time soft delete images are hard deleted and completely removed from the Grid. This hard deletion period is typically 7 days.

Reaping feed images and archiving images to the library

Manage storage and stay compliant with agency retention policies by automatically deleting unused feed images.

In a typical newsroom setting the Grid will be ingesting thousands of images a week from feed providers. Most of these images will not be selected for use and storing them permanently has implications for storage costs and compliance with data retention policies.

The Grid will automatically delete (reap) unused feed images 20 days after they are uploaded.

Images can be marked for permanent retention by adding them to the library. Use the add to library button on the image details screen.

Images can be removed from library using the remove from library button.

Images which have had their data edited and those which have been cropped are automatically added to the library. These images will be marked as Kept in Library.

Library images are protected from automatic deletion but can still be manually deleted if required.