Introduction |
This web site uses the ImageBlend software developed by CodeBlend.
ImageBlend is a small and lightweight server software that can be used in order to publish images/photos in the Internet or to share images with a closed user group.
Everything that you need is integrated into the same package. For example, ImageBlend contains a build-in web server and a build-in database, which means that you do not need to use or install any external web servers or databases into your computer. This also means that the installation and usage of ImageBlend is extremely easy – installation takes about two minutes and the starting of the server takes about few seconds.
Because of the easy installation ImageBlend is suitable also for home users – you do not need to be an IT professional in order to maintain your own Internet image/photo service.
ImageBlend is not a free software in spite of that you can test it freely as long as you want. However, without a license you can have only ten users and maximum 300 images in your service. That’s why you should purchase a license according to your needs.
See the CodeBlend homepage (http://www.codeblend.fi) in order to find more information about the licensing.
Usage |
ImageBlend is designed to be used for the following purposes:
1. | Image sharing |
2. | Image publishing and selling |
3. | Image collection |
Image sharing
ImageBlend can be used in order to share images with other people
through the Internet.
a) | Home users can easily share their images/photos with their relatives and friends. |
b) | Club users (amateur photographers, travelers, sport clubs, fan clubs, horse/dog/cat clubs, etc.) can share their images/photos with other club members or other fans. |
c) | Company users can share company images/photos (product photos, marketing photos, etc) inside the company or with partners (resellers, etc). |
d) | Traveling agencies and destinations can allow their customers to share photos from their traveling destinations and in this way to promote their business. |
Image publishing and selling
ImageBlend can be used also for commercial purposes. In this case the
main motive is to make money with the images/photos. ImageBlend offers
an excellent way for everybody to publish images in the Internet. You can also
easily start your own image/photo business in the Internet, because you do not
need to be an IT professional in order to maintain this kind of service.
a) | Photographers can publish their photo catalogs (i.e. previews of their photos) in the Internet. They can also allow registered users to download hi-quality photos. |
b) | Image owners (web image galleries, adult sites, etc) can publish their image catalogs in the Internet. They can also allow registered users (= paying users) to download hi-quality images. |
ImageBlend does not contain any on-line paying / buying features. However, it contains quite good user management. In other words, if you use ImageBlend for commercial purposes you have to take care of all payments and agreements by yourself, but you can use the ImageBlend user management features in order to control the service usage. For example, if you are a professional photographer you might give a service access to your customers and charge them when they actually use some of your photos. Charging can also be based on a membership agreement, which means that all your site members can freely use your images/photos as long as they pay their monthly membership fee.
Image collection
ImageBlend can also be used in order to collect images from
photographers and image owners. In some cases this might help you to save a lot
of money. For example, if you collect images/photos from amateur photographers
you might get them freely, because amateur photographers usually only wants
that somebody sees / publish their photos even for free.
a) | Magazines, newspapers, TV channels etc. can collect photos from the photographers by allowing registered users to upload photos. This is easy way to get photos immediately when something has happened (accidents, breaking news, celebrities, etc). |
b) | Book and magazine publishers can collect images/photos for their books and magazines. Sometimes this could be an easy way to collect free photos from amateur photographers - i.e. usually its enough that amateur photographers' names are published below their photos. |
c) | Image/photo services can collect images from individual photographers or image owners and resell them to magazines, books, etc. |
d) | Image/photo collectors can collect images as their hobby. For example, images of old cars, buildings, events, locations, etc. |