Organizing Visual Databases for More than a Decade

A2Z Keywording has created keywording databases for stock photography houses and publishing companies for over a decade. Whether tagging photos of products or projects; detailing complex conceptual shots; or converting editorial captions into searchable keyword matrixes, A2Z Keywording can transform all your images into language.

Our keywording is tailored to your needs and we pride ourselves on creating customized easy-to-use keywording databases. Publishers, stock photography houses, and media companies employ our services to organize and better utilize their visual archives.

As technologies have changed and evolved, so has A2Z Keywording. Two decades ago, we indexed books and catalogues; now we create intricate keyword matrixes for both web sites and digital image archives. We count among our clients Meredith Publishing; Reader's Digest; Images.com; Direct Stock; Hemera Inc.; American Showcase; Solus Images; Corbis; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Chelsea House Publishers.

The A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program

The backbone of A2Z Keywording is the A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program. This proprietary software allows for the quick and efficient creation of keywords, synonyms, plurals, and related conceptual terms. For example, the vocabulary entry for "potato" includes the categorical terms "root vegetable," "vegetable," and "food." We describe each item in an image from the broadest to the most specific terms. The result: a comprehensive keyword matrix that allows the client to use any search terms they choose to find an appropriate image, rather than guess what words the keyworders used. Searching for "happiness," "happy," "joy," "joyful," "enjoy," "enjoyment," or "delight" will retrieve the same images of happy people.

Simply put, the A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program gives users the freedom of an open vocabulary with the structure and consistency of a closed vocabulary. The program has three pre-set vocabulary options - Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), Alamy, or Getty-compliant - that can be modified to match the internal logic of your search engine.

The A2Z Keywording program is designed to minimize data entry mistakes. The program offers a number of internal features ranging from the simple check that occurs after each image is keyworded, to a comprehensive search script that guides users through a meticulous review of their work. Our keyworders are graduates of some of the best colleges and universities in the United States, and are fully trained in the intricacies of the A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program. They are experts in such fields as horticulture, interior decoration, sports, construction, woodworking, crafts, art, travel, agriculture, ornithology and zoology. Supervising our keyworders is an elite staff of "checkers" who review the keywords, image by image. This two-tiered system insures that each image is checked at least three times. Our vigilance guarantees the accuracy and consistency of all of our keywording databases.

Your Keywording Options

Details is designed for clients who need their images described in great detail so that editors and graphic designers can differentiate one picture from thousands of comparable pictures in a vast digital database. Creating up to 250 appropriate keywords for each and every image in an archive can be expensive, but for publishers and stock photography houses, the price of this comprehensive approach more than pays for itself in sales potential and ease-of-use.

AlphaBasic is specialized for clients who need simpler images keyworded, such as studio shots of products or photographic documentation, and who need more information than what is in the caption. Our scaled-back solution, AlphaBasic, can catalogue essential items and concepts at a much lower price.

CaptionParser targets those companies with a database of captioned images. It can transform oft-misspelled and sometimes cryptic descriptions into a more useful collection of tags. With CaptionParser, the caption "Nikita Sergeyevich Krushchev with Roswel Garst on his farm in Coon Rapids, Iowa, September 23, 1959," creates this list of keywords:

Agriculture, Cold War, Communism, Coon Rapids, farm, farmer, farming, IA, Iowa, leader, Midwest, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 1959, 1950s, premier, Roswell Garst, Russia, Sep, Sept, September 23, 1959, Soviet Union, United States, United States of America, USA, US, U.S., U.S.A, USSR, U.S.S.R.

CaptionParser is specialized for clients with a large archive of editorial content. As accurate as it is cost-effective, CaptionParser will transform your unwieldy image-bank into a searchable - and invaluable -- asset.

Customizing the A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program to Your Needs

At the beginning of each project, A2Z Keywording works in partnership with you, the client, to understand how you envision using your digital library. We will assimilate your taxonomy into our vocabulary, and align that vocabulary with the internal workings of your search engine. Once these discussions are concluded and necessary changes are made, we will keyword a series of test batches. To ensure that the test images accurately represent your digital archive as a whole, we ask that the people who will actively use the database carefully review the keywords we generate. Their feedback is incorporated into the A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program vocabulary and then a new test batch is keyworded. We continue this process until the A2Z Keywording Thesaurus Program has been fully customized to your needs, and you, in turn, feel confident about the quality of the keywords you will receive.

Once the start-up period is over, the real keywording begins. All keywording will be completed on a monthly basis. The client will choose a day of the month to send payment to A2Z Keywording and upload your images to our ftp site. A2Z Keywording guarantees delivery of those keywords by the same day each month. Throughout the duration of the project, A2Z Keywording will continue to update and modify its keywording methods to reflect any alterations required by the client.

For pricing and other information, please click the "Contact Us" link below.