An intro to the International Image Interoperability Framework and some tips on how to implement it. Also see published conference paper at http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/iiif-unshackle-your-images/

1. IIIF: Unshackle Your Images
Andy Cummins
Head of Technical Production @cogapp
andyc@cogapp.com
@qmins
Friday, 8 April 16

2. Introduction
Who am I and why am I talking?
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3. Who am I?
- Andy Cummins, Head of Technical Production @cogapp
- Cogapp have been helping institutions realise their digital ambitions for 30 years
- Have a technical background, developer at heart
- Worked with many, many institutions over the years
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4. Why am I talking?
- I’ve built many systems over the years that deal with delivering images over the web
- Recently at Cogapp we’ve been getting involved with a new way of delivering
images to our web visitors
- Today I’d like to talk to you about how delivering your images in this new way can be
beneficial
- I’m hoping that you will see what can be achieved and get involved in helping
promote the use of IIIF
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5. The Problem
The current state of image delivery over the web
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6. The Problem
- The current state of image delivery is broken
- We’ve gotten used to working in certain ways
- We follow the same old processes to create and consume images
- We can do better, much better
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7. Creation
- We create derivatives
- A large image, a medium sized-one and maybe a thumbnail
- What do we do if we add a new image?
- What do we do if we want a new image size?
- What can go wrong?
- Things can seem more difficult than is worthwhile, can stifle innovation
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8. Consumption
- We consume images everyday
- We jump invisible hurdles to get what we need
- We often compromise our choices
- Squashed, stretched, upscaled or just plain teeny
- It doesn’t need to be like this anymore
- IIIF and technology can help
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9. A Solution
What is IIIF and where did it come from?
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10. What is IIIF?
- The International Image
Interoperability Framework
- A framework for requesting
images and associated
metadata
- We can request images with
the characteristics we require
in a standardised way
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11. Where did it come from?
- Proposed in 2011 and came
from universities and libraries
- A great example of international
collaboration
- Created something of true value
for the wider world
- Combination of pragmatism and
rigour has led to a focused, easily
understood framework
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12. The APIs
How is IIIF defined?
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13. How is IIIF defined?
- Made up of two ratified APIs
- These APIs define how both
images and metadata are
delivered
- There are some more specs in
the pipeline, come to the MIG after
this session to find out more
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14. The Image API
- Deals with the actual delivery of binary images in a flexible, convenient manner
- Can request images at certain dimensions, crop, rotation, quality or format
- Use URL parameters to specify the image derivative we require
- No more post-production in Photoshop
- Ask for the image using the IIIF parameters and it should be delivered
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15. The Image API...some examples
- Qatar Digital Library is IIIF compliant
- URI template
{scheme}://{server}{/prefix}/{identifier}/{region}/{size}/{rotation}/{quality}.{format}
http://images.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001524.0x000395/Mss+Eur
+F126_10_0001.jp2/full/!200,200/0/default.jpg
Full image, resized to a maximum side-length of 200 pixels
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16. The Image API...some examples
- URI template
{scheme}://{server}{/prefix}/{identifier}/{region}/{size}/{rotation}/{quality}.{format}
http://images.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001524.0x000395/Mss+Eur
+F126_10_0001.jp2/full/!200,300/90/default.jpg
The same image, rotated by 90 degrees
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17. The Image API...some examples
- URI template
{scheme}://{server}{/prefix}/{identifier}/{region}/{size}/{rotation}/{quality}.{format}
http://images.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001524.0x000395/Mss+Eur
+F126_10_0001.jp2/700,300,800,600/!200,200/0/default.jpg
The same image, zoomed in, and cropped to a specific region
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18. The Image API in Action
- Qatar Digital Library example
- More info on image request parameters
http://iiif.io/api/image/2.0/#image-request-parameters
- More specific examples
http://www.qdl.qa/en/image-options
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19. The Image API in Action
- Qatar Digital Library example
- More info on image request parameters
http://iiif.io/api/image/2.0/#image-request-parameters
- More specific examples
http://www.qdl.qa/en/image-options
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20. Image API How-To
I’ve understand the what, I want the how!
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21. Implementing The Image API
- How do we reach this image utopia?
- The IIIF image dream needs 2 things
1. Source images as large as is available in
an appropriate format
2. An image server to convert the source
images on-the-fly
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22. Source Images
- Two options available
1. Pyramidal TIFF (PTIFF)
2. JPEG2000 (JP2)
- Both compressed formats that contain copies of the image at different resolutions
- Makes them ideal creating derivatives on-the-fly
- Enables conversions to be performant enough for delivery via the web
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23. Source Images - Fair Disclosure
- One drawback to using JP2
- JP2 is an open standard but the best software for decoding (and possibly encoding)
is proprietary
- It’s called Kakadu and you’ll have to get a quote for a license if you decide to use it
- OpenJPEG codec is an alternative but currently has performance issues which
mean it’s not quite up to the on-the-fly nature of image delivery over the web
- If you want a performant, cost-free alternative then using the PTIFF format
alongside a high-performance image server will give you the performance needed for
a IIIF image server
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24. Source Images - Processing
- So you’ve chosen and image format, now you need to create your source images
- We’ve successfully used the open-source ImageMagick library
- Photoshop, GIMP and the LibTIFF codec library can all save out to PTIFFs
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25. Image Server
- This is the software that will take IIIF URL parameters and return the images
- If your user has requested a crop at a given size you need an image server to take
the source image and create the requested derivative on-the-fly
- Most mature option available is IIPImage Server
- Open source, extremely performant, supports JP2 and PTIFF
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26. Installing IIPImage Server
- Relatively straight-forward
- Binaries for download for Windows or Mac
- Available using apt or yum package managers depending on your flavour of Linux
- Alternatively packages available on IIPImage site
http://iipimage.sourceforge.net/download/
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27. Hosted Options
- Prefer to have your servers managed elsewhere?
- http://www.iiifhosting.com/
- Monthly pricing is based on the storage required for your images
- It ranges from $69 for around 15,000 images, up to $399 for 1,500,000 images
- Major aggregators the DPLA and Europeana are planning IIIF hosting platforms
- Haven’t used any of these before but shows their is a real appetite for IIIF
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28. The Presentation API
- The Presentation API deals with the metadata associated with the images
- It provides the information needed to understand what the image is and what it
represents
- It also gives information about how a particular image relates to other images in a
set
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29. The Presentation API...some examples
- The Presentation API gives us the metadata needed to understand an image and its
potentially context in a set of image
- Here is an example from the Qatar Digital Library: http://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/
vdc_100000007136.0x000001/manifest
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30. Presentation API How-To
I’ve understand the what, I want the how!
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31. Implementing The Presentation API
- How do we deliver this metadata?
- The IIIF presentation dream is more straightforward than the Image API
implementation
- Chances are your institution already has the necessary infrastructure
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32. Implementing the Presentation API
- Each institution is different and as such there isn’t a single solution
- To deliver the manifest files a custom implementation will be needed although this
need not be overly complex
- Take your metadata and present it as JSON that adheres to the IIIF specification,
(you may already have a head-start)
- There are endless ways of doing this but keeping it simple means you can make it
happen!
- Key thing is that to people/systems consuming this data your tech stack doesn’t
matter, they will all get the same clean, structured data
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33. Images I get, why bother with manifests?
- The manifests contain all the metadata on a resource and the associated images
- They also help to link images together for a resource in terms of sequence, for
example
- Having this information available in a predictable, standardised form allows us to
build software to interpret that information and present the images and information
- One area of software being developed that stands out is image viewers. A collection
of viewers has been developed to take advantage of IIIF and they each have their
strengths and applications
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34. Viewers - Mirador
- In my opinion the most powerful of these viewers is Mirador (http://iiif.github.io/
mirador/)
- Mirador is an open-source project jointly run by Stanford University and Harvard
University in collaboration with many other contributors
- Mirador is an extremely powerful image viewer that allows users, in particular digital
scholars, to really get to work on your images
- Deep-zoomable images, side-by-side comparison, annotation creation/viewing,
metadata display and bookmarking
- http://labs.cogapp.com
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35. Viewers - Mirador
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36. Viewers - Mirador
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37. Viewers - Universal Viewer
- An alternative to Mirador comes in the form of Universal Viewer (https://github.com/
UniversalViewer/universalviewer)
- This viewer is also extremely powerful and the choice between this and Mirador is
down to the intended user and their preference
- http://labs.cogapp.com
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38. Viewers - Universal Viewer
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39. Viewers - Universal Viewer
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40. Viewers - Internet Archive Book Reader
- You may be familiar with this viewer
- This has the simplest interface of the three I am going to mention here and again its
use depends on the target audience
- 9.3 million objects made available via IIIF in October 2015
- http://labs.cogapp.com/iiif/iiif-book-reader.html
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41. Viewers - Internet Archive Book Reader
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42. Viewers - Internet Archive Book Reader
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43. How to get these viewers in
front of your users
I want all the viewers!
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44. Viewers - Getting them to your users
- There are a couple of options here
- The first is the most simple. Just provide a link to your manifest file somewhere
online
- A second option is to embed the viewers in your site. This is the more complicated
of the two options but is not a complicated process in itself
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45. How does implementing IIIF
directly benefit my organisation?
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46. Future-proofs your image pipeline
- Implementing IIIF results in a flexible and dynamic image delivery platform
- A concrete example of where IIIF would help is the redesign of pages on your
website
- The same applies to any development based on, for example, your collection. With
IIIF in place you already have a flexible image pipeline in place for any new projects
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47. Advanced features for free
- With IIIF you get some advanced features straight out of the box
- High-performance deep-zoom through OpenSeadragon or other libraries
- A choice of viewers including those mentioned earlier
- Interoperability, you can open your images up to being used by others in ways that
would not be possible otherwise
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48. Streamlining your communications
- Turbo-boost the visuals of your comms channels
- Everyone can use the APIs to create the perfect crop etc
- No more Photoshop hassle
- De-dupe and maintain quality
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49. Enabling Innovation
- As mentioned, IIIF gives you a sound basis for extremely performant, flexible
delivery of images on the web
- This flexibility opens the door to innovation
- Some examples of how IIIF has been leveraged to create unique online experiences
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50. Enabling Innovation - The Digital Mushaf
- Pulls together Mushaf pages that are dispersed across various libraries into a single
online resource
http://digitalmushaf.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Friday, 8 April 16

51. Enabling Innovation - The Digital Mushaf
- Pulls together Mushaf pages that are dispersed across various libraries into a single
online resource
http://digitalmushaf.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Friday, 8 April 16

52. Enabling Innovation - Cantus Ultimus
- Optical musical recognition. This project allows you to search a musical manuscript
for sequences of musical notes to return an image crop of those notes
http://cantus.simssa.ca/manuscript/133/?folio=018v
Friday, 8 April 16

53. Enabling Innovation - Cantus Ultimus
- Optical musical recognition. This project allows you to search a musical manuscript
for sequences of musical notes to return an image crop of those notes
http://cantus.simssa.ca/manuscript/133/?folio=018v
Friday, 8 April 16

54. Enabling Innovation - Cogapp betas
- A Cogapp-developed proof of concept for crowd-sourced transcription validation
developed to run on an arcade machine in the British Library
http://labs.cogapp.com/transcriptinator/
Friday, 8 April 16

55. Enabling Innovation - Cogapp betas
- A Cogapp-developed proof of concept for crowd-sourced transcription validation
developed to run on an arcade machine in the British Library
http://labs.cogapp.com/transcriptinator/
Friday, 8 April 16

56. Enabling Innovation - Cogapp betas
- A Cogapp developed proof of concept. A VR interface for exploring trading cards
front and back (requires Google Card board or similar)
http://labs.cogapp.com/tc/
Friday, 8 April 16

57. Enabling Innovation - Cogapp betas
- A Cogapp developed proof of concept. A VR interface for exploring trading cards
front and back (requires Google Card board or similar)
http://labs.cogapp.com/tc/
Friday, 8 April 16

58. In Summary
What?
- Flexible, convenient image delivery and associated metadata over the web
How?
- Image API: Source images and an image server
- Presentation API: Output manifests as JSON according to the spec
Why?
- Future proofs your image pipeline
- Lots of software out there for you to take advantage of e.g. viewers
- Opens the door for rapid innovation
Remember
- Technology is a means to an end not the end itself
- Once you’re good to go with IIIF, make something and put it out there!
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59. Andy Cummins
Head of Technical Production @cogapp
andyc@cogapp.com
@qmins
Thanks!
- IIIF Museums Interest Group in Bernard’s room at 12:00 today
- IIIF Conf @ MoMA 10th May: http://iiif.io/event/2016/newyork/
- IIIF Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/iiif-discuss
- Paper: http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/iiif-unshackle-your-images/
Friday, 8 April 16