Technical Information about the Geo-Images Project

Geo-Images was one of the first web sites to present large numbers of color images. In the early days it was necessary to warn off potential users with inadequate computers or non-graphic browsers.The idea of delivering high quality color images over the internet was revolutionary in 1993, but is commonplace now.

The original 35mm slides were digitized and stored on CD-ROM by Custom Process (1700 Fifth Street, Berkeley), using the Kodak Photo-CD system. The Photo-CD Base size images (768 by 512 pixels) were copied from the CD to hard disk. Using Adobe PhotoShop, each image was rotated, cropped, color corrected, sharpened, and, if necessary, retouched, and saved in 24-bit JPEG format, medium quality. The contributors then added title, place, date, keywords and captions.

For image processing we have always used Adobe PhotoShop. Cataloging was originally done with Kodak Shoebox, and now utilizes Claris FileMaker. Jason Sadler's map of Morocco was drawn with Aldus (now MacroMedia) FreeHand. HTML code was mostly created with BBEdit, though recent additions to the project have utilized Adobe GoLive. All work has been done on Macintosh computers in the Geography Computing Facility.

In its first incarnation, Geo-Images was accessed using Kodak Shoebox from an AppleShare server, but in July 1994 Don Bain used a surplus Macintosh SE-30 and the program MacHTTP (which later became WebStar) to put Geo-Images on the internet quickly and cheaply. Since then it has migrated half a dozen times to more powerful equipment. The current server is a Power Macintosh G4 cube with 256mb RAM, running the Apache webserver under OS-X, connected to the Berkeley campus network with 10 Base-T ethernet.

For further information contact the project director, Don Bain: dbain@berkeley.edu

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