Embedr: image embedding done right

Embedr allowed everyone to embed cultural heritage images across the Internet, while maintaining provenance information. It allowed zooming, panning and cropping of images. It was image embedding done right!

Website

github.com/Kennisland/Embedr.eu

2015 - 2016

In 2015 and 2016 Kennisland worked and launched a service called Embedr. Embedr allowed everyone to embed cultural heritage images across the Internet, while maintaining provenance information. It allowed zooming, panning and cropping of images. It was image embedding done right! However, in 2016 we had to shut down Embedr, because we were not able to find a good business model for the service.

Kennisland developed Embedr++IIIFEmbedr was build as an IIIF service. IIIF is a framework that allows you to have zoomable images (popular in the archive sector). to address the gap between the emergence of high-quality cultural heritage images on the Internet and the lack of widely available tools to use them properly. We used the Europeana dataset to make approximately 360,000 images available across dozens of institutions in Europe. These cultural heritage organisations made a large effort to digitise their collections at high quality, and are willing and able to share them with a wider audience.

The video above shows the functionality of Embedr.

All images on Embedr had at least 4 megapixels++Europeana Publishing FrameworkEmbedr was the first tool to make use of the 2015 released Europeana Publishing Framework, that Kennisland helped to develop.. This resolution makes it possible to explore the image in meaningful ways. Embedr made it possible to play around with the image and discover new aspects and details of the imageKennisland developed Embedr to address the gap between the emergence of high-quality cultural heritage images on the Internet and the lack of widely available tools to use them properly..

Reusable

Images on Embedr were freely reusable and could be embedded without permission from the rights holder. They were either in the public domain or had an open license, which allows for sharing and reuse.++Search queryWe used this search query on Europeana to find these images. However, both the creators and the publishing cultural institutions deserve good attribution: acknowledgement for the work and for making it available to the public. We used embedding standards and designed our platformImages on Embedr were freely reusable and could be embedded without permission from the rights holder. to optimise retaining this provenance information, also on social media like Twitter and Facebook.

Embedding

We used iFrame embedding for the embedding of the images, which is similar to YouTube’s video embedding. This allowed Embedr to have more control over the embedded content and to always show attribution information. By using oEmbed, specially crafted Twitter Cards and OpenGraph to present images and attribution on social media allowed us to spread the images across the internet while retaining the link back to the providing institutions and creators.

Open Source Development

Like most of Kennisland’s technological projects, Embedr was fully open source. This means that you could (and still can) use the ideas and source code of Embedr to create your own version of Embedr. You can find its complete source code here.

Embedr was developed together with our technology partners Klokan Technologies and Tom Kruijsen, as part of Europeana Creative and funded by the European Union.