I want to create an annotated album of heirloom family photographs. I would like to use the Flashpix file format, and make use of the metadata fields for recording information about the people in the photos, the location, etc.

With LivePix 2.0 Deluxe, I can convert my scanned images into Flashpix format files, but there doesn't apear to be any way to enter metadata with LivePix 2.0.

The Image AXS software offers the opportunity to record image-related text data, but it doesn't appear to handle Flashpix format files or the metadata definitions found in FlashPix.

Is there a software package that will do it all for me, i.e., convert scanned images into Flashpix format, allow me to make annotations, organize the photos into albums, allow searches through the metadata to find photos of interest, display thumbnails as well as examine the photo at greater resolution, display the text annotations, etc?

And to put icing on the cake, is there a way to do this so that I can place viewing software (to view images as well as metadata plus metadata search capability) on a CD along with a collection of flashpix image files? The goal here would be to end up with a CD that I could give to other family members without much computer savvy.

I know I'm asking for a lot, but I see no point in investing any time in this project until the tools are there for me to do a good job.

Thanks for your help.

-- Robert G. Simpson (rgsonwbc@mindspring.com), February 12, 1999