Sharing IIIF images

Share and compare digital objects from different institutions in a single workspace

In section 2, we found a IIIF object, and opened it in Universal Viewer. UV is one of several IIIF viewers. Each viewer has slightly different benefits and functionality for the user, and it's worth trying a few to see which you prefer. For more in-depth information about the different available viewers, and how to use them, see the IIIF website.

You might be wondering why you need to use a IIIF viewer, when it's simple enough to copy or download an image and email it.

The difference lies in context. IIIF viewers fetch all images in an object from the links provided in the manifest, and uses the packaged code to organise them in the correct order. The viewer also unpacks any metadata included in the manifest. In that way, a link is always maintained between a single image, and its wider context. An image will never be orphaned from the object it belongs to, or the repository it belongs to.

IIIF also allows users to share a particular section of a particular page. In a scholarly or heritage context, there are any number of reasons why someone might want to share a small section of a digital object - such as an image in a book, a note in a margin, or an area of damage on a painting.

IIIF allows a link to be generated and shared, that will take the recipient directly to a precise location within a digital object. This might support collaborative research, academic citation, exhibition planning, or even debating potential conservation treatments.

Sharing via IIIF has a huge advantage over sending someone an isolated screenshot of a detail. The recipient of a link to a IIIF image is able to see the detail in the context of the wider object, and also see the full bibliographic details, including the location of the original.

Exercise: Sharing a link to Universal Viewer

  • Open this diary in a new tab. It was kept by Priscilla Scott-Ellis - a member of the English aristocracy, who travelled to Spain to serve as a nurse in the Spanish Civil War. She kept several diaries of her experiences, which she self-censored prior to publication. It's interesting to see which sections are removed! 🔎

  • Use the thumbnail menu to find a page which features a crossed out section. Click on the thumbnail to load the page, and zoom into the section.

  • In the bottom left corner, click the share icon to open the menu. Copy the link, then close the tab. Open a new tab, and paste the link.

  • The link will open the object on exactly the same page, and zoomed into the same area as the tab you closed. This allows you to share a tiny detail with anyone in the world via a link.

  • Notice that you can also use the share icon to access html embed code. If you have a website or blog, you can set a pixel size in the dropdown menu, and copy this html into your own site, in order to host your own instance of Universal Viewer. Visitors to your site can not only view a detail of a page, but browse other pages within the object.

Mirador Viewer

Mirador is an alternative IIIF viewer. One of its features is being able to gather together multiple objects (images and their descriptions), from digital collections all over the world, and allow them to be saved in a particular state.

For example, a researcher might load four or five books to Mirador, open each to a particular page, and zoom each page to a particular detail. Mirador allows that researcher to come back to their workspace at a later date, or even share it with others to work collaboratively.

Open Mirador in a new tab. The demo is pre-loaded with a painting from Harvard Art Museums, and a manuscript from the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Notice that if you click on the hamberger icon (three vertical lines), you can see the object's metadata, as well as the image.

If you click on the blue plus (+) icon in the top left, you can select other objects to pull into the workspace. In the next exercise, we'll use Mirador to compare two manuscripts side by side.

Exercise: Comparing objects in Mirador

  • Go to Mirador, and close down any open objects in your workspace by clicking the crosses in the top right corner.

  • Click on the 'Start here' button in the top left. Click 'Add resource' in the bottom right to add a new one. Copy this IIIF manifest, then paste into the text field, and click 'Add': https://hdl.huntington.org/iiif/2/p15150coll7:2838/manifest.json.

  • The object will load in the list of resources. Click on it to pull it into your workspace.

  • The loaded manifest is a manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, held at the Huntingdon Library in Philadephia. Let's compare it with another version, held in Cologny, Switzerland. Click on the blue plus (+) icon, then 'Add resource'. Copy this manifest, paste into Mirador, then click 'Add': https://www.e-codices.ch/metadata/iiif/fmb-cb-0048/manifest.json.

  • The second manuscript will be added to the list of resources. Click on it to pull it into your workspace.

  • Use the arrows at the bottom of each manuscript (click on the manuscript to make them appear) to find the first page of each. Zoom in on the illuminated 'W' initial, and compare both versions.

Exercise: Sharing a link to a Mirador workspace

  • Open Biblissima Portal in a new tab. This impressive resource is a library of libraries - a single entry point to access over 650,000 digitised images of manuscripts and books from the 8th-18th centuries, held in 17 different libraries across France.

  • Scroll down to open the Illuminations and marks search tool. From here you can search over 300,000 images by keyword. Biblissima's metadata is largely in French, so try searching for a French noun, e.g. ange (angel), chat (cat), chien (dog), diable (devil), dragon (dragon).

  • Scroll through the results to find images with a IIIF logo. Open one in a new tab.

  • Note the folio or page number on which the illumination appears, then scroll down to copy the IIIF manifest.

  • Go to Mirador, and close down any open objects in your workspace by clicking the crosses in the top right corner.

  • Click on the 'Start here' button in the top left. Click 'Add resource' in the bottom right to add a new one. Paste your manifest into the text field, and click 'Add'. Click on it to pull it into your workspace.

  • You'll notice that Mirador has loaded the whole object, not just the image. In the left hand menu, click the Index icon (it looks like five horizontal lines). This displays a list of all pages in the object. Scroll down until you find the page or folio number that you noted earlier, and click to load it. Zoom into the image.

  • Repeat this process a few more times to create a collage based on your chosen keyword.

  • When you've finished your collage, click the ellipsis icon in the left hand menu (...). From here, you can export your workspace, allowing you to return to it another day, or share it with others. Mirador is web-based - it isn't downloaded onto your local PC - and it doesn't support user accounts either, so exporting your workspace is the only way to save your work. Clicking the option will generate a long page of code. Copy this, and either email it to yourself, or save in a document.

  • If you later want to share your workspace, or return to it to make further edits, find your saved code, and copy it. Open Mirador, and click the ellipsis. This time, choose import workspace, and paste the code. Connections to all the images, on all the pages, in all the manuscripts, from all the different libraries, will be restored, exactly as you left them!

The objects you've loaded to Mirador are not just a collection of images. They're more like a map, that traces paths from those images to their objects and to the repositories in which they were found.

Sharing the workspace achieves more than just sharing a collage of images. The recipient could go to one of the images, and scroll through the rest of the pages in that object, or click a link that would take them to that library's catalogue to see what other manuscripts they hold. IIIF images don’t exist in isolation.

Bonus exercise: Here's one Biblissima made earlier!

  • Open Biblissima Portal in a new tab.

  • Scroll down to open the Iconographic thesaurus. Use the dropdown menus to browse through keywords, e.g. Zoology > Mammals > Horse.

  • If there are enough results, Biblissima will generate a huge collage in Mirador. If you chose horses, nearly 5,000 images of horses will be loaded to Mirador. Each image can be clicked on to find out more about the manuscript it belongs to - all the other pages it contains, and all its associated metadata.

Biblissima is a fantastic resource for medieval scholars. But what if the image you want to work with isn't available in IIIF? In section 4, we'll look at how you can create a IIIF manifest with your own images, for free, without requiring any special software or server infrastructure.