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International Image Interoperability Framework

{{Short description|Standardised method of describing and delivering images over the web}}

{{for|the use of IIIF in Wikimedia projects|Wikipedia:International Image Interoperability Framework}}

File:International Image Interoperability Framework logo.png

The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF, spoken as 'triple-I-eff') defines several application programming interfaces that provide a standardised method of describing and delivering images over the web, as well as "presentation based metadata"{{cite web|url=http://iiif.io/technical-details/|title=Technical Details – IIIF – International Image Interoperability Framework|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}} (that is, structural metadata) about structured sequences of images. If institutions holding artworks, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, scrolls, single sheet collections, and archival materials provide IIIF endpoints for their content, any IIIF-compliant viewer or application can consume and display both the images and their structural and presentation metadata.

There are many digitisation programmes that have resulted in a particular collection’s content exposed on the web in a particular viewer application,{{cite web|url=http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sechard/512digms.htm|title=Medieval Manuscripts on the Web (digitized manuscripts)|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}} but these various collections have not typically been interoperable with one another,{{Cite web |url=http://www.diglib.org/forums/2012forum/transcending-silos-leveraging-linked-data-and-open-image-apis-for-collaborative-access-to-digital-facsimiles/ |title=Presentation on "Transcending Silos" at 2012 Digital Library Federation Forum |access-date=2015-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402121524/http://www.diglib.org/forums/2012forum/transcending-silos-leveraging-linked-data-and-open-image-apis-for-collaborative-access-to-digital-facsimiles/ |archive-date=2015-04-02 |url-status=dead }} and end users or institutions cannot substitute a viewer of their choice to consume the digitised material. The IIIF aims to cultivate shared technologies for both client and server to enable interoperability across repositories, and to foster a market in compatible servers and viewing applications.{{cite web|url=http://iiif.io/about.html|title=Redirecting…|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}

Image API

{{quote|The IIIF Image API specifies a web service that returns an image in response to a standard HTTP or HTTPS request. The URI can specify the region, size, rotation, quality characteristics and format of the requested image. A URI can also be constructed to request basic technical information about the image to support client applications.{{cite web|url=http://iiif.io/api/image/2.1/|title=Image API 2.1 — IIIF – International Image Interoperability Framework|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}}}

One major use of an Image API endpoint for a given high resolution source image is to allow clients to request low resolution tiles for use in a Deep Zoom style viewing tool such as OpenSeadragon.{{cite web|url=https://openseadragon.github.io/examples/tilesource-iiif/|title=IIIF Tile Source – OpenSeadragon|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}

Presentation API

{{quote|The IIIF Presentation API specifies a web service that returns JSON-LD structured documents that together describe the structure and layout of a digitized object or other collection of images and related content.{{cite web|url=http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2.0/|title=Presentation API 2.0 — IIIF – International Image Interoperability Framework|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}}}

An institution would publish a Manifest (a JSON-LD document) that describes the structure of each book, artwork, manuscript or other artefact. The manifest contains references to Image API endpoints. A viewer application consuming the manifest can produce a coherent user experience for the artefact by implementing features such as page by page navigation, deep zooming into images and annotations on images.

Search API

The IIIF Search API allows for "searching annotation content within a single IIIF resource, such as a Manifest, Range or Collection."{{cite web|url=http://iiif.io/api/search/1.0/|title=IIIF Content Search API 1.0 — IIIF – International Image Interoperability Framework|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}

Example use case

A use case for IIIF would be to allow a user to view a manuscript that has been dismembered in the past, with its leaves now scattered across various collections.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/scattered-leaves|title=Scattered Leaves|magazine=The New Yorker |date=6 January 2014|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016 |last1=Mauk |first1=Ben }} If each collection exposes its digitized images via the Image API, then a scholar can construct and publish a manifest that digitally recombines the leaves to present a single coherent user experience for the manuscript in any compatible viewer.

History

The Image API was proposed in late 2011 as a collaboration between The British Library, Stanford University, the Bodleian Libraries (Oxford University), the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Nasjonalbiblioteket (National Library of Norway), Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library, and Cornell University.{{cite web|url=http://www.cni.org/topics/information-access-retrieval/international-image-interoperability-framework/|title=The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF): Laying the Foundation for Common Services, Integrated Resources and a Marketplace of Tools for Scholars Worldwide|date=8 December 2011|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}} Version 1.0 was published in 2012.

Version 1.0 of the Presentation API was published in 2013 and of the Search API in 2016.

Partial list of software that supports IIIF APIs

=Image Servers=

  • Cantaloupe{{Cite web|url=https://cantaloupe-project.github.io/|title=Cantaloupe Image Server :: Home|website=cantaloupe-project.github.io}}
  • Hymir IIIF Server{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/dbmdz/iiif-server-hymir|title=dbmdz/iiif-server-hymir|date=October 29, 2020|via=GitHub}}
  • Loris IIIF Image Server{{cite web|url=https://github.com/pulibrary/loris|title=loris-imageserver/loris|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • IIPImage{{cite web|url=http://iipimage.sourceforge.net/|title=IIPImage|first=Ruven|last=Pillay|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • digilib{{cite web|url=http://digilib.sourceforge.net/|title=digilib – The Digital Image Library –|publisher=|accessdate=29 November 2016}}
  • Djatoka (with helper){{cite web|url=https://github.com/jronallo/djatoka|title=jronallo/djatoka|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}

=Viewers / client libraries=

  • OpenSeadragon{{cite web|url=https://openseadragon.github.io/|title=OpenSeadragon|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • Mirador{{cite web|url=https://github.com/IIIF/mirador|title=ProjectMirador/mirador|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • Clover IIIF{{cite web|url=https://samvera-labs.github.io/clover-iiif/|title=Clover IIIF – Showcase IIIF Manifests as interoperable web content.|publisher=|accessdate=9 January 2025}}
  • Canopy IIIF{{cite web|url=https://canopy-iiif.github.io/docs/|title=Canopy IIIF – IIIF Collection sourced site generator in Next.js for digital collections, humanities, and exhibitions|publisher=|accessdate=9 January 2025}}
  • Wellcome Player{{cite web|url=http://player.digirati.co.uk/|title=Digirati – Wellcome Player|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022162431/http://player.digirati.co.uk/|archive-date=22 October 2017|url-status=dead}} / British Library Universal Viewer{{cite web|url=https://github.com/UniversalViewer/universalviewer|title=UniversalViewer/universalviewer|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • IIIFViewer{{cite web|url=http://blog.klokantech.com/2014/10/iiif-for-images-in-culture-heritage.html|title=IIIF for images in cultural heritage|publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016|archive-date=10 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110105919/http://blog.klokantech.com/2014/10/iiif-for-images-in-culture-heritage.html|url-status=dead}}
  • Leaflet-IIIF{{cite web|url=https://github.com/mejackreed/Leaflet-IIIF|title=mejackreed/Leaflet-IIIF|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • IIPMooViewer{{cite web|url=https://github.com/ruven/iipmooviewer|title=ruven/iipmooviewer|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=9 November 2016}}
  • iNQUIRE{{cite web|url=https://github.com/armadillo-systems/inquire|title=armadillo-systems/inquire|website=GitHub |publisher=|accessdate=3 February 2017}}
  • CONTENTdm{{cite web|url=https://www.oclc.org/en/contentdm/iiif.html|title=CONTENTdm responsive website image viewer |publisher=OCLC|accessdate=18 November 2019}}
  • Turning the Pages (TTP){{cite web|url=http://ttp.onlineculture.co.uk/iiif/|title=Turning the Pages IIIF|publisher=|accessdate=28 March 2023}}
  • Prismia ViSiON

See also

References

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

External links

  • [http://iiif.io Project homepage]
  • [http://showcase.iiif.io/ IIIF Showcase] – software and websites that implement IIIF
  • [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/iiif-discuss Project discussion forum] (Google groups)
  • [http://www.slideshare.net/azaroth42/iiif-linked-data IIIF for Museums] – Introductory slide-deck, November 2014
  • [https://github.com/IIIF/awesome-iiif Awesome IIIF] – big list of IIIF resources

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Category:Application programming interfaces

Category:Digital library software

Category:Electronic documents

Category:Electronic publishing