ViewMinder Ltd announces the release of Version 3.10 of its flagship program for image management, Expert ViewMinder.

"We've added many new features for journalists, news organizations and the other professionals who are our core users," said Pat Humphreys, head of Cambridge-based company.

"But we've done it in a way that won't spoil the enjoyment of other photography enthusiasts. As digital picture collections get ever larger, eventually everyone needs a program with the power of ViewMinder."

Instead of using a string of keywords to explain what an image shows, ViewMinder lets the user add an unlimited number of people, events, locations and things to a metadata tree. This feature exploits the program's unique relational database.

A class pane lets users track and sort images by author as well as country, date and theme. "Obviously this is ideal for business but it's fun for families too," Humphreys said. "A photo collection is much more interesting when it contains everyone's pictures."

Other recent innovations are a space-saving screen layout, which places the image preview inside the thumbnail tray. As the preview is shrunk or enlarged, the thumbnails rearrange themselves around it.

Ordered from ViewMinder's web site www.viewminder.com the program costs 64.95 dollars, 54.50 euros or 37.50 pounds. The price includes all update for the next 12 months.

The trial edition of ViewMinder, which can be downloaded free, has all the same features as the full program except that it is restricted in the number of images it can import, 250.