## What Zegami is

A **collection** is a set of images with a row of metadata behind each one. Zegami lays the images out as a zoomable grid and lets you filter, sort, colour, and cluster them by any column in the metadata — so patterns across thousands or millions of images become something you can see and click.

## Create a workspace

Every collection lives inside a **workspace** — the unit Zegami uses for ownership and sharing. Your account starts with a personal workspace; create more (one per team or project) from the workspace switcher.

- Use the switcher dropdown to move between workspaces.
- Workspaces can sit under an **organisation** for centralized billing and membership.
- Invite colleagues and set their role from workspace settings.

## Build your first collection

1. From the dashboard, click **Create collection**.
2. Pick a source. The quickest start is **direct upload**: a `.zip` (or a batch) of images plus a `.csv`/`.tsv` metadata sheet. Zegami can also mirror an external catalogue (IIIF, the Met, NASA, DICOMweb, and more).
3. Map the metadata: the column that names each image file is the join key. Get this right and every row lines up with its picture.
4. Submit. The processing pipeline generates thumbnails, an image atlas, and (optionally) similarity embeddings. A progress banner tracks each step; the collection opens automatically when it’s ready.

## Open the viewer

Click any collection card to open the viewer. From here you can:

- **Pan and zoom** the grid to scan everything at a glance.
- **Filter and search** to narrow to the images you care about.
- **Switch views** between Grid, Table, Scatter, Graph, and Map.
- **Click an image** to open the Inspector with its metadata, tags, and annotation tools.

The grid view — every image as a tile you can pan, zoom, filter, and click.

## Where to go next

- **Manage the images in a collection** (add, replace, rotate, remove): [Data tab](/content/docs/data-tab/index.html).
- **Configure processing, tags, hero image, and more:** [Collection settings](/content/docs/collection-settings/index.html).
- **Make a collection public or share it:** [Sharing & publishing](/content/docs/sharing-and-publishing/index.html).
- **Annotate images:** [Annotations](/content/docs/annotations/index.html).
- **Automate via the API:** [Account & API keys](/content/docs/account-and-api-keys/index.html).