Minder Softworks has introduced Stock Keeper 1.0 (http://macte.ch/KlzzS), a new digital asset management app for Mac OS X. It costs US$19; a 30-day demo is available for download. Bulk discounts and global licenses are available.

Stock Keeper allows graphic designers, multimedia producers, software developers, or anyone who uses digital media, to manage their digital assets. It’s designed to make easy for users to find and save stock media online using a built-in web browser, save files from their hard drive, and more.

For those who use stock photography and download media from online, Stock Keeper has a built-in web browser and groups of bookmarks it calls Web Search Groups that open in tabs. It comes with 28 sources for online media, but users can add their own, and create their own search groups. Users can save files directly from the built-in web browser into their media library. When saving, tags, notes, and license information can be added to the image. Images can also be saved to user-created Collections.

Users aren’t limited to adding images from online sources, says programmer Michael LaMorte. They can add images, audio, video, vector EPS, PDF, and any file type from any location. All media added is saved in Stock Keeper’s own library, where it is locked and prevented from accidental edits.

Finding media is as easy as adding it, says LaMorte. Users can manually add assets to Collections, find them by creating Smart Folders, or search their entire library. Users can browse through thumbnails of their media in an iPhoto-like collection, then select any asset for a larger preview and more information. QuickTime-supported media are playable within Stock Keeper.

Stock Keeper will run on any Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later, including Lion. A minimum screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 is also required.