In order to collect crystallographic data rapidly and efficiently from proteins, an offline image plate detector was designed and installed on the beamline BM14, at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The principal component of the detector was a rotating support frame onto which six image plates could be mounted. A barcode system identified each plate and differences in plate orientation were corrected by fiducial spots recorded using a xenon arc-lamp with fibre optic light guides. A suite of computer software was written to control the detector and manage all aspects of the data collection.