MPEG-7 Visual Standard specifies a set of descriptors that can be used to retrieve similar images from digital photo repository. Among them, the Color Layout Descriptor (CLD) represents the spatial distribution of colors in an image. The Edge Histogram Descriptor (EHD) describes edge distribution with a histogram based on local edge distribution in an image. These two features are very powerful features for CBIR systems, especially sketch-based image retrieval. Further, combining color and texture features in CBIR systems leads to more accurate results for image retrieval. In both the Color Layout Descriptor (CLD) and the Edge Histogram Descriptor (EHD), image features like color and edge distribution can be localized in separate 4 x 4 sub-images. The visual features of each sub-image were characterized by the representative colors of the CLD as well as the edge histogram of the EHD at that sub-image using weighing factors. As most CBIR systems depend on query images and as most users of such CBIR systems are non- professional, we hope to develop a more user-friendly prototype, NWCBIR, implementing both CLD and EHD features.