Compatible with Film and Digital Images; Expands Photographer Offerings and Sales

ORLANDO, Fla., February 23 -- One year after Kodak Professional acquired the popular ProShots studio imaging workflow system, the software has been made even more sophisticated. Kodak ProShots Studio Software Suite v5.0, introduced today by Kodak Professional, allows photographers to work with both film-based and digitally captured images, and offers a more intuitive, easy-to-use graphical user interface for delivering image files effortlessly to processing labs.

New software enhancements include more automated features to save photographers production time. In addition to a more user-friendly interface, the software can customize print sizes and includes more options for easier presentations to clients including black-and-white, sepia-tone and color-tone images in online photo albums or portrait slide shows for such clients as brides, high school seniors, athletes, business executives, and families.

Increasingly popular with bridal parties who enjoy online access to wedding photos, high school seniors also like the ability to view online their images and the broad portfolio of digital image products that can be created with the new ProShots software. It is a powerful suite of image management and design tools developed primarily for professional wedding, social and portrait photographers who work with optical, hybrid and complete digital lab workflows.

"The enhancements to our Kodak ProShots Studio Software Suite v5.0 allow professional photographers to expand their product offerings and increase sales to clients," said Guy Smith, Worldwide Product Manager, Software and Services, Kodak Professional. "It's easier to use, and job turnaround time shrinks so photographers and labs can take on additional business and expand their client base."

Improvements Simplify, Expand Digital Imaging

Kodak Professional has enhanced ProShots software in the following ways:

1) Film and Digital Images: Easy-to-use, automated handling of digital camera files, and easy merging of scanned film and digital camera files.

2) Streamlined Workflow: One click allows photographers to send orders to a lab that uses the Kodak ProShots System.

3) Color Management: Photographers can assign color profiles to assist in calibrating digital camera files for input, display and output. Files can be converted automatically to the preferred lab color space, allowing labs to deliver consistently high-quality prints.

4) Improved User Interface: Fewer windows and clicks overall result in easier navigation through the system. Installing and learning to use the software also is easier.

5) Workflow Wizards: The customizable, automated tools reduce the time needed to design albums, side shows and other and photo presentations to clients.

6) Improved Web Sites: Web site design and navigation as been improved and simplified, resulting in a better client viewing and purchase experience.

ProShots Software in Action

The photographer can start using ProShots software once the ProShots CD comes back from his or her participating lab with film scans of all their images. If the photographer also has digital camera files, film scans and digital camera files are merged for composition and editing. The photographer will work with an electronic light table to edit and organize images to create a slide show presentation for the client.

Working with the photographer, a client can specify cropping, composition and tones for each image. The client can also be involved in the creation of albums, digital compositions, and images in frames. The photographer also can provide clients with a proof book of the album.

Additionally, the photographer can direct the client to the Kodak ProShots web site, where the lab has uploaded the images so friends, relatives and other potential purchasers can view and order prints online creating an additional revenue stream for the photographer and the lab.

Print orders are encoded with metadata detailing cropping and composition preferences and delivered electronically to a Kodak ProShots System participating lab, thus eliminating the labor-intensive step of carding negatives and filling out order instructions. For digital camera images, the same process is used to send order instructions with the digital camera files for printing.

The job is received by the lab and processed using the Digital Accunet System from Bremson, Inc. A Kodak Company. The Accunet system collects the job data, tracks the job's status and communicates with Kodak Professional DP2 v4.0 software, the "digital backbone" of the lab's workflow, to print the order. The finished prints are then returned to the photographer.

A Complete Digital Workflow

Kodak ProShots Studio Software Suite v5.0 is the "front end" of Kodak Professional's comprehensive modular digital workflow for the lab. The entire system will be demonstrated at the PMA trade show, Feb. 24-27 in Orlando, Fla., at the Kodak Professional booth (#2772).

For labs that already have purchased key components of Kodak's lab digitization architecture, Kodak is ready to help them extend and enhance their digital workflow, and ensure that the system runs smoothly.

"Labs that currently have some of the components in place now have a clear migration path to the complete system," Smith said. "They have the system foundation, and Kodak will provide assistance to make sure they get the most from their technology."

Kodak ProShots Studio Software Suite v5.0 will be available in the United States beginning in the second quarter. Pricing is determined based on use and other factors.

Eastman Kodak Company and infoimaging

Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, enhance, preserve, print and enjoy pictures -- for memories, for information, for entertainment. The company is a major participant in "infoimaging" -- a $225 billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and PDAs), infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images) and services & media (software, film and paper enabling people to access, analyze and print images). Kodak harnesses its technology, market reach and a host of industry partnerships to provide innovative products and services for customers who need the information-rich content that images contain. The company, with sales last year of $13.2 billion, is organized into four major businesses: Photography, providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services; Commercial Imaging, offering image capture, output and storage products and services to businesses and government; Components, delivering flat-panel displays, optics and sensors to original equipment manufacturers; and Health, supplying the healthcare industry with traditional and digital image capture and output products and services.