Gretag's PMA2002 exhibit will highlight the ability of the Digital Photo Station to connect to a variety of Gretag minilabs, partner, and third-party photo fulfillment output devices.

HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS -- Developed in the context of open system architecture principles, Gretag's digital photo station kiosk can route digital photo print orders to onsite digital minilabs, photo printers or remote production facilities. The kiosk can be placed in in-store as well as at remote locations convenient to the consumer.

The digital photo station provides input to a wide range of digital photo quality printers such as dye-sublimation, inkjet and silver halide printers including Gretag's customizer, hybrid and digital minilabs such as the Masterflex series, and competitive minilabs. It is ideal for installation in mass merchandising and digital camera retailer operations, hotels, and entertainment/leisure activity sites, and is part of Gretag's print@retail program.

The digital photo station kiosk serves as the bridge between digital input media and output devices including digital camera media, pictures on CD, online photo websites, print-to-print sources such as flat bed scanners, and minilab on-site print processing through local area networks, broadband Internet connections for central labs, professional and social/portrait labs, specialty, large format and commercial print processing.

Gretag's print@retail program is a systems-based print fulfillment strategy that focuses on providing retailers with the ability to fulfill the consumer's photographic printing requirements. One model focuses on photographic printing of either film or digital-based images through on-site minilabs. A second model stresses photographic printing of digital images (consumer-operated) through digital kiosk technology and/or Internet downloading, linked to either digital minilabs and/or kiosk-integrated printers. A third model links digital kiosks to off-site central labs for photo fulfillment through the Internet.

Key to the versatility, as well as unique functionality of Gretag's digital photo station kiosks, is its user interface and image processing software. Powered by Telepix, the easy-to-use Gretag user interface software allows the consumer simple and quick access to their digital images, while providing a variety of hassle-free image enhancements and package print options. The Gretag image processing software, also powered by Telepix, provides a unique, flexible, processing platform that can be configured to output photographic prints from a wide variety of manufacturer's photo printers.

Within Gretag's PMA 2002 exhibit, visitors will see a variety of digital photo station/printer configurations. For the kiosk/minilab product configurations, Gretag has connected digital photo stations to the following: Gretag's new e-motion Digital Minilab; masterflex digital minilab with Gretag's s-eco Dry Replenishment Chemistry; masterflex analog minilab with digital4master Digital Upgrade Kit; and the performaentro Analog Minilab with digital4master Digital Upgrade Kit.

For the kiosk/printer product configurations, Gretag has connected digital photo stations to the Olympus P400 dye sublimation printer, and the Mitsubishi roll-feed dye sublimation printer. A result of this partnering effort, both printers have unique software allowing for order sorting and color profile optimization when used with Gretag's digital photo station kiosk. This feature further enhances output quality.

The digital photo station is an integrated, all-in-one digital input station that includes a touch screen monitor, high-speed digital camera media drive, CD-RW, credit card reader and receipt printer. The digital photo station is available in a number of models including an attractive, freestanding model, a wall model, and a countertop model. The freestanding model is available to hold a variety of dye-sublimation or other photo-quality printers, or connected to behind-the-counter printers or minilabs. The freestanding kiosk models contain a Pentium III 733MHz processor with 256 MB RAM. The EloTouch touch screen is a 15-inch color LCD with a true color image resolution of 1024 x 768. An internally stored maintenance keyboard is also included.

Unique to the digital photo station is its high-speed digital camera drive designed to accept five card types, each as individual drives with associated recognition LED, including Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, Multimedia Card and PCMCIA. The Ricoh CD-RW is SCSI interface, 32x reading, 12x writing and 10x rewriting. The station's card reader is hybrid manual insertion for magnetic strip (tracks 1 & 2) and for smart card. The unit's receipt printer is a 60mm thermal paper printer that is bitmap graphics capable with an integral cutter.

The Gretag Imaging Group, which is headquartered in Regensdorf, Switzerland, is one of the world's premier suppliers of photofinishing and imaging equipment and systems. The Group's products and services range from minilabs and central lab equipment to Internet applications. Gretag employs approximately 1300 employees worldwide.