PhotoImpact 8 Raises the Bar for Photo, Content and Web Creation

TORRANCE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2002--Ulead Systems, Inc., a leading developer of video editing, image editing and Web graphics software, today announced the release of Ulead PhotoImpact 8, the most comprehensive mid-tier image editor for digital photography, content creation, and Web design. PhotoImpact 8 offers a suite of new and enhanced tools for digital photographers, yet continues to provide an extensive palette of features for content creators and Web designers. PhotoImpact has won Editor's Choice Awards from CNET, American Photography, and PCPhoto Magazine.
With the expected increase in worldwide digital camera sales rising from 17.7 million in 2001 to 53.7 million in 2006*, Ulead has designed PhotoImpact 8 with new and superior features for managing, enhancing and sharing digital images. These features include dynamic file management and image adjustment tools, refined batch and single auto-enhance tools, improved retouch brushes and professional color correction tools, as well as a host of new popular camera filters. PhotoImpact 8 also creates slideshow CDs that play on DVD players.

While strengthening PhotoImpact's digital photography tools, this new version offers more sophisticated features for content design and Web graphics. Graphic designers will enjoy on-screen text editing that eliminates the cumbersome dialog box, time-saving selection tools, and enhanced creativity through a variety of still and animated special effects. Web designers will appreciate PhotoImpact 8's easy-to-use JavaScript slideshow feature to embed self-contained photo slideshows anywhere on a Web page.

"Now that people are increasingly using digital cameras, they need new ways to organize and work with photos," said Lewis Liaw, senior vice president of Engineering. "To meet this need, we've strengthened PhotoImpact's digital photography suite to make it useful for both beginning and advanced digital photographers. At the same time, we still give graphic artists and web designers a wide range of professional tools. Whether someone plans to work with digital photos, create content, build Web graphics, or all three, PhotoImpact 8 is all they need."

"PhotoImpact is amazing in that it's professional, yet easier to use than other image editing programs," says world renowned painter Jim Warren, who uses PhotoImpact to transform his paintings into digital format. "PhotoImpact 8's new features increase my productivity and creativity. The auto-enhance tools give me much greater flexibility and precise output options. And as an artist, I particularly like trying new techniques with the added digital photography filters."

About PhotoImpact 8
Digital Photography

PhotoImpact provides all the tools needed for acquiring, managing, enhancing and sharing images. This latest version is bundled with Ulead Photo Explorer 7 which provides a Digital Camera Wizard to help users transfer photos from a camera to a PC without image quality loss. It enables users to visually organize large quantities of images, video and audio files, while enjoying useful features such as JPEG rotation, auto-file rename, file conversion, and the preservation of Exif camera data.

For beginners, PhotoImpact provides new auto-enhance features for common adjustments such as focus, contrast, brightness, hue, saturation and tones. For more advanced users, PhotoImpact offers improved retouch brushes and professional color correction tools using tone maps, levels and histograms. A new set of digital photography filters enable users to easily achieve photography effects that professional photographers accomplish using expensive add-on lenses and filters. These effects include specular star filter, diffuse glow, split glass lens, spot filter and film grain effects. PhotoImpact 8's enhanced crop tool includes aspect ratio presets that make it easier to crop photos in the proper dimensions for printing images in standard sizes such as 4 x 6, 5 x 7, and APS panorama.

PhotoImpact gives users all the options necessary to share photos. Multiple photo print options save precious photo paper, while auto e-mail functions make compressing and e-mailing photos simple. Users can burn slideshows that include photos, video and music onto CD-ROMs that can be viewed on TV when played in DVD players.

Creative Design

PhotoImpact 8 provides a wide-range of creative options such as painting, drawing and cloning tools. This latest version includes convenient on-screen text editing. Enhanced still and animated special effects, such as particle, texture filter, and lighting effects, give users a host of creative design possibilities. Users can take advantage of powerful vector illustration tools for more detailed drawings. PhotoImpact also includes creative features not found in other image editors, such as 3D graphics rendering. Users can create 3D logos, interfaces and objects with hundreds of 3D settings like lighting, texture, reflection, transparency and more. PhotoImpact 8 accepts a variety of third party plug-ins to give users more creative options.

Web Graphics

PhotoImpact 8 gives users a complete set of dedicated Web graphics tools. With this latest version, Web designers can easily add interactive Web photo slideshows. This new JavaScript slideshow feature allows them to embed a self-contained interactive photo slideshow anywhere on a Web page without linking multiple pages for each photo. PhotoImpact 8's object linking feature lets Web designers dynamically link or insert Web objects using a variety of file formats such as Flash animation and video files when creating a Web page. The software also includes Ulead GIF Animator 5, Ulead's award-winning and most popular animation program on the Web, with advanced features for True Color object-based composition, round-trip editing, and the latest compression techniques. Whether users wish to put their photos on the Web, create Web graphics and animation, or even generate completely functional Web pages, PhotoImpact makes the process fast and intuitive.

Pricing and Availability

Ulead PhotoImpact 8 will be available for download via Ulead's Web site (www.ulead.com) on September 25, 2002, and will be available in North American retail stores and catalogs starting October 1, 2002. The estimated street price for the boxed product of PhotoImpact 8 is $89.95 and $79.95 for the downloaded product. Registered PhotoImpact users will be able to upgrade to the boxed version of PhotoImpact 8 for approximately $49.95 or $44.95 for the downloaded version.

About Ulead Systems

Ulead Systems, Inc. develops innovative video, imaging and Web graphics applications to help consumers and organizations communicate ideas effectively and creatively to audiences around the world. The company's award-winning desktop products include Ulead® PhotoImpact®, Ulead® VideoStudio®, Ulead® MediaStudio® Pro, Ulead® DVD Workshop(TM), Ulead® Photo Express(TM), Ulead® COOL 3D(TM), Ulead® GIF Animator(TM), and Ulead® Photo Explorer(TM). Ulead's iMira Server Tools offer organizations server-based imaging and Web solutions that enable them to manage internal image and editing processes and offer Web site imaging services. For more information on Ulead, its products and services, visit www.ulead.com or call 800-85-ULEAD (800/858-5323).

*InfoTrends 2001 World Wide Digital Camera Forecast, 9/01