High-Speed Archiving and Unlimited Designs From Album Pages to Flyers Attract Photographers and Designers at All Levels

UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- H&M Systems Software, Inc. today introduced Release 2.7 of its flagship StudioLine Photo 2 digital imaging software. This latest release enables users to archive and browse the image database up to 25 percent faster. Photographers and designers of all skill levels can also freely design custom pages for photo albums and create other print pieces. StudioLine Photo 2 is an economical, yet versatile tool designed to meet the demands of professional and novice photographers, stock houses, graphic designers, and others needing an all-in-one solution for editing, storing, and managing digital images.

"With this release, we significantly build on the design and work-flow enhancements introduced last year in Release 2.5," said Peter Oltersdorf, marketing director, H&M Software. "In addition, StudioLine Photo 2's increased imaging speed, combined with its ability to store an unlimited amount of images, makes it possibly the most powerful image management system commercially available. The amount of time savings by pros and designers working with large quantities of images and albums will provide a competitive business benefit for any photo and design studio."

Image Archiving Dramatically Faster
StudioLine Photo 2.7 boosts users' productivity with a 25 percent increase in overall speed when displaying and browsing images throughout the system. In the previous release, StudioLine Photo 2 could categorize and archive 1,000 new images in about seven minutes. Release 2.7 enables photographers to do the same in less than five minutes. When multiplied over many CDs of disparate images and events, the resource savings become a factor for busy amateur and successful professional photographers. Specific time savings occur when loading and viewing images, opening albums and folders, and switching between albums. Users will also benefit from a new shortcut in the context menu to instantly view an image full screen.

Blank Layouts Unleash Creative Designs
H&M Software builds on the greeting cards and calendars offered in Release 2.5 by adding blank print layouts in this latest offering. Photographers and designers can create unique album pages, posters, flyers, certificates or any kind of collage design imaginable! Users simply select a paper format, then drop in images and text. Design objects can be freely positioned on the blank layout, aided by rulers, guides and similar alignment tools. Unique images, banners, headlines, and text effects can be created using a full range of colors, fonts and filters, including drop shadows, frames and transparencies.

New paragraphs can be composed in the text editor, or copied from other text programs. A multi-lingual spell-checker is built-in, and automatic text can be generated from image tags and descriptions so images already labeled in the image archive won't have to be re-entered. Once completed, photographers can print, email or export their design as a graphics file.

Countless Other Improvements
Release 2.7 shows the Windows descriptors introduced in Release 2.5 in their own "Windows" group in the descriptor form so they can easily be accessed and edited. Even non-standard descriptors that were inserted by third-party software will be retained. Details of the timeline and keyword features have been further enhanced. Many suggestions by experienced users have been incorporated, further improving the workflow and turbo-charging productivity.

StudioLine Photo 2.7 also continues to support the RAW format of additional new camera models. Currently, StudioLine Photo 2 supports 20 brands and 161 models, including cameras from Canon, Casio, Contax, Creative, Epson, Fuji, Imacon, Kodak, Konica, Leaf, Leica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Phase One, Rollei, Sigma, Sinar and Sony.

Requirements, Availability and Pricing
StudioLine Photo 2 requires Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP, and is available at major stores, with a suggested retail price of $49.00. In Europe, the suggested retail price is pounds Sterling 49.00. Electronic copies of the software can be purchased at the product web site http://www.StudioLine.biz for $44.00, or pounds Sterling 44.00 in Europe. A free 30-day trial can be downloaded.