Light Crafts upgrades Aurora, gives 24-hour free promo

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Light Crafts upgrades Aurora, gives 24-hour free promo
By Mike Tomkins
(Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - 12:17 EDT)

Light Crafts Inc. has released an upgrade to its imaging application Aurora, and four twenty four hours the company is simultaneously offering customers the opportunity to receive the program free of charge.

Aurora was first launched back in April, and at the time was available only on the Windows platform although a Mac OS version was promised. Today, that promise has been kept with the release of Aurora for Mac, which includes all the main features from the PC version, and is drag-and-drop compatible with iPhoto and other Mac apps.

At the same time, the PC version has been updated with new features include Retouch and Punch editing tools, integration with the Shutterfly printing and sharing site, and speed optimizations. The Retouch tool allows for cloning one area of an image to another, for example to remove blemishes. The Punch tool, meanwhile, boosts mid-tone color contrast.

From now through Thursday, July 16th 2009 at 9:15 a.m. Eastern, customers on both Windows and Mac OS platforms can obtain Light Crafts Aurora completely free of charge by visiting the Light Crafts website, selecting "Buy Now", and entering the code "FREE24" at checkout. If you don't make it in time for the free offer, the program can be purchased at the regular price of $19.95. Existing customers can update to the new version free of charge.

A number of screenshots showing the previous version of Light Crafts Aurora in use can be seen in our coverage of April's launch.

Original Source Press Release:

Light Crafts Introduces New Features to Aurora, Now Available for Mac and PC

For 24 Hours Only, Light Crafts Offers Consumers the Gift of Aurora for Free

Palo Alto, Calif. – July 15, 2009 – Light Crafts today announced several updates to Aurora, its powerfully simple photo editing, organizing, sharing and storing software, including the addition of two photo editing tools and the availability of Aurora for Mac users. As a summer gift to consumers, Light Crafts is offering Aurora for Mac or PC for free for 24 hours only. Consumers can download and own Aurora permanently, for free, by visiting www.lightcrafts.com/aurora, selecting “Buy Now,” and entering FREE24 at check-out. The 24-hour promotion begins on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 9:15 a.m. Eastern and ends on Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 9:15 a.m. Eastern.

Following the free promotion, Aurora for Mac and PC will be available for $19.95 and can be purchased for download at www.lightcrafts.com/aurora. For existing customers, the latest version is a free update.

The latest release of Aurora includes several significant updates including the addition of Retouch and Punch photo editing tools to the visual photo editor, the addition of integration with Shutterfly to Aurora’s already easy-to use sharing and publishing feature, and accelerated software performance.

Aurora’s Retouch tool enables users to easily heal, or improve, areas of their photos in just a few clicks by copying textures from one part of an image to another. Aurora’s intelligent visual photo editor integrates the copied texture into the selected area and adapts the color for a natural-looking result. The new Punch tool enhances color contrast in the mid-tones without altering shadows and highlights in the image, resulting in a photo that is more pleasing to the eye and well-balanced.

“Our updates to Aurora reflect our focus on delivering powerful and easy-to-use software that helps photographers of all stripes bring out the natural beauty in their photos,” said Fabio Riccardi, founder of Light Crafts. “Retouching an image is traditionally a complex process and an editing tool available in more expensive software. We are thrilled to enable our users to quickly and intuitively retouch their images using our very affordable Aurora software. We are also excited to make Aurora available for Mac users for the first time.”

Aurora for Mac includes all of the photo editing, organizing, and sharing features found in the PC product with a user experience designed for Mac enthusiasts. Users can drag-and-drop photos into Aurora from iPhoto and other Mac applications, for example.

Aurora’s visual photo editor is powered by sophisticated algorithms that simplify the complexities of advanced photo editing by presenting suggested improvements to photos. A pop-up image selector lets users see a range of improvements and pick exactly how their edited photos might look simply by clicking on the desired improved image. In just a few clicks, users can Relight, Retouch, add Punch for color contrast, adjust color strength and warmth, tint, crop, straighten, zoom and adjust red-eye in a simple, intuitive and visual way.

Aurora’s powerfully simple solution not only edits photos, it also has sophisticated tools to help organize photos, has online back-up services to help keep photos safe, and makes sharing photos easy with photo publishing tools and photo sharing capabilities with sites including Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Picasa, Shutterfly, and TwentyThree.

Existing Aurora customers will receive the free update by opening their current version of the product and downloading the update.

Visit Aurora on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lightcrafts and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aurora/71524602742.

About Light Crafts, Inc.
Light Crafts, Inc is a company that believes everyone’s photos should look great and that getting them to look that way should be simple. Light Crafts’ patent-pending image processing technology powers Aurora, the powerfully simple photo editing, organizing and sharing software, and the award-winning LightZoneTM digital image editing application suite. Light Crafts was founded in 2004 by Fabio Riccardi. The company is privately-funded and based in Palo Alto, California. For more information about Light Crafts and Aurora, please visit www.lightcrafts.com.

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