New Imaging Software Tackles E-mail, Photo Slide Shows

By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 7/27/2005

New York — A trio of recently introduced digital photography software programs took aim at simplifying image e-mailing and creating multimedia presentations.

AMC announced a professional version of its eFotoXpress e-mail software. The program can compress large image files without losing quality by converting regular JPEG images into the newer JPEG2000 format.

According to Edward Tan, president, AMC, the software can compress a 10MB image down to 80KB, but unlike typical software programs that compress photos for e-mail, eFotoXpress images can be printed in large sizes with no discernable quality loss. The program works with Outlook, Yahoo! and other e-mail programs.

Aside from e-mail, the program can also be used to free up hard disk space on PCs, Tan said.

The professional version, for a suggested $199, also offers photo editing and lossless compression.

SimpleStar released PhotoShow 4 in both a deluxe edition ($50) and a free Express edition. The program lets users automatically create multimedia slideshows incorporating digital images, video clips, clip art, music and captions. These “PhotoShows” can be sent to SimpleStar where they are burned to DVD.

The latest release adds the ability to organize and edit video clips, a redesigned interface, new transitions and effects, additional music and animated clip art and the ability to upload images to SimpleStar’s new PhotoShow Circle subscriber-based photo Web page. Consumers who buy the Deluxe PhotoShow get a one-year free subscription to PhotoShow Circle, which costs $50 a year.

SimpleStar offers the program under its own brand and also in a partnership with Nero, Comcast and Cablevision, among others.

H&M Systems Software introduced release 2.11 of its StudioLine Photo 2 digital imaging software. The new release adds improved online album creation and organizing tools, including dedicated toolbar buttons for rating images, adding them to a light box or tagging them for later use.

An automatic naming feature combines image names, image tags and sequence numbers to create file names or to control the order of appearance in third-party applications. The program also offers a new Web gallery wizard for uploading images to the Web.

StudioLine Photo 2.11 is shipping now for a suggested $49.