Adobe Introduces New Imaging Software
By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 1/9/2003
LAS VEGAS — The software company Adobe will be introducing an entry-level omnibus digital imaging program at CES, here.
The software, called PhotoShop Album, is positioned below the company's PhotoShop Elements program, which, according to Michael Hopwood, senior director, digital imaging, Adobe, is the best selling consumer digital imaging software on the market (as of this writing).
Albums will take the place of the company's PhotoDeluxe software as the baseline product for the general consumer. It will be sold separately at retail, and will probably not be bundled with digital cameras as PhotoShop Elements was with select cameras, Hopwood said.
Albums will ship at the end of the month for a suggested retail price of $49.99 and be available for Windows only.
The software organizes images on a user's PC according to date taken or by user-created keyword tags from the included category list (people, places, events, etc.). User tags produce cross-references, which can be used to create customized albums. For instance, a user can search his/her photos by date and person; all the photos in that time frame of that person will appear as one album.
"A big complaint from consumers is that they've stored all these photos on their computer but can't access them easily," Hopwood said. "We've designed Albums to address this, we want the digital experience to be better than the film experience."
The software also allows users to e-mail PDF slideshows, create greeting cards, Web galleries, and calendars via a step-by-step creation wizard. A "Single Click Fix" feature allows for instant image correction. Albums also features basic editing tools for fixing red eye, brightening dark pictures, rotating, resizing, and cropping.
