Creative Makes Digital Photo Editing Faster

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May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Creative Technology today announced availability of the Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect graphics accelerator, pioneering a new product category by making digital photo editing faster for amateur photographers. The Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect has an ESP of US$179.99 and is immediately available online from www.creative.com and will also be available at selected retail locations.

"As multi-megapixel cameras become commonplace, editing and combining large images on the PC takes longer. By speeding up the photo editing and panoramic stitching processes, the Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect enables amateur photographers to spend more time on their hobby and less time at the PC," said Jim Carlton, senior brand manager for graphics and video at Creative. "By incorporating visual processing technology from the professional graphics business into the consumer market, we enable digital photographers at all skill levels to save valuable time and get great results."

Based on the new VP500SE Visual Processing Unit (VPU) from 3Dlabs, the Creative Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect takes digital photography to the next level by enabling consumers to view pictures in ultra-high resolution, to stitch images together to create panoramic photos, and to apply multiple special effects. The Creative Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect stitches at incredible speeds -- up to three times the speed of current graphics cards -- and is exclusively combined with customized, full versions of ArcSoft's PhotoImpression, Panorama Maker, and ArcSoft PhotoPrinter. Using the included photo-editing suite, consumers can quickly and effortlessly edit images, create true color calendars, greeting cards, or screensavers.

The Creative Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect is loaded with 64 MB onboard memory and displays digital images in both ultra-high resolution and true color modes. Equipped with DVI and VGA connectors, Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect supports both flat panel displays and standard monitors including dual-head configuration. The AGP 2x or 4x compatible graphics solution is easy to install, and fully supports Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, and Windows XP operating systems and important APIs like DirectX and OpenGL. Users will also enjoy excellent visuals from general desktop applications in addition to the latest 3D games. A suite of award-winning software from ArcSoft is included with the Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect that includes:

PhotoImpression -- includes a variety of advanced image-editing features and special effects filters running directly on the Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect and combined into a fun, easy-to-use application.
Panorama Maker -- seamlessly combines horizontal, vertical, or tiled sets of images to create breath-taking panoramic photos. Panorama Maker uses the Virtual Processing Unit (VPU) on the Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect to increase the stitching speed.
PhotoPrinter -- simplifies multiple image printing on a single page and multiple page print at one time.

Pricing and Availability
The Creative Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect is available online for US$179.99 at creative.com and will be available at selected retail locations. For more information about the Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect, visit www.creative.com.

Source: Creative Technology Ltd.
Web site: http://www.creative.com