Ulead Introduces New Version of PhotoImpact Image Editing Software

December 2004– Ulead Systems announces Ulead PhotoImpact 10, the newest version of PhotoImpact, Ulead’s flagship PC image editing software. PhotoImpact 10 continues to be the most comprehensive software product under $100 for digital photography, graphic design and Web graphic/page creation. This latest version offers new tools and layouts to make it easier for novices and casual users to navigate the rich feature set within PhotoImpact, while still providing imaging aficionados with sophisticated creative design tools and effects for professional results. Over the years PhotoImpact has garnered notable reviews and awards in a variety of publications including BusinessWeek, CNET, Entrepreneur, PCPhoto, and Technology & Learning.

“Ulead always takes tremendous pride in the sophistication and power of the features we include in our new releases,” says Lewis Liaw, president of Ulead Systems, North America. “We love to deliver plenty of get-up-and-go under the hood. What’s special about PhotoImpact 10 is that we have made equal or even greater strides in making the product easier and more intuitive to use. Digital cameras today are capable of producing images only pros could have just last year. We are very excited to be able to deliver software that lets hobbyists, casual and business users take full advantage of their cameras and achieve professional quality results without having to spend a lot of time or learn complex software.”

Novice-Friendly Tools and Layouts
For beginning and casual users, PhotoImpact 10 now provides a welcome screen to give quick access to key tasks such as scanning, getting photos from a digital camera, browsing an image collection or making photo corrections. A new, novice-friendly Basic Mode dramatically simplifies the program interface with larger, easily recognizable icons and just the right mix of tools to repair and enhance digital photos.

PhotoImpact 10’s revamped menu system presents commands in easier to understand categories to make navigating the program more intuitive. Innovative tool panel management with dockable and groupable panels enables users to manage screen real estate effectively for more efficient workflow. Users can now access Ulead’s powerful Digital Camera Wizard directly from within the PhotoImpact image editor. A significantly more robust Browse Manager makes browsing photos and processing groups of images faster and more convenient.

Advanced Creative Design Tools
For more advanced users, PhotoImpact 10 now offers new creative design tools such as an enhanced Lasso tool and an Object Extraction Wizard for precise selection of complex objects against low contrast backgrounds. At the same time, a powerful new Touch up tool lets users easily remove undesirable image details, while a new live Histogram Panel displays updated tone distribution information for photos as they are edited.

The enhanced High Dynamic Range (HDR) Engine is unique to PhotoImpact and allows even casual photographers to explore this exciting but previously complex frontier in imaging. By combining bracketed exposures of the same scene, users can extend the perceivable range of light in an image to achieve a level of realism well beyond the capability of traditional photography. The enhanced HDR feature now lets users create photos under a wider range of conditions by painting out unwanted elements from individual photos such as people walking through the scene, moving cars or wind effects.

PhotoImpact 10 also offers a host of new painting and artistic effects including halftone, etching, engraving and contour drawing. Split View, a remarkable new preview mode, lets users interact with effect previews to make finding the right settings significantly easier.

Pricing and Availability
The box and electronic download of PhotoImpact 10 are currently available at www.ulead.com for $89.99. Registered PhotoImpact users can upgrade for $49.99.

About PhotoImpact 10
PhotoImpact 10 is a complete image editing suite that lets users enhance digital photos, create stunning graphics and produce high-impact Web pages. The software makes it easy to acquire, enhance digital photos and apply professional digital photography filters and effects. There’s no need to purchase additional media management software, PhotoImpact 10 includes Photo Explorer 8.5 to organize and manage images with useful new features such as an Easy Access Window to help beginners access popular tasks, album creation to centralize photo, audio and video files, as well as a convenient Calendar View that allows users to browse photos based on the date they were taken.

At the same time, PhotoImpact provides a wide-range of graphic design options such as painting, drawing and cloning tools, as well as particle, texture and lighting effects, and unique tools to create 2D/3D vector graphics. New multiple node editing gives users more control over their vector-based graphic design. Text and vector graphics may also now include borders for greater design flexibility as well as multiple levels of anti-aliasing.

Of equal importance, PhotoImpact 10 delivers a full set of Web tools for creating Web graphics such as buttons, background and banners as well as interactive JavaScript effects, Web slideshows, and animation. The software can even output completely functional Web pages. To complement the software’s Web tools, PhotoImpact 10 comes with GIF Animator 5 for creating Web animation and COOL 360 for generating wide angle and 360 degree panoramas. An extensive ten chapter video tutorial, project lessons and a digital photography handbook complete this product suite.

For more information on the company, its products and services, please visit Ulead’s Web site at www.ulead.com or call 800-85-ULEAD (800-858-5323).

SOURCE Ulead