Award-Winning EasyPhoto Reader Enters Japanese Market; Storm Primax appoints Nissei Sangyo Co., Ltd to be its master distributor in Japan.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 1996--In an effort to extend its mission of making it as easy to use photos on a computer as it is to use text to a worldwide market, Storm Primax announced today that its award-winning EasyPhoto line of products will begin shipping in Japan in late June. Storm Primax has appointed Nissei Sangyo Co., Ltd as its master distributor. EasyPhoto is the recognized leader in an emerging new category of computer photo products, called photoware. The flagship product A primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. within the line, the EasyPhoto Reader, is a compact photo-input device and tightly integrated software Separate software components or applications that have been combined into one package. See integrated software package. that lets people bring photos into their computer with a single touch of a button. The EasyPhoto software integrates two unique computer technologies called ClearScan and ClearPrint, which result in sharper details and true colors (1) Specifically, refers to 16,777,216 colors (24-bit color). See high color. (2) Generically, refers to photo-realistic color (typically requires 24-bit color as a minimum). . EasyPhoto/EasyPhoto Reader "Photos empower us to communicate with incomparable (mathematics) incomparable - Two elements a, b of a set are incomparable under some relation <= if neither a <= b, nor b <= a. personality and emotional impact," said Bill Krause, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Storm Software. "Storm's goal is to provide integrated hardware and software solutions that make it easy and natural to input, organize, and use photos with their computer. With EasyPhoto, our customers are quickly and easily adding their own photos to newsletters, party invitations, letters, school reports -- even web pages. We are excited at the opportunity to extend our mission to a worldwide basis, starting with the Japanese market. We are pleased to have Nissei Sangyo Co., Ltd as our master distributor." The EasyPhoto product line The EasyPhoto line will be available in Japan in June. All of the products in the line will be fully localized in Japanese language Japanese language Language spoken by about 125 million people on the islands of Japan, including the Ryukyus. The only other language of the Japanese archipelago is Ainu (see Ainu), now spoken by only a handful of people on Hokkaido, though once much more widespread. for Windows 3.1 and Windows '95. The line consists of the following products: EasyPhoto software, a powerful yet simple-to-use photo software product that makes it easy to organize, enhance and use photos on your computer; and the EasyPhoto Reader, a package that includes the compact photo-input device plus the tightly-integrated EasyPhoto software. A whole new way to use home computers Because it is specifically designed for the home market, EasyPhoto has all the features a personal computer user needs. It works seamlessly with a customer's existing applications and has a simple user interface. Both products include, in addition to the software, over 100 photos. The EasyPhoto Reader package includes Storm Primax's compact 24-bit photo scanner A scanner specialized for reading photographs up to 4x6". It uses the same principles as a larger desktop scanner, but is generally a low-cost, consumer-oriented device geared for digitizing home photos into the computer. that instantly reads photos into a PC. The EasyPhoto Reader does not require any interface boards, so installation is quick -- simply plug it in the printer port. Plus, it includes a motorized mo·tor·ize tr.v. mo·tor·ized, mo·tor·iz·ing, mo·tor·iz·es 1. To equip with a motor. 2. To supply with motor-driven vehicles. 3. To provide with automobiles. feeder tray that automatically reads the photo at the optimum speed for high quality reproduction. Users simply place a photo in the feeder tray and press the start button. The EasyPhoto Reader inputs the photo directly into an EasyPhoto Gallery. The EasyPhoto Reader scans photos up to 1200 dpi enhanced resolution See interpolated resolution. and includes Storm's unique scanning algorithm, called ClearScan, that results in sharper details and true color. Advanced imaging technology made easy to use In developing EasyPhoto, Storm Primax, best known for its sophisticated imaging technologies, used its expertise in compression, acceleration, and photo enhancement to overcome the problems that have previously made it hard to work with photos on personal computers. These technologies allow EasyPhoto to compress photos automatically to a size that's manageable for a home computer's typically small hard disk. It also integrates an advanced virtual memory system that helps consumers use photos on a home PC that typically has low amounts of memory. The technology inside EasyPhoto allows it to easily enhance photos and then print them with extremely high quality with today's color ink jet See inkjet printer. and grayscale In computing, a grayscale or greyscale digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample. Displayed images of this sort are typically composed of shades of gray, varying from black at the weakest intensity to white at the strongest, though in laser printers. "The technology behind EasyPhoto is what makes this product so unusual," says Adriann Ligtenberg, Founder and V.P. of Engineering. "Computer users will never have a need to know that they are running JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. compression, a virtual memory system, and print-quality optimization. They only thing they will know is that their personal photos don't take up much disk space, their computer system responds quickly, and the photos look beautiful when printed on a color inkjet or grayscale laser printer." EasyPhoto provides a variety of ways to get personal photos into the computer. It can read photographs directly from a Kodak Photo CD, from a floppy or hard disk, from scanners, from digital cameras, or from the EasyPhoto Reader. EasyPhoto uses a unique Photo Gallery to display thumbnails of photos in a familiar film strip metaphor and to organize them into groups. The gallery is a compact size, which lets users work with a document and photos at the same time without one getting in the way of the other. Users can add captions or notes to any photograph. And the gallery also provides a search function: users can search for photos by captions, by titles, or by example. Drag and drop A graphical user interface (GUI) capability that lets you perform operations by moving the icon of an object with the mouse into another window or onto another icon. For example, files can be copied or moved by dragging them from one folder to another. photos into letters, flyers, and more EasyPhoto lets users place any photo into word processors and other programs. If the application is OLE 2.0-compliant, such as Microsoft Word A full-featured word processing program for Windows and the Macintosh from Microsoft. Included in the Microsoft application suite, it is a sophisticated program with rudimentary desktop publishing capabilities that has become the most widely used word processing application on the market. 6.0, Microsoft Works An integrated software package for Windows and the Macintosh from Microsoft. It provides file management with relational-like capabilities, word processing, spreadsheet, business graphics and communications capabilities in one package. 3.0, WordPerfect 6.1, Visio, and Family Tree Maker, you can just choose a thumbnail photo from the gallery and drag and drop it into your document. The Photo Workshop offers intuitive editing tools that let consumers resize Verb 1. resize - change the size of; make the size more appropriate size - make to a size; bring to a suitable size rescale - establish on a new scale , rotate, and crop photos. It also allows them to adjust brightness and contrast, change colors, easily remove scratches -- and even remove the red flash from people's eyes. When users have the photo the way they want it, they can drag and drop it from the Workshop directly to a document, or save it back to the Gallery. Users can even change photographs once they've placed them in the document. Simply double-click on the placed photograph and the Photo Workshop toolbar A row or column of on-screen buttons used to activate functions in the application. Many toolbars are customizable, letting you add and delete buttons as required. Toolbars may be fixed in position or may float, which means they can be dragged to a more convenient location in the appears. Change the photo and then click outside the photo -- and they've changed the photo without ever leaving the document. EasyPhoto is the only photo software product that uses unique state-of-the-art algorithms, called ClearScan and ClearPrint for best quality results. ClearScan is a unique scanning algorithm engineered to identify and automatically brighten bright·en tr. & intr.v. bright·ened, bright·en·ing, bright·ens To make or become bright or brighter. bright dark areas as the photo is copied into the computer. ClearPrint adjusts the photograph for the best possible printing results, ClearPrint now checks the user's individual printer, determines the best setting for optimal printing, and prepares photographs so they print at the highest quality possible for that particular printer. Most applications leave print quality up to the printer process itself. If the application requests it via OLE, EasyPHoto takes control over the printing process, working directly with the printer's driver to get the best possible output. All the products in the EasyPhoto line also offer a special bonus. 3 ways to share photos on a PC. -- Create slide shows automatically. Save slide shows on floppy disk. A viewer is included so anyone with a PC can run it. -- Automatically create screensavers of favorite photos. -- Automatically create a Windows "wallpaper" design. Minimum System Requirements To be used efficiently, all computer software needs certain hardware components or other software resources to be present on a computer system. These pre-requisites are known as (computer) system requirements and are often used as a guideline as opposed to an absolute rule. -- Windows 3.1 or later (works with Windows '95) -- 486 processor or higher -- 8MB RAM -- 13 MB free hard disk space -- Software ships on a CD-ROM drive A device that holds and reads CD-ROM discs. CD-ROM drives generally also play audio CD discs by sending analog sound to the sound card via a 4-pin cable. For specifications of 10x, 20x, etc. drives, see CD-ROM drives. See CD-ROM, CD-ROM changer, CD-ROM server and CD-ROM audio cable. (3.5" floppies available upon request) Pricing and Availability The EasyPhoto line of products will be available in Japan through major distributors, major computer superstores, and other major outlets. The EasyPhoto Reader will have a suggested retail price of Yen39800. The EasyPhoto software will have a suggested retail price of Yen9800. About Storm Primax Storm Primax, Inc. (http://www.easyphoto.com/storm/) creates integrated hardware and software solutions that make it easy to input, organize and use photos on a computer. The company's photo imaging innovations result in consumer-friendly products that produce high quality results. Current products include the award-winning EasyPhoto Reader, EasyPhoto software, EasyPhoto SmartPage, and the patented PhotoDrive. EasyPhoto software is also licensed for inclusion with Acer personal computers, Epson digital cameras, Hewlett-Packard home personal computers, Nikon Slide scanners A scanner that is specialized for scanning 35mm slides and film negatives. The slide or film is inserted into a single slot in the machine or into a tray, which is inserted. Many flatbed scanners are also able to scan slides. See scanner and transparency adapter. and Polaroid color scanners. Founded in 1990, Storm is based in Mountain View, Calif. -0- Note to Editors: Storm Primax, EasyPhoto, ClearScan are trademarks of Storm Software, Inc. All other tradenames, products and services are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. CONTACT: Switzer Communications Nicole Della-Santina, 415/945-7075 or nicole@switz.com or Storm Software, Inc. Claire Dean, 415/691-6675 or claire@easyphoto.com or Nissei Sangyo America Ltd. Akitoshi Tamura, 415/969-1100 or Tamura_a@nissei.com |
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