HP, Adobe, Kodak Endorse Exif Print Standard; Industry Giants Rally Behind Open Standard for Digital Imaging.

Business Editors

Photo Marketing Association tradeshow

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2002

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP), Adobe Systems Incorporated (NYSE:ADBE) and Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) today announced their endorsement of Exchangeable Image File Format 2.2 (Exif Print).

Exif Print is an internationally supported, open standard file format that enables users to capture and display vibrant digital images with accurate colors. With Exif Print, users experience improved quality and consistency of digital photos, enabling them to capture and share images without risk of degraded image integrity.

"With the growing consumer adoption of digital imaging, it is essential that consumers are able to share high-resolution, high-quality images across devices and platforms easily," said Evan Smouse, director of strategic technology, HP Imaging and Printing Systems. "Exif Print delivers compatibility, consistent results and overall consumer confidence."

Digital cameras compress images into a JPEG format, enabling applications that support JPEG to read the image. Exif Print offers greater control by encoding information such as exposure time, contrast, white balance and color saturation by "tagging" it onto the standard header of JPEG files. This new image refinement assures continuity of image color composition, regardless of how images are captured, shared, enhanced, displayed and ultimately printed.

"We have long had a goal of ensuring consistent color reproduction from Photoshop and our other applications, and we're glad that this new Exif specification will make that consistency easier to achieve for digital camera users," said Kevin Connor, director of digital imaging, Adobe.

"A true consumer-oriented digital photography system needs to work with a wide range of digital cameras, software and printing systems, reduce complexity and ensure consistently high-quality results," said Ken Parulski, senior technical associate and manager of standards, Digital & Applied Imaging, Eastman Kodak Company. "We feel Exif 2.2-enabled systems will fulfill this promise."

The benefits of Exif Print can be articulated simply by understanding what is known as the "5-C Power" of Exif Print -- the perfect combination of choice, color, control, convenience and confidence:

-- Choice: As an internationally supported open standard, Exif Print offers
convenience of interoperability. This means that high-quality images can be
realized from digital photography systems using many different devices that
capture, enhance, store, display or print images.

-- Color: Exif Print allows a standardized color description so users and
devices have more control over optimizing the imaging experience. Because Exif
Print is compatible with ICC, a high-end professional color management system,
users can have the control they need.

-- Control: Digital devices with Exif Print can automatically deliver highly
predictable, optimal quality images with standardized color. With Exif Print,
consumers don't have to worry about incompatibility between the displayed image
and the final print.

-- Convenience: With Exif Print's extensive imaging information and extended
color support, companies can manufacture high-quality digital imaging products
that are easy to use. Consumers can focus on creating and sharing images,
without worrying about image quality or device compatibility.

-- Confidence: Exif Print provides consumers with interoperability and
increased functionality across a range of digital imaging products. Since Exif
Print is compatible across a variety of products and supported industry-wide,
consumers can create, build, upgrade and expand their digital imaging systems
with confidence, ensuring that their precious memories will be preserved for
the future.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Founded in 1982, Adobe Systems Incorporated (www.adobe.com) builds award-winning software solutions for network publishing, including Web, ePaper, print, video, wireless and broadband applications. Its graphic design, imaging, dynamic media and authoring tools enable customers to create, manage and deliver visually rich, reliable content. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Adobe is the second-largest PC software company in the U.S., with annual revenues exceeding $1.2 billion.

About Eastman Kodak Company and Infoimaging

Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, enhance, preserve, print and enjoy pictures -- for memories, for information, for entertainment. The company is a major participant in infoimaging -- a $225 billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and PDAs), infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images) and services & media (software, film and paper enabling people to access, analyze and print images). Kodak harnesses its technology, market reach and a host of industry partnerships to provide innovative products and services for customers who need the information-rich content that images contain. The company, with sales last year of $13.2 billion, is organized into four major businesses: Photography, providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services; Commercial Imaging, offering image capture, output and storage products and services to businesses and government; Components, delivering flat-panel displays, optics and sensors to original equipment manufacturers; and Health, supplying the healthcare industry with traditional and digital image capture and output products and services.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to all. HP had total revenue of $45.2 billion in its 2001 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.