New Canon Photo Software Builds on Long Company History in Photography Field

COSTA MESA, Calif., (August 30, 1999) -- Canon Software Publishing (CSP), a division of Canon Computer Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon, Inc., today announced two new photo-editing software programs ö Canon Photo Gold and Canon Photo. Both Canon Photo Gold and Canon Photo offer simple, yet fast and powerful, photo manipulation to new, occasional and enthusiastic users of digital cameras, scanners and digital photographs. The Canon Photo family of products give users the power to digitally enhance and retouch photographs, share them with friends and family, explore special effects and create printable photo projects ö all with speed and quality.

ãMaking high-quality digital photo editing simple for everyone is a natural extension for Canon,ä said Christopher Dorn, executive director and general manager of CSP. ãWe think powerful photo technology should be easy and fun for computer users at every experience level.ä

As a leader in the photography world for over 50 years, Canonâs innovations include the worldâs first camera with a built-in microcomputer, first eye-controlled autofocus and first image-stabilizing lens. The company has also made advances in digital imaging with its PowerShot series of digital cameras and CanoScan series of color flatbed scanners and scanner cartridges. Canon now furnishes its imaging expertise to the software arena with its new line of photography products. Canon Photo Gold executes common tasks significantly faster than similar photo editors available today and performs these tasks in fewer steps to make digital photography faster and more enjoyable. Canon Photo Gold also provides a simple interface for users to work on their digital photographs. The large workspace presents all the feature options in a ãremote controlä styled box located in the upper right-hand corner of the computer screen. From this control box users Get, Enhance and Share their digital pictures.

Getting Digital Photos
Acquiring and organizing digital photos is quick and simple with Canon Photo Gold using the Get menu. The software is able to open and catalog pictures directly from a digital camera, scanner, hard drive, removable drive or Internet site. Canon Photo Gold organizes photos into Collections for easy storage and retrieval. Each photo in a Collection can be assigned a subject (Cindyâs 6th birthday), keywords (Cindy, birthday, cake) and a text description (Cindy blowing out the candles) to make future searches faster and easier. From an open collection, users can perform searches using keywords or descriptions, or users can list photos by subject, size or file type. Users can double-click on any photo to immediately bring it into the editing screen.

Enhancing Digital Photos
Enhancement features in Canon Photo Gold include a one-button Quick Fix which automatically analyzes and adjusts the highlight and shadow ratio in an image resulting in a cleaner, brighter image. The Smart Pix feature adjusts for conditions present when the photograph was taken. Conditions are described in plain English and include settings for photos taken ãindoors,ä ãoutdoors,ä ãwith a flash,ä ãunder fluorescent lights,ä on a ãcloudyä or ãsunnyä day and the intensity of ãshadows.ä

A Fix-by-Example feature is available to correct for brightness, intensity, color tint and sharpness. To simplify the adjustment of these attributes, Canon Photo Gold presents the user with nine examples of their photo with various corrections done. The user clicks on the photo that, in their opinion, looks best. Canon Photo Gold also has a wide range of special effects including squish, stretch, zigzag, oil paint, water color, emboss and more. Using special effects is a fast way to create special photos for creative projects such as calendars or awards. Users can control the intensity of these effects using the nine-example process as well.

Manual tools are present for the more advanced users. These tools include lasso, shape and magic wand selection tools, a cropping tool, paint and air brushes, color fills, smudging, cloning, text tools and drawing tools. The sensitivity and intensity of these tools can be tailored as well.

Sharing Digital Photos
Canon Photo Gold has many options for printing digital photos. Many sizes are available including wallet, 3x5, 4x6, 5x7 and full page. Multiple photos can be printed on a single page as well. Canon Photo Gold features a Smart Print feature that will print a test strip of nine thumbnails using different settings for ink usage and sharpness. The resulting test strip allows the user to determine which settings produce the most desirable results on the printer in use.

By using NetCard, users can send multimedia digital postcards via e-mail. The two-sided postcard contains a picture or video on one side and a button-click flips the picture to reveal a personalized message from the sender. Music clips can be attached to play as the card opens or the sender can record a voice message to play. The recipient will be able to view the postcard exactly as the sender meant it to be seen without using any special viewer software.

Canon Photo Gold users can create Photo Pages by dragging and dropping a photo into one of over 200 templates. Template styles are available for awards, calendars, holidays and more. Text can be placed on the Photo Page as well.

Spin Panorama & Spin PhotoObjects
Spin Panorama can be used for anything from showing vacation photos to giving potential home buyers a virtual tour. Canon Photo Gold creates panoramic images in four easy steps. First, the user opens a series of photos that will create the panorama. Next, the user matches the overlapping areas in panorama pictures. Canon Photo Gold can automate this process with Smart Stitch, a tool that analyzes the digital photos and matches them up at the most likely overlap points. Then, the user can crop the edges of the stitched photos before creating a panoramic photo. Canon Photo Goldâs panoramic photos can also be viewed as a QuickTime VR or Microsoft AVI movie where the viewer scrolls the photo to view the full 360 degree panorama.

Canon Photo Gold creates three-dimensional views of any item with Spin PhotoObjects technology. PhotoObjects are useful additions to Web sites wanting to display merchandise in 3-D detail, or PhotoObjects can be used to keep a record of precious antiques in the home. Spin PhotoObjects in Canon Photo Gold inverts the panorama process and creates 3-dimensional photo images from a series of photos of an object from different angles. Using the same four steps, users open a series of photos of an object. Next, the user lines each photo up against a single focal point. Once the photos are aligned, the user may crop the edges of the photos so all photos are the identical size before turning their individual photos into a QuickTime VR movie. Viewers of the completed PhotoObject can rotate it to view all angles of the item.

Canon Web Publisher
Canon Photo Gold owners can quickly publish their creations to the Internet on a Canon Web page. With Canon Web Publisher, users can then send the finished document to a personal home page or as an e-mail attachment. Canon provides each user with 5 MB of free, private, personal Web space. Canon Web Publisher gives the user the ability to set up an address book with names and email addresses. The program will automatically inform the selected names on the address book that an item is available for them to see and give them the URL to connect to the document.

Canon Photo
Canon Photo offers many of the same quick and easy features as Canon Photo Gold. Canon Photo provides users with fast tools to get and organize digital photos, easily retouch and alter them and share them through e-mail postcard and fun Photo Pages. Canon Photo uses the same simple remote control interface and provides users with the fast editing speed of Canon Photo Gold. Spin Panorama, Spin PhotoObject and Canon Web Publisher are available in Canon Photo Gold.

Pricing & Availability
Canon Photo Gold and Canon Photo will be available in September 1999 through major retail chains for an estimated street price of $69.95* and $49.95* respectively. A $20 mail-in rebate will be in place for Canon Photo Gold, and a $10 mail-in rebate on Canon Photo will also be in place. Rebates will be valid for 30-days after product purchase.

System Requirements
Minimum system requirements for running Canon Photo Gold and Canon Photo include an IBM-compatible PC with a Pentium processor or better, 166 MHz or faster; Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0 operating system; a CD-ROM drive; minimum 32 MB of RAM; minimum 50 MB of free hard disk space (100 MB recommended), an SVGA/256 color display (800 x 600, 24 bit/true color recommended); and a mouse or other pointing device. Canon Photo products work with most PC-compatible inkjet, Bubble Jet and laser printers.

Customer Service and Customer Technical Support
Canon Software Publishing offers a full range of customer technical support options: e-mail and Web Site (FAQâs) via the CSP Web site at www.software.canon.com. For 24 hour, 7 day-a-week technical support, a customer can call (757) 413-2855 for fax-back support or to talk with a customer care technician (8 a.m. ö 10 p.m. Monday ö Friday, EST). Regular customer support is free for the first 30 days. After 30 days, paid support is available.

About Canon Software Publishing
Canon Software Publishing (CSP) is a division of Canon Computer Systems Inc., which is a subsidiary of both Canon U.S.A. Inc. (Lake Success, NY) and Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan). The division, headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., was founded in 1998 to develop, publish and distribute computer software primarily in North and South America. CSP publishes titles from both independent third-party developers and associated Canon companies. Canon is recognized as the worldâs leading imaging technology company, a leader in printer technology and a top worldwide patent holder. As a global technology leader, Canon achieved $24 billion in worldwide sales in 1998.

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*Prices are estimates only. Dealer prices may vary and are subject to change at any time.
Canon, CanoScan and PowerShot are registered trademarks of Canon Inc. All other products and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Product specifications and features subject to change without notice.
Internet access must be purchased separately and may require a payment of a monthly fee. Currently photos will be posted for 30 days at no charge.