Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006

Complete photo editing and organizing made easy!

Product Information

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 combines all the tools consumers need to do more with their photos and enjoy their memories - from sorting, viewing and enhancing photos to sharing them with friends and family. With easy-to-use tools suitable for the beginner or the advanced photographer, Digital Image Suite 2006 encourages consumers to learn, grow and excel in the art of digital photography, regardless of their skill level.

        Quickly organize your photo collection
        Enhance your photos with powerful tools
        Create a slideshow with narration and music
        Easily protect your memories by burning to a CD


New Features

Digital Image Suite 2006 introduces an array of new features designed to help people make the most of their digital memories. The enhanced Digital Image Library makes it easier to view and organize digital photos and now videos, in the same place. The editing area of the software adds powerful options for achieving different black-and-white effects and much more.

• Hierarchical Keywords and Labels provide customizable stacked tags that consumers can use to organize, view and find their images the way they like, whether that’s finding all the photos of a family vacation or a particular picture of someone special.
• Hover Thumbnail enlarges thumbnail images whenever a mouse hovers above them, making it easy to view the image, along with important details such as date taken, file type and size, resolution and assigned Labels.
• Video support offers consumers the option to view and organize their videos in the same place as their photos. They can easily assign a 5-Star Rating, add Keywords and captions, or mark videos with customizable Flags representing a variety of actions such as For Review or To Share. As with Photo Story 3 for Windows®, consumers can view their videos using Windows Media Player.
• Black & White Effects unleash the artist within, making it a snap to transform color photos into stunning, contrast-rich, black-and-white images by choosing from a variety of preset filters. Consumers can now go beyond just black and white with a broad range of altering yellow, orange or red color tone and intensity filters, which are presets on the color channel controls. With the easy-to-read histogram, consumers can easily manipulate each of the color channels to get exactly the look they want.
• Intuitive Crop automatically analyzes the composition of a photo and suggests how to crop it so the subjects, such as faces in portraits and family photos, will be properly framed, resulting in the best possible image. Intuitive Crop is activated by simply clicking on the Crop taskbar.
• Photo Story 3.0 allows anyone to easily combine photos with voice narration, customizable pans and zooms, and music into a photo show consumers can watch on their computer, send in e-mail or burn to CD. This year Microsoft has added advanced features such as Quick edits (Red-eye Removal, Apply Black-and-White Filter). These allow photo editing without launching and then entering the editing area of the software and include customization options such as adding an original soundtrack, advanced pan and zoom effects, and CD burning with high-resolution video compact disc files, perfect for playing back on a TV.
• Enhanced! Panoramic Stitching makes it easier than ever to create vast panoramic shots by stitching together multiple shots. Instead of selecting from predetermined output sizes, consumers can now use a slider to indicate exactly how large they want their finished panorama to be. Images can be cropped before finalizing the stitch, and the crop rectangle can be rotated to correct misaligned photos.
• Sharing Disc allows consumers to easily burn photo CDs to share with friends and family, without disrupting detailed photo archive settings.
• Device Sync Support makes it easy to share photos with mobile devices such as Pocket PCs and Smartphones through syncing with Windows Media Player. Consumers can simply flag the desired images, and the next time the mobile device syncs with the PC, the photos will automatically transmit.
• RAW Support for Canon and Nikon cameras allows consumers to view, organize and edit images shot in RAW format, a high-quality photo format captured by many models of digital cameras. Similar to a film negative but with the option to make adjustments, RAW allows extra flexibility for consumers who would like to try something more sophisticated.

Product Features

From the busy mom who wants to make party invitations using her child ’s latest birthday snapshots, to a newlywed couple sharing honeymoon highlights, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 allows everyone to visually express themselves in new and creative ways, and have fun every step of the way.  Most important, Digital Image Suite 2006 as the ability to grow with users as their photography skills improve.

• Import Pictures Wizard helps transfer photos and videos from a digital camera to the PC in a few easy steps, making it easy to organize, view and find photos and videos and keep cameras from getting clogged with too many files.
• Find Similar Picture makes it easy to locate photos with shared characteristics. The consumer simply selects a photo and chooses Find Similar Picture to display a series of results based on color, outdoors versus indoors, and face-recognition technology.
• Comprehensive toolsets keep features related to similar tasks in one place in the software, such as Color & Saturation, which includes all the color management features, and Exposure & Lighting, which includes exposure and contrast auto fixes, Add a Flash, Reduce Backlighting and easy adjustments for shadows, midtones and highlights.
• Selection tools such as Marquee, Magic Wand, Edge Finder, Selection Brush and Selection Mask allow consumers to highlight specific areas of a photo for precise editing.
• Curves provide advanced exposure and color control over five channels: luminosity, red, green, blue and saturation. Accessible from either of two toolsets, Curves can be comfortably used by advanced photographers right away. And beginners will benefit from the interactive and educational aspect of this feature.
• Creative Elements include more than 5,000 stock images, 3,000 designer photo project templates and 200 effects filters to assist in the creation of one-of-a-kind photos to share with friends and family. Filters add instant style to photos with variations such as Antique, Impressionism, Fresco, Cement and Stained Glass, while templates help consumers create photo albums and scrapbook pages, custom art for the home, and projects for every occasion and season of the year.
• Archiving helps keep photos safe for generations to come with Automatic Backup Reminders and enhanced CD-burning options. A convenient Archive Wizard takes consumers step by step through the process.
• Print Sharpening optimizes image quality for viewing on a computer screen and printing. Often what looks good on a screen may turn out slightly blurred or out of focus when printed. By sharpening an image before printing, edges are defined and prints are crisp.
• Mini Lab provides a quick and easy way to apply common corrections and effects to multiple photos at once. The Mini Lab includes one-click Auto Fixes, batch resizing and a redesigned interface.

Many consumers who are using digital cameras for the first time need help managing and organizing their photos. Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 provides this assistance and more, enhancing consumers’ photography experience by offering a collection of powerful yet easy-to-use photo tools that deliver dramatic results and allow consumers to preserve their memories for generations to come.



Windows Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP
• Multimedia PC with Pentium 700MHz or higher processor (700MHz recommended)
• 256 MB of RAM (512 MB or higher recommended)
• 400 MB of available hard disk space
• Quad-speed CD-ROM drive or higher
• Super VGA monitor (800x600, 16-bit color or better)
• 1 MB of video RAM
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 software required and included. Up to an additional 75 MB of hard disk space may be required for Internet Explorer upgrade. This installation will not replace the user’s primary browser.

Compatibility:

• Most digital cameras, scanners, printers and storage devices
• JPG, MIX, PNG, TIF, BMP, GIF, FPX, select RAW formats and other image file formats

• Modem (33.6 Kbps or faster recommended) and Internet access for Internet functionality. Internet access may require payment of a separate fee to an Internet service provider.