Microsoft has posted a set of beta Photoshop plug-ins for its new HD Photo file format, developed with the help of Adobe Systems, on its downloads website.
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March 9, 2007: Microsoft has posted a set of beta Photoshop plug-ins for its new HD Photo file format, developed with the help of Adobe Systems, on its downloads website. HD Photo is a new file format for end-to-end digital photography that offers higher image quality, greater preservation of data, and advanced features for today’s digital imaging applications. It offers both lossless and lossy compression, the latter with up to twice the efficiency of JPEG, with fewer damaging artifacts. This produces higher-quality images that are one-half the file size of JPEG files. In addition, HD Photo can retain the full dynamic range and color gamut data from a camera’s sensor, offering increased image fidelity, preserving the entire original image content and enabling higher-quality exposure and color adjustments in the image. This new format offers the ability to decode only the information needed for any resolution or region, or the option to manipulate the image as compressed data. The associated Photoshop plug-ins enable users to both read and write HD Photo files from within Adobe Photoshop software, and include support for high dynamic range pixel formats. The plug-ins support both the CS3 and CS2 versions of Adobe Photoshop software, and will be available for Windows Vista and Windows XP, as well as Mac OS X (Universal Binary). The beta version of the Windows plug-in is available today for download at the Microsoft Download Centre at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads, with the Mac plug-ins due in several weeks. Microsoft expects to release finished plug-ins, which will be free of charge, in approximately 60 days. The HD Photo Device Porting Kit is also available for download at the Microsoft Download Centre, allowing manufacturers to add HD Photo support in devices and to other platforms.
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