Via Sys-con.com:
Industry Veteran Says Prints Still Best Way to Save Digital Photos
Key to Archiving, Accessing, and Sharing Cherished Pictures and Memories
ORLANDO, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 02/26/2006 -- PMA 2006 International Convention and Trade Show, Feb. 26, 2006 -- As consumers rapidly shift from film cameras to digital, one of the biggest challenges facing the industry is making it as easy to get a print from a digital camera as it is from a film camera. Today it remains that the primary way people share and enjoy photographs is through prints, albums and scrapbooks.
"With film cameras, consumers are used to shooting a roll, dropping it off at the 24-hour pick-up, and saying, 'I'll take one or two prints.' It was drop-dead simple to make prints that you could instantly share, archive or organize in a scrapbook or album to look at later," says Doug Rowan, CEO of ZoomAlbum, Inc, and known throughout the industry as a pioneer and leading driver of digital imaging and content management through stints as CEO at Corbis (www.corbis.com), Image Solutions Corporation, Impli, Inc., and AXS Optical Technology Resources.
The great thing about digital cameras is you can take many more pictures than with a film camera. Unfortunately, once you get to 500-1,000 digital images, it gets pretty hard to organize, catalog, and create a "digital shoebox" to easily and quickly find the pictures you want.
If you could create a "digital shoe box" you would still face two major problems:
-
How do I find the picture I want?
- How can I be sure that the digital shoebox will last over time?
Relying on hard disks or CDs or DVDs as the best storage option for the digital shoebox is risky. Digital, while a superb storage media, also lays a trap: many consumers believe that digital images will last and stay unchanged forever. This is false. For the safety and protection of their images, consumers should assume that every hard disk will fail; and that almost all CD-ROMS or DVDs will have a life of less than ten years.
Continues Rowan, "If you want a picture to be around for future generations: you should print it on archival paper. Then you can scrapbook it, because with scrapbooking you can tell a story and not just have a collection of photos."
One way to solve this problem is to provide consumers with an easy way to scrapbook their digital images in a printed photo format that:
- Offers a seamless way to sort, choose and arrange images for easy printing on photo paper that fits into an Inkjet printer
- Provides formatted, high-quality glossy photographic prints that can be folded and fit into an album cover with simple adhesive
- Uses a protective hard cover to safeguard photos from the damaging effects of light and the wear and tear of handling.
About ZoomAlbum, Inc.
ZoomAlbums™ (www.zoomalbum.com) are an exciting and patented new way to turn digital images into handmade, professional-looking albums of twelve glossy photos. These high-quality little albums fit right into the palm of your hand. All you need is a PC and Inkjet color printer. ZoomAlbum supplies everything else (software, photo sheets, album covers) to create charming and lasting keepsakes. You can even print your own personalized covers.
ZoomAlbum photo sheets come with easy-to-follow instructions that walk you through a folding routine that produces, with the help of forgiving adhesive backing, a booklet of twelve, durable and high-quality photographs. The software is simple and you can insert text captions, rotate, flip, zoom and crop photos. The hardest part is deciding on the 12 images.
SOURCE: Marketwire.com
That is really true about CDs not lasting forever ~ I have a CD that I burned about 5 years ago and just found last week that I am now unable to get to the files - Good idea to get your photos printed!!
Posted by: Tina Shinn | February 28, 2006 at 11:26 AM