HD Photo- From Microsoft

Microsoft has officially announced HD Photo - a new image file format that overcomes the limitations of existing image formats. The compression ratio considered to be twice the efficiency of JPEG, with fewer damaging artifacts that results a high quality image with half the file size.

HD Photo is the new name for Windows Media Photo. Both names refer to the exact same file format. The Windows Media Photo name is still used to describe the implementation of HD Photo in Microsoft Windows products

HD Photo offers an increase in image fidelity, preserve the original image content and enabling higher-quality exposure and colour adjustments. 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.

Microsoft has announced the beta release of HD Photo plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop. These plug-in enable users to edit and print HD Photo files from within Adobe Photoshop, and include support for high dynamic range pixel formats. These plug-in let photographers to save a raw image taken directly from a camera's image sensor as an HD Photo image. The plug-ins works with Photoshop CS2 and with the upcoming CS3.

HD Photo