USER GUIDE

First English edition for Ulead Photo Explorer version 6.0, May 2000 Copyright 2000 Ulead Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or storing in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form without prior written permission of Ulead Systems, Inc.

Software license

The software described in this document is furnished under a License Agreement which is included with the product. This Agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses of the product.

Licenses and trademarks

ICI Library 1991-1992 C-Cube Microsystems. Ulead Systems, Inc. and the Ulead logo are trademarks of Ulead Systems, Inc. All other product names and any registered and unregistered trademarks mentioned in this manual are for identification purposes only and remain the exclusive property of their respective owners.

Technical support

Registered users are entitled to Ulead technical support. Our Web site has valuable up-to-date information about Photo Explorer, other Ulead products, and free downloads. Visit our Web site at www.ulead.com, or send us e-mail at support@ulead.com.tw.

Ulead Systems, Inc.

United States Headquarters 970 West 190th Street, Suite 520 Torrance, CA 90502 Tel: (310) 523-9393 Fax: (310) 523-9399 International Headquarters 10F, 45 Tung Hsing Rd. Taipei, Taiwan 110 Tel: [+886] (2) 2764-8599 Fax: [+886] (2) 2764-9599

www.ulead.com

What's Inside
Welcome to Ulead Photo Explorer ______________________ 4
Whats new in this version _______________________________ System requirements ___________________________________ Installing and running the program ________________________ Signing up for a free account ____________________________ 6 6
Photo Explorer at a glance _____________________________ 7
The Browser __________________________________________ 7 The Viewer ___________________________________________ 7
Customizing Photo Explorer ____________________________ 8
Setting up your work environment ________________________ 8 Customizing toolbars ___________________________________ 9
Browsing and managing files ___________________________ 10
Displaying files in thumbnail or list view ___________________ Speeding up thumbnail display ___________________________ Managing multimedia files _______________________________ Previewing files _______________________________________ Creating a list of favorite folders _________________________ Accessing right-click pop-up menus _______________________ 13 13
Getting images _______________________________________ 14
Digital Camera Wizard __________________________________ 14 Getting images from a TWAIN device ______________________ 15 Renaming and renumbering files _________________________ 16
Editing and retouching images __________________________ 17
Enhancing images _____________________________________ 17 Adjusting the white background __________________________ 18 Printing images and thumbnails __________________________ 18
Slide show and other cool stuff _________________________ 19

Creating a slide show ___________________________________ Viewing a slide show ___________________________________ Other fun projects you can create ________________________ Plug-in software _______________________________________ Sharing images on the Web ______________________________ Creating thumbnails for the Web _________________________ Creating slide shows for the Web _________________________ Scanning the Web for images ____________________________ 23 24
Working on the Internet ________________________________ 22
Welcome to Ulead Photo Explorer
Photo Explorer makes it fun and easy to view images and manage multimedia files in your computer. Get images from a digital camera, memory card reader or scanner directly in Photo Explorer and transfer them to your computer. Create your own color prints with a color printer, or make fun projects for your Windows desktop like wallpapers and screen savers. Present your images in the form of a slide show, or share them on the Web.
Whats new in this version
Photo Explorer offers many enhanced features for your image acquisition and file management needs. With its new and powerful Internet tools, making simple Web pages, downloading media files, and sharing images on the Web can all be done in few easy steps.
Get instant preview of files.
Preview Pane -- Get instant preview of a selected image file. Directly play videos, sounds, as well as animated GIFs without having to open another program.
Browse for files and folders with ease.
Browse Pane -- Images, sounds, videos, and GIF animation files can be displayed either as visual thumbnails or in a detailed list much like Windows Explorer. Address Bar -- Keep track of all the folder names you have entered and quickly return to a previously visited folder. Favorites List -- Create a collection of folders you frequently visit.
Get a full-size view of images.

User Guide

Viewer -- Display selected images in the Viewer window or in full screen. Advance through images manually or show them automatically on-screen.
Personalize Photo Explorer.
Customizable toolbars -- Add toolbar buttons for quicker access to your most desired imaging, file management and Internet tools.
Create slide shows with simple drag-and-drop.
Slide Show Storyboard -Bring together images from different folders into a slide show. Easily shuffle their order with drag-and-drop, and even add sounds.

Get images in a snap.

Digital Camera Wizard -- Use this intuitive tool to transfer images from a digital camera or memory card reader into the PC more easily. Push-model aware function -- Automatically run Photo Explorer and transfer images with the push of a button on your digital camera or scanner. Photo Explorer now offers WDM push model aware support.

Share images and download files through the Internet.
Uleads new iMira.com Web site allows users all over the world to upload and share images on the Internet. You can also instantly download images, sounds and videos from your favorite Web site. 5

System requirements

Before installing Photo Explorer, make sure your computer meets the following requirements:
m Intel Pentium processors (or 100% compatible processors) m Microsoft Windows 95/98, NT 4.0, 2000 or higher m 32 MB RAM (at least) m 12 MB available hard drive space for program files m Windows compatible pointing device m True Color or HiColor display adapter and monitor (recommended) m Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher m Internet connection (recommended)
Installing and running the program
Installing Photo Explorer is quite easy. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. To start the program, click the Photo Explorer icon from the Ulead Photo Explorer program group on the Windows Start menu.
You can get further information about Photo Explorer using the online help from the Help menu.
Signing up for a free account
The first time Photo Explorer starts, the Set-up Internet Connection dialog box opens allowing you to sign up for a free account at iMira.com. iMira.com is Uleads image sharing Web site where you can upload your favorite images to share with your friends, relatives, and co-workers. Refer to the section, Sharing images on the Web, for more details (see page 22). 6
Photo Explorer at a glance
Photo Explorer provides two switchable windows. The Browser lets you jump from one folder to another with ease, move files between folders, and organize files effectively. The Viewer gives you full-size view of images.

The Browser

The Browser operates much like Windows Explorer. In the Browser window, you will see a Folder Tree at the left hand side and your files at the right. Whats special about Photo Explorer is that multimedia files can be shown as visual thumbnails for easier identification. Simply click a desired file to immediately get an idea of the files contents. You can preview images and actually play sound, video or even GIF animation files without actually opening them. In addition, you can bring together images and sounds to create a slide show.

The Viewer

The Viewer opens when you double-click an image file or select multiple images and click View: Open Viewer in the Browser. You can use it to:
m Get a full-screen view of images. m Enhance and retouch images, and then save the changes. m Manually or automatically advance through images.
Customizing Photo Explorer
When using any application, it is important for you to set up a work environment thats comfortable and convenient for you. Photo Explorer provides many options that can change the look and feel of whats onscreen to suit your needs. You can also make Photo Explorer as your image viewer and editor.
Setting up your work environment

File: Preferences

The Preferences command in the File menu allows you to define settings specific to Photo Explorer. The Preferences dialog box lists different categories which determine the behavior of Photo Explorer, its overall appearance, and the way thumbnails and images are presented. Click a category to view and change its settings in the Preferences dialog box.
Categories in the Preferences dialog box
If you usually do only simple edits with your images, Photo Explorer can be an ideal image editor. To make Photo Explorer your default image viewer and editor, select the Associate category in the Preferences dialog box and select the image file formats that you want to automatically open in Photo Explorer.

View menu

The View menu offers commands that determine the layout of Photo Explorer, as well as thumbnail display settings. Use the available commands to change the way files are displayed and organized so that you can quickly identify your files.
Note: See the section Browsing and managing files on page 10 for more

Customizing toolbars

Photo Explorers Browser and Viewer toolbars are fully customizable. For quicker access to your most desired Photo Explorer commands and Internet tools, you can add them as buttons on the toolbars and even arrange their order. 1. Click File: Customize Toolbars. 2. In the Select toolbar list, choose a toolbar. 3. In the Current toolbar buttons list, click the button before which the new button will be inserted. 4. In the Available toolbar buttons list, select a new button you want to add. 5. Click Add to include the new button to the selected toolbar.

Notes:

G To change the order of
A To remove a button, select
B Click Reset to change the
selected toolbar back to its default form. the button in the Current toolbar buttons list and click Remove.
toolbar buttons, select a button and drag it up or down in the Current toolbar buttons list. You can also click the Move Up or Move Down button.
Customize Toolbars dialog box
m Commonly used commands are also easily accessed from right-
click pop-up menus. When adding buttons to the toolbar, you can consider adding only those that are not listed in right-click menus.
m To display toolbar buttons with clear label descriptions, click
View: Toolbars and select the Text label option.
Browsing and managing files
With the convenience of thumbnails and the familiar Windows Explorer functionality, Photo Explorer makes it simple and easy to work with multimedia files.
Displaying files in thumbnail or list view
When you select a folder from the Folder Tree, multimedia files are displayed as visual thumbnails in the Browse Pane on the right hand side of Photo Explorers Browser window. A thumbnail is a small replica of the actual image or an icon representing a sound file. A thumbnail also shows the very first image that appears in a video or GIF animation file. To switch between thumbnail and list viewing modes, click View: Thumbnail/List Mode.

e Vid of ile

Sample thumbnails
Speeding up thumbnail display
If you have a large number of multimedia files in a folder, it may take Photo Explorer some time to generate thumbnails for the files and display them on-screen. Instead of regenerating thumbnails each time the same folder is accessed, Photo Explorer can store them in a cache folder. The next time you access that folder, Photo Explorer simply loads the thumbnail images from it. The procedure next page shows how you can customize Photo Explorer to create thumbnail files. 10
To create thumbnail files: 1. Click File: Preferences. 2. Click the Cache category in the Preferences dialog box. 3. Select Save thumbnails in cache folder. 4. In the Cache size entry box, specify the amount of disk space to allot for the cache folder in which thumbnail files will be stored. 5. In the Select cache folder entry box, enter the complete path name of the cache folder.
q Click the Clear Cache button in the Cache category of the Preferences dialog box to delete thumbnail files in the cache folder and recover disk space. q To ensure that you have the latest updated thumbnails for all the files in a folder, click View: Regenerate Thumbnails and manually recreate the thumbnails in a selected folder.

Managing multimedia files
Manage your files in Photo Explorer just as you do in Windows Explorer. You can copy, paste, delete, search for files, and perform other file operations using simple drag-and-drop, point-and-click, or by selecting commands in the Edit menu. In addition, here are special ways of handling images and multimedia files in Photo Explorer:
m Double-click an image file in the Browse Pane or click View: Open
Viewer to display selected images in full size in the Viewer window. m Click Edit: Copy Image Content to copy the actual contents of an image file. You can then paste the image to your image editor. m Use the Photo menu commands to enhance images. m Click one of the Edit in commands in the Photo menu to open an image file in your desired image editor and do more advanced image editing.

Previewing files

When you select a file in Photo Explorer, a preview of the file contents immediately appears in the Preview Pane. To change the viewing size, drag the borders of the Preview Pane.
G Animated GIFs can only be viewed in A The buttons in the Preview Pane varies,
depending on the type of file being their original size. Preview Pane
The types of files you can preview include: m Image files -- Rotate images and directly update their source files. (Photo Explorer provides lossless rotation for JPEG images.) m JPEG files with Exif format -- Many new digital cameras can store extra information (such as the date when a photo was taken) and even include audio. You can view JPEG images with Exif format in the Preview Pane and play their audio attachments. m Audio and Video files -- Play back sound or video, and advance forward or backward within a clip file.
Note: For other file types, select the file and click the Open button in the Preview Pane. UES files, which are slide show projects created in Photo Explorer, will be opened in the Slide Show Storyboard. Files of other types will be opened in their associated programs.
Creating a list of favorite folders
If your files are organized in many layers of folders, you may not be able to remember all their locations. It will be more convenient if you can selectively pick out frequently visited folders and mark them. You can do so by adding your folders to Photo Explorers Favorites list. To add a folder to the Favorites list: 1. Select a folder in the Folder Tree. 2. Click Favorites: Add to Favorites. 3. Type in a name that easily relates to the contents of the selected folder. To access a Favorite folder:
m Select a folder from the Favorites
menu, or m Click Favorites: Show Favorites or click View: Show/Hide Favorites, and then select a folder.
Note: To change back to the Folder Tree, double-click a favorite folder, or click the Close button at the top right corner of the Favorites List.
Accessing right-click pop-up menus
In Photo Explorer, you will find pop-up menus by right-clicking on:

m A folder in the Folder Tree. Displays commands for organizing folders m m m m
and adding folders to the Favorites List. Selected thumbnails and files in the Browse Pane. Displays commands for source files as well as thumbnails. Previewed file in the Preview Pane. Displays commands for viewing a file. The available commands vary, depending on the type of file. Slide Show Storyboard. Displays commands for creating a project and organizing images in a slide show. Viewer window. Displays commands for editing and displaying images.
Note: You can also right-click and drag selected files to another folder. A popup menu lets you select whether to copy or move the files.

Getting images

Images can come from different sources. With Photo Explorer, photos that were taken with a digital camera can be transferred to your PC. If you have a scanner device, transform photo prints or documents into images directly in Photo Explorer. Once you have all your desired images, easily rename the file names and renumber them based on your own numbering scheme.

Digital Camera Wizard

Getting images from a digital camera can be much faster and simpler if you use the Digital Camera Wizard. You can use this tool to get images directly from a digital camera, or retrieve images from a flash memory card thats inserted in a memory card reader. Heres how: 1. Click File: Digital Camera Wizard. 2. In the Image destination folder section, create a new folder or select an existing location for placing the images. 3. Click the Configure button to specify where to get images from. 4. Select the type of your digital camera or memory card reader from the list. 5. In the Image source section, select Read from a camera folder to get images directly from a digital camera. Otherwise, select the other option to get images from a memory card reader. 6. If you chose to create a new folder in step 2, specify a master folder in the Image destination section to store as many new image folders as you want. 7. Click Start in the Digital Camera Wizard dialog box to transfer images.
Note: Photo Explorer can read any flash memory card format that follows the JEIDA DCF (Design rule for Camera File System)
Getting images from a TWAIN device
Most scanners and digital cameras come with TWAIN software that allows transfer of images to your computer. Make sure that the TWAIN software for your device has already been installed before you start getting images. 1. Create a new folder where to save the images. 2. Click File: TWAIN Acquire Select Source and choose your scanner or digital camera. 3. Click File: TWAIN Acquire File Setup. 4. Select a File type. (To have smaller and compressed files, choose JPEG.) 5. In the File naming Pattern box, enter a file name. Each image will be prefixed with this name followed by a counter (e.g. Img0001, Img0002, etc.) 6. Click File: TWAIN Acquire Acquire Now to start getting images.

In the Acquire File Setup dialog box, you can also choose to share images on the Web after transferring them to your computer. Select the appropriate option in the Send To Web section to send your images to iMira.com.
In Photo Explorer, using File: TWAIN Acquire is recommended only for getting images from a scanner. For digital cameras, use File: Digital Camera Wizard instead. In most cases, JPEG images from a camera will be decompressed and resaved with some loss of image quality through TWAIN transfers. Also, Exif camera information embedded in the JPEG files will be lost. The Digital Camera Wizard can be used with many cameras to avoid the problems associated with TWAIN transfers.
Note: Photo Explorer offers WDM driver support for push-model aware scanners. Selected buttons on such scanners can be configured to carry out a list of commands. For example, pressing a button could automatically run Photo Explorer, get an image from a scanner, and save it to the active folder. Because Photo Explorer supports this technology, acquiring images is now
Renaming and renumbering files
After getting images from a digital camera or scanner, you may want to change their file names or renumber their sequence. The Tools: AutoRename command allows you to change several file names at once. To automatically rename your files: 1. Select the files to rename, then click Tools: AutoRename. 2. By default, files can be renamed and numbered starting from one. Click the Quick Rename button to use this default. 3. Click New to define more criteria for renaming files. 4. Specify your renaming criteria by selecting one of the tabs in the Batch Operation dialog box. Click a tab to define settings, then click OK. 5. To set more conditions for renaming files, repeat steps 2 and 3. 6. Click OK in the AutoRename dialog box to start the renaming process.

G You can work with only

A The list in the
one criterion at a time in the Batch Operation dialog box. Once you have defined settings for a criterion, click OK. AutoRename dialog box shows all the file renaming criteria you have defined. The renaming process starts from the top
Click the tabs in the Batch Operation dialog box to define criteria for renaming files: q Rename -- Give your images brand new file names. Sequentially number the file names by adding a counter. q Renumber -- Change the numbering scheme of file names. q Change Case -- Convert file names to upper or lower case, etc. q Replace -- Change some text in the file names. q Add -- Extend file names by inserting additional text to the file names. q Crop -- Make file names shorter by removing text from the file names.
Editing and retouching images
Images, especially those that came from a digital camera or scanner, often need some adjustments. Photo Explorer provides tools for you to view and do quick touch-ups to your images.

Enhancing images

Photo Explorer has all the basic tools that can help you adjust your images. You can access these image editing tools in the Photo menu of the Browser and Viewer windows.
m Rotate commands let you turn images left or right in a fixed 90 or

180 degree rotation.

m Convert transforms multiple images into other file formats in a
single step. m Adjust Image helps you correct the alignment and color of an image, and remove unwanted parts from an image.
Brightness & Contrast Straighten & Rotate Balance Color

Original image

Sample results
For more detailed image editing, click File: Preferences - Editor and add up to 3 image editors of your choice. Then, select one of the Edit in commands in the Photo menu to access your preferred image editor.
Adjusting the white background
If you have digital camera photographs of meeting room whiteboards and paper documents, the image may appear to have a grayish background color. This is most noticeable when the image is printed. Click Photo: Turn Background into White to adjust the contrast level and restore the white background. A higher contrast level will make the text in the image look darker and more distinct.
Printing images and thumbnails
Once youve finished editing your images, its time to print them out. You can print one or more color images on paper, or create photo prints if you have a photo printer. You can also print out thumbnails of images. To print images: 1. Select the images you want to print, then click File: Print Image. 2. In the Options section, design your print layout. Set the number of images to print per page, position where to start printing, and more. Click Preview first to see if results are desirable. 3. Click OK to start printing. To print thumbnails: 1. Select a folder containing the images you want, then click File: Print Thumbnails. 2. Set the Range of thumbnails to print (or select All) and specify the layout for the thumbnails. 3. Click OK to start printing. 18

Sample print out of images
Sample print out of thumbnails
Slide show and other cool stuff
In Photo Explorer, you can make fun projects with your images. Create slide shows with music to make your images look more interesting. Decorate your Windows desktop by creating wallpapers using your favorite images. More so, make your own screen savers.

Creating a slide show

Photo Explorers Slide Show Storyboard is where you bring together images and plan out the sequence of how they will appear. Heres how to create a slide show: 1. Click Tools: Slide Show to open the Slide Show Storyboard and create a new project. 2. Select and drag the thumbnails of images to the storyboard. You can drag thumbnails from different folders. 3. To change the sequence of thumbnails, just drag them to your desired position. 4. Cick the Slide Show Options button to select display options for the slide show.

m Transition effects

q Right-click on the Slide Show Storyboard to open a pop-up menu and access more commands. q Click the Export button on the storyboard toolbar to output your project as a Web slide show. See Creating slide shows for the Web for more information.
make images smoothly fade in and fade out of the screen.
m Delay sets the length of
time an image stays onscreen before displaying the next image.

m Control manually with

keyboard or mouse, when selected, allows you to control the slide show.

m Advanced lets you

choose more display options and add sounds to the slide show. 5. Click Save. Next time you want to make changes to a slide show, just open its project file in the Slide Show Storyboard.
Note: A project file stores information such as image sequence, file names and their location, as well as slide show options. The actual image and sound files are not saved in the
Click the Advanced button in the Slide Show dialog box, then click these tabs to add sound files to a slide show as well as select the best display options for images: q General -- Automatically replay sounds, show or hide the mouse pointer, and define more display options. q Info -- Select the information to display. q Music -- Click the Add button and choose one or more sound files to play in the slide show.

Viewing a slide show

You can view the results of your slide show project in full screen. After creating a project file in the Slide Show Storyboard, click the Show button in the storyboard toolbar. m To manually control a slide show, press the Space bar, Page Down, Right Arrow or Down Arrow key, or click the left mouse button to view the next image. Press Page Up, Left Arrow or Up Arrow key, or click the right mouse button to view the previous image. m Press P to pause, and ESC to end the slide show. 20

Other fun projects you can create
Photo Explorer allows you to create unique and interesting projects for your desktop. You can access these tools in the Browsers Tools menu:

Wallpaper

Use your favorite image as your Windows desktop wallpaper. Heres how: 1. Select the image file you want, then click Tools: Wallpaper. 2. Select Enable wallpaper. 3. Choose to display the image at the Center of the screen, or show several duplicates of it by specifying Tile options. 4. Click OK.
Sample Windows desktop wallpaper

Screen saver

Another interesting way of showing your images on the PC monitor is through a screen saver. A screen saver is automatically activated whenever the computer has been inactive for a specified length of time. To create your own screen saver, select the images you want, then click Tools: Screen Saver. Choose from a wide range of interesting transition effects for displaying the images, and synchronize them with your favorite music.

Plug-in software

Photo Explorer works seamlessly with other Ulead cool software such as Ulead SmartSaver Pro. If you have the software already installed in your computer, click Photo: SmartSaver Pro to access it directly in Photo Explorer. SmartSaver Pro lets you create compact Web images for your Web page. 21

Working on the Internet

With Photo Explorer, you can share your images and multimedia files over the Internet. Upload images to iMira.com, send files by e-mail, or include image collections and slide shows on your Web page. Photo Explorer also allows you to easily retrieve image, sound and video files from the Internet. Photo Explorer finds all your desired files from a selected Web site and quickly downloads them to your computer.
Sharing images on the Web
Sign up for a free user account and share images on Uleads iMira.com Web site. Heres how to set up a new account and upload images: 1. Click Internet: Sign-up for Web Service to create a new user account. 2. Click Internet: Configure Web Connection. Select each tab in the dialog box to enter appropriate settings for connecting to iMira.com and specify saving options for your shared images. 3. To upload images, click Internet: Open Drop Spot Window. Drag your image files to this window. 4. Photo Explorer then brings up your Web browser and takes you directly to the iMira.com Web site. 22

Note: Exif data (such as sound) will not be included with JPEG files when
Creating thumbnails for the Web
A cool way of sharing images is to put them on your own Web page. In Photo Explorer, you can create simple Web pages in just a few minutes, complete with an index of thumbnails and pages for displaying images. 1. Place your image files into one folder. 2. Click Internet: Output Web Thumbnails. 3. Design the layout of your Web page by providing settings in the Page, Thumbnail, Description, and Advanced tabs. 4. Click Preview to view the results in a Web browser. 5. Click OK to generate the HTML files and thumbnail images.
In the Page tab, select Use frames for thumbnail pages to display the thumbnail page along with the source image. Choose to generate Web pages or create a single, self-extracting file ready to be sent by e-mail.
Note: Web pages and thumbnail images are generated only in your hard disk drive. The files are not posted
Creating slide shows for the Web
Photo Explorer can instantly create impressive Web slide shows with smooth fade-ins and transition effects. Heres how: 1. Click Tools: Slide Show Storyboard to create a slide show project. 2. Click the Export button on the storyboard toolbar. 23
Note: See the section Creating a slide show on page 19 for details on how to create a slide show project.
3. Click the Page tab to design the layout for your Web page. Click the Advanced tab to adjust the timing for automatically displaying images. 4. Click OK to generate the HTML files (or a self-extracting EXE file).
Note: You can also click Internet: Output Web Slide Show to output selected image files into a Web slide
Scanning the Web for images
Photo Explorer makes it fast and easy to download files from the Web. It can scan an entire Web site and retrieve a bulk of files for you. If a Web page contains links, you can customize Photo Explorer to follow the links and go deeper into the Web site when searching for files to download. Click Internet: Scan Internet for Images for downloading files. Photo Explorer guides you through the process in seven (7) easy steps: 1. Enter the HTTP address of the Web page from which to start the download. Specify how many Levels deep to search for files. 2. Specify the types of files you want (images, videos and/or sounds). 3. Specify the file size you want to download, or choose to get all. 4. Choose to download all files, new files only, or get file updates. 5. Specify what links to navigate into when searching for files. 6. Enter a valid user name and password if you are downloading from a password-protected Web site. 7. If your PC connects to the Internet through a proxy server, consult your network administrator for its appropriate settings.
Step 5 download options: q From all links Download files from all linked sites. q Specified web site Download files only from pages within the selected Web site. q Specified address Download files from a directory on the selected Web site. (e.g. If you entered www.sample.com/ main/index.html in Step 1, Photo Explorer will get files only from www.sample.com/

Digital Photo Album

Ulead Photo Explorer 8.5
Acquire, Organize, Edit and Share all your Digital Media

Features and Benefits

Ulead Photo Explorer 8.5 lets you spend more time enjoying photos, music and videos and less time finding them. Its the all-in-one solution for owners of digital cameras, camcorders, scanners or anyone who wants to make it easier to keep track of their media.

Easy Access

The Easy Access Window lets beginners easily use key functions of Photo Explorer. It shows you how to quickly download your media files, how to edit and adjust pictures and video, and how to share your media with family and friends. Automatic camera detection helps you save more time by importing and saving your photos to your computer in one simple step. The Enhanced Digital Camera Wizard provides a simple and instant way to download media from digital cameras or memory cards. Memory Card Detection automatically starts data download when your card is inserted into a memory card reader. Capture single or multiple video frames from a live video source at designated time intervals. Scan Internet for Images enables you to easily download Web page images at one time and eliminates the tedious process of saving each image separately. Album Creation lets you easily collect and add images, video or music clips into a central album for easier access and photo management. Album Calendar View is the fastest way to find and view your photos. Click on a selected date in the calendar and see all the pictures or video that you took on that date. EXIF 2.2 support lets you view the camera information embedded in your photos including date, time and shutter speed. Auto Slicing allows you to scan a group of photos together and then automatically slice them into individual images. Instant Viewer opens your photos using a fullscreen viewer so that you can see your photos in full detail. Scan Tree and Scan CD let you quickly view thumbnails for improved browsing performance. Sort image files by name, size, creation date, type, personal rating and date photo taken. Rate Photos allows you to tag your photos with a rating, which makes them easier to search and find. Add descriptive text to your images via the convenient input interface. The description can be used for printing, searching and Web page output. Search media using names, descriptions or ratings. The search results appear in a separate folder for further processing. Browse, organize and work with Zip files as easily as with normal folders. Zip and unzip files without the need for a separate Zip program. Create offline CD catalogs by scanning and generating thumbnails from photo CDs. Keep the thumbnails available for browsing and searching even after taking the CD out of the drive.

Edit and Enhance

Images Auto-Fix Functions help you repair common photo problems automatically using Auto Level, Adjust, Color and Contrast. The auto commands can be applied to a single image or to multiple images at the same time with just one click. Lossless JPEG technology allows you to rotate and save photos without any loss of quality. Crop unwanted areas of photos. Straighten and rotate images. Control brightness and contrast of images. Adjust color balance with instant previews. Manipulate hue, saturation and brightness of images for fine image control. The Histogram tool allows you to adjust the black, white and gray point of an image. Focus control lets you blur or sharpen images. Remove red eye effects to give photos a more natural look. Correct spherical and trapezoidal distortion created by camera lenses. Create tone effects such as sepia, duotone and monochrome. Apply a variety of special effects such as charcoal, emboss, mosaic, noise, oil paint, pinch, ripple, tile, colored pen, watercolor, whirlpool, or wind for artistic flourishes.

Organize & View

Batch-enhance functionality lets you apply adjustments to a group of selected images at the same time. Modify EXIF data to more accurately store the image information. Record sound annotation into images. The annotation can be embedded in metadata or in a separate file. Convert a batch of files to a preferred file format, resolution or cropped aspect ratio is a great time saving feature. Add text or stamps to images with control of font face, size, style and color. One-click access to the image editor for advanced editing.

Export slideshows to the Windows screen saver. Publish slideshows to Web pages. Output photo album Web pages. Optimize and send photos to e-mail recipients. Optimize and send video clips to e-mail recipients. E-mail Web slideshows as self-extracting EXE files. Intel Pentium III processor or above Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP 64 MB of RAM (128 MB recommended) 45 MB of available hard drive space for program installation True Color or HiColor display adapter and monitor; 800x600 display resolution Windows-compatible pointing device 16-bit or better sound card and speakers (recommended) CD-ROM drive or CD/DVD Burner (for slideshow CD) DirectX 8.1 or above

System Requirements

Video and Audio Browse industry standard video and audio formats.* Trim video clips to remove unwanted segments from videos or even commercials from recorded TV shows. Enhanced in this version is the ability to trim out multiple segments from a video at the same time. Convert video files between industry-standard formats and optimize them for e-mail. Convert a series of images into a video clip.

File Format Support

Images: 001, BMP, CLP, CUR, DCS, EPS, FAX, FPX, GIF ,ICO, IFF, IMG, JP2, JPC, JPG, LZW, MAC, MSP, PCD, PCT, PCX, PIC, PNG, PPM, PSD, PSP, PXR, RAS, SCT, SHG, TGA, TIF, UFO, UPI and WMF Animation, Video & Audio: GIF Animation, AVI, QVT, WAV, AVA, MID, MP3, MPEG1 and MPEG2 - (codecs must be installed)
Print full-sized images, image thumbnails, greeting cards and calendars with print preview functionality. Print 3.5, 4, 5 and 6 images in various configurations. Supports Epson PRINT Image Matching II for superior digital prints. Burn slideshow CDs with transition effects, background music and video clips for displaying on the PC or on the TV. - The PC Slideshow CD includes Auto Run for automatic playback on computers. - The TV slideshow CD supports DVD, SVCD and VCD formats and can be played back on standard home DVD players.** Enhanced slideshow features offer striking transition effects and synchronizes the background music with the slides. Export slideshows as video files. Send the video by email or use the video file as part of a video or DVD project.

Compatible Devices

Digital Cameras PC Cameras/WebCams Camcorders DV Camcorders (FireWire/i.LINK) Scanners Memory Card Readers USB Flash Drives Capture Boards (WDM) IEEE 1394 (FireWire) Boards Windows Compatible Printers
* See File Format Support. ** Check your DVD player for compatibility.
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