Reprinted from an Adobe press release
SAN JOSE, Calif. Feb. 14, 2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced an update to the public beta of Adobe Lightroom, an all-new digital imaging solution for professional photographers. Just one month after its introduction at the Macworld Show in San Francisco, Lightroom Public Beta 2.0 is now available as a Universal Binary for compatibility with PowerPC and Intel based Apple hardware and includes new features to streamline digital photography workflows. A Windows version is expected to follow the final Macintosh release in late 2006.
Lightroom Beta 2.0 includes new Crop and Straighten tools in the Develop module, ability to add music to slideshows and create hierarchical keyword lists to give photographers the ability to group and manage image keywords more efficiently. Improved Edit functionality provides photographers with more options for choosing how an image is delivered to Adobe Photoshop CS2 based on its native file format. Lightroom also is able to read many IPTC fields, as well as import and export XMP metadata.
"Weve been thrilled with the activity in our online Lightroom beta forums and the positive response weve received from the photography community," said Dave Story, vice president of product development for Digital Imaging at Adobe. "Were also excited about Apples move to the Intel platform and with Lightroom Beta, Adobe is one of the first companies to deliver software for the new Intel based Macs, just weeks after Apples announcement."
With its modular, task-based and streamlined environment, Lightroom’s goal is to deliver a complete photography workflow. Leveraging industry-leading Adobe Camera Raw technology, Lightroom supports over 100 cameras and incorporates raw conversion into a single workflow experience. Upon import, files can also be converted to Digital Negative format (DNG) or renamed and segmented by folder or date. Images can be showcased via slideshows, now with the ability to add music, as well as drop shadows, borders, Identity Plates and different colored backgrounds. The size and position of the images can be manipulated and delivered in Macromedia Flash, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) or HTML formats.
As Adobe continues to collect more feedback from photographers, modules and feature sets will likely change, as customers decide on their popularity and priority within digital photography workflows. Currently available as a beta for Macintosh, Lightroom will later support both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.
