Apple Introduces Aperture

First All-in-One Post Production Tool for Photographers

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 19 -- Apple(R) today introduced Aperture, the first
all-in-one post production tool that provides everything photographers need
after the shoot. Aperture offers an advanced and incredibly fast RAW
workflow that makes working with a camera's RAW images as easy as JPEG.
Built from the ground up for pros, Aperture features powerful compare and
select tools, nondestructive image processing, color managed printing and
custom web and book publishing.

"Aperture is to professional photography what Final Cut Pro is to
filmmaking," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications
Marketing. "Finally, an innovative post production tool that revolutionizes
the pro photo workflow from compare and select to retouching to output."

"Until now, RAW files have taken so long to work with," said Heinz
Kluetmeier, renowned sports photographer whose credits include over 100
Sports Illustrated covers. "What amazed me about Aperture is that you can
work directly with RAW files, you can loupe and stack them and it's almost
instantaneous -- I suspect that I'm going to stop shooting JPEGs. Aperture
just blew me away."

Unique compare and select tools in Aperture allow photographers to easily
sift through massive photo projects and quickly identify their final
selections. Aperture is the first application that automatically groups
sequences of photos into easy-to-manage Stacks based on the time interval
between exposures. In an industry first, Aperture allows photographers to
navigate through entire projects in a full-screen workspace that can be
extended to span multiple displays, tiling multiple images side-by-side for
a faster, easier compare and select. With Aperture's Loupe magnifying tool,
portions of images can be examined in fine detail without having to zoom
and pan across large files. In addition, a virtual Light Table provides the
ideal canvas for building simple photo layouts, allowing them to be
arranged, resized and piled together in a free-form space.

RAW images are maintained natively throughout Aperture without any
intermediate conversion process, and can be retouched with stunning results
using a suite of adjustment tools designed especially for photographers.
Aperture's nondestructive image processing engine never alters a single
pixel of original photos so photographers have the power and flexibility to
modify or delete changes at any point in the workflow. As Aperture allows
users to create multiple versions of a single image without duplicating
files, photographers can experiment without risk of overwriting the master
image or using up large amounts of hard drive space. Aperture images can
also be launched directly into Adobe Photoshop for compositing and layer
effects.

Aperture features a complete color-managed pipeline with support for device
specific ColorSync profiles and a set of high-quality output tools for
photographers to showcase their work. Print options include customizable
contact sheets, high-quality local printing and color-managed online
prints. Aperture provides a deceptively simple layout environment where
photographers can quickly create and order custom professional-caliber
books and publish stunning web galleries. Aperture makes it easy to back up
an entire library of images with a single click and streamline complex
workflows with AppleScript(R) and Automator actions.

Pricing & Availability

Aperture will be available in November through the Apple Store(R)
(http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized
Resellers for a suggested retail price of $499 (US). Full system
requirements and more information on Aperture can be found at
http://www.apple.com/aperture