Rich Fiscus
9 Mar 2007 6:23
In a bid to replace JPEG as the standard for digital photos, Microsoft plans to submit their HD Photo image Compression format to the International Organization for Standardization. According to Microsoft, HD Photo, formerly known as Windows Media Photo, causes less damage to photos than JPEG, while creating a files that are half the size. Like JPEG, HD Photo also supports Lossless Compression.
In order for HD Photo to become the de facto standard for digital photography Microsoft will have to get support from printer, camera, and application vendors. It's already supported in Windows Vistaand can be similarly supported in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 through a free download. Adobe Photoshop plugins are expected in the next two months. Microsoft also has an HD Photo Device Porting Kit to help hardware manufacturers.
Sources:
Computerworld
Microsoft