Photo CD is a system designed by Kodak for digitizing and storing photos in a CD. Launched in 1992, the discs were designed to hold nearly 100 high quality images, scanned prints and slides using special proprietary encoding. Photo CD discs are defined in the
Beige BookThe Rainbow Books are a collection of standards defining the allowed formats of Compact Discs.*Red Book**CD-DA – Digital Audio extended by CD-Text,*Yellow Book**CD-ROM – Read-Only Memory and...
and conform to the
CD-ROMCD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback, the 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data. CD-ROMs are popularly used to...
XA and CD-i Bridge specifications as well. They are intended to play on
CD-iCD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V.. Though not originally marketed as a game console, it is infamous for being one of the biggest commercial failures in video game history...
players, Photo CD players (Apple's
PowerCDApple PowerCD was a US$499 CD player sold by Apple Computer in 1993 and discontinued several years later. It was a re-badged Philips-designed product which was sold in addition to Apple's speakers and also included a remote control. The PowerCD was capable of reading Kodak photo CDs, data CDs and...
for example), and any computer with the suitable software (
LaserSoft ImagingLaserSoft Imaging AG is a software developer designing software such as SilverFast for scanners and digital cameras. The company's headquarters are located in Kiel, Germany, 100 kilometres north of Hamburg, and another office in Sarasota, Florida, United States.- 1986 - 1990 :LaserSoft Imaging was...
's
SilverFastSilverFast is software for scanning and image processing, developed by LaserSoft Imaging.- History :SilverFast was introduced at the Hannover CeBIT fair in 1995. Version 2.0 was presented at the CeBIT at 1996 and version 3.0 was finished in December 1996. The latest version 6.6 is available since...
HDR, DC, or PhotoCD for example) irrespective of the
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
.
Photo CD is a system designed by Kodak for digitizing and storing photos in a CD. Launched in 1992, the discs were designed to hold nearly 100 high quality images, scanned prints and slides using special proprietary encoding. Photo CD discs are defined in the
Beige BookThe Rainbow Books are a collection of standards defining the allowed formats of Compact Discs.*Red Book**CD-DA – Digital Audio extended by CD-Text,*Yellow Book**CD-ROM – Read-Only Memory and...
and conform to the
CD-ROMCD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback, the 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data. CD-ROMs are popularly used to...
XA and CD-i Bridge specifications as well. They are intended to play on
CD-iCD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V.. Though not originally marketed as a game console, it is infamous for being one of the biggest commercial failures in video game history...
players, Photo CD players (Apple's
PowerCDApple PowerCD was a US$499 CD player sold by Apple Computer in 1993 and discontinued several years later. It was a re-badged Philips-designed product which was sold in addition to Apple's speakers and also included a remote control. The PowerCD was capable of reading Kodak photo CDs, data CDs and...
for example), and any computer with the suitable software (
LaserSoft ImagingLaserSoft Imaging AG is a software developer designing software such as SilverFast for scanners and digital cameras. The company's headquarters are located in Kiel, Germany, 100 kilometres north of Hamburg, and another office in Sarasota, Florida, United States.- 1986 - 1990 :LaserSoft Imaging was...
's
SilverFastSilverFast is software for scanning and image processing, developed by LaserSoft Imaging.- History :SilverFast was introduced at the Hannover CeBIT fair in 1995. Version 2.0 was presented at the CeBIT at 1996 and version 3.0 was finished in December 1996. The latest version 6.6 is available since...
HDR, DC, or PhotoCD for example) irrespective of the
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
. The images can also be printed out on photographic paper with a special Kodak machine.
The system failed to gain mass usage among consumers partly due to its proprietary nature, the rapid decline in the costs of
scannerIn computing, a scanner is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass window for scanning...
s, and the lack of
CD-ROMCD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback, the 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data. CD-ROMs are popularly used to...
drives in most home personal
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
s of the day. The Photo CD system gained a fair level of acceptance among professional photographers due to the low cost of the high quality film scans. Prior to Photo CD, professionals who wished to digitize their film images were forced to pay much higher fees to obtain drum scans of their film negatives and
transparenciesIn photography, a reversal film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. The film is processed to produce transparencies, in contrast with negative and print...
. Photo CD is still used by a niche clientele, but it has been replaced by
Picture CDPicture CD is a product by Kodak, following on from the earlier Photo CD product. It holds photos from a single roll of color film, stored at 1024×1536 resolution using JPEG compression. The product is aimed at consumers...
, also from Kodak. True PhotoCD discs are still available from a vendor referenced on Kodak's PhotoCD webpage, but the name is also (incorrectly) used by several vendors for discs which do not meet the PhotoCD standards.
| Designation |
Resolution |
Size |
Intended typical use |
(px × pxIn digital imaging, a pixel is the smallest item of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares. Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically provide more-accurate representations of the...
) |
(Mpx) |
(MBThe megabyte is an SI-multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission and is equal to 10 6 bytes. However, due to historical usage in computer-related fields it is still often used to represent 2 20 bytes. In rare cases, it is used to mean...
) |
| Base/16 |
128 × 192 |
0.025 |
0.07 |
Preview (index print, thumbnail) |
| Base/4 |
256 × 384 |
0.098 |
0.28 |
Web |
| Base |
512 × 768 |
0.393 |
1.13 |
Computer screen, TV, Web |
| 4 Base |
1024 × 1536 |
1.573 |
4.50 |
HDTV screen |
| 16 Base |
2048 × 3072 |
6.291 |
18.00 |
Print-out up to ca. 20 x 30 cm |
| 64 Base |
4096 × 6144 |
25.166 |
72.00 |
Professional print, pre-press, archiving (optional) |
Variants
The Kodak Pro Photo CD Master Disc contains 25 images with maximum resolution of 6144 x 4096 pixels (six resolutions per file, Base/16 to 64 Base). This type is appropriate for 120 film, 4x5, but also for small picture film, if highest resolution is required. A Kodak Professional PCD Film Scanner 4045 is being used for the digitalisation.
There are budget-priced alternatives for private users, such as
Picture CDPicture CD is a product by Kodak, following on from the earlier Photo CD product. It holds photos from a single roll of color film, stored at 1024×1536 resolution using JPEG compression. The product is aimed at consumers...
, Fujicolor CD or ImageCD. However, these ones don't comply with the Photo CD standard, are using destructive compression algorithms and are of less image and process quality.
External links