SilverFast

SilverFast is software for scanning and image processing

Image processing

In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame; the output of image processing may be either an image or, a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image...

, including photos, documents and slides, developed by LaserSoft Imaging

LaserSoft Imaging

LaserSoft 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, north of Hamburg, and another office in Sarasota, Florida, United States....

History

SilverFast was introduced in 1995. Version 3.0 was finished in December 1996. Version 6.6 came out in May 2008. It is the only software supporting the Heidelberg

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG is a German precision mechanical engineering company with head offices in Heidelberg . It is a manufacturer of offset printing presses sold globally. The company has a worldwide market share of more than 47% in this area and is the largest global manufacturer of...

scanner on Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

and Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

2000, XP, Vista and 7. Some scanner manufacturers bundle their hardware with SilverFast. The European Digital Press Association named SilverFast the "Best colour management software of the year 2008" for improving the dynamic range of most scanners and for creating ICC profile

ICC profile

In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium...

s automatically.

Products

Scanner Software	Digital Camera Software	HDR Software	Printer Software
SilverFast SE	SilverFast DC SE	SilverFast HDR	SilverFast PrinTao ³⁾
SilverFast SE Plus ¹⁾	SilverFast DC VLT	SilverFast HDR IT8
SilverFast Ai	SilverFast DC Pro	SilverFast HDR Studio ^{3), 4)}
SilverFast Ai IT8 ²⁾	SilverFast DC Pro Studio ^{3), 4)}
SilverFast Ai Studio ¹⁾
SilverFast Ai Studio IT8 ^{1), 2)}		SilverFast Archive Suite SE
SilverFast X-Ray		SilverFast Archive Suite

optional: ¹⁾Multi-Exposure, ²⁾ICC Printer Calibration, ³⁾PhotoProof, ⁴⁾ColorServer

It can be used as a stand-alone application, as a Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...

plug-in, or as a universal TWAIN

TWAIN

TWAIN is a standard software protocol and applications programming interface that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices such as scanners and digital cameras....

module. Versions include:

SilverFast SE and SE Plus (beginners / with Multi-Exposure)
SilverFast Ai and Ai Studio (professional and expert users)
SilverFast Ai IT8 and Ai Studio IT8 (incorporating IT8
IT8
IT8 is a set of American National Standards Institute standards for color communications and control specifications. Formerly governed by the IT8 Committee, IT8 activities were merged with those of the Committee for Graphics Arts Technologies Standards in 1994.-Standards List:The following is a...

-target for ICC profiling
ICC profile
In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium...

)
SilverFast X-Ray (a special version of SilverFast Ai designed to digitize radiographic films
Radiography
Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non-uniformly composed material such as the human body. By using the physical properties of the ray an image can be developed which displays areas of different density and composition....

for scientific and medical radiography)

SilverFast DC

SilverFast DC is a stand-alone software solution for digital camera image processing. It contains features for reading the image data from the camera, for processing, optimizing, and archiving the images on the computer, as well as for printing the edited images.

SilverFast DC SE - for Beginners
SilverFast DC Pro - for Professionals
SilverFast DC Pro Studio - for Experts

SilverFast DC VLT - the Virtual Light Table

All DC versions include a virtual light table

Light table

A light table is a viewing device that is used to review photographic film or artwork placed on top of it. It provides even illumination of the subject from below through a translucent cover and fluorescent lights that emit little heat. They can also be found mounted on the walls of hospitals and...

for organizing, managing, and manipulating the images (for example color temperature

Color temperature

Color temperature is a characteristic of visible light that has important applications in lighting, photography, videography, publishing, manufacturing, astrophysics, and other fields. The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal black-body radiator that radiates light of...

regulation, exposure

Exposure (photography)

In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...

adjustment, and red-eye

Red-eye effect

The red-eye effect in photography is the common appearance of red pupils in color photographs of eyes. It occurs when using a photographic flash very close to the camera lens , in ambient low light. The effect appears in the eyes of humans and animals that have no tapetum lucidum, hence no...

correction). The user can create photo archives and albums, add comments to images, generate contact sheets

Contact print

A contact print is a photographic image produced from film; sometimes from a film negative, and sometimes from a film positive. The defining characteristic of a contact print is that the photographic result is made by exposing through the film negative or positive, onto a light sensitive material...

of the complete view port, and produce or print single pictures in high resolution and in variable sizes.

SilverFast DC Pro has the functionality of the scanner-software SilverFast Ai for digital images. Supported are the standard image formats such as JPEG

JPEG

In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....

and TIFF

Tagged Image File Format

TIFF is a file format for storing images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and both amateur and professional photographers in general. As of 2009, it is under the control of Adobe Systems...

, and unprocessed raw image format

RAW image format

A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor...

. The access to the raw data permits manual color correction or sharpening instead of using the camera's automatic adjustment, which often does not work perfectly. SilverFast DC supports Adobe DNG

Digital Negative (file format)

Digital Negative is an open raw image format owned by Adobe used for digital photography. It was launched on September 27, 2004. The launch was accompanied by the first version of the DNG specification, plus various products including a free of charge DNG Converter utility...

and many camera models, some optimized by special camera profiles. With the included IT8

IT8

IT8 is a set of American National Standards Institute standards for color communications and control specifications. Formerly governed by the IT8 Committee, IT8 activities were merged with those of the Committee for Graphics Arts Technologies Standards in 1994.-Standards List:The following is a...

-target, individual ICC profile

ICC profile

In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium...

s can be self-made for every camera.

SilverFast DC Pro also has automated color optimization AACO, support for JPEG 2000

JPEG 2000

JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...

, unsharpmasking USMPlus, CloneTool, and an improved PrinTao module with text and layout functions.

SilverFast HDR

SilverFast HDR (High Dynamic Range

High dynamic range imaging

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...

) is a software for processing 48-bit RAW images

RAW image format

. Many newer scanners are able to output the image directly with all existing data instead of breaking it down to 24-bit. This 48-bit raw image can be saved immediately and digital processing performed later.

SilverFast HDR
SilverFast HDR IT8 - with IT8
IT8
IT8 is a set of American National Standards Institute standards for color communications and control specifications. Formerly governed by the IT8 Committee, IT8 activities were merged with those of the Committee for Graphics Arts Technologies Standards in 1994.-Standards List:The following is a...

-target for ICC profiling
ICC profile
In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium...
SilverFast HDR Studio - with additional features

SilverFast HDR contains the functionality of SilverFast Ai for 48-bit raw data, such as defining output size and resolution

Image resolution

Image resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....

, auto-adjusting of highlights and shadows, three-part histogram, gradation curves, selective color correction, unsharp masking

Unsharp masking

Unsharp masking is an image manipulation technique, often available in digital image processing software.The "unsharp" of the name derives from the fact that the technique uses a blurred, or "unsharp," positive to create a "mask" of the original image...

, color cast removal slider, color separation, and CMYK

CMYK color model

The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key...

-preview. SilverFast HDR can be used as a native plug-in for Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop

, as a universal TWAIN

TWAIN

TWAIN is a standard software protocol and applications programming interface that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices such as scanners and digital cameras....

module, or as a stand-alone

Standalone program

A standalone program is a computer program that does not load any external module, library function, or program and that is designed to boot with the bootstrap procedure of the target processor...

application.

The HDR Studio has AACO (Auto-Adaptive Contrast Optimization), JPEG 2000

JPEG 2000

, USMPlus (Unsharp Mask Plus), CloneTool and PrinTao.

HDRi (64Bit RAW data with infrared channel)

With version 6.6.1 any SilverFast HDR version supports the RAW data format HDRi

HDRi (data format)

The HDRi data format is a 64bit or 32bit data format for saving RAW data of HDR scans including infrared data developed by LaserSoft Imaging.- Data format :- Description :...

. These 64-bit HDRi color files and 32-bit HDRi greyscale files contain additional 16-bit infrared RAW data besides the 48-bit color RAW data and 16-bit greyscale RAW data respectively. Therefore, a scanner with an infrared channel available to the software is necessary. This RAW format can keep any readable image information for later post-processing.

SilverFast Archive Suite

The SilverFast Archive Suite includes SilverFast Ai IT8 and SilverFast HDR Studio with an integrated color management system. This package is suitable for archiving slides, negatives, and photos, whereas the post processing can take place anytime after scanning.

SilverFast Archive Suite SE - consisting of SilverFast SE Plus and SilverFast HDR
SilverFast Archive Suite - consisting of SilverFast Ai IT8 and SilverFast HDR Studio and IT8
IT8
IT8 is a set of American National Standards Institute standards for color communications and control specifications. Formerly governed by the IT8 Committee, IT8 activities were merged with those of the Committee for Graphics Arts Technologies Standards in 1994.-Standards List:The following is a...

calibration targets

SilverFast PrintTao

PrinTao is a software for printing images and documents. Templates can be used to make workflow easier and faster by reducing similar and repetitive worksteps. PrinTao has predefined templates to which the user can add self-made ones.
Other features:

Positioning of pictures automatically or manually on the preview with the aid of grids and auxiliary lines
Scaling
Image scaling
In computer graphics, image scaling is the process of resizing a digital image. Scaling is a non-trivial process that involves a trade-off between efficiency, smoothness and sharpness. As the size of an image is increased, so the pixels which comprise the image become increasingly visible, making...

, Mirroring, Rotation, layout of pictures
Inserting text in or around a picture
Adding copyright information to pictures
Adding IPTC or EXIF
Exchangeable image file format
Exchangeable image file format is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras , scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras...

meta data.

The PrinTao module is already included in the SilverFast Ai / DC / HDR Studio versions.

Optional features

As marked in the table above, some products are available with \additional features:

Multi-Exposure (ME)

"Multi-Exposure" is an exposure blending technique for scanning transparent originals like slides, negatives, and film strips with increased dynamic range. This is accomplished by scanning the original multiple times with different exposure times

Shutter speed

In photography, shutter speed is a common term used to discuss exposure time, the effective length of time a camera's shutter is open....

, increasing the dynamic range and preserving detail in the light and shadow areas of the image. Multi-Exposure does not work with reflective originals and differs from "Multi-Sampling," which also scans multiple times but with unaltered exposure.

PhotoProof

PhotoProof is a tool for color-true and binding processing of images from digital cameras. The image optimization is done in the RGB color space

RGB color space

An RGB color space is any additive color space based on the RGB color model. A particular RGB color space is defined by the three chromaticities of the red, green, and blue additive primaries, and can produce any chromaticity that is the triangle defined by those primary colors...

. When activating PhotoProof, the user immediately sees a CMYK

CMYK color model

simulation of the image by means of RGB softproofing on the calibrated monitor. Thereafter a color-true contact proof can be created on any suitable, calibrated output device. The embedded media wedge is used as a reference for a true-to-color proof.

ColorServer

ColorServer executes the processes of color conversion, scaling

Image scaling

In computer graphics, image scaling is the process of resizing a digital image. Scaling is a non-trivial process that involves a trade-off between efficiency, smoothness and sharpness. As the size of an image is increased, so the pixels which comprise the image become increasingly visible, making...

, sharpening, separation, and optimization of image data automatically (even batch processing

Batch processing

Batch processing is execution of a series of programs on a computer without manual intervention.Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without manual intervention, so all input data is preselected through scripts or command-line parameters...

) in the 48-bit color space. JPEG 2000 allows a compression ratio of 10:1 without any visible loss of image quality.

IT8 calibration

The process chain (original - scanner / digital camera - monitor - printer) requires device calibration for accurate color reproduction. IT8

IT8

calibration runs automatically in SilverFast, using a combination of barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

technology and auto-alignment. SilverFast also utilizes the scanner as a measuring device to create an ICC profile

ICC profile

In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium...

for printer calibration.

Supported devices

SilverFast supports 325 scanners and 214 supported digital cameras.
Microsoft Windows-only 35mm USB scanners sold under various names are generally not supported. Each scanner model requires a separate license.

Heidelberg drum scanner

SilverFast Ai Studio supports prepress drum scanners made by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen

(Linotype - Hell) on Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7, as well as Mac OS X 10.3-10.5 operating systems. Supported models include the Chromagraph 3300/3400, Tango/XL, Topaz, Nexscan, and Primescan.

Sources

Taz Tally, Ph.D. SilverFast - The Official Guide. - Sybex, 2003. ISBN 978-0-7821-4197-9
Sascha Steinhoff. Scanning negatives and slides: digitizing your photographic archive - Rocky Nook, 2007. ISBN 978-1933952017
Mark Segal. Scanning with SilverFast - a tutorial

External links

LaserSoft Imaging - official homepage

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.