KODAK has begun trials of a repackaged version of its Photo CD service,
offering digital versions of photographs on a floppy disc as well as paper
prints.
With Photo CD, launched in 1992, customers sent conventional 35-millimetre
film to Kodak’s labs for processing, but besides paper prints, they got a CD-ROM
containing high-resolution digital images. These could be viewed on a TV using a
£300 Photo CD player. But few people were prepared to pay for the images
or the player, and the system flopped. Photo CD software for computer CD-ROMs
only had limited commercial success.
Kodak’s latest idea is called Picture Disk. For just under £12, Kodak
will process films and send back prints along with standard floppy discs
containing digital versions of the same images. The images are saved in the
widely used JPEG format. A normal 1.4 megabyte floppy disc can hold 28 images.
The compressed pictures will look fine on a computer screen: Kodak says they are
“ready for Internet use on Web pages and e-mail”. But the company is evaluating
consumer response to the idea before deciding whether to launch Picture Disk as
a full consumer service.
