LumaPix Releases YearbookFusion 2010-11

Oct. 15, 2010 - PRLog -- Montreal, Quebec – Oct 15, 2010 – LumaPix®, publisher of the acclaimed FotoFusion® photo editing software, announces the release of LumaPix::YearbookFusion™ for the 2010-11 school year. This version dramatically increases the power, ease of use, and performance of this already market-leading tool for yearbook layout. The updated version is available to publishers and schools with licenses for the 2010-11 school year; new publishers can sign on at www.LumaPix.com.

WHAT IS YEARBOOKFUSION?

LumaPix::YearbookFusion is a hybrid online/offline software tool for yearbook layout and submission. It is designed to be rebranded and customized by yearbook publishers, who resell or give the software to schools in exchange for their yearbook business.

The layout engine under YearbookFusion is the popular LumaPix::FotoFusion application, a powerful multipage resolution-independent layout tool that has won acceptance and awards from professional photographers since its introduction in 2003.

YearbookFusion adds features and business support specific to the creation of Yearbooks, including:

* The import of PSPA-standard “Yearbook CDs”, which streamline the creation of databases of student portraits.
* Tools to create, populate, and refine the layout of yearbook panels based on database queries
* Publisher-specific branding, form factors, out-of-box templates, and rendering restrictions
* One-click direct-to-publisher submission of jobs and work in progress.

Since its introduction in 2008, YearbookFusion has been adopted by hundreds of publishers and over 3000 schools nationwide. LumaPix was invited to join the PSPA Digital Data and Image Format Guideline committee and participated in the updating of the PSPA standard for the current school year.

NEW FEATURES IN YEARBOOKFUSION 2010-11

:: REMOTE STORAGE PERFORMANCE

YearbookFusion users can load and save projects “to the cloud”, enabling collaboration between users working at home, at school, or in an internet café.

Performance has been dramatically improved in the current year, due to the use of compression, data aliasing, multiple-resolution caching, image re-use, and asynchronous downloading. In user terms, many common operations such as saving and loading from cloud storage now take 95% less time than they did in last year’s edition.

:: TEXT

Text layout features now include exceptionally powerful layout and rendering effects, such as per-character attributes (bold/italic, font, skew, inter-character spacing, rotation, etc), support for text direction (Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, etc), and layout into shapes such as circles.

:: PSPA DATABASES

Support for the new PSPA 2011 guidelines is in place, streamlining panel creation by automatically tagging individuals based on their department. Salutation and Title fields are also supported, if supplied on the CD. 

:: YEARBOOK PANELS

Panels of staff and students are both easier to work with and more flexible. A single click will convert a well-configured database into a multi-page panel in a variety of styles, with support for featured teachers, text beside images, and circular frames. Panels can now be locked against changes or made fully manual, enabling the creation of literally any arrangement of frames the user chooses.

:: COLLABORATION

Individuals at schools with Remote Storage licenses can contribute to the yearbook without having YearbookFusion installed; they simply open a web page and upload images directly to the yearbook staff via a new ‘drop box’ function.

:: UPLOAD TO PUBLISHER

Connectivity between the installed YearbookFusion and the publisher FTP site has been improved; in addition to one-click uploading to the publisher, the user can now select and upload any local file – and upload covers separately from the rest of the book to facilitate mid-season cover print runs.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICING

LumaPix::YearbookFusion 2010-11 is available immediately for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Support for Mac OSX is under development. Prices range from $74 to $200 per school per year based on volume. Visit www.LumaPix.com for more details.

LINKS

Overview: http://www.lumapix.com/yearbook/ybk_overview.shtml
Marketing Content: http://www.lumapix.com/yearbook/ybk_marketing.shtml

ABOUT LUMAPIX

LumaPix is a private corporation based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  Our mission is to provide powerful, easy-to-use media tools that enable professionals to create results that amaze and delight their customers. FotoFusion is an exceptionally powerful, easy to use photo layout software package that enables both consumer and professional users to produce, share, and publish images with uncompromising quality.  For more information about LumaPix and FotoFusion, visit www.LumaPix.com.

Copyright © 2010 LumaPix Inc. All rights reserved. Product specifications and availability are subject to change without notice.  LumaPix and FotoFusion are registered trademarks of LumaPix. YearbookFusion is a trademark of LumaPix Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Michael Sheasby 
877-586-2749
biz at LumaPix.com

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Montreal-based publisher of photography software, serving the Professional, Yearbook, and Enthusiast markets. Installed and Online tools available. Powerful, elegant, simple tools for exceptional photo layouts.