Apple used a media event on the eve of Photokina in Cologne, Germany to announce Aperture 1.5, an update to the company’s US$299 all-in-one post production tool for photographers. New features include:
– a new open library
– iLife and iWork integration
– XMP metadata support
– new adjustment tools
– an export API
Aperture 1.5 is available this week in English, French, German and Japanese as a free Software Update to current Aperture 1.0 customers.
The Aperture Web site has been updated and more specifics can be found on the new features page.
Additional information from Apple’s press release after the jump…
Apple used a media event on the eve of Photokina in Cologne, Germany to announce Aperture 1.5, an update to the company’s US$299 all-in-one post production tool for photographers. New features include:
– a new open library
– iLife and iWork integration
– XMP metadata support
– new adjustment tools
– an export API
Aperture 1.5 is available this week in English, French, German and Japanese as a free Software Update to current Aperture 1.0 customers.
The Aperture Web site has been updated and more specifics can be found on the new features page.
Additional information from Apple’s press release:
Aperture 1.5 is now supported across Apple’s full line of Macintosh® computers, from Mac® mini to Mac Pro, and offers powerful new integration with the iLife ’06 suite of digital lifestyle applications and iWork ’06 productivity software. The tight integration means that photographers can build complete websites with iWeb™, create self-contained slide presentations with Keynote™, or produce stunning DVD slideshows with iDVD®, all using JPEG versions of photos directly from their Aperture library, which is never more than a click away. Integration also includes syncing to iPod® using iTunes® 7 and the ability to access and copy Aperture photos from within iPhoto®.
Aperture 1.5 dramatically streamlines the process of adding metadata to photo shoots with new pre-filled IPTC Metadata Presets. Captions, credits and other critical metadata that photographers rely on can be added on import automatically or via a batch process at any point in the workflow. Another major enhancement to metadata support within Aperture is the ability to export RAW images with IPTC data stored in XMP sidecar files for easy use with other applications like Adobe Photoshop and even the ability to generate XMP files automatically through AppleScript®.
Powerful new adjustment options in Aperture 1.5 include a sophisticated luminance-based Edge Sharpen filter for extremely high-quality sharpening results and a new Color tool that lets photographers tune the hue, saturation and luminance of specific color ranges within each image. Aperture’s popular Loupe magnifier has been dramatically enhanced with a set of onscreen controls, smooth zooming with up to 1600 percent magnification and a new option that enables it to be detached from the cursor while making adjustments. Individual image adjustment settings can now be saved as presets that can be automatically applied through a menu command, so that photographers can quickly and easily make standard adjustments.
An innovative new export API plug-in architecture in Aperture 1.5 allows third party developers to tap into the expanding Aperture user community with plug-ins that seamlessly connect Aperture’s workflow to complementary applications and services. Plug-ins from industry leading companies, including Getty Images, iStockphoto, Pictage, Flickr, PhotoShelter, DigitalFusion, Soundslides and Connected Flow, will be demonstrated at photokina 2006. These plug-ins will demonstrate a range of printing, publishing and storage workflows that take advantage of this new architecture.
