Cds

Photo CD

A Photo CD, is just that. It is a CD designed to hold images onto it instead of other forms of data, such as music. The Photo CD is a convenient way to get your traditional photos into a digital format. You could get all of your film developed and then scan each individual picture. You can also go the Photo CD route where you take your roll of film into your local film developer and, instead of, or in addition to getting the pictures developed, they put the images onto a CD. There are readers made specifically for Photo CD’s if you don’t have a computer and aren’t inclined to get one. But, if you have a computer, you just need the appropriate software to view your images that way. These are specific programs though, so make sure that you get one since many commonly used imaging programs will not work with Photo CDs. It is possible to find CD’s that have higher resolution than Photo CD, but this comes at the cost of fewer images that can be held on the CD. The CDs can also be shown on television sets.

Photo CD Software

There are a few programs that support Photo CD. The one that seems to get the highest approval rating among users is SilverFast. It is also the most expensive of the programs. Picture Window is another program that supports Photo CD. ThumbsPlus also supports Photo CD and so does Paint Shop Pro. The price for these programs can vary quite a bit, but do keep in mind that if a cheaper program is used, it seems that certain functions are not present that more expensive programs have. Look into each of these programs before you choose one.

Kodak Picture CD

Picture CD is similar to Photo CD in many regards. They are both Kodak products and perform essentially the same function. Photo CDs came first but Picture CDs are used more widely now. It was designed to be used by a more general picture taking audience than Photo CDs. Photo CD is used more often by professionals because, even though it is the older model, it has higher resolution and can hold more images on it. The Picture CD costs less, making it a preferred buy for the casual camera user.