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Photo CD is a format introduced by Kodak in 1992 as a means to store and edit high-quality digital images that were taken using film and conventional cameras. It was widely used by professional photographers and for commercial purposes.
Photo CDs could store 100 high-quality digital images along with slides and scanned prints. The images had a special proprietary encoding. Photo CDs enabled users to view, store and edit pictures using computers. Their design was compliant with the CD-ROM XA and the CD-i Bridge specifications. The images stored in a Photo CD could be printed using a special Kodak machine.
Photo CDs were launched by Kodak to enable digitizing and storing of photos and negatives on compact disks that can be used in a computer. The images are stored as positive images in 5 to 6 levels of resolution. The image files are stored in the Image Pac format.
Images can be stored on a Photo CD while film is being developed or the CD can also be made from a set of slides or cut negatives. Images can also be added to a Photo CD that already contains data, creating a multisession disk.
The different types of the Photo CDs include:
The process of storing an image on a Photo CD involves the following steps:
Photo CD images can be viewed on computers or on conventional televisions connected to dedicated CD-i players. At present, most CD-ROM players, DVD-ROM drives and recorders are capable of playing Photo CDs.
Kodak has stated that the shelf life of Photo CDs should be 30 years under normal home or work conditions.