Agfa says that future versions of ScanWise and FotoLook scanning software will support Mac OS X. Both are due in the third quarter of the year. Beta versions will be ready for download in June.
“With the Mac OS X versions of ScanWise and FotoLook, our intent is to take full advantage of the new operating system’s capabilities such as increased system stability and general productivity,” said Peter Verhulst, international sales and marketing manager, Agfa Consumer Digital Imaging. “The Macintosh remains the leading platform for professional graphics applications. Our new software in combination with Mac OS X will give users measurable performance advantages in scanning and image editing.”
ScanWise is scanning software designed to make the scanning process as “easy as using a photocopier or fax machine,” according to Agfa. It works with the company’s line of SnapScan scanners. ScanWise communicates with other software on your Mac, such as image editors, Web browsers, fax, e-mail, printer software, word processing, and OCR (optical character recognition) applications. Each time ScanWise is launched, the software locates the resident applications and determines the optimum settings for each application.
FotoLook is designed for the DuoScan line of scanners. It includes such features as intelligent USM (unsharp masking), advanced batch scanning, and automatic and manual black and white point setting. Agfa’s Total Film Scanning (TFS) technology uses brand name or custom-built profiles for black and white or color negative scanning, according to Verhulst.
Other professional FotoLook tools include variable descreening for scanning halftone images, gradation curves, and gamma and colorcast correction, and CIELab support and selective color correction for the Mac. FotoLook’s interactive and production modes can be tailored to exact scanning needs, Verhulst said. An interactive mode allows immediate adjustments to a preview scan, and the production mode is tailored to workflows where speed is essential, he added.