LaserSoft Imaging AG is a software developer designing software such as

SilverFast SilverFast is the name of a family of software for image scanning and processing, including photos, documents and slides, developed by LaserSoft Imaging. There are also other applications for image processing using digital cameras or printers a ...

for

scanners ''Scanners'' is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathi ...

and large format printers. The company's headquarters are located in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, north of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and another office in

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

History

1986 - 1990

LaserSoft Imaging was founded in Spring 1986 by the physicist Karl-Heinz Zahorsky, the president of the company today. LaserSoft Imaging became an early adopter of color- and image processing on the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

. It was the first company to distribute video digitizers, such as Pixelogic's 'ProViz' and Truvel's 'TrueScan', the first professional color scanner for the

, which was first shown at

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

trade fair CeBIT in 1988, to which LaserSoft Imaging was invited by Apple Computer.

1990 - 2000

Karl-Heinz Zahorsky published many articles about image processing in several professional journals. In 1990 Hell Graphics, the world's leading

drum scanner An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop ''flatbed scanner'' w ...

developer in

, hired him as an independent consultant to keep up with the rapidly proceeding desktop technologies. In 1991 LaserSoft Imaging became a registered GmbH and moved into a large

Prepress Prepress is the term used in the Printing and Publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress process includes the preparation of artwork for press, media ...

house to help in setting up color reproduction on the desktop and to link Chromacom systems to

Macintosh Computers The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

. With RipLink LaserSoft Imaging presented a system to link major

prepress Prepress is the term used in the Printing and Publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress process includes the preparation of artwork for press, media ...

systems, like Hell, Scitex and Crosfield to

. The distribution of leafscanners started the chapter of high-end scanners on the desktop. LaserSoft Imaging consulted Leaf,

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced one of the first quartz watches and the ...

and others regarding desktop high end color. LaserSoft Imaging also was involved in the development of the Photone

, after the product had gone through its infant stages. In 1994 LaserSoft Imaging started the development of

, which was first presented in its early stages at CeBIT 1995. Version 2.0 was demonstrated at CeBIT 1996, version 3.0 was released in December 1996, version 4.0 in 1998. The second office opened in

in 1997.

2000 - 2010

LaserSoft Imaging released

version 5.0 in 2000, version 6.0 in 2002, version 6.5 in 2006 ant the latest version 6.6 in 2008. LaserSoft Imaging changed the company into a

public corporation A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

(

Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (where it is equi ...

) in 2001; the founder is the sole shareholder. Today, LaserSoft Imaging has implemented scan software for over 300 scanners for Mac OS 9,

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

and Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista. In the beginning LaserSoft Imaging's software was mainly distributed in

, but now,

is distributed globally through distributors as well as world-wide bundle agreements with manufacturers such as

, HP,

Seiko Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano ...

, Cruse, Leica Camera AG,

Microtek Microtek International Inc. () is a Taiwan-based multinational manufacturer of digital imaging products and other consumer electronics. It produces imaging equipment for medical, biological and industrial fields. It occupies 20 percent of the glo ...

Nikon (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...

, Pacific Image Electronics, Pentacon GmbH, PFU/Quato, Plustek,

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

, and Umax. The company also supports high-end scanners such as the

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

( Linotype) Topaz, Tango, Nexscan, and Chromagraph (3300 and 3400). LaserSoft Imaging's SilverFast was awarded "best color management software of the year 2008" by the

European Digital Press Association European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

(EDP). The award was given for improving the

dynamic range Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of Signal (electrical engineering), signals, like sound and light. It is measured ...

of most

with its Multi-Exposure feature and for automatic creation of

ICC profile In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Profiles describe the color attributes of a ...

s. The Fogra came to a similar conclusion after testing LaserSoft Imaging's

IT8 IT8 is a set of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards for color communications and control specifications. Formerly governed by the IT8 Committee, IT8 activities were merged with those of the Committee for Graphics Arts Technolog ...

targets and SilverFast's colour management system in 2009 by attesting full conformity to the strict

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

norm 12641. The HDRi raw data format was also developed in 2009. By adding the RAW data of the infrared channel to the usual RAW data it contains any readable image information for later post processing.it-enquierer.com
Article on HRDi and iSRD
/ref>

Products

The company's products can be classified in four different categories : * SilverFast SE / SE Plus / Ai Studio (Scanner Software) * SilverFast HDR / HDR Studio (64Bit / 48 Bit Image Processing Software) * SilverFast Archive Suite / Archive Suite SE * SilverFast PrintTao 8 (Software for large format printers) * SRDx Photoshop Plug-in (Dust and Scratch Removal) * LaserSoft Imaging is also manufacturing reflective and transparent IT8 Targets (ISO 12641-1), Advanced IT8 Targets (ISO 12641-2) since 2019. * The Resolution Target (USAF 1951) is a tool to determine the maximum resolution of a particular scanner.

Literature

* Taz Tally, Ph.D. ''SilverFast - The Official Guide.'' Sybex, 2003. * Taz Tally, Ph.D. ''SilverFast - Das offizielle Buch.'' Mitp-Verlag, 2004. * Sascha Steinhoff: ''Scanning negatives and slides : digitizing your photographic archive'' - Rocky Nook, 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasersoft Imaging Software companies of Germany Privately held companies of Germany Companies based in Kiel