Extensis ships Intellihance 2.0 for Photoshop with $99.95 introductory price; Automatic image enhancement plug-in gets face lift and additional features

Business Wire, Oct 18, 1995

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 1995--Extensis Corporation, the leading supplier of plug-ins for Adobe PageMaker(TM) and XTensions for QuarkXPress(R), today announced that it has begun shipping Intellihance 2.0, an automatic image enhancement plug-in for Adobe Photoshop.

Intellihance 2.0 is an intelligent Photoshop plug-in that automatically adjusts image contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness and despeckle in a single step. It works with any scanned, stock or Photo CD image. It applies artificial intelligence to the photo-enhancement process enabling users to get great looking results with little or no user intervention. Using Intellihance is like having an image enhancement expert inside your computer.

Intellihance 2.0 is compatible with Photoshop as well as other applications that support Photoshop plug-ins, including PageMaker 6.0 and QuarkXPress 3.3.1 with QX-Tools. Intellihance 2.0 is now shipping for Apple Macintosh(R) computers; a version for Windows(TM) will be available early next year. Intellihance 2.0 provides new functionality and phenomenal time savingsQat a lower price

"Our goal with Intellihance 2.0 is to offer anyone who works with digital photos a tool that will dramatically increase their productivity," said Extensis president and founder Craig Barnes. "Intellihance 2.0 is a perfect complement for both novice and expert -- the novice will get the color they want with one click of the mouse, and the expert will experience huge productivity gains when working on larger projects requiring consistent, pleasing color. This is an excellent tool for large projects like yearbooks, newspapers and other image intensive publications."

Other features in Intellihance 2.0 include a completely revamped user interface which displays before and after side by side previews, user adjustable preference settings which allow modifications to the automatic enhancement engine, before and after pixel value readouts by dragging the mouse cursor over the preview image, the ability to work with CMYK, RGB and Grayscale images, a professional RGB to CMYK color separation table from PixelCraft(R), and Fine Tune controls in a single dialog box for precision manual adjustments over Tone, Sharpness, Saturation and Despeckle. Intellihance 2.0 is also compatible with QuicKeys(R) and PhotoMatic(TM) for true unattended batch processing (scripts are included). Intellihance 2.0 also complements existing Color Management Systems (which only attempt to match monitor color to output color) by correcting source images at the onset and is the perfect tool for enhancing photos before creating composite images or applying special effects. Intellihance 2.0Us value is unprecedented in the plug-in marketplace.

Developed originally by DPA Software, Extensis acquired the publishing rights and worked with DPA Software to improve the interface, functionality and documentation and then repackaged and priced it below the original cost. Extensis and DPA Software will continue to work together to further develop the product while Extensis maintains the responsibility for marketing, selling, and supporting Intellihance 2.0.

Users confirm Intellihance's technology

Intellihance 2.0 has been tested and used by many people employed in the graphic arts. All agree that Intellihance is a proven time saver. "This is a wonderful piece of software!", exclaims Len Williams, owner and creative director of Len Williams Design. "I tried it on many different photos and invariably got good results. Using Photoshop without Intellihance on the same photos took many minutes longer to produce the same results, and quite often Intellihance got better results than my own! Grayscale photos were better balanced and color shots really smoothed out. I use Intellihance 2.0 every day, and find it particularly useful when I have a large number of photos that need enhancing and a consistent look. Intellihance 2.0 is a winner, and one product I definitely won't be without."

Pricing and availability

Intellihance 2.0 is available now for Macintosh, for a list price of $149 (U.S.); 5-packs are available at a suggested retail price of $599. For a limited time, Intellihance 2.0 will have a special introductory price of $99.95. A Windows version will be available early next year.

Intellihance 2.0 is available direct at 1-800-796-9798, or through MacConnection, MacWarehouse, Mac Zone, the Power Company, and other major software resellers.

Intellihance 2.0 requires Photoshop 2.5.1 or later (or any application that provides access to Photoshop plug-ins), and Apple System 7.1 or higher software and is PowerPC native.

Extensis Corporation, founded in 1993, develops and markets application-enhancement software that enables users to get more from the software they are already using. -0-

Note to Editors: Extensis, the Extensis logo, and QX-Tools are trademarks of Extensis Corporation. Intellihance is a trademark of DPA Software. Adobe Photoshop and PageMaker are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. QuarkXPress is a registered trademark of Quark, Inc. PhotoMatic is a trademark of Daystar Digital. PixelCraft is a registered trademark of PixelCraft, Inc. QuicKeys is a registered trademark of CE Software, Inc. Apple, Macintosh and PowerPC are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.