The digital imaging solution, dubbed Lightroom, is initially available in public beta on Macs.Adobe Systems Inc. announced Monday—the first day of the popular Macworld Expo—new photo management software that will compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s Aperture.
Adobe will publicly debut the software, called Lightroom, Tuesday at Macworld.
The public beta of the software is initially available on Macintosh computers, though Adobe said the application will eventually run on Windows as well.
"We look forward to the feedback from the photography community as we refine the product over the next few months," said Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen, in a press release.
Adobe expects to release the full product in late 2006.
Adobe plans for Lightroom to deliver a complete photography workflow, according to the press release.
Lightroom supports more than 100 cameras and incorporates raw conversion. The beta is available for download at the Adobe Labs Web site.
Lightroom will incorporate several photography-centered features, including:
- Lights-Out mode, which allows users to make the control panels fade into the background.
- Identity Plate, which allows users to apply their own branding to the application and its output.
- One-to-One zoom, which allows instant magnification of the finer points of an image.
- Image showcasing via slideshows.
- Multiple contact sheet templates.
Recommended system requirements are a Mac running OS X 10.4.3 with a 1GHz G4 processor and at least 768MB of RAM.
Graphics Tools 
