Epson FILM FACTORY Getting Start

Copyright Notice
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Epson America, Inc.
Trademarks
EPSON and EPSON Stylus are registered trademarks and PRINT Image Matching and the PRINT Image Matching logo are trademarks of SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION.
EPSON Software and the EPSON Software logo are trademarks, and EPSON PhotoCenter is a service mark of Epson America, Inc.
Film Factory and the Film Factory logo are trademarks of A.I.Soft, Inc.
General notice: Other product names used herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. EPSON disclaims any and all rights in those marks.
Copyright © 1999–2002 by Epson America, Inc., and 1998–2002 A.I.Soft, Inc., for its contributions.
PRINT Image Matching II, Copyright Seiko Epson Corporation 2002. All Rights Reserved.
6/02
CPD-12663R2

Contents

Introducing Film Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
About PRINT Image Matching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
About Exif Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Learning More About Film Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Windows System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Macintosh System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Compatible Devices and File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Starting Film Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Film Factorys Main Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
How Film Factory Organizes Your Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Creating a Roll of Film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Adding Photos to a Roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Retouching Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Automatically Retouching a Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Manually Retouching a Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Rotating an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Cropping an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Changing Color to Black and White or Sepia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Applying a Soft Focus Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Correcting Red Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Canceling Retouch Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Adding Comments or Sound to a Photo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Adding Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Adding Sound (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Managing Your Photos, Film Rolls, and Film Cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Using the Viewer to Display Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Moving or Copying a Photo to Another Roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Deleting a Photo From a Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Finding a Photo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Sorting Photos and Film Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Renaming a Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Moving a Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3
Deleting a Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Working With Film Cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Managing Photos on Removable Media and Networks . . . . . . . . 36
Printing Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Standard Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Index Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Duplicate Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Album Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Greeting Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Sticker Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Combo Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Other Film Factory Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Creating a Collage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Creating a Photo Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Playing a Movie File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Creating Web Pages of Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Uploading Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Converting a Photo to Desktop Wallpaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using a Photo Roll as a Screen Saver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Exporting Photos to Files or E-mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Where to Get Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
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Introducing Film Factory

EPSON Software™ Film Factory™ lets you process your digital “film” and print snapshots using your own computer and printer. With this powerful photo management utility, you can import images from any digital-imaging source and create virtual rolls of film and film cases to organize thousands of photos in a visual format.
Film Factory is the perfect photo management program for the home or office. If you’re a home computer user, you’ll have fun organizing, enhancing, printing, and sharing your favorite photos with family and friends. If you’re a small business user, Film Factory provides an efficient and convenient way to catalog your business-related digital photos.
Film Factory lets you:
Quickly and easily import and organize images from a digital camera, scanner, PC card, CD-ROM, or disk.
Retouch your pictures to make them look their best. Automatically adjust color balance, brightness, and contrast. Rotate or trim the image, or correct red eyes. Convert photos to black and white or sepia for a classic look. Most enhancements can be made without modifying the original image file.
Organize and retrieve all your photos with virtual rolls of film and “film cases. You can catalog your photos by subject, or family members can have their own film cases with their own rolls.
Print vivid color images in a variety of formats, including standard 3.5 × 5 or 4 × 6 prints, an index (contact) sheet, photo album pages, and greeting cards.
Add comments or sound (Windows® only) to each photo to be stored with it.
Create photo collages.
E-mail your photos to family, friends, and business associates using your own e-mail program, or create web pages of your photos in one easy step (Windows only).
Use your photos as desktop wallpaper or a screen saver (Windows only).
5

About PRINT Image Matching

If your digital camera and printer support PRINT Image Matching (P.I.M.), Film Factory lets you produce the best prints possible (not available on Macintosh
®
OS X). PRINT Image Matching is a term for the print command that is embedded in the header of the image file created by certain digital cameras. It contains color setting and image parameter information. With PRINT Image Matching, the digital camera can set specific printing options such as:
contrast
gamma level
shadow
sharpness
color space
highlight
brightness
color saturation
color balance
The camera saves this information in each image file. For example, macro mode pictures might include commands for sharpness and clarity, while portrait mode pictures might emphasize soft focusing and subtle flesh tones. Your printer then uses the information to ensure the most accurate reproduction of the image.
In Film Factory, the P.I.M. symbol appears on the thumbnails for PRINT Image Matching photos. You can also right-click (Windows) or
Ctrl
-click (Macintosh) a photo thumbnail to see if it is a P.I.M. photo. Check the Photo Enhancement status in the displayed information; if it is
PRINT Image Matching with the ability to interpret Exif Print
or
PRINT Image Matching
, the photo
contains P.I.M. data.
If a PRINT Image Matching photo has been retouched, it may not display the P.I.M. symbol or P.I.M. status. If you trim or rotate a PRINT Image Matching photo, or correct for red eyes, the P.I.M. settings are retained. But because P.I.M. optimizes settings such as brightness and color automatically, using retouching options like these removes P.I.M. settings. You also lose P.I.M. settings if you export the files.

About Exif Print

The Exif (Exchangeable Image File) Print format includes information about your digital camera settings in JPEG files so your printer and application can use them to create accurate print settings. Most digital cameras store Exif Print information such as shutter speed, metering, flash and exposure settings, resolution, and lens use in the JPEG image file.
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In Film Factory,
Exif Print
Exif Print
is listed in an information display box as the Photo Enhancement status
when you right-click (Windows) or
PRINT Image Matching with ability to interpret
or
Ctrl
-click (Macintosh) an Exif Print photo. Like P.I.M. photos, you can trim, rotate, or correct for red eyes and still retain Exif Print settings, but if you adjust brightness or color options, or export the files, the Exif Print settings are removed.

Learning More About Film Factory

This Getting Started guide explains how to use Film Factory’s exciting features.
Click the Film Factory
Help
button for step-by-step instructions on the most
frequently used features and convenient access to detailed information.
If you need additional EPSON® Support, see “Where to Get Help” on
page 60.

Windows System Requirements

If you’re using Windows, make sure your system configuration meets these minimum requirements:
Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, 2000, or NT 4.0
If youre using Windows XP, 2000, or NT 4.0, you may need to have Administrator privileges to install and use Film Factory.
Pentium® 200 (or equivalent) processor or higher
64MB of RAM (more will improve performance)
100MB of available hard disk space, not including photo storage
SVGA monitor with 16-bit (High Color) display adapter or better
QuickTime® 4 or higher to support some file types
Mouse or other pointing device
Compatible with most color printers; a high-quality photo printer and special media are recommended to print the best images
A PRINT Image Matching- or Exif Print-enabled digital camera and printer are required to print with P.I.M. or Exif Print technology
7

Macintosh System Requirements

If you’re using a Macintosh, make sure your system configuration meets these minimum requirements:
Mac OS 8.5.1 through 9.x for Film Factory for Mac OS 8/9
Mac OS X 10.1 or higher for Film Factory for Mac OS X
233 MHz G3 processor or higher
64MB of RAM (more will improve performance)
100MB of available hard disk space, not including photo storage
800 × 600 display resolution with Color Depth set to “thousands of colors
QuickTime 4 or higher
HTML browser (such as Microsoft® Internet Explorer or Netscape® Navigator
Mouse or other pointing device
Compatible with most color printers; a high-quality photo printer and special media are recommended to print the best images
A PRINT Image Matching- or Exif Print-enabled digital camera and printer are required to print with P.I.M. or Exif Print technology
®
version 4.0 or higher) to view online help

Compatible Devices and File Formats

Film Factory supports files from all TWAIN-compatible digital cameras and scanners (not available with Macintosh OS X). For non-TWAIN devices, you can download photos using your camera or scanner software.
Film Factory supports the following digital photo file types:
Windows: Supports BMP and JPEG file types. If QuickTime 4 or higher is installed, also supports TIF, PCX, FPX, Photo CD (read only), MacPaint, PNG, GIF, PICT, Adobe
Macintosh: Supports JPEG, PICT, BMP, TIF, FPX (read only), PNG, GIF
®
Photoshop,® QuickTime, SGI, and Targa files.
(read only), MacPaint, PhotoShop, QuickTime, SGI, and Targa files.
If QuickTime 4 or higher is installed, Film Factory supports the following digital movie formats: QuickTime, DV, MPEG1, and AVI files.
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®

Starting Film Factory

To start Film Factory in Windows, click the
All Programs
. Then select
Film Factory > Film Factory
Start
button and select
.
Programs
To start Film Factory on a Macintosh, open the Film Factory folder and double-click
Film Factory
Film Factory OS X
or
to open the program.
You see the main screen.

Film Factory’s Main Screen

The main screen displays thumbnail views of the photos in the open roll. (The Sample roll included with Film Factory is shown below.)
Print options
Menu commands
PRINT Image Matching icon
Photo
Toolbar tools
or
Film cases
Roll of film
Status bar
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Toolbar

Click on any tool to perform its function. Hold the mouse cursor briefly over any tool to see what function it performs.

Menu commands

The menu commands provide another way to access many of the toolbar functions, as well as some additional features. Open any menu to select a command. The Status Bar describes the command.
Print options
Click on one of the Print options to select how you want to print your photo(s).
Film cases
Create separate film cases to catalog your rolls by subject.
Select a film case by choosing it from this list. Only the rolls in that case are displayed.
10
Film rolls
Scroll bars
Add photos to your rolls and view them by simply clicking on a roll. The current roll is highlighted by a
Use the scroll bars or click on the arrows to see more rolls and more photos.
yellow background.

Status bar

The status bar describes the selected menu command and displays information about your photos.

Photos

Click on any photo to select it. Selected photos are highlighted by a yellow background.
PRINT Image Matching photos have an icon in the upper-right corner. (PRINT Image Matching features are not available on OS X.)
Display information about photos by right-clicking
Ctrl-
(Windows) or thumbnail. The P.I.M. or Exif Print status of the photo is listed under
clicking (Macintosh) the photo
Photo Enhancement
.
Select photos individually, or select a group of photos using
Shift
+ click or
Ctrl
+ click (Windows), or
Shift
+ click or
J + click (Macintosh).
All
Cancel
Click
or
to select or deselect all the photos in a roll.
Double-click on a photo to display an enlarged view of it. (You can also use the Viewer option to enlarge a photo. See “Using the Viewer to Display Photos on
page 29.)
11

How Film Factory Organizes Your Photos

Film Factory helps you organize photos already stored on your computer as well as those you add from other sourcesyour digital camera, scanner, or removable media such as a PC card, Zip
First you create a film roll, to which you add your photos. You can store as many photos as you want in each roll. When you have a number of rolls, you can file them in virtual film cases; group rolls of film by subject to make it easier to manage your photos.
Additionally, large photo files don’t have to take up space on your hard drive. You can keep them on your Zip disk, CD-ROM, or other removable media while adding virtual thumbnail images of them to a roll created on your hard disk. For example, if you have your photos developed and returned to you on a CD-ROM, you can create a roll without storing the actual photos on your hard drive.
Likewise, if you have images stored on a network, you can view thumbnail versions of the photos (along with any comments) even when the network is offline.
For more information, see “Managing Your Photos, Film Rolls, and Film Cases
on page 29.
®
disk, or CD-ROM.

Creating a Roll of Film

Follow the instructions in this section to create a new roll of film and add photos to itfrom a disk or from a device such as a digital camera. You can also create a new roll by copying images from an existing folder on your hard disk or other device.
Roll
1. From the Main Menu, click the
button. You see this menu:
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2. To create a new roll to which you can add photos later, click
New Roll
this dialog box:
Click here to add a comment and date for the roll
Type a name for the roll. If you want to add a comment and/or date to describe the roll, click the
To create a roll from an existing folder of images, click
Existing Image Folder
Windows
Details
button and enter the comment and date.
. You see this dialog box:
New Roll, Use
Click here to add a comment or change the date
. You see
Macintosh
Click Browse to select a folder
Click here to add a comment or change the date
Select the drive and/or folder where the photos are stored. (On the Macintosh, click
Browse
IThe photos are not copied to your hard drive; only thumbnail images are created for the roll.
, then select a folder and click
Choose
.)
13
If you want to enter a name for the roll that is different from the folder name, type it in the Roll Name box.
If you want to add a comment and/or date to describe the roll, click the
Details
3. Click
button and enter the comment and date.
Add
. The roll appears on the main screen.
If the folder is on a removable device such as a Zip disk or PC card, you see this window:
If you can record on the device, you can copy the Film Factory databases to the device. Check the
Factory databases to the removable media
(Windows) or the
Factory databases to the removable media
Copy Film
checkbox
Write Film
checkbox (Macintosh) to record the film case, film roll, and any other photo information on the removable device.
With Macintosh OS X, it’s best to copy your photos to a folder on your hard disk and manage your film rolls from there.
Windows
Macintosh
If you create a roll from a folder on a removable device, this icon appears in the upper right corner of the roll.
Now you are ready to add photos to the roll.
14

Adding Photos to a Roll

To add photos to a roll, you select images already stored on a disk or from other sources such as a digital camera or scanner. First, make sure the import settings are correct. Then see the appropriate section below:
Adding photos from a folder on the hard drive” on page 16.
Adding photos from a TWAIN device” on page 17.
Adding photos from removable media or a PC card” on page 17.

Selecting the Import Settings

Follow the steps below to define the import source for your image files, whether they are on your hard disk, digital camera, scanner, PC card, or other removable device. You need to do this only once.
1. Click the
Import
button, and choose
2. On the File tab, click
Browse
and select the path name where your image files
Import Settings
. You see this window:
are storedon your hard disk, removable media, and/or PC card. This becomes the default path where Film Factory will look for files when you import them, but you can always specify a different location.
15
On the TWAIN tab, select the digital camera or scanner you are using from the Import Source List and the file format (BMP, PICT, or JPEG). Then click
OK
. (TWAIN importing is not available on Macintosh OS X.)
For more information about Import Settings, click the Help button.

Adding photos from a folder on the hard drive

Follow these steps to import photos from another folder:
1. From the Main Menu, select the film roll to which you want to add photos.
If the film roll you want is in another film case, click the down arrow on
Film Cases
the
icon to display the
other film cases.
Click here to see other film cases
2. Click the
From File
Import
button, then select
from the drop-down menu. In Windows, you see the Import Files
window; on a Macintosh, you see the Choose a File window.
3. Navigate to the disk and directory where the photos are stored.
4. Click the filename you wish to add. A thumbnail of the photo appears in the Preview window. You can select more than one with (Windows), or
Shift
+ click or
J + click (Macintosh). Click
Shift
+ click or
Ctrl
Select All
+ click
to
select them all.
5. Do one of the following to add photos to your roll:
Click
Move
to remove the originals from their source and move them to
the folder where Film Factory stores images.
Click
Copy
to leave the originals where they are and place a copy in the
folder where Film Factory stores images.
The photos appear in the roll.
6. On a Macintosh, click
Choose
or
Open
.
16

Adding photos from a TWAIN device

Follow the steps below to download photos using a TWAIN device, such as a digital camera or scanner (not available with OS X). Film Factory works with all digital camera image formats.
Make sure your device is TWAIN compliant before you try importing photos. The device should be connected to your computer and ready to use. See the instructions that came with your device for help.
To import photos from your camera or scanner:
1. From the Main Menu, select the film roll to which you want to add photos.
If the film roll you want is in another film case, click the down arrow on
Film Cases
the
icon to display the
other film cases.
Click here to see other film cases
2. Click the
From TWAIN Device
Import
button, and choose
. The software used to transfer photos from your camera
or scanner to your computer is started.
3. Import your photos to the selected roll of film using the software that was started. See the instructions that came with the software for help.

Adding photos from removable media or a PC card

Follow the steps below if you want to import files from a removable device such as CD-ROM, Zip disk, or PC card.
With Macintosh OS X, its best to copy your photos to a folder on your hard disk and manage your photos from there.
1. Insert the disk in the appropriate drive.
2. From the Main Menu, select the film roll to which you want to add photos.
If the film roll you want is in another film case, click the down arrow on
Film Cases
the
icon to display the
other film cases.
Click here to see other film cases
17
3. Click the
Card
from the drop-down menu. The Import Files (or Choose a File) window
Import
button, then select
From Removable Media
From PC
or
appears.
4. Navigate to the disk and directory where the photos are stored.
5. Click the filename you wish to add. A thumbnail of the photo is displayed. You can select more than one with
Shift
J + click (Macintosh). Click
+
Shift
+ click or
Select All
Ctrl
+ click (Windows) or
to select them all.
6. Do one of the following to add photos to your roll:
Click
Move
to remove the originals from their source and move them to
the folder where Film Factory stores images.
Click
Copy
to leave the originals where they are and place a copy in the
folder where Film Factory stores images.
The photos appear in the roll.
7. On the Macintosh, click
Choose
or
Open
.

Retouching Your Photos

You can retouch your photos to improve the quality or add special effects. Film Factory can automatically retouch photos for you or you can do it yourself manually. In most cases, retouching does not modify the original photos.
When you click the
Retouch
button, you see this menu:
To retouch photos automatically, see page 19.
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