By Dale Farris
Golden Triangle PC Club
January 2006

Program Overview

The wait is over. ACDSee’s professional photo software that delivers unparalleled speed in every facet of your digital photography workflow—from photo capture to final print—has officially arrived. View, process, edit, organize, catalog, publish, and archive your photo collections with the precision and control demanded by photographers around the globe.

Overview

In today’s world of professional digital photography, workflow is the name of the game. That’s why ACDSystems created ACDSee Pro Photo Manager: To give you unparalleled speed in every facet of your digital photography management—from photo capture to final print.

View, process, edit, organize, catalog, publish, and archive your photo collections with the precision and control demanded by professional photographers around the globe.

Get full RAW support and RAW processing, powerful organizing tools like customizable folders and categories, quick editing features, visual tagging and full color management support for ICC and ICM profiles to meet all of your professional needs.

If you’re looking for an end-to-end digital photo software solution for all your photography workflow needs, ACDSee Pro is the answer.

Professional photographers like you who need to view, manage, edit, organize, catalog, publish, archive and share hundreds of thousands of photographs—all within a seamless and fully integrated workflow. Photographs are the core of your business, so having a seamless workflow is priority number one. When you’re dealing with thousands of photographs for clients, you don’t have time to fumble through a cumbersome, awkwardly designed software program.

ACDSee Pro is quick and easy to learn. There’s no steep learning curve, so you’ll be whizzing through its features in no time. You’ll also appreciate its intuitive and customizable user interface that doesn’t slow you down with cluttered menus or poorly positioned toolbars.

View your photographs at full size with uncompromised speed and resolution, browse thumbnails quickly and easily, and process large files with unrivaled speed. If you’re looking to streamline your workflow and increase productivity, this is the software for you.

Top Features

Lightning-fast RAW image previews

Powerful RAW processing that gives you full control over your images with precision tools for adjusting white balance, exposure, sharpness, and noise

Extensive support for RAW formats from Nikon, Canon, Konica-Minolta, Olympus, Fuji, and Pentax cameras.

Full color management support for ICC and ICM color profiles

Visual tagging feature allows you to quickly sort and select preferred photographs

Integrated support for the DNG (Digital Negative Specification) RAW format

Batch editing of thousands of photographs at once using multiple functions

Fully integrated IPTC support for interoperability with PhotoShop Captions

Watermark your photographs with graphics or text to reflect copyright and ownership laws, or to overlay business-related information on specific photographs

The Shadow/Highlight tool allows you to brighten only the dark areas of a photo, or darken only overexposed areas, or do both simultaneously

HTML album templates designed to suit your professional needs. Customize them by adding your contact information, company logo, or a look and feel appropriate for your business

Customizable Browser layouts, short-cut keys, and metadata meet your personalized requirements and streamline your workflow

Quick editing features that allow you to easily fix common lens distortions such as perspective, barrel, pincushion, and fish-eye

A complete User Guide and tutorials that make sure you hit the ground running

Feature Rich Program

Browse and view large collections with uncompromised speed

Get instant full screen viewing, fast browsing of thumbnails in more than 100 different file formats including JPEG, BMP, GIF, PSD, PCX, PNG, TIFF, RAS, RSB, SGI, TGA, RAW NEF, CR, and much more. Take a look at the complete list of supported file formats here

View RAW files faster than ever before. ACDSee Pro photo software displays RAW photos faster than ever before, so you’re never stuck waiting for your photographs to appear on screen. ACDSee Pro also allows you to view your RAW files as quickly as your JPEGs

Get industry-leading RAW format support. ACDSee Pro supports the DNG (Digital Negative Specification) format—a widely available archival RAW format, guaranteeing you’ll always be able to access and view your RAW images quickly and trouble free. It also ensures you’ll be able to view your RAW files in the future, despite changes made to industry software and camera technology.

ACDSee Pro supports a wide range of RAW formats from Nikon, Canon, Konica-Minolta, Olympus, Fuji, and Pentax cameras, including popular new DSLR models like the Nikon D2X, Nikon D70s, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II N, EOS 5D, EOS Digital Rebel XT, and the Olympus E-300.

Save valuable time by comparing multiple photographs at once. The Compare Images tool is a fast and highly productive way to highlight both similarities and differences in the properties, metadata, and pixel-intensity levels in a group of photographs you select, helping you pick the best shot from a number of similar photos.

Save your preferred photographs to a new location on your hard drive, tag the photos, or assign a rating or category for future reference. Then you can easily delete, move, rename, or alter the photographs.

The Compare Images tool displays the file properties below each photo. Differences in properties are bolded, while similarities are displayed in regular font.

The Compare Images tool includes:

Tools to zoom in and out on a photo group of selected of photos

Pan Lock an area of a photograph, so that when you zoom and pan a photo to a specific area, the Compare Images viewer displays the same area for all photographs you view.

Underexposure warning that indicates pixels that may be underexposed. Click the arrow to open a dialog box where you can adjust the threshold values.

Overexposure warning that indicates pixels that may be overexposed. Click the arrow to open a dialog box where you can adjust the threshold values.

Properties display for each photograph. Just click the Metadata Setup button to specify which file properties are displayed.

A Histogram display for each photograph.

The ability to compare up to four photos at once in the Compare Images viewer.

A Comparison List that displays thumbnails of the photographs you select in the ACDSee Browser. In the Comparison List, you can right-click a photo to display a shortcut menu of commands, and hide or show the list.

Get fully integrated color-management support. View and print accurately with full color management support for ICC and ICM color profiles. For increased productivity, remove or convert the color profiles of multiple files simultaneously.

Streamline your workflow—from head to toe.

ACDSee Pro’s photographer-inspired design gives you a seamless workflow with its range of powerful features. Features like visual tagging, image comparison, and many more.

Quickly identify your best photos with the new tagging feature. After you capture photographs from a photo shoot, you can tag each one with a checkmark that denotes whether or not you want to keep it.

Tagging is a fast and efficient way to sort through photographs, helping you keep your hard drive and memory cards uncluttered by making photo selection and deletion a simpler process.

With a single keystroke you can tag and un-tag photographs in the Browser, Viewer, or Compare Images viewer. Photographs remain tagged across sessions until you un-tag them.

Tagging your photos speeds up your workflow dramatically. For example, you can quickly tag the files you want to change, and then click Tagged in the Organize pane to display all the tagged files in the File List pane. Then you can select the files and choose a batch processing function.

A tagged category in the Organize pane allows you to search and view all your tagged photographs whenever you want. Selecting and unselecting tagged photos is a single-click operation.

Customize ACDSee Pro to meet your specific needs. Personalizing your desktop workspace is essential to creating a streamlined workflow. With ACDSee Pro photo software, it’s easy. Tailor a wide range of functionality to suit your personal preferences, making it easier and faster to use ACDSee Pro in your daily workflow

Choose which buttons display on the File List toolbar.

Hide, close, move, and dock various panes according to your workflow needs

Customize the Browser layout to suit each of your workflows. Save each layout and then quickly load that workspace for a specific task

View files that do not have standard image extensions

Customize the Properties tab. Add a custom tab to the properties pane and select the EXIF, IPTC, database and file information you want to display in that Tab

Create custom Info Tips. Select the EXIF, IPTC, database, and file information that you want to display as Info Tips in the File List

Preview images in the Browser with a histogram and essential properties information

Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly assign categories and sort files. You can also customize keyboard shortcuts in the Browser and Viewer

Create and save contact sheet print settings

Set ratings for your photographs while browsing, viewing, or comparing photographs

Take advantage of the Context-Sensitive toolbar. The Context-Sensitive toolbar gives you instant access to all the features you need, exactly when you need them. You can also hide, float and dock the various panes to maximize the efficiency of your workspace.

Non-destructive RAW processing gives you precision, control, and a professional edge.

Process your RAW images with greater control and precision. Experiment and fine-tune image development settings to ensure each of your photographs looks the way you want. All RAW files remain intact after processing to preserve the data captured by your camera.

Adjust exposure, white balance, sharpness, noise, and more, taking your digital photography to a whole new level of excellence. Any adjustments you make appear in real-time, so you never have to waste time waiting to view the changes you’ve made.

You can also save settings as presets so you can use them repeatedly, and process multiple RAW images in a single step with powerful batch RAW processing.

Accelerate your productivity with powerful batch functionality. There are two types of batch processing in ACDSee Pro photo software: You can perform a single function to several photos simultaneously, or perform multiple functions to one photo or several photos simultaneously.

Single function batch processing. This is type is useful when you want to make the same change to several photos simultaneously. For example, if you need to resize photos, you can use the Batch Resize tool. Or, if you want to rename some photos, you can use the Batch Rename tool.

With single function batch edits you can simultaneously rotate, crop, resize, remove a color cast, change exposure, reduce noise (grain), sharpen, add a watermark, add text and metadata, move, rename, and convert photos to a new file format - all in a single operation.

You can also rename multiple photos, or the contents of an entire folder, with the stroke of a key. Instantly change confusing digital camera file names into names that you recognize. Convert batches of photos to JPEG, the world’s most widely used and recognized graphic file format. You can also modify specific format settings within file formats like IFF, PNG, PSD, and RAS.

Being able to control your photos in batches saves you valuable time and effort. You can update EXIF (Image Description, Artist, Copyright etc.), ACDSee Pro database info (caption, date/time, author, notes etc.), and view previews of new values for any number of images all at once.

Create new keywords and categories, copy values from one file to another (e.g., copy DB notes to IPTC captions), map values from one file to another, and create and apply stored text on a field-by-field basis.

Multiple function batch processing. This type of batch processing is useful when you want to make several changes to one photo or to several photos simultaneously. For example, you may need to resize and rename a photo or several photos.

In this case, you can use the Batch Processor wizard. When you open your photos in the Batch Processor wizard, on the first page of the wizard you see a list of editing options such as rotate, crop, resize, correct color cast, and so on.

You also see a preview of a photo. Select one or more editing options and see those changes reflected in the preview. You can select another photo from the Thumbnail List and make the same, or different, editing options to that photo.

Add IPTC information to photos in batches. Take advantage of fully integrated support for IPTC metadata. Add information to multiple photos at once, like IPTC captions, keywords and copyright information, credits and more. You can also add IPTC information even faster by creating IPTC templates, like author information and copyright. Any IPTC information you add stays embedded in your photos when you share them.

View and edit your IPTC information and overlay it on any photo in the Viewer, or on thumbnails in the Browser. Display IPTC info in your slide shows, or sort your file lists and compare photos based on IPTC data.

Edit and retouch photographs quickly with professional tools.

ACDSee Pro provides all of the most common digital photo editing software tools in one single application, so you can quickly retouch your photographs without having to leave the application.

Edit Mode provides tools for quick exposure adjustments using levels and curves. You can also use it to crop, rotate, and resize your photographs.

Make automatic adjustments to exposure, color, contrast, and brightness, or set brightness, contrast and gamma yourself. You can even choose specific levels for shadows, mid-tones, highlights, and red, green, and blue channels. Save your settings and use them to fix exposure on other groups of photos.

Before and after previews also ensure you get top-quality results. A histogram dynamically updates as you make changes to the photo. Access handy exposure warnings, and easily apply zooming tools while viewing and editing images. There are also several tools available for you to control the size of the image in the window: Actual size, Fit Image, Zoom In/Out, and Navigator.

Fine tune your images with shadow and highlight adjustments. While most other editing functions such as brightness and levels tend to affect all areas of the photograph in the same way, the Shadow/Highlight tool allows you to correct shadows and highlights independently of each other. That means you can enhance only the shadows, or only the highlights, or both shadows and highlights independently.

The Shadow/Highlight tool also allows you to increase or decrease the color saturation of the photos when you make adjustments. The overall result is a more fine-tuned, balanced, and professional-looking photograph.

Make changes quickly without having to leave ACDSee. With the new Photo Repair tool you can fix common photo defects such as blemishes, flares, lens scratches, and other imperfections, so your photographs always look great, no matter how you choose to show them. Choose from either the Clone or Heal options to repair any area of a photo.

The Heal option is a professional-quality tool that allows you to fix an isolated area in a photograph while maintaining the color, lighting, and texture of surrounding areas. For example, you can use it to remove scars from a subject’s face, leaving the area looking natural and in context with the rest of the photo.

Crop, rotate, and resize your photographs. Rotate photos at preset angles, or use custom rotation plus automatic cropping to straighten crooked photos or just for artistic effect. Resize photos by adjusting its dimensions in pixels, percentage, or actual/print size. While resizing, you can also choose an aspect ratio and a resampling filter to manipulate the appearance of the resized photograph.

Choose from over 40 fantastic filters and special effects that you can save as presets, including:

Sepia: You can use the Sepia effect to give your images an antique look.

Vignette: The Vignette effect adds a frame around a subject, such as a person or a bouquet of flowers. You can change the focal point in the portrait, and also control the appearance of the border.

Stained Glass: You can use the Stained Glass effect to divide your images into fragments of a random size and shape, making your photo look like a stained glass window.

Age: The Old effect to gives your images an antique look. It is similar to the Sepia effect, but produces a more realistic appearance of age.

Bulge: The Bulge effect stretches or shrinks areas of your images horizontally and vertically.

Oil Paint: You can use the Oil Paint effect to give your images a painted appearance.

Remove noise through median noise reduction. Remove noise from photographs with the new hybrid Median Noise Reduction tool. Other noise reduction tools in ACDSee Pro include Despeckle, Median X, +, and Square.

This method of noise removal is a mathematical algorithm that identifies noisy pixels in a photo and adjusts their values based on the median (or middle) value of neighboring pixels. Median noise removal is useful for reducing Gaussian noise, which is the most common type of noise in digital photography because it originates in a digital camera's image sensor.

You can ACDSee Pro’s hybrid option when you want to apply median noise removal to more pixels in a photo, or if you want to reduce the color variations that are sometimes caused by noise.

Use powerful lens correction tools. Correct perspective, barrel, pincushion, and fish-eye distortions with precision and ease.

Use the histogram to adjust your photographs with pinpoint accuracy. View a histogram when browsing through thumbnails, viewing full size images, or editing your photographs.

Add text captions to your photographs. Write descriptive text captions, insert the filename, or add the photographer’s name using styles and special effects. Add over 40 special effects such as Blur, Ripple, Shift and Twirl.

Add watermarks to your photographs. Now you can easily add watermarks to your photographs to properly reflect copyright and ownership laws, or to mark specific photographs or images with pertinent business related information like logos and graphics.

Organize your photographs quickly and efficiently.

Tailor your categories and folders to suit the subjects you shoot. Whether it's wedding, portrait, architecture, sports, event, landscape, or travel photography–ACDSee Pro makes managing your photos simple, elegant, and secure.

The Selective Browsing feature allows you to search photos using several criteria at the same time:

Folder
Category
Date
All of the above

You can also look through multiple folders, categories, or calendar dates all at once. If you need to see or compare a selection of photos from different folders, there's no need to create a new folder. Just drag and drop the pictures into a new category, then browse to that category and view them - this way you avoid copying photos unnecessarily.

ACDSee Pro digital photo software supports high and low-resolution photographs with equal fidelity, in over 100 popular file formats. See the complete list here.

ACDSee Pro automatically adds file information and thumbnails to the ACD database as you browse your folders. Use the Catalog Files Wizard to add groups of files to the database without having to first browse the folders. This can be particularly useful when using ACDSee Pro for the first time, and when browsing or managing large collections of photos as it reduces the loading time required for these folders-–and this allows you to view your RAW files as quickly as your JPEGs.

Assign ratings to your photographs for fast, efficient organization. You can assign a rating (1-5) to photos without relocating the file, and you can remove ratings at any time with a single click. Ratings help you both organize and prioritize your photos when you are dealing with large collections.

Find the shots you need quickly. Find that one brilliant photo out of a thousand by simply typing a keyword into the Quick Search bar. The Quick Search bar is conveniently displayed at the top of the Browser, and retrieves photos lightning fast. You can search using keywords, captions, file or folder names, or IPTC captions and keywords.

You can also resize any image according to your exact needs, or instantly view it in full-size.

Access detailed file information such as image size, pixels per inch, and uncompressed file size, IPTC, and EXIF. You can even modify your existing Windows® folder structure from directly within ACDSee.

Search by any file property to find exactly what you want:

File name
Date photograph was taken or date modified
Attributes such as height and width
File format and file size
Keywords and ratings
IPTC metadata (photographer's name, date taken, etc.)
Camera metadata (EXIF)

Quickly and easily access information about images such as the date the photograph was taken, file format, dimensions, camera metadata (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc.), personal captions, keywords, ratings, author and category in the Browse window. The Calendar pane automatically searches for and displays the dates of all photos on a calendar. You can use the Search pane to search by file name, keywords, or photo properties.

Refine your search within specific folders, categories or date ranges with the Selective Browsing tool, or perform advanced specific searches based on camera metadata.

You can also select the folder you want and then breeze through the thumbnail previews. Drop them into special favorites folders, find duplicates of your pictures, and generate complete file listings for easy perusal.

Your browsing capabilities also include CDs, DVDs and VCDs. You can update your photo discs on multi-session CDs and DVDs, as well as browse through all your CDs. Easily add your photo CD collection to ACDSee Pro so you can view thumbnails and organize the photos on your CDs without having to reload them onto your computer.

Create high-impact slide shows of your work.

Create your own stunning slide shows with transition effects and sound, and then share them on CD or by e-mail. What’s more, your recipients do not have to have ACDSee to view your creations.

Mix multiple audio tracks into your slide shows without the hassle of learning overly complicated software. A unique function also enables you to synch audio to slides, which makes the slide show last as long as the background soundtrack you've selected.

Create Flash, and instant slide shows, as well as personalized photo screen savers - all with improved mouse and keyboard functionality for easier pausing and scrolling through your slides. VCD (Video Compact Disc) support lets you put your creative slide shows to music, and then show them off on a television or PC using a DVD player. The VCD support could be written more for the photographer providing a service to clients.

Building dynamic Flash and PDF slide shows to present your work to clients has never been easier or more efficient. Use ACDSee to add the following to your projects:

Up to 12 unique transition effects
Optional auto-repeat
Background colors
Optional play bar
Image size options

Publish to the Web. Choose from several professionally designed HTML templates that suit your professional Web needs, or create custom HTML templates. Custom templates allow you to give Web pages a look and feel appropriate for your business. You can also add contact information and your company logo.

Page layout controls have mouse-over tips to make it easy to choose titles, subtitles and home page URLs, as well as your favorite font sizes, styles and background colors. You can also:

Choose the number of photos per page
Select thumbnail size
Designate thumbnail format
Include captions, notes, dates and other file properties

Easily customize your page headers and footers, or set the delay interval for photos in your Web slide shows.

Instantly share your photos by e-mail or online. Deliver your photos to global destinations by e-mail or SendPix. You can use the E-mail Image Sharing Wizard to send photographs directly from ACDSee without having to open an external email application. ACDSee photo software automatically optimizes photographs for distribution via e-mail, or you can e-mail your photographs to colleagues and clients using your default e-mailing application.

SendPix is an ACDSee photo sharing service that allows you to upload photos to your Web site and generate an e-mail with a link to the photographs. You can send this to clients so they can see your work.

Create PDF files of your work for secure sharing. You can also use ACDSee Pro to combine your photos into PDF (portable document format) files, a secure and universally supported file format that allows you to share your work more easily, with a wider audience. The Create PDF Wizard will guide you through the process of creating one or more PDF files from your photos, or adding photos to a PDF slide show.

Command a range of high quality print options.

The Print Wizard lets you customize your print sizes, or print to standard sizes such as 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10. Color management support ensures your prints will look like what you see on your monitor.

Choose from a full set of standard and custom print options. See and set specific print preferences for each photograph, then quickly flip between pages when you need to print multiple photos at the same time.

Contact sheet printing options include:

Setting for number of rows and columns of thumbnails
Spacing between thumbnails, framing (border) and color styling around thumbnails
Output to printer or as an image file
Save presets

Print options for single and multiple photos let you:

Include your own caption, header or footer Insert personal keywords
Insert camera metadata (EXIF, IPTC)
Insert any other file property
Format and align text
Set page margins
Auto-rotate photos
Auto-crop or shrink photos to fit
Modify print properties

ACDSee Pro photo software allows you to choose from different resampling filters to ensure the highest quality prints for clients and colleagues.

Get the best in photo storage, archiving, and photo protection.

Your photographs are under lock and key with ACDSee Pro’s failsafe storage features.

Use the Sync feature to synchronize folders on your PC with network folders or an external hard drive to protect you from local hard drive failure. You can even synchronize multiple folders and schedule when the synchronizations occur.

Backup your database quickly and easily. You can use the ACD Database Backup Wizard to back up all of your database information, which you can then restore in the case of a system failure or other event. You can also choose to back up your photographs and media files with the associated database information.

You can backup your photos and database information to CD or DVD. For safety purposes, ACDSee photo software periodically gives you a reminder to back up your photographs. To back up portions of your database, or to share database information with another ACDSee user, use the ACD Database Export Wizard.

Create hard copies of your work using the Burn Basket. The Burn Basket makes creating CDs and DVDs drag-and-drop easy. Make hard copies of your photographs faster than ever before, then present them to clients and colleagues.

Improve organization by creating new folders within the Burn Basket, and update ACDSee Photo Discs on multi-session CDs and DVDs. Easily manage your disc space by checking the updated estimate of the size of the disc, and how much space will be used up by your current project.

The Burn Basket completely eliminates the need for a third-party burning tool, and can also be used to create archives and backups of your files.

Targeted Customers and Typical Uses

ACDSee has been around for quite a few years, and I've grown fond of its super image viewing features that make it so easy to quickly see thumbnail views of virtually any graphic file on a machine. With the PhotoEditor and FotoSlate programs, you now have a fully developed combination of image editing and management applications to rival even the powerhouse in this software genre, Adobe's Photoshop. While ACDSee is certainly no Photoshop, it also certainly does not carry the same stratospheric price tag that accompanies Photoshop.

Ask a dozen digital photographers what the most daunting task they face is, and nearly all will give you the same answer: managing the hundreds of photos that are sitting on their computer. One of the most useful tools for handling this chore is ACDSee, a lean yet comprehensive application that combines powerful batch-processing functions and adequate image editing tools.

The latest update, ACDSee Pro Photo Manager, builds on those strengths and adds others. ACDSee's new Burn Basket archiving feature works well. Besides letting you drag and drop files that you want to archive, it enables you to create new folders and to quickly reorganize the photos you are burning to disc.

Another added feature is Sync, which provides an alternate way to back up photos. You define the source and the destination of your files (a network server, an external hard drive, or another connected PC), and specify what the application should do in the event of a file conflict (replace the old file, skip the transfer, or prompt you). Though primarily an archiving tool, Sync also helps you avoid storing duplicate files if you use two PCs for photo editing.

A new quick-search bar lets you speedily hunt through keywords, file names, and other fields. To search a photo's metadata, however, you have to use the full-search pane. Meanwhile, the Task Pane provides faster access to key tools such as rotate and resize. You can swiftly tab between the Task Pane and Properties, and drop-down menus permit you to expand or contract the extensive list of tasks. Unfortunately, the Task Pane is not customizable.

ACDSee users should get enough improvements in this edition to make the upgrade worthwhile, and anyone grappling with a rapidly growing photo collection will benefit from ACDSee's streamlined image-processing tools. Even Photoshop users will find this package a useful complement to their favorite photo editor.

For anyone with interest in and regular use of digital cameras and scanners to acquire, edit, and share digital images, these applications deserve serious attention for their ease of use and reasonable price points. While Adobe strives to include all known image editing, management, and presentation features into one application, ACD Systems wisely offers various combinations of these features in their super lineup of digital image programs, with ACDSee leading the pack. I highly recommend you seriously consider all the many fine programs from ACD Systems.

Price

$129.99

System Requirements

Intel Pentium III / AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon XP or equivalent recommended
Windows 2000, XP (XP recommended)
IE 5 (IE 6 recommended)
256MB RAM (512MB RAM recommended)
100MB free hard drive space (1GB recommended)
High Color display adapter
1024 x 768 resolution (1600 x 1200 recommended)
CD/DVD Burner - for creating CDs and DVDs

TiVo Desktop Software - to publish images to your TiVo
Microsoft DirectX 9 - for Microsoft DirectX file format support, and to create slide shows and screen savers
QuickTime 6 - for QuickTime file format support
Ghostscript 8 - for PDF support
Windows Media Player 9.0 or later

About ACD Systems

ACD Systems is recognized the world over as the leader in image management and technical illustration software, providing the ACD Family of products, headed by ACDSee and Canvas.

ACD delivers the leading platforms for image management and technical illustration, giving consumers and professionals everything they need to manage, create, edit, share, and publish content for print, presentation and the Web faster, easier, and more efficiently.

Initially incorporated in 1989, ACD Systems Ltd. changed its name on April 28, 1993 as it evolved into a software developer for the nascent CD-ROM cataloguing industry. It was realized that a key technological advantage could be found if ACD developed the fastest software JPEG decoder on the market. After intensive research and development, ACDSee was born and quickly evolved into the dominant player in the image viewing and management market. ACDSee was bundled with and became the defacto JPEG decoder/viewer for Mosaic, the very first Web browser. As a shareware program ACDSee quickly dominated the worldwide web and has since built an impressive global user base estimated to be well over 25 million users. ACD Systems Ltd. currently experiences close to a million downloads per month of its software.

ACD Systems diversified its business in 2003 by acquiring 410124 Canada Inc. (formerly Linmor Technologies Inc.) and technical illustration software developer Deneba Solutions Inc, (Canvas).

Today many Fortune 500 Companies including Daimler Chrysler, Boeing, and NASA rely on ACD Systems for asset management and technical illustration solutions. Additionally, ACD Systems has been honored with numerous awards and industry recognition from leading business, technology and trade publications, corporate and photography associations, and shareware sites.

Headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, ACD Systems employs approximately 150 people and operates offices in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Switzerland. At the close of the last fiscal year, ending March 30, 2004, revenues were $25.4 million.

ACD Systems is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ASA.

Contact Information

Head Office
ACD Systems International Inc.
PO Box 36
Saanichton
British Columbia
Canada V8M 2C3
250-544-6700
FAX 250-544-0291

ACD Systems of America
1150 NW 72 Avenue, Suite 180
Miami, Florida 33126
305-596-5644
FAX 305-406-9802
www.acdsystems.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.