The online photo service Printing-1 is growing and increases its service capabilities in the UK. The company now offers a range of soft and hardcover photo books from leaflet size to A4 books with up to 144 pages Printing-1 photo books are available with three different bindings methods (staple, spiral and book binding) with soft and hardcover in matt or glossy finish.
Taking good photographs is easier and cheaper than ever before. Many digital images lingering on computer hard drives could be preserved in coffee table style photo book or stand out as a mounted canvas on a wall or in the reception room. Until recently photo canvas printing was done by small workshops at horrendous prices. Printing-1 claims to apply the latest technology and efficient production methods to offer what it calls “large prints at small prices”.

Printing-1, a specialist service for amateurs and professional photographers, prints photos onto canvas on frames starting at 30 cm per side and increasing in 10 cm steps to 80 cm per side, where any combination of size can be chosen in these 10 cm steps. The standardised formats, parts and processes allow for higher degree of automation and help to bring the price down. The print penetrates deep into the yarn and therefore does not crack on the edge of the frame. Images are delivered stretched and mounted onto a robust wooden frame which can be hung on the wall immediately and is expected to be extremely long lasting, due to optimised inks and fabrics.

Photo Book Software

According to Printing-1, during the software development special emphasis was put on ease of use and creative freedom for users on Windows and Apple computers. Images are not only fully scalable and can be positioned freely on any page; each frame can be defined individually, too. The page number feature can be switched on or off for individual pages in order not to spoil a beautiful full page image. Instead of limiting creativity through an automatic assistant the program provides templates to help positioning images after which they can still be adjust or moved. In general, the new photo book software entices creative experiments with the lay-out tools. Printing-1 is going down new paths: The program allows switching between binding types and book formats at any time, automatically adjusting the page layout.



Not only printed photo books, but also online photo book sharing

Individual photo books can be saved as separate projects. The photo books are to be uploaded to http://www.printing-1.co.uk first, before placing an order. At their website they will be stored free of charge for up to two months, allowing users to invite friends to view their Printing-1 photo books online. This way friends and family can view and comment on the scrapbook project and order and pay for their own printed memory book if they wish. When a photobook is ordered as a present and sent directly to friends or family abroad (including the USA), using a separate delivery addresses helps save time and money.

The Printing-1 Photo book Software

Beyond the use of layout templates, each page can be edited freely. The editing tools include free scaling, rotating and positioning of photographs. A line around an image helps to set it against coloured backgrounds. Frames can be defined individually around each picture and images can also be printed frameless across a full page or even a double page, providing the right format for landscapes and other photographs requiring a larger space. The printing-1 My Photobook software for Windows and Mac also provides a tool to post-edit images individually. This allows giving images a degree of semi-transparency, an interesting effect on some overlapping images.

With digital photobooks the many digital memories vanishing on ageing computer hard discs can finally see the light of day. The digital photo service Printing-1 delivers in the UK, the USA and most European countries within two weeks of ordering online. The ability to view digital photographs on ever improving screens removed the immediate need for printing. It appears that long lasting, professionally printed products like canvas prints and photo books will keep photographers interested in printing for some time to come.

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Labels: Digital photography, launching new website, mounted canvas printing, new product, photo books, photo on canvas

Oldenburg. 19 April 2007 – The FTD-Strategy bourse is a virtual stock market, where participants express their expectations about future events through the selling and buying of virtual shares. Several prediction markets relating to different issues about economic and political developments are being offered in parallel. The new service starts with topics like the DAX30, Hillary Clinton as presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in the USA, the local elections in the city of Bremen in Germany in 2007, the market share of mobile phone manufacturers, the presidential elections in France as well as the increase in GDP and the market share of luxury cars in Germany.

The "Wisdom of Crowds" is considered to outperform expert knowledge in dimensions like topicality as well as width, depth and references of knowledge. A principle of prediction markets, as of any electronic exchange, is that those who buy cheap and sell at a higher price benefit.

Empirical evidence suggests that prediction markets are at least as accurate in forecasting events as other instruments used by polling institutes on similar demographic groups. This concept, part of a field of study called collective intelligence, is the ideal tool for market and event forecasts. "The partnership with "Financial Times Deutschland" will give this forecasting method new dynamics. Our company is honoured to partner with such a highly regarded broadsheet”, states Frank Simon, Managing Director of ECCE TERRAM.

The closer a participants forecast matches the real event, the more rises the value of the virtual account. This stimulates forward strategies and therefore using quality information and experience in these virtual investments is paramount. The FTD-strategy bourse also rewards closely matching expectations when dealing with rate fluctuation and diligence.

"Due to the positive experience gained with the prediction market for the German General Elections in 2005 and the prediction market for the (soccer) FIFA World Cup 2006 we decided to provide our users continuously with the opportunity to participate with their knowledge and experience in forecasting events of interest", says Dr Anton Notz, Head of Electronic Media at the “Financial Times Deutschland”.



Electronic Stock Markets (ESM)

The prediction market is based on the “Electronic Stock Market Technology” (ESM) developed by ECCE TERRAM Internet Services GmbH. It is based on theses by Friedrich von Hayek, who in 1974 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. From Professor von Hayek’s findings it derives, that more accurate prediction of future events can be made, if people trade shares about them with the opportunity to derive a profit. Frank Simon, Managing Director of ECCE TERRAM: “ESMs in the form of prediction markets provide surprisingly accurate results for opinion research and serve as a prognostics instrument to generate forecasts”. The user’s interest in trading shares and the chance for personal gain as well as the opportunity to create accurate forecasts bind the user into the online service and increase traffic to the website. The technology starts from a base different to traditional opinion research. Interviews, polls and e-votes use questions like “how would you vote?” The Electronic Stock Markets ask “what do you expect the outcome to be?” Traders therefore buy and sell based on their expectation of the outcome. These reflect in the prices, at which shares trade. The system can then, based on the share price, calculate forecasts.

ECCE TERRAM has used prediction markets already in the run up to the German federal elections of 1998 with great success, achieving the second best forecast after Allensbach, one of Germany’s leading public opinion poll institutes. In recent years ECCE TERRAM has organised more than two dozen prediction markets on a great variety of events.



About ECCE TERRAM

ECCE TERRAM was founded in Oldenburg by Frank Simon in 1996. Its web applications are used in the photo processing industry and beyond by blue chips like chip maker Infineon or German publishers like “Die Zeit” or “Gelbe Seiten” (German Yellow Pages). Since 2001 ECCE TERRAM has been owned by the ECCE TERRAM Holding GmbH, the In-Venture.Net GmbH, the Pilet International S.A. and the afs Holding GmbH.

ContactECCE TERRAM Internet Services GmbH

An der grossen Wisch 36

D-26133 Oldenburg, Germany

Tel:   +49 441 500 120

Fax:   +49 441 500 1229

http://www.ecce-terram.com/ 

Email: pr (at) ecce-terram.de

Ex Astris Scientia 


Press Contact:

IITM is a specialist agency and will be delighted to arrange interviews for example with founder Frank Simon. IITM will be please to provide images, NFR versions for review and background information.

IITM LLP
London, UK
Email: pr (at) IITM.info
Tel. +44 20 7617 7469

Labels: ECCE TERRAM, Financial Times Deutschland, polls, prediction market, strategy bourse, Wisdom of Crowds

Europe’s largest photographic paper processing, photographic gift items and photo books range reaches France.

FotoInsight provides photo processing and a range of gift items to consumers and businesses in Europe through its website http://fotoinsight.co.uk/ since November 2003. Now the company announced the start of its French service. Over the its first three years the business has expanded, selling photographic paper prints in the UK and 30 European countries in five languages. The Cambridge company started a German operation in June 2005, Italian in October 2005 and Spanish in February 2006, apart from its original English language services. The FotoInsight photo print service is backed by 19 production sites, strategically located throughout Europe. Customers can take advantage of the same low delivery charge to all 20 European destinations.
Managing Director Klaas Brumann says: “The French photo processing market is very mature. Some of our closest competitors are active and one has merged into a French company. Our market analysis shows that FotoInsight’s high quality standards and superior CEWE photo books should stand a great chance in France. We think that French consumers and business users will appreciate our ability to supply photo prints across 32 European countries.”

Apart from processing digital images onto real photographic paper and a range of photo gifts and printing products like calendars, jigsaw puzzles and photo pairs, FotoInsight is offering a range of high value, photo gift ideas like a crystal photo heart, photo key ring and other items, where the image is engraved in the crystal through patented laser technology. According to Brumann, record sales of FotoInsight’s photographic gift items exploded at times like Christmas or father’s day”.

According to the FotoInsight management, the online service stands out for the many conveniences it provides to its customers, who can upload most digital image formats and even entire ZIP and RAR compressed folders through an Active-X site for photographic calendars and printed photo books. In addition, FotoInsight caters for all mayor operating systems, including Macintosh as well as Firefox and Netscape browser users with special upload facilities with no need for additional software. From Cambridge Brumann comments: “Photographic memories must never fade. FotoInsight is proud to provide the infrastructure and conveniences to preserve memories in vivid colours.”






Contact information

FotoInsight Ltd.
Klaas Brumann, Managing Director
9 Moore Close, Cambridge, CB4 1ZP, UK
Skype fotoinside
Tel. +44 8700 114911

Email pr (at) fotoinsight.com

Labels: photo calendars, photo gift items, photo mugs, photo paper processing, poster printing, UK