Microsoft Picture It!
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Picture It! is a discontinued photo editing
application
created by Microsoft
. Version 1.0 was released in September 1996. Borrowing from the wizard
user interface
concepts of Microsoft Publisher
, Picture It! was geared to make digital imaging easy for consumers. It was the first consumer imaging program to enable sprite
creation, leveraging alpha masking (a concept published by Alvy Ray Smith
, founder of Pixar
, in 1978) while running on an 8 MB RAM
Pentium
computer. Microsoft purchased Altamira Software
, the company owned by Alvy Ray Smith in 1994 and made Alvy Ray Smith, a Microsoft fellow.
The Picture It! file format used the extension .MIX (Microsoft Image Extension). The .MIX extension was also used by Microsoft PhotoDraw
although its format was incompatible with Picture It!.
In 2001, Microsoft merged its Home Publishing product with Picture It! to create Picture It! Publishing. In 2003, Picture It! was significantly changed, expanded with more advanced editing features and rebranded as Microsoft Digital Image
with the home publishing features removed and a focus exclusively on photo editing. Digital Image was also eventually discontinued in 2006 after the release of Windows Vista
.
Photo editing
Photo editing can refer to:* Image editing techniques applied to photographs.* The cultural impact and ethical concerns of photo manipulation....
application
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
created by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. Version 1.0 was released in September 1996. Borrowing from the wizard
Wizard (software)
A software wizard or setup assistant is a user interface type that presents a user with a sequence of dialog boxes that lead the user through a series of well-defined steps. Tasks that are complex, infrequently performed, or unfamiliar may be easier to perform using a wizard...
user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
concepts of Microsoft Publisher
Microsoft Publisher
Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It is an entry-level application, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing...
, Picture It! was geared to make digital imaging easy for consumers. It was the first consumer imaging program to enable sprite
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
creation, leveraging alpha masking (a concept published by Alvy Ray Smith
Alvy Ray Smith
Alvy Ray Smith III is an American engineer and noted pioneer in computer graphics. He is a co-founder of the animation studio Pixar.- Life and career :...
, founder of Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
, in 1978) while running on an 8 MB RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
Pentium
Pentium
The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,...
computer. Microsoft purchased Altamira Software
Altamira (software)
Altamira Software was founded in Mill Valley, California by Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, Eric Lyons and Nicholas Clay in 1991.The company's primary product was Altamira Composer. This PC based software pioneered object-based drawing and image editing. Composer was one of the first to bring important tools...
, the company owned by Alvy Ray Smith in 1994 and made Alvy Ray Smith, a Microsoft fellow.
The Picture It! file format used the extension .MIX (Microsoft Image Extension). The .MIX extension was also used by Microsoft PhotoDraw
Microsoft PhotoDraw
Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 is a vector graphics and raster imaging software package developed by Microsoft. PhotoDraw fills a hole in the Office productivity suite, which includes software programs for word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and alike, but lacks a capable image creation and...
although its format was incompatible with Picture It!.
In 2001, Microsoft merged its Home Publishing product with Picture It! to create Picture It! Publishing. In 2003, Picture It! was significantly changed, expanded with more advanced editing features and rebranded as Microsoft Digital Image
Microsoft Digital Image
Microsoft Digital Image was a digital image editing program created by Microsoft. It is a successor to Microsoft Picture It!.Microsoft Digital Image came in three different editions: Digital Image Standard, which offered tools for editing images, Digital Image Suite, which added Digital Image...
with the home publishing features removed and a focus exclusively on photo editing. Digital Image was also eventually discontinued in 2006 after the release of Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
.
Versions
- Picture It! 1.0 (1996)
- Picture It! 2.0 and Picture It! 2.0 Express (part of Microsoft Plus!Microsoft Plus!Microsoft Plus! was a commercial operating system enhancement product by Microsoft. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications...
98) (1998) - Picture It! 99 (3.0) (1999)
- Picture It! 2000 (4.0) (2000)
- Picture It! 2001 (5.0) - the last version to support Windows 95Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
. (2001) - Picture It! 2002 (6.0) (2002)
- Picture It! 7.0 and Digital Image Pro 7.0 (2003)
- Picture It! Premium 9, Digital Image Pro 9 and Digital Image Suite 9 (2004)
- Picture It! Premium 10, Digital Image Pro 10 and Digital Image Suite 10 (2005)
- Digital Image 2006 and Digital Image 2006 Anniversary Edition (2006)
Editions
- Picture It! Express - Scaled down edition of Picture It!
- Picture It! Photo and Photo Premium - Picture It! editions with only photo editing features
- Picture It! Publishing (Gold, Silver and Platinum editions) - Picture! It editions with photo editing and home publishing features
- Picture It! Library - An image organizing application which later became Digital Image Library and eventually Windows Live Photo GalleryWindows Live Photo GalleryWindows Live Photo Gallery is a photo management and photo sharing application released as a part of Microsoft's Windows Live initiative. It is an upgraded version of Windows Photo Gallery, which is a part of Windows Vista....
- Microsoft Greetings (a scaled-down Picture It! based application with only greeting card templates)