Giesbeek, The Netherlands - Elpical Software, a growing provider of unique image optimization and workflow solutions for publishers and large enterprises, announces the 7th generation of its Claro line of automatic image enhancement applications. Claro 7 is the result of substantial quality advances made to Elpical's Claro Individual Image Analysis technology; and market-demanded, deeper integration of image optimization in the page layout process.

In addition to direct integration with Adobe InDesign, the new version 7 delivers advanced skin tone analysis and correction, as well as indexed colorspace options for eReader support.

"Elpical has turbo-charged the publishing workflow with fast and highly accurate image processing directly inside InDesign, and developments like eReader support," says Frank Loversky of Tools4Media, distributor of Elpical technology in North America.

Core Claro Technology is Foundation of Market-centric Product Line
Elpical Claro has grown from a single product into a complete product range, addressing the needs of different target audiences.

Claro Layout is used by designers, agencies and other small workgroups that create image-heavy or large publications such as catalogs and annual reports.  The Claro Layout plug-in optimizes the quality, crop and size of the image in one click of a button, within InDesign itself.

Claro Single gives printers and publishers true server solutions offering 100% hands-off image optimization. As an integration module, Claro Single is easy to plug-in to automation solutions, such as Enfocus Switch or PuzzleFlow.

Claro Premedia goes beyond pure image enhancement in a complete, client-server based image optimization workflow combining productivity benefits of a server solution with the discerning visual capability of the human eye.

Claro Premedia 7: InDesign Integration And Advanced Workflow Enhancements
Claro Premedia 7 now features InDesign integration offering very similar functionality to Claro Layout. However, unlike Claro Layout, the image processing is done on the server side and is fully integrated within the Claro Premedia workflow. Publishers and large agencies can now set up their image enhancement from within InDesign. This optimizes productivity and the use of resources throughout the organization.

Customizable Scheduler; eReader Output
Another major workflow enhancement is the customizable Scheduler. The Scheduler processes images in a specific way, depending on the time of day (or night). Using the Scheduler, images can be sent to the Claro Inspector for visual, side-by-side inspection during the day, while at night they can follow a 100% automatic flow.

Claro 7 also adds gif and png output formats. By adding indexed colorspace options on the output side, Claro 7 offers improved capability for support of popular eReader devices like the Kindle.

Significant Quality Advances To Claro's Core Technology
Claro 7 utilizes improvements made in Claro Individual Image Analysis technology which result in a better defined spectrum of specific skin-tone treatments. Claro recognizes skin-tones and treats them differently than other objects in an image, to achieve natural looking skin-tones.

The new version of Claro also features a faster and better noise filter. It even identifies and reduces jpeg artifacts.

Other quality improvements include high quality downsampling, reducing donwsampling artifacts; and more control over color output by means of curves.

The entire Claro 7 product range is immediately available.