True colors now shine on Net

Bidding to put print cataloguers on the Net, ISP InterNex Information Services today announced it can send high-resolution images and photographs over the Net through its PowerCommerce Web-site hosting service.

"We're going into it mainly for cataloguers to use the Internet arena with the same quality of images and flexibility of paper," said Barbara Bellisimo, InterNex director of marketing. The company also will target digital-stock photo houses as an early market.

InterNex added FlashPix, a photo format and imaging technology from Live Picture, to its electronic commerce service. FlashPix was developed jointly by Eastman Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Live Picture. Former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley is president and CEO of Live Picture and a major investor.

FlashPix optimizes the electronic display, manipulation, and distribution of high-resolution images over the Internet. With FlashPix, InterNex's e-commerce service enables cataloguers and other merchants to sell, license, and deliver high-resolution images securely and quickly.

"At Texture Farm, we're building a business of selling professional images over the Web," said David Wasserman, a principal at Texture Farm, a San Francisco-based photo imaging service. "FlashPix technology is a critical development for us, because, for the first time, our customers will be able to see our images online and zoom in or expand the images to see different levels of detail."

Live Picture has been working with InterNex since September, when Live Picture introduced the Imaging for Internet Project, the Internet implementation of its technology. InterNex hosts the Web server for the Imaging for Internet project.