PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2005--HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) today announced two digital photography software products that enable consumers to print high-quality photos at home in two simple steps -- currently the easiest to use solutions available on the market.

Available as a free download, HP Photosmart Essential 1.9 offers a variety of photo organizing, editing and sharing tools and can be expanded with free new features or upgrades as they are released. Among the offerings are Holiday Card Packs that enable users to create personalized holiday greeting cards by dragging and dropping photos into professionally designed templates.

For more advanced editing and hundreds of creative photo projects, advanced search and backup and restore capabilities, HP Image Zone 5.0 is available for the first time as a standalone product for $49.(1) The software provides all the features of HP Photosmart Essential as well as sophisticated photo editing tools such as the ability to restore vibrant colors to faded photos and crop video so individual frames can be printed.

"Software is key to making printing and sharing digital photos at home easier," said Gregg Patterson, vice president, Digital Photography and Entertainment organization, HP. "Literally billions of digital photos are captured each year, but most sit on computer hard drives, never to see the light of day. HP's new software makes organizing, editing, printing and sharing photos a snap."

New levels of choice -- HP Photosmart Essential 1.9

HP Photosmart Essential 1.9, formerly called HP Image Zone Express, is packed with features that ensure the quick creation of top-quality prints. New features include:

-- Intelligent, streamlined home photo printing optimized for HP printers to provide lab-quality output in the fewest steps possible;

-- Twenty-five free prints for new customers of HP's online digital photography service, Snapfish.com, which enables customers to create photo gifts, print and share photos online with friends and family;

-- Creative album pages -- Drag-and-drop collages and album pages are a snap to create and now include borderless, 4 x 6-inch and 5 x 7-inch templates;

-- Share options -- Send photos without bulky attachments with the free HP Photosmart Share service or let HP Photosmart Essential automatically down-size and send them from a selected email program;

-- Idea windows inform with tips and tricks and inspire creativity.

Another free upgrade, Photoback(TM), powered by Preclick, enables customers to automatically archive their photos to CDs and DVDs.

HP Photosmart Essential 1.9 also enables consumers to easily and quickly perform a variety of editing functions, including red-eye correction, cropping, rotating, flipping, conversion to black-and-white or sepia, application of warmer or cooler color settings and application of a one-button auto-fix. In addition, the software assists with the organization of digital images by sorting photos by date and name; keyword searches also make images easier to find and organize.

HP Image Zone 5.0 -- Everything needed, all in one place

For the everyday consumer and photo enthusiast looking for advanced functionality, HP Image Zone 5.0 offers editing features such as the ability to adjust lighting with exclusive HP Adaptive Lighting and easy-to-apply special effects such as antique and soft glow.

"Home users are amassing large collections of images and are looking to do more and more with those images. These trends are giving digital photography software a key role in the overall enjoyment of digital photography," said Norman McLeod, associate director, InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. "HP's new offerings provide an excellent balance of functionality and ease of use and provide consumers with the tools they need to organize, edit, share and creatively print their photos."

Availability

Both products are available in 21 languages and are included with select HP consumer photography products worldwide.

Photosmart Essential 1.9 and free plug-ins are available online at www.hp.com/go/pse. HP Image Zone 5.0 is available with select HP consumer digital photography products or can be purchased separately for $49 at www.hp.com/go/iz.(1)

More information to help people choose between the software products is available at www.hp.com/go/imagezone.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31, 2005, HP revenue totaled $86.7 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

(1) Estimated street price, actual price may vary.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including the expected development, performance or rankings of products or services; statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the development, performance and market acceptance of products and services and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2005, and other reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2004. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

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