VFZ launches in the UK
By Ian Burley
20th June - 2001
UPDATE 17th September 2001 - Mac version announced - click here.
Last night saw the formal UK launch of a potentially revolutionary image file standard, called VFZ (pronounced ‘vee-eff-zed’). This stands for Vector Format for Zooming. Put simply, VFZ is a versatile image compression technology that enables a viewer to zoom into a portion of a digital image without revealing fine detail obscured by digital pixellation.
De facto standard?
The company behind VFZ, VFZOOM.COM, believes the VFZ file format will be a de facto standard for digital photography. The company, which is based in Japan, is looking to incorporate its technology into digital cameras.
Threat to JPEG2000
Being able to avoid rendering
digital artefacts when magnifying image detail is very useful. High quality samples of valuable digital images can be distributed securely without having to give away the full quality original. It’s also useful for applications, like medical imaging, where close examination of portions of an image are required.
Very large prints
Very large prints can be produced that show remarkably little evidence of their digital origins. We were shown a 2.1 megapixel digital camera image blown up to a 30 inch print that showed no obvious digital artefacts. There was no cheating – it was snapped and printed on an HP ink-jet plotter right before us.
VFZ is a direct challenge to two existing image format technologies – fractal imaging and wavelet imaging, the latter best known in its JPEG2000 guise. Digital Publishing Japan (DPJ) is, along with the European arm of the Sumitomo Corporation, one of the two companies behind VFZOOM.COM Ltd. Jiro Shindo, CEO of DPJ, told DPN that VFZ is significantly faster than fractal imaging and has better colour accuracy than wavelet imaging.
Major camera marque to bundle VFZ
Mr.Shindo also revealed that VFZOOM is working with digital camera makers to incorporate a VFZ chip into next-generation models. He also revealed that one of the main camera makers in Japan is set to bundle the PC software suite version of VFZ later this year. We know which camera marque that is, but we’re tied by confidentiality. Suffice to say, it’s a professional-level name that has made a big commitment to digital SLR technology to date.
Software for implementing and viewing VFZ format images is now available in both server and client forms for Microsoft Windows. Surprisingly, the Mac users will have to wait for their version later this year. Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Quark Xpress, as well as Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browsers are also in the pipeline.
Success is not guaranteed for VFZ. Its technical credentials look extremely impressive. However, the fickle nature of commercial reality has repeatedly shown that technical strength is not necessarily enough. What is for sure is that we will be hearing a lot more about VFZ in the future.
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DPN News service
www.dp-now.com
