Canon Brings Color to Windows Vista

Microsoft announced on Tuesday it had selected Canon to provide the color management system for Windows Vista, the company's next-generation operating system. Color management helps graphic designers better match screen colors to print and gives a better overall graphic appearance to the operating system.

"Devices such as digital cameras, color printers, high-definition displays and cell phones all have made the use of color pervasive across many walks of life," said Will Poole, senior vice president of Windows Client Business at Microsoft.

The alliance focuses on the realm of digital photography, where users will see the biggest difference. Canon RAW images will now be supported natively by Vista, as well as new features based on XML web services.

Microsoft has been focusing its attention on the way Windows displays graphics in Vista. The Avalon display framework will enhance the user interface over previous Windows releases, and the Metro document format is expected to improve printed graphics and provides an alternative to PDF.

However, more processor power and a higher-end graphics card are required in order to view Vista graphics as it was intended. But Microsoft says that the extra time it took to bring the new OS to the market allowed it to tweak Vista to allow a broader range of systems to enjoy the graphical enhancements.

Windows Vista, now in beta, is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2006.