Virtual Hairstudio Salon Edition 5 - New Product For Software-Based Haircut Consulting

Bochum, Germany, March 12, 2010 -- Virtual Hairstudio Salon Edition 5 is a hairstyling and virtual makeover consulting program that helps the personnel of hairdresser salons to show their clients how they would look like with a new haircut, color and new styling. Virtual Hairstudio Salon Edition 5 does not need more than a client's photo, a camera or a scanner and a computer to support the hairdresser's daily business.

Having loaded the clients personal portrait photos, the coiffeur uses the program to adjust each of the ready-to-use, modern hairstyles that come with it to the clients requirements. Self-provided hairstyles may also be added. The hairstyle database is searchable, using multiple criteria such as face shape, hair length and quality, color or style, to provide an individual selection. Form and color adjustments are also possible. For each client, the preferred styles can be saved as favorites to make the final selection later.

The new look can be complemented using suitable makeup and accessories from the program's database. Apart from that, Virtual Hairstudio Salon Edition 5 comes with a lot of complete styles that consist of combinations of haircut, makeup and accessories. The new styling creations may be saved and printed to paper. The printing feature allows placing several styles on one page, in order to be able to compare them at a glance. The printout may include the salon's logo and contact information to hand it over to family and friends or as a reminder for the next visit. The salon's logo may also be integrated into the program interface. And the photo and all haircut designs can be saved in a separate project file for each client.

WHAT'S NEW IN VIRTUAL HAIRSTUDIO SALON EDITION, VERSION 5
* Photo Editing Tools: after loading, the brightness, contrast and color balance of photos may be adjusted, clipping is possible
* Cross-Project Favorites List: mark the most popular haircuts as favorites and use them in all projects and for all clients, apply filters to select them
* Additional Information on Haircut Designs at a glance: use a popup window for each haircut that includes standard and enlarged views, the identification number and a detailed description
* Search feature for haircuts using the identification number
* Support for Hair Coloring: for each haircut, fitting colors have been selected by hand, which makes the results more realistic
* New Technique to make (draw) Highlights for each haircut and for several colors
* Even more tips and recommendations on makeup, haircut and styling
* Hairstyle updates at regular intervals for special occasions or at the start of new seasons

THE BASIC PROGRAM FEATURES
* Load photos from a file, scan from paper photos or load directly from a digital camera
* Automatic face recognition, with possibility to make adjustments manually
* Comes with up-to-date, photo-realistic haircut styles
* Hairstyle selection by various criteria
* Individual recommendations for suitable hairstyles and colors
* Includes various tools for editing (brush, eraser, pipette, comb, scissors)
* Import of self-provided hairstyles
* Print the new looks - even several styles on one page
* Save new styles as image files and send them by e-mail
* Save looks as favorites and create a personal style catalogue
* Including tips for an impressive haircut, makeup and styling as well as general beauty advice
* Optional: salon logo may be integrated into the program interface (done by soft Xpansion on request)

PRICE AND WHERE TO BUY
For hairdresser salons, Virtual Hairstudio Salon Edition 5 is available for the price of 469,- Euros (recommended retail price). Starting at the end of March, the program may be bought directly at the soft Xpansion web shop (http://www.eknow-how.de/shop-en/hairstudio/). For educational institutions (trade schools, barber schools etc.) special conditions apply. Any details can be asked for by sending an e-mail to kontakt@virtual-hairstudio.com.

ABOUT SOFT XPANSION
soft Xpansion is a globally active, international team of software authors, developers, screen designers, software engineers and product managers. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bochum, Germany. In the past 15 years, more than 150 software products have been published in more than 200 different editions. Localized versions of soft Xpansion products are sold in Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, USA, the Benelux countries, the Ukraine, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Australia and Turkey. The product range includes solutions (standard software, developer libraries, software development kits and individual programming) in the following areas: entertainment, PDF technology, system utilities, document and database management, computer security. soft Xpansion is a full member of the PDF/A Competence Center, http://www.pdfa.org.
For more information on soft Xpansion, please refer to http://www.soft-xpansion.com.
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Contact:
Frank Dueckers
soft Xpansion GmbH & Co. KG
Koenigsallee 45
D-44789 Bochum, Germany
phone: +49 (0)234 298 41 73
fax: +49 (0)234 298 41 72
pr@soft-xpansion.com
http://www.soft-xpansion.com