We've made several behind-the-scenes improvements in Spectra 2014. Though not very "flashy," they are still very beneficial.

These changes, plus other behind-the-scenes improvements, should greatly improve the overall performance of Spectra for all clients!

New style ribbons have been implemented throughout Spectra. The new ribbons are similar in style to MS Office 2013®. They're clean and elegant! In addition, you'll notice new ribbon icons implemented throughout. The new icons are simple and embody a flat style.



In addition to looking awesome, the new ribbons and icons serve a practical purpose. By simplifying the graphics, Spectra actually runs faster, requires less CPU resources, and uses less power. For tablet and laptop users, conserving every ounce of battery is crucial. In addition, users that run Spectra over a Remote Desktop session will also enjoy faster performance with the simplified graphics.

Spectra 2014 has sophisticated new Image Adjustment features you can use to adjust individual images or bulk edit a group of images. These features will save countess hours of intensive labor costs, increasing the profitability of your studio.



Highlights include:

»	Image adjustments include brightness, contrast, RBG, hue, saturation, lightness, color temp, exposure, curves, and levels.
»	An optional Perfectly Clear plug-in is also available, allowing for patented auto-correction of images, including exposure, depth, vibrance, sharpening, light diffusion, and skin smoothing.
»	Adjustment presets can be created and hot-keys assigned.
»	Right-click on an image to apply presets.
»	Adjustments can be applied to a single image or to a group of images simultaneously.
»	Adjustments from one image can be copied and applied to other images.
»	Adjustments can be applied to an entire composite or to an individual node within a composite.
»	Adjustments can be auto-applied before retouching in Photoshop or applied at the time of rendering.
»	When importing images or using group capture, you can apply a preset adjustment to each image automatically.

On the Workflow hub, just click Image Adjustment on the ribbon to reveal the new Image Adjustment panel. Click the Image Adjustment drop-down on the ribbon to display additional options.

+ More about the new image adjustments in Spectra
+ More about the Perfectly Clear plug-in
+ Watch a demo!

+ Watch a demo!

We've added some flair to the Composite Template tools in Spectra. The following features have been added:

+ More about creating composite templates
+ More about using composite templates

We've added a couple new hot keys to the Workflow hub to cut down on the time it takes to crop your images.

You can very quickly draw a crop box with the mouse, press S with your left hand to save the crop, and then press W to advance to the next image. Repeat the process for the next image. (Left-handed mouse users can use the Left and Right Arrow keys.)

+ More about workflow hot keys

You can now sync your image files to Stratus Drive! Spectra users can use this new feature to create an off-site backup of image files. New options include the following:

+ More about syncing images to Stratus Drive

We've spent a lot of time enhancing the back-end production module in the 2014 Professional version. These production features have been rebuilt from the ground up to make them easier to use and more powerful.

»	Production orders have been completely rebuilt with easier to use features and a new ribbon toolbar.
»	Proof orders have also been completely rebuilt and are now called "Preproduction" orders.
»	New imaging tools have been added to production and preproduction orders, giving you all the same tools you have in digital workflow, such as adding or modifying a composite.
»	You can now add tasks to POs and assign them to the users or departments responsible for getting an order produced.
»	Task Triggers have been added to production and preproduction statuses, allowing Spectra to automatically create these tasks for you.
»	You can now send a communication directly from a production or preproduction order.
»	You can now assign a production or preproduction order to a department.
»	New security features have been added to limit who has permission to add/modify/delete a PO.

+ More about the production features in Spectra

When editing images in Photoshop, Spectra displays a special window showing the image details for the order. This retouch window is now larger, giving you a better view of the images and their crops. Also, when you click on a product description, the image will be redrawn to show the exact cropping for that product.

+ More about retouching through Spectra

Some great new features and enhancements have been added to clients, including:

»	Social networking fields have been added to the client record so you can track the website, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn URLs for each client.
»	Two new custom Other fields have been added to the client's General tab.
»	The Family Members/Contact form has a new Notes field, as well as a Graduation Year drop-down list.
»	A new Job Title field has been added to accomodate the new business-to-business client option.
»	A Last Communication Date has been added to the client Summary tab so you can quickly see the last time any communication occurred with a client. You can also add this field to the Clients hub.
»	Spectra has always had two fields on the Summary tab for Total Referrals and Total Referral Amount received from a client. These fields are now included in the Filter Builder and the Column Chooser so you can filter based on these fields, as well as export them to Excel.
»	A new Mailing Address field has been added for cases where a client's mailing address is different than their physical address.
»	You can now search the Clients hub by Family Member/Contact names.
»	When searching by a Family Member/Contact name or when using a Client with Family Member/Contacts filter, you can now add these columns to the Clients hub with the Column Chooser.
»	Using a new Studio Preference, Spectra can now automatically set the client status when a client books a session or places an order.
»	You can now create a new client directly from a family member or contact. Either right-click on the family member in the grid or click the File menu of the client record.

+ More about clients

Several new fields have been added to sessions:

»

Arrival Time and Drive Time fields have been added to sessions. These fields become visible when the session occurs at an outside location. There is a new option in Studio Preferences > Calendar for you to decide how you want these new fields to affect the display of your sessions on the calendar. You can also choose a default drive time for your outside locations in Maintenance > Appointment > Outside Locations.

»

The Custom tab now has more fields.

+ More about sessions

New imaging tools have been added to your invoices, giving you all the same abilities you have in digital workflow, like adding or modifying a composite or crop. These options become visible when the invoice is maximized.

+ More about invoices

Several new fields have been added to the Custom tab.

+ More about the tasks

Studios that ship to their clients via UPS can now take advantage of the new UPS integration. Enter your UPS information in Spectra and then track up to four shipments on each order. The integration includes UPS label printing and shipment tracking.

+ More about the UPS integration

The following maintenance screens have been update with new, easy-to-use features.

Spectra can now help you track unique client information based on whether the client is a business or a consumer.

+ More about clients

The interface of many of the wizards and tools in Spectra has been improved. In addition, new selection tools and the ability to preview selected records has been added to several of the wizards. The following tools have been enhanced:

+ Read more about the Dashboard

You can now include sub-folders when importing images from a memory card or folder.

+ More about importing images

You can now include extra files when rendering out images. For example, if you want to include a copyright release form, simply store the file in a specific folder and then select that folder when rendering to automatically copy the form in the destination folder.

+ More about rendering images

When you create a “Manual Payment Plan,” you now have the option to span the payments among different credit cards or payment methods. In addition, if you use today’s date for the due date, the software will ask if you want today’s payment(s) processed now? If you choose Yes, the payments will automatically be processed today. In other words, you can now create "real" payments for today AND future payments – all at once!

+ More about payment plans

The following enhancements have been made to End of Day Wizard:

+ More about the End of Day Wizard

The Bulk Image Importer is designed for school/event photographers that photograph multiple clients to the same memory card(s) and then need an expedited way to import the images into Spectra/myStratus Desktop for many clients.

The Filter Builder field list has been split into two combo boxes to make creating filters much faster. Selecting the record type in the first combo box will display all the available fields for that type in the second combo box. Session custom fields have also been separated into their own list.

New Data Entry Validations have been added for the social networking client fields and the session custom fields 9, 10, 11, and 12.

A new option has been added to the payment processing form. This will allow you to run payments due on a specific day only, instead of the payment due on or before a specific day.

When creating or modifying a credit card payment, the software will now warn the user if the amount charged exceeds the open balance of the invoice.

When retouching an image that was copied from another image, the software will now display a prompt, asking if you want to retouch the original source image or a copy of the original image.

For example, if you made a copy of the preview so you could show a color and a sepia version of the same image, then you would probably want to retouch the original image so that you only have to retouch the image once for both versions of this image. However, if you want to create an artistic effect on this image, then you probably want to make a copy of the original image first, and then retouch the copy, leaving the original image untouched.

Either in the sales presentation or on the invoice, users can now select multiple images, double-click on a product in the tree, and the software will add a new line item to the invoice for each image selected for this product.

We have updated our code to interface with Google's latest APIs.

We have added the ability to select both a date criteria and a filter criteria when printing an Invoice List Report.

We have added "Phone Call Notes" as an available column on the Calls hub column chooser.

New merge fields were added to the HTML Email Builder for "Client Image Full Embed String" and "Session Image Full Embed String" to make it easier to merge client images and session images into HTML emails.

A new setting has been added to the Database Utility to disable the automatic database reconnection settings.