Light Blue 5: new features build on rock-solid foundation + extend online services

Light Blue 5: new features build on rock-solid foundation + extend online services
Cambridge, England
12 March 2014

Photography industry favourite Light Blue, desktop software to run a photography business, has been updated with a host of new features to help make business admin that much more simple.

Already praised by the trade press and photographers around the world for being powerful yet really easy to use, Light Blue 5 keeps track of your contact list, shoots, workflows, sales and expenditure, all in one program.

The new release, available today, builds on the success of Light Blue 4. Light Blue is desktop software that runs on a Mac or PC, but it also syncs your data to an online account when you have a network connection. The release coincides with updated iPad and iPhone apps being available in the app store.

The updates include:
*a plugin for WordPress websites, letting photographers connect the forms on their website to their copy of Light Blue (saving time on getting information into Light Blue), as well as an API for people who want to code their own forms.
*a new Inbox to make importing from Mail on a Mac or Outlook on Windows really easy.
*‘time off’ tracking so users can note when they’re out of the office or when equipment is unavailable.
*the ability to save custom reports, to make analysing a business even faster.
*Contact grouping, which makes it easier to handle groups of people on shoots (e.g. when doing a family portrait, or organising a complicated corporate job).
*Contact tagging, to flag people’s interests or what promotions they’ve been included in.
the ability to add pictures to contacts, giving a reminder who they are.
*…and over 300 tweaks and improvements to make Light Blue even better.

Director and head of product development Tom Catchesides explains: “Since launching Light Blue 4 early last year we’ve seen a rapid growth in our customer base, of photographers around the world. We’re a small, responsive company, which means we can not only work hard on our own product development plans, but also respond to customer feedback – so there are lots of great new features in Light Blue 5 which have been suggested by working professionals around the world.”

Catchesides is also firmly behind the company’s online services, the allow customers to sync between Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad. “With these, we’ve got the best of both worlds – connectivity between machines, and the ability to work offline when you want, which is invaluable and so much better than a web-based system because photographers often find themselves working in situations where they don’t have a reliable internet connection. Now that you can connect your website’s forms to Light Blue, it makes the online services even more attractive – and, of course, customers who opt to subscribe to them get free software updates, so they’re really good value.”

Light Blue 5 is available today from www.lightbluesoftware.com

Free trial
*New customers can download a free, fully functioning 30-day trial from www.lightbluesoftware.com.

Support
*The company’s technical support is highly regarded within the industry; everything is handled by email and they aim to reply within an hour during UK office hours.

Pricing
*New customers: £295 + VAT
*Existing standalone customers, upgrading from v1-4: £95 + VAT
*Existing customers using Light Blue Software’s online services: free upgrade.

Contact
Tom Catchesides and Hamish Symington, support@lightbluesoftware.com
Twitter: @lighterblue

Notes
Light Blue is written in Real Studio (not Xojo yet, as we wish to continue supporting Mac OS X 10.6). We use a number of Monkeybread plugins, and find Christian’s work and tech support superb.

You can find screenshots of what we’ve done at www.lightbluesoftware.com/tour


support@lightbluesoftware.com • Twitter: @lighterblue • www.lightbluesoftware.com

Voted ‘Best Professional Product of the Year 2012’ by members of the SWPP

Light Blue Software is a company registered in England and Wales, number 6671025. Our registered office is 101 Teversham Drift, Cambridge CB1 3LL.