Ofoto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ofoto, an online photography service, was started in Berkeley, California. The company was founded by Lisa Gansky and Kamran Mohsenin.
The Ofoto website launched to the public on December 13, 1999, the same day as competing service Shutterfly. While Shutterfly was funded in part by Silicon Valley businessman James Clark, Ofoto was funded in part by Jim Barksdale, Clark's former partner and co-worker from Netscape. This lead to the brief "Clark vs. Bark" photo wars.
Ofoto started by simply allowing users to upload JPEG images to the online service, to share online photo albums with friends, and to purchase physical silver-halide prints of photos.
In 2000, Ofoto added a 35mm online film processing service and an online frame store. In following years, Ofoto added 4-color offset printed invitations and cards, and services for mobile phones.
In May of 2001, Ofoto was purchased by Eastman Kodak. Ofoto, Inc. as a company became Kodak Imaging Network, Inc.
In 2005, the Ofoto web service was rebranded as the Kodak EasyShare Gallery.
Separately, Ofoto was a software program developed by Light Source Computer Images, Inc. for scanning images, adjusting images, and preparing images for the printing process. An Apple Macintosh version was first available in 1991, bundled with Apple's OneScanner. It was eventually discontinued on August 1, 1996.
