Today, methods of storing and sharing pictures are as varied as the uses and users of pictures. Solutions range from snapshooters keeping their prints and negatives in a shoebox, to hospital personnel relying on advanced systems to manage diagnostic images and patient records.

Options vary based on the type of images, system price, functionality, and the length of time images are needed. For example, digital images can be quickly filed, viewed or e-mailed from a desktop. But over time, digital storage formats like floppy disks come and go -- meaning images stored on them may become unreadable at some point. On the other hand, film is human-readable, and will preserve images and information for future generations. But images must be printed, or scanned into an electronic system, to view or share.

Kodak offers solutions to meet differing needs. For example:

• Consumers can capture their images on film (for preservation), and have them written to a picture CD disk (for sharing and on-line use). In fact, Kodak offers a "plus digital" one-time-use camera that provides a picture CD of images along with the processed prints.

Business customers who need both easy access and a long-term archive of their documents can use a Kodak system that simultaneously scans document images to and a digital medium.

Medical professionals can use a Kodak PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) to retrieve x-ray, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and other diagnostic images from a digital archive and share them with referring physicians and consulting specialists located in different locations.

Kodak DirectView PACS system 5.

Wedding and portrait photographers, whose customers generally order photos soon after they are shot, can use Kodak software to market their images on the Internet. The system also ties in the processing lab to handle and track orders.

Proshots software links professional photographers and labs with customers.