Digital Picture Frames: Transforming Photo Frames and How We Display Our Photos

Digital Picture Frames will likely completely change the way we display photos in our homes, offices, and public places in a matter of years. This LCD technology is on the path of similar recent ones like flat screen TVs, laptops, and cell phones. As the technology advances, prices become more affordable, and people realize the obvious benefits over the long-standing previous technology, digital photo frames will become ubiquitous.

Displaying photos in frames is virtually as old as the camera and photography itself. In fact the business and art associated with picture frames has become a huge market itself. Photo frames come in all shapes, sizes, costs, and décor. But until these new digital frames came along, traditional photo frames had one distinct limitation: they are static.

Digital picture frames build on the concepts of traditional frames and albums but use 21st century LCD technology to move them from static to dynamic. Now by simply transferring pictures in their digital state from your camera or computer to a digital frame, pictures can be displayed in a slide show format in what looks like a traditional frame.

Digital photo frames have become possible through improvements in display technology, storage and memory, and transfer methods. LCD technology has become better and cheaper, so 5-inch, 7-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch, 11-inch, and 12-inch size frames that are crystal clear are possible and affordable. Digital pictures can be stored and transferred via affordable SD memory cards, SmartMedia Cards, Memory Sticks, and USB flash drives. Changing pictures on your frame easily via one of these devices, sometimes wirelessly with select digital frames, is the magic of dynamically changing frames.

Major consumer electronics manufacturers are capitalizing on the market for these digital photo viewers, including such players as Kodak, Smartparts, and Portable USA, and highly performing frames with many features. Digital frames also come in many décor and colors such from black, brown, white, cherry, espresso, and all kinds of wood. Soon endless new features such as variable frame decors and auto on/off features will become standard.

It was only a matter of time before the world of picture frames moved into the digital age.