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Color Factory system requirements
Color Factory system requirements and pre-installation notes.
20. April 2026
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Hardware
- Minimum 1 2.5 GHz Processor. More cores or physical CPUs are better.
- Minimum 2 GB RAM for Color Factory exclusively. This depends significantly on the size of the images being processed. For example, a 1 GB PSD may require 10GB of available physical memory. For more information, see the Scalability section below.
Operating system
Windows Server 2025, 2022. or 2019
Note: The above OS requirement applies to 64-bit versions of Color Factory (version 8.0 build 800 and higher).
32-bit versions of Color Factory (before build 800) also run on Windows Server 2008. Current and future releases of Color Factory are 64-bit only.
Note: The service account running Color Factory processes needs local administrator privileges.
Scalability
Due to the scalability of a Color Factory installation, system requirements vary greatly depending on the type of system being set up. The specifications below outline the software required to run Color Factory. If you need assistance selecting hardware for the installation, contact Fotoware.
RAW file support
Color Factory can use the Adobe DNG converter to process RAW files. An advantage of this is that all corrections made to the RAW file in the Photoshop Camera RAW module and Lightroom are reflected in the output file.
Simply download Adobe DNG Converter from the Adobe website and install it on the server. Then, restart the Color Factory service to use the DNG Converter to process RAW files.
Optional add-ons
- Third-party EPS file processing software, such as Ghostscript, is required for certain vector file formats.
- FFmpeg - for more information, see How to install FFmpeg for FotoWeb, Index Manager, and Color Factory.
About logging
All Fotoware applications report to the Fotoware Log Server, which is installed alongside the server application. Communication between the server application and the log server uses UDP port 7000. Since the communication occurs internally on the server, you do not need to open UDP port 7000 in your firewall. However, you should be aware that the Microsoft DNS server can be configured to use arbitrary ports for communication, which could potentially interfere with communication with the Log Server if it uses UDP port 7000. Therefore, you should ensure that port 7000 is blocked on the DNS server and made exclusive for Fotoware applications.
Limitations
Color Factory can use Windows system notifications to receive information about files added to its processing queues as they occur. This functionality is only available with NTFS (New Technology File System) file systems. Color Factory can, of course, use any file system that Windows allows it to access; however, it will then rely on regularly polling the channel folders to search for new files to process.
Important note about file systems
Color Factory can use file system notifications to receive information about files added to its processing queues. That way, it can immediately pick up new files that enter the processing queues. This functionality is available only when accessing shares via SMB or local drives on the Windows server. Color Factory can, of course, use any file system that Windows allows it to access, but it will then poll the channel folders regularly at a preset interval to discover new files to process.
It's also possible to send files to Color Factory via the FWP protocol (IP) from Fotostation.
For more information on asset storage, see Asset storage in a Fotoware system.