The idea to organize a central-european workshop on quantum optics goes back to the activity of prof. V. Buzžek (Bratislava) and prof. J. Janszky (Budapest). The first meetings were held in Budapest and Bratislava and started a tradition bringing together people working on problems related to quantum optics. Later workshops have been held at Budmerice (Slovakia), Balaton (Hungary), Olomouc and Prague (Czech republic). The already eighth central-european workshop found his way back to Prague and was organized in cooperation with the Doppler Institute and the Department of Physics of the Faculty for Nuclear Science and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague. The contributions of the participants focus on problems in quantum communication, quantum information, quantum state reconstruction, atom optics and nonlinear quantum optics. The success of the workshop was enabled by the kind cooperation of all the participants during the conference. The present collection of contributions gives a good review of topics presented. We hope that the present issue will be able to transfer the constructive and stimulating atmosphere of the workshop to the readership. I would like to thank the editor prof. D. Lüst and co-editor prof. W. P. Schleich for opening up the possibility to publish the proceedings of the workshop in the Fortschritte der Physik. It surely helps to enlarge the readership of the proceedings and promotes the idea of the central-european workshop among colleagues around the world.