 | IC - Version 1.0.12 |
Based on
LILYsoft Image Library 0.6.08
Introduction
Why yet another image viewer? Short answer: because we needed it. Well, and
because it is not just a viewer. IC was in its original incarnation an internal
tool to test features and functionality of our image library.
The library itself is designed to do accurate image manipulation, not only for
common palette, grayscale and 8bit/sample (24bit) RGB images, but also for
16bit/sample and for high dynamic range images (HDRI). Alpha/opacity channels
are also fully supported for all formats.
Our library does load and save the most common image file formats (including
HDRI formats like OpenEXR, Radiance, PFM and floating point TIFF) and also
implements full color management (by using ICC profiles or any other
colorimetric information, depending on the used file format). It handles all
internal transformations in a linear (not gamma corrected) color space and
generates proper into sRGB color space transformed output for display purpose or
simple 8/24bit file output (like bmp, png or jpeg files).
Converting the bit-depth to 8bit/sample values is not just done by accurate
rounding but also by using a 'Bayer grid' to loose as less precession as
possible and avoid any color banding. But off course it can also save full blown
32bit floating point data for file formats that do support this.
While testing and debugging the library IC evolved and now we think it might be
useful to a broader audience and present it to the public free of charge.
Documentation
You can view the complete Documentation online -
including the license.
Limitation
IC runs currently only with Microsoft Windows operating systems, but it has been
reported to work in Linux by using Wine.
Release Notes for Version 1.0.12
Fixed bugs:
- Crash when using previously saved 'rotate actions' is fixed.
- Stupid bug within 'paste image from clipboard' code is fixed - now it works again.
- Directory monitoring fixed, improved and simplified.
- Range overflows within P(N)M reading code fixed.
- JPEG-XR/HD-Photo files with embedded color profiles caused a crash in case the IC 'List' window was open. Fixed.
- Some "Adobe style" TIFF images in CMYK color space and using DCT encoding had the color channels flipped. Fixed.
- De-referencing file links caused a crash on some Windows versions. Fixed.
- Updated the 'Hotkey' section of the documentation and the hot-keys as shown within the IC menus to match the hot-keys that DO actually work.
Additions:
- ICC profile meta-data extraction within the Info window added.
- Support for *.MOS, *.KDC extensions for digital camera raw formats.
- Support for reading multi-page TIFF added.
- Support for JPEG-XR added by keeping full backwards compatibility to HD-Photo.
- Dithering to 8bps made optional. Not using dithering might be useful where it makes no visual difference (e.g. for 'graphical' images like business charts) and will result in increased compression ratio when saving the image.
- Writing meta-data when saving image files has been completely reworked. It is now possible to add tags ("Author/Artist", "Creation time", "Title", "Description" and "Copyright") to the following file formats: JPEG, JPEG2000, JPEG-XR, PNG, TIFF, P(N)M and OpenEXR.
- Better wording and more useful information for lots of error and warning messages.
- Better and more reliable differentiation within the IC 'Info' window regarding the stored color space within a particular image file. Also more accurate information about the way IC handles (and/or assumes) gamma correction.
- Added a message display at the top-left window corner to inform the user when options/settings are changed. Quite useful especially when using hot-keys to see what actually has happened. The message will be seen for about 1 second and then hide.
- The speed when opening images where color management is required (especially ones with embedded ICC profiles) has been greatly improved and is now up to 5 times faster!
- Added a 'Color picker' feature intended for POV-Ray users. Opposed to other pickers this will give the colors in linear (not gamma corrected) scRGB color space. Open the "Histogram" window (press "H"), move the mouse within the viewing window until you get the desired color, press "Ctrl + left-mouse-button" (this will 'lock' the current selection so you can move your mouse away from the viewing window), give the "Histogram" window the focus and press "Ctrl+C", move the mouse to the POV-Ray text editor window and press "Ctrl+V". This sounds much more complicated as it actually is.
- Hot-Keys to undo/redo by using Ctrl-Z (undo) and Alt-Z (redo) for image operations. Note that undo/redo was (and still is) also possible within the "History" box in the "Actions" window.
Library updates:
- lcms update to version 2.0
- LibPng update to version 1.4.2
- LibJpeg update to version 8b
- LibTiff update to version 3.92
- dcraw update to version 8.99
Other changes:
- Dropped any attempt to support Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT.
Download IC - SSE2 for Intel Pentium 4 / AMD K8 and later CPU's
Download IC - for Intel Pentium 3 / AMD K7 and earlier CPU's
