IMAGES CONTROL INTRODUCTION The indispensable image/document management tools. FEATURES -------- * Stores images/documents in electronic albums/folders. * Attaches annotation to images/documents. * Imports images from TWAIN scanners, digital cameras, etc. * Performs slide shows with background music, transitional effects. * Slide show invokable from the Windows' Screen Saver. * Prints hardcopy of images to any Windows-supported printer. * Acts as a grayscale or color photocopier. Images Control provides indexed and searchable storage structures to help you organize all of your electronic and paper-based data. The software lets you automatically file, intelligently organize, visually locate, and instantly retrieve all your pictures or documents on-line. Images Control sorts, categorizes your images (family pictures, documents, etc.) into groups called "albums" or "folders" for fast retrieval. Images added to these albums are shrunk to small thumbnail sizes, indexed, and stored as a single file on your hard disk. The thumbnail images stored in the album files are not the actual of the images. These album files (.ALB) only store the scale-down version of these images. The actual path/file name of the images, their image properties, and any text associated with them are stored in another database. This database uses the Microsoft Access Jet engine 2.0 and has the same file name with the album file with the extension .MDB. Photo albums created by Images Control can be used in slideshow screen savers. From the Windows Control panel, simply choose Images Control as your screen saver and select your favorite album for the slideshow. In addition to the above functions, Images Control is also a powerful image processing tools able to satisfy the needs of both inexperienced and advanced users. Images Control image processing functions were written using the leading LEADTOOLS image processing toolkit. Besides the opportunity of managing a number of different image formats, including the industry standard JPEG, PNG, PhotoShop PSD, TIFF, WinFAX, and Kodak PhotoCD, Images Control also offers a wide choice of advanced processing tools. The software supports any kind of image format up to 24 bpp full color images, 8 bpp grayscale, 256 colors. Images Control can perform: Crop, Flip, Mirror, Rotate, Shear, Resize, Posterize, Mosaic, Average, Median, Sharpen, Add noise, Emboss, Underlay Edge enhance, Gradian edge enhance, Laplacian edge enhance, Sobel filter, Prewitt filter, Shift and difference filter, Line segment filter, Binary filters, Erosion filter, Dilation filter, Invert, Brightness, Contrast, Histogram contrast, Hue, Saturation, Histogram equalize, Stretch intensity, Gamma correctIntensity detect, Flood Fill, and Colors Separation Images Control consists of 5 main functions: 1) Image Browser that's capable of viewing more than 35 image formats. 2) Creates & displays photo albums. 3) Creates custom screen savers using your favorite photos. 4) Performs image format conversion & Image processing/enhancement. 5) Imports images from TWAIN scanners, digital cameras, frame grabbers, etc. HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS ------------------------------ Hardware Requirements: * Windows-based PCs (386 or better). * Standard VGA (or Windows-accelerated card). * A mouse or trackball. * TWAIN-compliant scanners or digital cameras (optional). * Windows supported-printers (optional). * Sound blaster card or compatible (optional). Software Requirements: * Microsoft Windows 3.1/3.11/95/NT workstation. Images Control was designed and tested under Microsoft Windows 3.1 on an ISA 486DX33-based computer with 8 MB of RAM, a mouse/trackball, and a 1MB ISA Diamond Stealth 24 graphic board under the following video modes: 640x480x16,640x480x256, 640x480x65536, 800x600x256, 800x600x65536, 1024x768x16, and 1024x768x256. Images Control was also tested under Windows 95 on a 100 MHz PCI Pentium-based computer with 16 MB of RAM, a 150mhz PCI Pentium-based computer with 32 MB of RAM, and a 2 MB PCI Diamond Stealth VRAM (S3-968.) under the above resolutions and color depths. Images Control has not been tested in other environments because I do not have all the time and resources in this rapidly changing computer world. SCANNING SERVICE ---------------- For those of you who don't have access to a scanner, I offer to scan all your photos for $2 a piece plus S&H. You mail me your pictures and choose the format (I recommend JPEG for picture quality and compression ratio,) I'll mail you back the scanned images on 3.5" disks. SUPPORTED IMAGE FILE FORMATS ---------------------------- Images Control was developed using LEAD Technologies LEADTOOLS VBX Professional. Below is the list of image file formats which Images Control supports: AVI Microsoft Audio/Video Interleave (only in slide show playback). LEAD. This is the LEAD CMP compressed format for grayscale and color images. JFIF. This is a JPEG File Interchange Format with full color spacing (YUV 4:4:4). LEAD1JFIF. This is a JPEG File Interchange Format with YUV 4:1:1 color spacing, to produce a smaller JFIF file. LEAD2JFIF. This is a JPEG File Interchange Format with YUV 4:2:2 color spacing, to produce the smallest JFIF file. JTIF. This is a JPEG Tagged Interchange Format with full color spacing (YUV 4:4:4). LEAD1JTIF. This is a JPEG Tagged Interchange Format with YUV 4:1:1 color spacing, to produce a smaller JTIF file. LEAD2JTIF. This is a JPEG Tagged Interchange Format with YUV 4:2:2 color spacing, to produce the smallest JTIF file. TIFF. This is a tag-based file format designed to promote universal interchanges of digital image data. Because TIFF files do not have a single way to store image data, there are many versions of TIFF. Images Control supports the most common TIFF formats. MPT. This is a multipage TIFF format that enables a file to contain more than one image. It is handled the same as a regular TIFF file, except for the multipage feature. TIFF LZW. These files use the Tagged Image File Format with LZW compression. TIFF CCITT. These are compressed TIFF files that are commonly used for FAX transmission and document imaging. TIFF CCITT Group 3. These are TIFF CCITT files in a format that is more advanced and more compressed than TIFF CCITT. Images Control supports both 1-dimension and 2-dimension variations of this format. TIFF CCITT Group 4. These are TIFF CCITT files in a format that is more advanced and more compressed than TIFF CCITT Group 3. IOCA (ICA). This is the Image Object Content Architecture developed by IBM. Images Control supports these files in an MO:DCA wrapper with embedded 1-bit CCITT Group 3 or Group 4 images. WinFax Group 3. This is a FAX format created by Delrina for Group 3 support. WinFax Group 4. This is a FAX format created by Delrina for Group 4 support. FAX Group 3. This is a raw FAX format (without a header) for Group 3 support. Images Control supports both 1-dimension and 2-dimension variations of this format. FAX Group 4. This is a raw FAX format (without a header) for Group 4 support. Truevision TGA (TARGA). This is a file format created by Truevision Inc. Images Control supports all uncompressed and RLE compressed TGA file formats. PNG (Portable Network Graphics). This is a replacement for the GIF format. It is a full-featured (non-LZW) compressed format intended for widespread use without legal restraints. Photoshop 3.0 (PSD). This is the format produced by the Adobe Photoshop graphics editor. Windows Bitmap (BMP). This is a file format created by Microsoft. Some BMP images are compressed with an RLE type compression. Windows Metafile (WMF). These files are not bitmap based images. A Windows metafile consists of a collection of device independent functions that represents an image. When a program loads a metafile, these functions are executed to obtain the image. PCX. This is a file format created by ZSoft. This format compresses its image data with the RLE type compression. DCX. This is a multipage PCX format that enables a file to contain more than one image. It is handled the same as a regular PCX file, except for the multipage feature. PostScript Raster (Encapsulated PostScript). These files are used primarily on PostScript printers. These printers usually offer more variety of fonts and higher resolution than standard laser printers. EPS files will work on any PostScript compatible printer and any end user application that supports placement of EPS files in its work space. OS/2 Bitmap (OS/2 BMP). These are files created on an OS/2 operating system. Images Control supports both 1.x and 2.x formats. CALS Raster. These are 1-bit CCITT Group 4 CALS raster files. CALS is a U.S. government standard. MacPaint (MAC). These Macintosh Paint files are commonly used for monochrome clip art. GEM Image (IMG). These files are native to the Graphical Environment Manager developed by Digital Research. Microsoft Paint (MSP). These files from early versions of Windows are used for black- and-white drawings and clip art. WordPerfect (WPG). These are WordPerfect raster files. SUN Raster (RAS). These files are native to Sun UNIX platforms. Macintosh Pict (PCT). These files, produced using Macintosh QuickDraw, are used in desktop publishing and imaging applications. LEAD 1BIT. These are 1-bit LEAD compressed files. PCD. These are Kodak PhotoCD files. These read-only files can contain multiple resolutions. You can specify which of the resolutions to read. NOTE: Because of the battle between Unisys and many software developers over the GIF format royalty fees, Images Control will not support GIF. Instead, Images Control supports a new rising star that's supposed to be a much better replacement for GIF called PNG (Portable Network Graphics). CompuServe has adopted PNG and has been shifting their support for GIF to PNG. REGISTRATION ------------ The registration fee is $25 for the photo album & image enhancement/ processing modules. Optional scanner input is available for an additional $14. As of this writing, I only accept money orders, cashiers checks, bank checks, or personal checks. Please fill in the registration form in the REGISTER.TXT file and mail it along with your payment to: Chris Doan 4891 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., #401 San Diego, CA 92117 For my bookkeeping purposes, please refrain from sending cash. But if you must send cash, please also include a written order so I can keep track of my users. For quick activation, registered users will receive a temporary license file through internet e-mail (uuencoded.) The license file will recognize you as a registered user and allow you full access to all Images Control features. Your permanent license file registered in your name (or your company name) and the latest version of Images Control will be in the mail the next business day. Those of you have access to CompuServe, you can register Images Control on line directly with CompuServe and receive the registered version within 24 hours. My CompuServe Author Registration ID is 7437. Images Control file name is IMAGECTL.ZIP. International users may transfer $US 25 (or $39 including the TWAIN module) directly to my Bank of America account. There will be an additional processing fee of $10 because that's how much BoA charges my account for Money Transfer Service. You will have to contact me by e-mail to obtain my account number for this type of payment. A site license is required by a corporation, company, educational institution, or governmental agency for use of Images Control software on the total number of computers that will use the software. Thank you for your interest in Images Control. Chris Doan doanc@netcom.com 102425.1613@compuserve.com San Diego, California May 1996