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The Image SDK/ActiveX is built upon
Black Ice technology used by customers for many years. The Image SDK/ActiveX is a software
development tool that helps application developers and programmers
create applications with sophisticated image processing capabilities.
The SDK works on every Windows operating system from Windows Server
2003 to Windows 95 and because it includes both C/C++ libraries
and ActiveX controls, the functionality of the product can be accessed
from most programming languages like C, C++, Visual Basic, Delphi,
MS FoxPro, and MS Access. The Image SDK/ActiveX is also .NET compatible
meaning that VB.NET, C#, and J# programmers can also take full advantage
of the product.
Structurally, Image SDK/ActiveX consists
of a set of DLLs and ActiveX controls. Each DLL and ActiveX control
implements a specific, well-defined feature set, which is designed
to help developers to pinpoint specific functionality.
Based on the above structure, the Image
SDK/ActiveX can be divided into the following main components:
Display
The
Image SDK/ActiveX includes a very powerful feature that makes displaying
images to any display device easy. The display feature included
in the Image SDK/ActiveX provides an easy to use solution for developers.
Application developers now do not have to spend expensive engineering
time implementing complicated display routines. Just a few function
calls and the Black Ice display routine will do the rest.
Compression
The
Image SDK/ActiveX control supports all of the popular data compression
methods used in Document Imaging.
TWAIN
scanner support
Scanning support is based on the latest
TWAIN 1.9 drivers. With the latest TWAIN drivers, application developers
have total control over almost every aspect of the scanning process.
Applications can even turn on and off the use of the document feeder
that some newer scanners have in order to perform batch scanning
or automated scanning.
File
formats (loading, saving and converting images from one format
to another)
The Image SDK/ActiveX support several
file formats. From simple BMP files to more complex TIFF and JPEG
files, everything is included. The Image SDK can help create standard
Group 3 1d, Group 3 2d or Group 4 faxable TIFF files, create JPEG
files for web sites, color faxing or photo albums, or use other
formats like PCX, DCX, PNG. The TIFF and JPEG libraries developed
by Black Ice Software are one of the first and most
extensive
TIFF and JPEG file
format processing and encoding/decoding library
available on the market.
The Image SDK/ActiveX control can be further enhanced by
upgrading to Document Imaging SDK with PDF file format support.
Printing
Black Ice imaging and image processing tools provide an easy way to print
images in single or multiple print jobs with a wide variety of options.
When printing, today’s applications not only want to create a paper
copy of an image file but also want to specify the way in which
the image will be printed. The image has to be positioned on the
paper according to a predefined location, printed with its original
size or stretched to a specific size. Some applications even require
printing more than one image on the same page so the amount of paper
wasted would be minimal. Black Ice imaging tools provide several powerful options to
meet these needs.
Fax
Image Processing
One very important area where image
processing is commonly used is faxing. During faxing image files
are being transferred from one device to another. The format, the
size and the resolution of the image file that can be transferred
is specified by the fax standard and by the device (i.e. fax board)
that will transmit the file.
Internet
Black
Ice Software’s Image SDK ActiveX controls are designed to assist
developers in building web-based Internet imaging applications.
You can build a server based or client based image-processing
web application with quick integration using the Document Imaging
ActiveX controls.
Color
Space Conversion
The Color Space Conversion functions
implement features that change the way that colors are represented
in images. Today’s devices represent colors in many different ways.
Some devices, such as printers accept 1 bit monochrome images, others
accept 24 bit full color images. But there is also a difference
in the methods used to encode colors. Some devices, like display
devices, works with RGB color space. Others devices such as printers
may use CMYK colors space. The Image SDK/ActiveX has over 60 functions,
which can be grouped into three sets of functions. There is a group
of function to convert a Device Independent Bitmap, a buffer or
a single pixel to any of the color spaces. Black
Ice imaging tools currently support the following 9 color spaces:
RGB, CMY, CMYK, HIS, HSV, L*a*b, XYZ, YIQ, YUV.
Color
Depth Conversion
The
Color Depth Conversion functions implement features that change
the way that colors are represented in images. Today’s devices represent
colors in many different ways. Some devices, such as printers accept
1 bit monochrome images, others accept 24 bit full color images.
Converting a color image to black and white is called halftoning
or clustered-dot ordered dither in computer graphics. The
Image SDK/ActiveX has 9 sophisticated dithering algorithm, some
of them only available from Black Ice such as
Stevenson Arce dithering.
Transformations
Image transformations are important and one of the most widely
used components of any imaging toolkit.
Image transforms produce results quickly without degrading
the quality of the image.
Text
Processing
Black Ice imaging tools include a wide
variety of text processing functions that can be very helpful in
many different application areas.
Sample
Applications:
Additionally,
the Image SDK contains a variety of new sample applications, which
demonstrate the new document conversion capabilities and features.
The product is fully .NET compatible and also provides sample source
code written in C#, VB.NET, and J# to demonstrate the powerful document
conversion options
Visual Studio 2005, and VB.NET 8.0
Support has also been added.
Operating
Systems Supported:
32-bit Windows Server 2003 family, XP, 2000, NT 4.0 and ME/98/95.
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