Last week we touched briefly on the new Java libraries in our post about the latest Document Imaging features for Linux in LEADTOOLS. Today we'll take a closer look at what the LEADTOOLS April update has for Java programmers as a whole, because it extends far beyond just Linux and document imaging.

The recent LEADTOOLS Version 19 update added far-reaching Java support for both Windows and Linux operating systems. These new, highly-requested imaging libraries for Java include functionality for nearly all markets and imaging technologies that LEADTOOLS is known for:

We have hinted about it. We have shared bits of information here and there. And in at least one post we’ve said it was coming soon. The wait is over, LEADTOOLS 18 has been released! The new LEADTOOLS Anywhere™ native libraries for WinRT, iOS, OS X, Android and Linux are certainly the marquee update in this exciting release, but there are also many enhancements within the LEADTOOLS Document, Medical and Multimedia technology for Win32/64, .NET and HTML5.

LEADTOOLS Anywhere™

LEADTOOLS Anywhere™ extends LEAD Technologies' award winning LEADTOOLS Imaging SDKs to every major development platform. This initiative began last year with the release of SDKs for HTML5 and WinRT. The HTML5 SDKs made it possible to develop zero footprint web applications and WinRT laid the necessary foundation for porting LEADTOOLS to other native platforms. With LEADTOOLS 18, LEAD has further expanded the reach of its Imaging SDKs by offering native libraries for iOS, OS X, Android and Linux development. All core LEADTOOLS imaging technology is natively supported in each of these platforms, including viewing, annotation and markup, OCR, OMR, forms processing, 1D and 2D barcode, PDF, DICOM and support for over 150 file formats and 200 image processing functions.

Displaying multi-page documents in a zero-footprint web application can be a challenge because of the limitations associated with the <img> tag, which can only display a single image. A common solution is to implement a separate thumbnail viewer and attach JavaScript listener events to change the displayed image in your main "viewer." A more advanced solution may involve detecting the scroll position and modifying the DOM to create a continuously scrolling viewer. Those are both great for any file with multiple pages, but what if you want to take full advantage of more advanced file format features such as PDF bookmarks and hyperlinks?

Many applications don't bother supporting the PDF file format and assume you want to use a third party plug-in to display it. However, the LEADTOOLS HTML5 SDK includes support for not only rasterizing the PDF into an image, but also reading the text, hyperlinks and embedded thumbnails so that you can develop a fully-featured, zero-footprint PDF viewer application! Our engineers are very proud of this functionality and have created the HTML5 PDF Thumbnails and Bookmarks demo so you can see the amazing technology LEADTOOLS has to offer. Additionally, it gives you a huge head start on developing your application since the source code for this demo (and all of our other HTML5 demos) is included with the free, fully-functional LEADTOOLS Evaluation download

Once again, LEAD Technologies is proud to be a part of the 9th annual National Health IT Week (September 15 - 19, 2014). Last year, over 375 organizations participated and 2014 is projected to have over 400 partners. LEAD Technologies joins with the other hundreds of companies around the country to celebrate progress and add to the conversation of how Health Information Technology is growing and improving people's health.

At its core, healthcare is performed by the many great doctors, nurses, EMTs, radiologists, and more that are directly serving their patients. However, every great front-line worker has a great supporting cast, within which Health IT gets to play a major role. The successful application of medicine and care is greatly enhanced through Electronic Health Records (EHR), Picture Archival and Communication Systems (PACS), advanced imaging technologies, infrastructure and so on. These important pieces of the overall healthcare system provide improved patient safety, fewer medical errors, earlier detection, and stronger patient/provider relationships.

A few weeks ago we announced a new MICR demo for iOS and OS X. Today we're happy to announce that the same app has been ported to Android and is now available on Google Play! MICR is useful in decoding the special fonts used on checks, making it an invaluable resource for any developer writing software for the financial sector.

As a reminder, LEADTOOLS has many additional demos available for iOS, Android, WinRT and Windows Phone including features such as OCR, Barcode, DICOM and more. If you are a mobile application developer, you can see first-hand how LEADTOOLS works on your devices. As an additional benefit, they serve as a living example of how using LEADTOOLS will have positive effects during the approval process for your app's respective stores.