Charlotte, NC (January 30, 2013) – LEAD Technologies is pleased to announce the release of LEADTOOLS Version 18. This bountiful new release is highlighted by new LEADTOOLS Anywhere™ native libraries for WinRT, iOS, OS X, Android and Linux, along with major updates to LEADTOOLS Document, Medical and Multimedia technology for Win32/64, .NET and HTML5.
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.
"Over the past twenty-two years, LEAD has worked diligently to develop the best imaging SDKs available on the market," said Moe Daher, Chairman and CEO of LEAD Technologies. "Before the introduction of LEADTOOLS Anywhere™ our tools were available to programmers developing applications running on Windows operating systems. We are honored by the trust given to our product by the tens of thousands of Windows developers who have incorporated our technology into countless applications being distributed and used throughout the world. We are pleased that LEADTOOLS will now be available to programmers developing applications for any and all major operating systems, and look forward to earning the trust of many new developer customers using these exciting new platforms."
In addition to porting its core imaging technology to new platforms, LEAD has made significant enhancements to its existing Document, Medical and Multimedia engines. LEAD has also streamlined its product line by merging various products into one another. Consequently, the base products now have more features than ever, and the effective cost of development seats has been significantly reduced. Better yet, LEAD is including the multiple platform support in its base SDKs at no additional development seat cost. This way, existing customers can enjoy all the benefits of the new features and cross platform support simply by upgrading their development seat.
Major enhancements to Document family in version 18 include dramatic improvements to the speed and accuracy of the Advantage OCR engine. The combination of features contained in this new version, including multi-language support, automatic language detection and specialized image preprocessing for mobile devices, is not found in any other OCR SDK on the market. The Barcode engines benefited from improved recognition speed and accuracy, and the PDF Readers and Writers were enhanced with the addition of full support for reading, editing and writing native PDF annotations.
Customers developing medical imaging applications are well aware of the importance of zero-footprint deployment to the health care industry. The LEADTOOLS HTML5 Medical Viewer in Version 18 continues to close the feature gap between web and desktop applications. New features such as patient projection, reference lines, drag and drop capability, and customizable layouts allow health care professionals to enjoy state–of-the-art viewing and processing capabilities regardless of their location and device.
The Multimedia family of products offers significant new and valuable technology in Version 18 as well. In the same way that LEADTOOLS simplified and abstracted DirectShow application development, LEADTOOLS Multimedia SDKs now offer the same benefits for the new Microsoft Media Foundation framework with new components and transforms. Additionally, a new RTSP Server is available, opening up innovative audio and video streaming application opportunities.
Overall, LEADTOOLS Version 18 is the most ambitious release from LEAD Technologies to date. With the new LEADTOOLS Anywhere™ libraries and a continually evolving collection of imaging technology, the stage is set for LEAD's continued dominance over the imaging SDK market for years to come.
To review all the new features in Version 18, visit http://www.leadtools.com/corporate/new-in-v18.
About LEAD Technologies
With a rich history of more than 34 years, LEAD has established itself as the world's leading provider of software development toolkits. LEAD's flagship product, LEADTOOLS, provides programmers with a powerful set of libraries for Recognition, Document, Vector, Medical, Imaging, and Multimedia development. LEAD boasts a diverse customer base as well as a strong list of corporate partners including some of the largest and most influential organizations from around the globe. For more information, visit www.leadtools.com.