Changes from Version 7.0 to Version 8.0
Version 8.0 of the LEADTOOLS API has changed from version 7.0 as follows:
The paint effects capabilities
have been enhanced, with control over the speed and granularity of each
effect, and with hundreds of new variations, including overlays of text
and graphic shapes.
Region processing is
now available in the LEADTOOLS Pro toolkits. New functions to get and
set regions also make it easier to save a region as a mask in the alpha
channel.
[Express
editions only] You can now achieve faster rotation in 90-degree increments
by applying a rotated view perspective to the bitmap.
You can now control the
brightness and contrast of displayed images, without modifying the bitmap
data.
New image processing
functions give you more control over erosion or dilation of dark objects.
Other new image processing
functions let you apply artistic effects to give an image the appearance
of an oil painting or to simulate the accidental exposure of photographic
film to light.
LEADTOOLS functions now
preserve alpha-channel information. You can also get and set the alpha
channel in 16- and 32-bit bitmaps.
TIFF file support now
includes reading and writing of 32-bit images, images with PackBit compression,
and images with CMYK or YCbCr color space.
BMP file support now
includes reading and writing of RLE-compressed images.
You can now read and
write Windows Icon (ICO) and Cursor (CUR) files.
You can now read and
write Exif files.
[Express
editions only] You can now read and write DICOM files.
You can now read and
write Microsoft FAX (AWD) files.
You can now read and
write comments in all of the file formats that support comments, including
TIFF, GIF, DICOM, and Exif files.
Extended support for
FlashPix files is available in the LEADTOOLS FlashPix Module.
Changed functions
The following functions have changed from the previous version of LEADTOOLS:
L_TwainSetProps
L_PaintDCBuffer (changed usage with 1-bit compressed data)
L_CombineBitmap (now uses Windows-style coordinates, with a top-left origin)
L_PaintDCEffect (moved from the kernel to the effects library)
L_PaintRgnDCEffect (moved from the kernel to the effects library)
Changed structures
The following structures have been changed to support new features:
EXTFILEOPTION has new fields for loading
and saving stamp (thumbnail) images.
TWAINPROPERTIES has new fields for brightness,
contrast, and autofeed capabilities.
FILEINFO
has new constants for the Format
field. The new constants are the same as you specify when saving an image.
EXTFILEOPTION has new constants for the Flags field. The new constants are
used for loading FlashPix files with or without utilizing transforms stored
with the image.
Changed error messages
The following constants for error messages have been changed to avoid conflicts with other Microsoft constants:
Old constant |
New constant |
ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED |
ERROR_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED. |
ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND |
ERROR_FILENOTFOUND |
ERROR_INVALID_DATA |
ERROR_INVALIDDATA |
Other changes to upgrade your application code
The LEADTOOLS Express editions toolkit now supports rotated view perspectives, which let you achieve faster rotation in 90-degree increments. If you implement the new view perspectives, you should make the following changes in your code. (You can follow the examples in the LEADTOOLS sample code.)
If a bitmap has a view perspective that is
rotated 90 or 270 degrees, the Width
and Height fields in the BITMAPHANDLE
and the FILEINFO structures do not
match the displayed width and height. Therefore, you should reverse the
values in places where you use these fields to determine an image's aspect
ratio (for example, when you size a window). LEADTOOLS provides macros
for this, which are described in Accounting
for View Perspective.
Some function, such as L_GetPixelColor,
reference bitmap coordinates. The previous code for translating to and
from bitmap coordinates is inadequate. Instead, you should use the support
functions, which are described in Accounting
for View Perspective. You can find places in your code that need attention
by searching for any reference to the ViewPerspective
field in the BITMAPHANDLE or
FILEINFO structure.
The rest of this topic lists the new functions in version 8.0.
Fast rotation by changing the view perspective (Express editions only):
View perspective support functions:
Special paint effects:
Setting contrast and brightness of all displayed images:
Enhanced polygon support for annotations (Express editions only):
Automatic trimming of margins:
New filters for dilation and erosion (Express editions only):
New filters for artistic effects:
Region processing, transparency, and alpha channel support:
TIFF tag support:
New functions for 1-bit compressed data (Express editions only):
FlashPix Extended support (FlashPix Module only):