LEADTOOLS Version Change Summary

Version Changes: 18 to 19

For details of the changes, refer to the 'Version Changes' page for the specific assembly.

Version 18 changes

Enhancements to Existing File Formats

• LEADTOOLS support for saving JPEG and TIFF JPEG CMYK files.
• RasterCodecs.LoadCmykPlanes now supports JPEG CMYK and TIFF JPEG CMYK files.
• RasterCodecs.SaveCmykPlanes now supports JPEG CMYK and TIFF JPEG CMYK files.

LEADTOOLS Changes from Version 17.5 to Version 18

Android, iOS / macOS, and .NET WinForms support - LEADTOOLS V18 adds Android support to its toolkits through the new LEADTOOLS Android SDK. In addition, iOS / macOS support for its toolkits has been added through the new LEADTOOLS iOS / macOS SDK; and .NET WinForms support has been added through the new LEADTOOLS .NET WinForms SDK. These toolkits provide everything a developer needs to create imaging-enabled Android, iOS / macOS, or .NET WinForms applications.

File Formats

Enhancements to Existing File Formats

• DOCX(2007/2010)
  • LEADTOOLS supports for loading files with different DPI.
  • LEADTOOLS supports for loading files with different page width and height.
  • LEADTOOLS supports for loading Word documents with different rasterization options: Best Fit or Multi-page.

LEADTOOLS Changes from Version 17 to Version 17.5

LEADTOOLS V17.5 includes the new LEADTOOLS WinRT SDK. The LEADTOOLS WinRT SDK contains everything a developer needs to create imaging-enabled Windows Store applications. With the toolkit, developers can load, convert and save to and from more than 100 image formats, and use more than 200 advanced image processing functions.

LEADTOOLS V17.5 includes the new LEADTOOLS Cloud SDK. The LEADTOOLS Cloud SDK is a framework for creating "cloud" applications. Cloud applications perform distributed processing of tasks over a network. The server portion of the framework handles the submission, queuing and identification of tasks that are to be performed by one or more separate worker machines. Each worker machine polls the server and then is assigned a job to perform. When the work is completed, the worker machine notifies the server and the queue is updated. The LEADTOOLS Cloud SDK comes with two demo implementations, one for converting raster images to PDF documents using OCR and one for transcoding multimedia files.

LEADTOOLS V17.5 includes new SharePoint integration capabilities. LEADTOOLS SharePoint integrates with other LEADTOOLS features such as OCR, Barcode, File Format Conversion and allows images to be loaded and saved directly in SharePoint. Additionally, it supports SharePoint lists and features Live capture and improved speed for Windows 7 Barcode libraries.

File Formats

• New file formats

  • Support for loading OS/2 BMP 16-bit files .
  • Support for loading PNG 1+1 BPP .
  • Support for loading and saving JPEG-XR format .
  • Support for loading and saving JPEG-LS format .
  • Support for loading and saving VFF - SUN TAAC Bitmap Format
  • Support for loading JPM - JPEG 2000 Extension(Part 6) Format
  • Support for loading PPTX - Microsoft Office 2007/2010 PowerPoint
  • Support for loading XLSX - Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 Spreadsheet
  • Support for loading DOCX - Microsoft Word 2007/2010 Document

  • Support for loading new Digital Camera formats :

    • CR2 - Canon Format
    • NEF - and NRW Nikon Formats
    • DNG - Adobe Digital Negative Format
    • ORF - Olympus Format
    • ARW, SR2 and SRF - Sony Formats
    • RAW and RW2 - Panasonic Formats
    • RAF - Fujifilm Format

    Vector File Support

    • ArcInfo Interchange File Format (E00)
    • Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM)
    • Compressed Windows Metafile Format (WMZ)
    • Corel Presentation Exchange (CMX)
    • DGN (DGN)
    • DRaWing (DRW)
    • DWF Format (DWF)
    • Autodesk DWF XPS (DWFX)
    • DWG Format (DWG)
    • ESRI Shape (SHP)
    • Gerber Format (GBR)
    • LEADTOOLS Vector Dump Format (VEC)
    • Macintosh Pict Format (PCT)
    • MapInfo Interchange File Format (MIF)
    • NAPLPS Format (NAP)
    • PLT (PLT)
    • Printer Command Language (PCL)
    • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
    • Windows Metafile Format (WMF)
    • WordPerfect Format (WPG)

• Enhancements to Existing File Formats

  • Optimized the load performance for DOC and CGM formats.
  • Adding support for loading text box objects for XLS, XLSX(2007/2010).
  • Adding support for transparent images, bullets, and rotated images for PPT, PPTX(2007/2010).
  • Adding support for Right-to-Left rendering, paragraph borders, and table cell shading for DOC, DOCX(2007/2010).
  • JBIG2 supports additions:
    • Added support for loading files with refinement segments.
    • Added support for loading files with non-sequential header (i.e. random access).
    • Added support for saving large files (larger than 1.5 GB).
  • Updated CGM filter and updating VDC support (enhancing view).
  • DXF layout support, adding support for loading different paper spaces from DXF file.
  • Added support for Geometric text for DXF.
  • Added support for ARGB4 in the Color Conversion SDK.
  • PNG support for loading and saving 48 and 64 BPP.

Multimedia

• New LEADTOOLS MMS Sink Filter allows Windows Media content to be pushed to a Windows Media Server.
• Optimized HD Capture increases the speed of media captures and channel changes.
• New Fast Save option speeds up ISO and MP4 file creation.
• The target format can now be saved in the convert module.
• Closed captioning information can now be saved to SubRip (SRT) or TEXT files.
• New RLE Decoder allows users to play or convert Quicktime and MP4 files using RLE compression.
• New utility to enable or disable the use of Media Foundation modules in Media Player in Windows 7.
• Added support for RTSP HTTP tunneling, allowing users to stream data from RTSP cameras on another network through a firewall.
• Updated RTSP source now supports µ-law and a-law audio (Cisco WVC210v camera).
• Updated UDP Source now supports raw uncompressed streams conforming to RFC 4175.
• New LEADTOOLS Audio Mixer Filter supports combining audio streams.
• The LEADTOOLS Windows Media Reader now supports playback of Windows Media Streams with changing formats during streaming.
• Improved Motion J2K Decoder is up to 8X faster.

Document

• Updates and Improvements to the LEADTOOLS OCR Advantage Engine:
  • Auto orient up to 8X faster.
  • Improved algorithm for small zones, resulting in greater accuracy for Forms Recognition and Processing.
  • Enhanced accuracy of color image recognition using segment based auto-binarization algorithm.
  • Faster, more accurate table detection.
  • Enhanced AutoZone provides fewer, more accurate zones, improving OCR results.
  • Dramatically increased the AutoZone speed, providing overall improved OCR performance.
  • Improved Advanced Table Detection speed to provide increased performance on documents containing tables.
  • New image pre-processing features improve the quality of images in OCR results.
  • New supported languages; Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Greek, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified).
  • Added support for spell checking OCR results.
  • Added support for language detection.
• Document Reader framework for reading and viewing single and multipage document files. This includes; PDF, XPS, EMF, and TEXT.
• LEADTOOLS now supports the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) output for LEADTOOLS Document Writer SDK.
• PDF support improvements and additions:
  • Load times between 400% and 800% faster.
  • PDF Support for v1.7
  • Added support for reading with 128 bit AES and 256 bit AESv3 encryption.
  • Native multithreaded support.
  • Merge more than one existing PDF or Postscript file into a single PDF.
  • Split a PDF document into separate documents.
  • Extract TEXT information from individual pages of a PDF file - properties include bounding rectangle, font information and text color.
  • Convert Postscript files to PDF documents. The user controls the distiller settings, encryption and compatibility.
  • Support for PDF Linearization - Converts existing PDF files to linearized (optimized for web viewing).
  • PDF Hyperlink Extractor - Load hyperlinks from PDF files
  • Set or update PDF document information such as Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Producer.
  • Encrypt existing PDF files.
  • Convert existing PDF documents to PDF/A.
  • Enhanced PDF Tools Document Editor functionality supports editing PDF documents from any vendor:
    • Add single page or multiple pages to an existing PDF document.
    • Replace single page or multiple pages to an existing PDF document.
    • Delete single page or multiple pages to an existing PDF document.
    • Support for PDF document annotations.
  • Load Bookmark information from any PDF.
  • Save customized (UNICODE) bookmarks in PDF files.
  • Added support for writing PDF versions 1.3, 1.6, and 1.7
  • PDF Document Info extractor (extract the information about PDF version, image width, height BPP, compression and DPI). This works for LEADTOOLS Plug-in files and may work for others.
  • PDF Document Info extractor (extract information about PDF; total page number, version, page width, page height, document information, fonts used). This works for any PDF file.
  • Extracts pages from any PDF file.
  • Write and Extract bookmarks to and from any PDF file.
  • Added support for reading/writing PDF Annotations.
  • Enhanced PDF page extraction for PDF TOOLS SDK (avoid producing broken files when PDF files has internal links).
• Barcode read and write support has been added to the Silverlight and Silverlight Windows Phone class libraries.
• New high-level Barcode design for .NET simplifies adding support for any barcode types in an application without requiring specialized knowledge of barcode symbologies.
• Improved the speed of the Image Processing Line Remove function.

Medical

• Medical Web Viewer Framework
  • HTML5 Viewer with window level support.
  • Improved thin-client layout for mobile devices including iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone.
• Medical Image Viewer updates
  • New Zoom on click mouse action.
  • Added customizations to the look, style and color of overlay tags and rulers.
  • Improved reference line support.
  • New Snap Ruler that allows the ruler to snap to the image, simplifying making measurements.
  • New Probe Tool to display pixel information and user text.
  • Added the ability to set any number of rows and columns for a cell.
  • Dynamic Zoom that keeps a selected area visible at all times.
  • New LUT Spectrum feature that provides a colored lookup table improving the analysis of images.
  • Added support for synchronizing the view of separate image series when viewing multiple series at the same time.
  • Added options for customizing the border of cells in the viewer.
  • Added separate user interface tools for Sigmoid, Exponential and Logarithmic methods for Image Alpha.
  • Added feature to allow empty cells. Cells can be still active, have tools and display text and tags even if image data has not been assigned.
  • Added drag and drop support for cells.
  • Added UseDpi feature. This feature allows the viewer to automatically adjust the display based on the image's DPI.
  • Added FitIfLarger feature. This feature allows the viewer to automatically adjust the display if the image is larger than the cell.
  • Added Stretch feature. This feature will automatically adjust the display to fit the image width and height into the cell.
  • Added Cell and Sub-cell Explode feature. This allows the cell or sub-cell to fill the full container area.
  • Improved the low level annotation features of the MedicalViewer Control.
  • Added Cobb Angle annotation tool.
  • Image Orientation tag automatically updates on the current image orientation.
  • Added feature to synchronize the display of cells in separate Medical Viewer Controls.
  • Added GetScale method.
  • Added VirtualImage property for cells in the Medical Viewer control. This allows the user to get details about the current frame. The user can get information on whether the image is loaded, whether a region of interest is set, and allow the user to retrieve the image when it is loaded. This is useful for the MPR Cell, Derivative Cell and cell that are set to use the " low memory usage" option.
  • Added feature to allow the user to change the active sub-cell programmatically.
  • Added Match method to allow users to make all the other cells match the scaling value of the specified cell.
• Medical 3D and Viewer
  • Added support for Curved MPR and Panorama generation.
  • Medical Viewer and 3D engine supports creating and viewing Paraxial Cuts.
  • Added GetPage method. T his allows the user to get any desired frame in the derivative 3D volume or MPR cell.
  • Added the ability to set the index of the MPR cell programmatically.
  • Added ImageLoaded event to notify the user when a new image has completed loading in the viewer.
• DICOM Features/Updates
  • Fully functional and customizable DICOM demo/application with source code.
  • Enhanced DICOM Communication support.
  • Internal DICOM tables (UID, Element Tag, IOD, Contact Group) have been moved from the main DICOM DLL to a dedicated DICOM Tables DLL. This significantly reduces the size of the main DICOM library. DICOM tables can also be loaded from XML files, giving developers a quick and easy way to customize DICOM tables (e.g. create new IODs and remote unused IODs)to meet the specific needs of their application.
  • Added support for GetEncapsulatedDocument and SetEncapsulatedDocument to work with streams as well as disk files.
  • Added support for YBR_FULL colorspace for DICOM images. This is valid for both RLE compressed and uncompressed image data.
  • Added support for DICOM JPEG_LS Lossless (1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.80) and DICOM JPEG-LS Lossy (1.2.840.10008.1.2.4.81) transfer syntaxes.
• Added a WCF Service Component for implementing DICOM Modality Worklists (MWL) and integrating with LEADTOOLS PACS Framework.
• New CCOW (Clinical Context Object Workgroup) classes and demos have been added to allow implementation of a single-user sign-on, context management and disparate application synchronization.
  • Provides a Context Management Implementation.
  • Provides easy to use abstraction for context data.
  • Provides secure context communication.
• Medical Workstation Framework
  • Added programmatic access to all the performed by the Workstation Viewer Control through the toolbar and menus.
    • Allow creating custom toolbars and menus that have the same functionalities provided by the built-in viewer toolbar and menus.
  • Added localization support. Users can easily change the look and feel or language strings of the Medical Workstation for re-branding or localization.
  • Added more control on the series loading process.
  • Added more control on customizing the toolbars and menus of the workstation viewer.
    • Add new functionalities or buttons to the existing toolbar and menus.
    • Replace existing functionality for the toolbar and menus.
    • Remove functionality from the toolbar and menus.
    • Modify the text, icon and shortcuts of existent menu items and toolbar buttons.
  • Added classes for event brokering. Events are now fired for every action performed by the Workstation Viewer control.
  • UI Controls and Dialogs are separated from execution code which allows developers to easily replace the current UI with a brand new UI without re-writing the execution code.
  • New classes added to allow more control over the Workstation Viewer Control and for accessing and updating the viewer state.

LEADTOOLS Changes from Version 16.5 to Version 17

LEADTOOLS V17 products include a completely new native Silverlight development interface. This new LEADTOOLS Silverlight offering will allow developers to extend LEADTOOLS advanced imaging functionality into their Silverlight applications for cross platform deployment.

LEADTOOLS V17 products also include a version of the Silverlight SDK for Windows Phone development allowing developers to extend LEADTOOLS advanced imaging functionality into applications for Windows Phone 7

In addition to the new Silverlight classes, LEADTOOLS version 17 will have these additional new features and more:

General

• LEADTOOLS .NET Class Library DLLs are now also available for the .NET 4.0 Framework, and the toolkit ships with Visual Studio 2010 example projects.
• LEADTOOLS Screen Capture now supports dual monitor systems.

File Formats

• New file formats
  • PPT, - Microsoft PowerPoint
  • XLS, - Microsoft Excel
  • DOC, - Microsoft Word Document
  • ANZ - Mayo Clinic Analyze Format

Barcode Updates

Support for Code 128 A,B,C subtypes has been added.

Annotation Updates

Support for RTF and Media objects has been added to the WPF Annotations.

Medical Viewer Updates

Support 3D volume rendering, set the layout with rectangular cells, host child Win Form controls, and host cells by other Win Form controls.

Medical 3D Support

Generate 3D volumes from CT and MRI stacks. Render volumes with MIP, SSD, and VRT. Generate MPR, single and double oblique cut planes, and MIP slabs.

DICOM Support

DICOM files with multi-language strings are now supported

DICOM Media burning support has been added

DICOM Communication Support

IPV6 addresses are now supported for DICOM Communications

DICOM Router Components

New add-in for the LEADTOOLS PACS Framework to route images based on user-defined business rules to one or more PACS.

DICOM Work List Components

New LEADTOOLS PACS Framework add-ins for Modality Work List (MWL), Modality Performed Procedure Step (MPPS) servers and clients.

DICOM High-Level Storage, Query and Retrieve Services

New LEADTOOLS PACS Framework add-ins for DICOM Storage, Query and Retrieve servers and clients.

New Print to PACS Application with Source Code.

Captures image data from Printer Driver, TWAIN, WIA, File, or Screen Capture and then pushes it to a PACS using C-STORE. Has options to get the required metadata from manual entry, Modality WorkList or PACS.

New PDF Enhancements

PDF support will be enhanced with PDF and PDF/A linearization, PDF annotation creation, multi-threaded application support, new image compression support, and PDF bookmark creation.

PDF support is now multi-thread safe, and the PDF runtime has been condensed into a single runtime file.

Support for PDF v1.6 has been added.

Support for auto-detecting Bits Per Pixel during PDF load has been added.

Functions for getting raster information from a PDF file have been added.

Enhanced Asian OCR

Improved support for Japanese, Korean, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese character sets.

Arabic OCR

Convert images of Arabic text to PDF, Doc, and more.

OCR Enhancements

New text orientation options, XLS output, advanced table detection, and improved the LEADTOOLS Advantage OCR engine with enhanced font detection to include bold, italic, mono and proportional spacing, and improved accuracy and speed.

New .NET Development Interface for Multimedia

All of the same great and robust features of Multimedia toolkit, but designed and built specifically for .NET.

Multimedia for x64

Multimedia binaries for native 64 bit applications.

HD Digital Tuner

Capture from High-Definition (HD) digital devices in real-time.

LEADTOOLS Changes from Version 16 to Version 16.5

This remaster of the LEADTOOLS family of imaging toolkits from version 16 to version 16.5 is packed with updates and new features.

LEADTOOLS is now built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, and requires the VS 2008 C/C++ runtime. All Visual Studio example projects included with LEADTOOLS are for VS 2008. If you require VS 2005 example projects, please contact Tech Support.

This latest release offers a streamlined Medical Imaging toolkit, with enhanced Medical Viewer controls, updated DICOM support and a new DICOM PACS Framework for client and server development.

Version 16.5 simplifies distributed and automated enterprise application development with the addition of Windows Communication Foundation components and Windows Workflow activities.

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging now offers Document Writers to convert any EMF file to searchable, text-based document formats including PDF.

LEADTOOLS also includes a programmable Virtual Printer Driver to allow capture of data by printing from any Windows application to any of more than 150 supported image formats.

This release of LEADTOOLS provides the first version of the LEADTOOLS Image Viewer Control for Silverlight3 development.

LEADTOOLS 16.5 also includes new Media Writer classes for burning DVDs and CDs.

Version 16.5 offers enhanced Twain support, automatic zone detection, High Level Forms recognition, as well as additions and enhancements to supported file formats.

The restriction on using portions of LEADTOOLS inside ASP.NET applications has been removed starting with LEADTOOLS 16.5. LEADTOOLS assemblies are not required to be in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) in order for certain features to work (Including: Loading an image while resizing it and multi-threaded auto-zoning using the Advantage OCR engine).

This release offers updated and improved documentation, new tutorials and much more.

Changes Made to Existing Class Libraries

File Formats

• New file formats
  • XPS - Microsoft XML Paper Specification
  • AFP for IM1 - AFP Format IOCA MMR Compressed
  • TDB - Microsoft Thumbnail Cache Format for Windows XP
  • TDB Vista - Microsoft Thumbnail Cache Format for Windows Vista
  • SNP - Microsoft Access Snapshot
• New features added to existing file formats.
  • PSD - added support for channels.
  • PCT - added support for loading Quickdraw compressed data.
• New enhancements for existing file formats
  • Enhancing FIT filters
  • Enhancing support by dealing with multidimensional files by considering two dimensions at a time.
• Deprecated file formats
  • Sid - MrSid Format
  • DJVU - DJVU Format

Leadtools.Dicom

Leadtools.Dicom has been updated to provide support for the latest DICOM Standard, including:

• All IODs (classes) in the latest DICOM specification 2008 and Final Text Supplements additional to 2008 Base Standard
• Full support for Final Text DICOM Supplement 137 - MPEG2 MP@HL Transfer Syntax

Leadtools.MedicalViewer

• EnableExplodeMode Property gives the user the ability to select to enable or disable the explode mode, which occurs when the user double-clicks the cell with multiple sub-cells layout.
• Exploded property switches between the exploded mode and the series mode manually.
• Window Level for colored images allowing the medical viewer to apply a window level(contrast and brightness) on colored medical images.
• Added MedicalViewer3DCell to view the 3D object. The following actions have also been added to the medical viewer:
  • RotatePlane
  • MovePlane
  • Rotate3DObject
  • Move3DObject
  • Scale3DObject
  • MoveCamera
  • RotateCamera
  • ZoomCamera
• Reference line support adds the capability to draw a reference line from one cell to another.
• Generator reference line action which is used to generate a new derivative cell to the medical viewer. This is done by drawing a reference line with two handles. Moving any handle will update the derivative image.
• Orientation tags are built in tags used to determine object orientation, the values are retrieved directly from the ImageOrientation. For a derivative cell the orientation will be updated automatically if the generator reference line is moved. The Orientation tags are:
• Right click mouse handle allows the user to right click the cell without deselecting another selected cell.
• Generator clicked event is an event that is fired whenever the user clicks on a generator reference line.
• True 16-bit LUT Support
  • Support for 9 to 16-bit component display
• Enhanced Extended Grayscale Support

New Features

• The LEADTOOLS PACS Framework is a framework for easily creating full-featured, plugin-based, scalable PACS servers.
• Built on top of the .NET Framework, the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) was designed to unify Web Service technologies into a single service-oriented architecture (SOA). Utilizing SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) for communication between processes allows interoperability between LEADTOOLS WCF applications and any other process that communicates via SOAP messages. Extending LEADTOOLS SDK allowing developers to create WCF applications with the following capabilities:
• Windows Workflow is a development framework that allows the creation of workflow applications. A workflow coordinates and manages individual units of work encapsulated as activities. Extending the LEADTOOLS SDK allowing developers to create Workflow applications with the following capabilities:
• The Document Writers supports conversion from an Enhanced Metafile(EMF)to several searchable, text based document formats. It can be used stand alone with any EMF or in conjunction with the Print Driver. For more information on the EMF format, refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Metafile
• The Virtual Printer Driver allows you to print an output from any application such as Word or web browsers as EMF or any of the 150 image formats supported by LEADTOOLS. As a Result of the print driver providing data as an EMF, the virtual Printer Driver is a natural companion to the Document Writers. The resulting converted file can then be saved to a disk, stream, database or SharePoint.
• Performs automated segmentation of a rectangular area in the image specified by the user. The result is applied to the image as a region.
• Detects different zones (Text, Graphic and Tables) in an image automatically. This command is useful as a pre-process of an OCR, it will improve recognition results. Also it could be used to apply different operations on different parts of images.
• Performs equalization between the hard tissue and the soft tissue in X-Ray images.
• The new high-level forms recognition and processing interface complements LEAD's existing forms recognition and processing SDK by increasing the ease of use and decreasing the time of developing forms recognition and processing applications.
• Now supporting Twain 2.0 drivers allowing for 64-bit support
• LEADTOOLS V16.5 adds to its comprehensive support of extended grayscale data by including true 16-bit LUT support as well as support for hardware window leveling.
• Modification to the .NET toolkit to allow AnyCPU support. Requires a re-build after getting latest DLLs. Developers will still need to deploy the correct DLLs (32-bit or 64-bit) based on the target operating system, but the application itself can be built as "AnyCPU".
• Barcode Support Assemblies

The LEADTOOLS Barcode support DLLs have been converted to .NET assemblies. The following table lists the old and the new DLL names required. For more information, refer to Files To Be Included With Your Application.

LEADTOOLS Changes from Version 15 to Version 16

This remaster of the LEADTOOLS family of imaging toolkits from version 15 to version 16 is packed with updates and new features. This release offers improved documentation, new tutorials and much more.

Support for the following LEADTOOLS image file formats has been enhanced:

Raster

• PDF (Portable Document Format): Adds support for saving PDF files to the PDF/A format, used for archiving; saving as PDF v1.4, and saving as PDF v1.5.
• JPEG 2000: Adds support for precinct sizes, used for limiting the size of JPEG 2000 compressed packets and to provide a means of random access into a JPEG 2000 compressed stream.

Image Processing

Support for image processing has been enhanced with the addition of the following classes:

• AutoBinarizeCommand Class: Converts a colored image into a black and white image automatically, without losing important image features such as text. This function uses several pre-processing and threshold operations which enable the user to extract the key features of any colored image. It can be adjusted to be suitable for a specific input device, such as a scanner or camera. It is ideal for making unclear document images more readable. This function is especially useful for improving recognition results (OCR, Barcode, OMR, ICR).

• DeskewCommand Class: Uses fast pre-processing algorithms to provide the highest possible deskew accuracy, without sacrificing speed.

• ColoredPencilExtendedCommand Class: Is a new smart artistic filter that produces a very realistic pencil stroke effect. The numerous parameter settings enable you to change the style so significantly that the results look like completely different filters.
• RasterPictureBox Class: Provides a simple "PictureBox" Windows.Forms control with which to display images. Unlike the RasterImageViewer, it does not support scrolling or zooming. However, it does support animation with the RasterImageAnimator.

New Features

Leadtools.Jpip - The LEADTOOLS JPIP assemblies contain high level components that developers can easily plug into enterprise client/server applications, allowing them to immediately start streaming high-resolution images under low HTTP bandwidth connections.

Leadtools.Wia - The LEADTOOLS Windows Imaging Architecture (WIA) .Net provides a powerful set of functions spanning the full spectrum of digital imaging, including in-depth support for image acquisition from a wide variety of hardware devices. This toolkit is included with LEADTOOLS Document and Medical Imaging products.

Leadtools.Windows.Annotations - The LEADTOOLS Windows Annotations .Net includes properties, methods and events for displaying and rendering WPF annotations.

Leadtools.Forms - The LEADTOOLS Forms .Net includes properties, methods and events for implementing\manipulating forms recognition and processing support, including optical character and barcode recognition.

Leadtools.Forms.Ocr - The LEADTOOLS Forms OCR .Net includes properties, methods and events to quickly and easily add document optical character recognition (OCR) technology to software applications.

Leadtools.Windows.Media.Transitions - The LEADTOOLS Transitions .Net includes properties, methods and events for displaying and rendering WPF slide transition effects.

Leadtools.Forms.Recognition.Ocr - The LEADTOOLS Forms .Net includes properties, methods and events to quickly and easily add optical character recognition support into forms recognition software applications.

Medical Imaging

Leadtools.Dicom has been updated to provide support for the latest DICOM Standard, including:

• All IODs (classes) in the latest DICOM specification 2008
• Multi-frame Functional Groups
• All modules through 2008
• Capability to add mandatory modules, or mandatory elements when creating a new DICOM data set
• Creating or working with DICOM Encapsulated documents
• Private tags
  • Getting/setting raw data
  • Getting/setting PDF data
• Reading or writing DICOM datasets with 1-bit image data
• When creating a DICOMDIR with icon image or image preview for multi-frame DICOM, the Representative Frame Number (0028, 6010) tag can be used for the image frame.

Over 30 functions have been added to the .NET DICOM toolkit to allow users a simpler, more straightforward, .NET-like way of working with DICOM data sets and DICOM sequences.

DICOM IOD tables and context mapping tables are now loaded on demand instead of at startup. The tables can optionally be not loaded at all, or loaded partially.

DICOM Communications support has been enhanced by new functions to customize socket creation options.

Both ANSI and UNICODE DICOM DLLs are now provided.

Two new demos have been added, one for DICOM MWL and another for DICOM Waveforms.

Medical Image Viewer Control Enhancements

The Medical Image Viewer Control now includes capabilities to:

• Load images more quickly (low memory usage capability)
• Begin update and end update for faster processing.
• Rotate image perspective
• Invert an image
• Determine whether the image has been inverted.
• Print cells or sub-cells
• Freeze sub-cells
• Determine whether a sub-cell is frozen.
• Change the fore and back color of the text annotation object.
• Hold up to 8X8 row and columns.
• add select mode.

Scaling

• Scale cells
• Set scale and offset for one frame only.
• Set and get the scale mode for a specific frame.
• Set and get the scale for a specific frame.
• Fit a cell's image to the cell, its height or its width)

Animation Support

• Support animation
• Shuffle animation.

Window Leveling

• Set, get and reset Window Level defaults and unit of measure
• Automatic detection of the appropriate sensitivity

Mouse Support

• Support the 5-button mouse
• Interpolate the image before the Mouse button is actually released
• Convert mouse coordinates into image coordinates

Tag Support

• Add, delete, or modify the tag for a specific frame
• Add, delete, or modify the tag for a cell.
• Control the tag size.

Annotation and Tool Support

• Load and save annotation objects
• Nudge tool
• Shrink tool

Region Support

• Remove image regions
• Allow the user to change the color of the control region.
• Load and save a region to a scripted file.
• Set and get the region handle

Annotation Container Support

• Rotate, flip, or reverse the annotation container.
• Set and get the annotation container.

Calibration Support

• Calibrate a ruler for one axis only (X or Y) or both.
• Calibrate a cell without using the ruler.

Callbacks

• Annotation click
• Annotation created
• Region created/changed/deleted
• Active sub-cell change
• Mouse
• Pre-paint
• Post-paint
• Animation started
• Animation stopped

Deprecated Assemblies

Leadtools Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15

This remaster of the LEADTOOLS family of imaging toolkits from version 14.5 to version 15 is packed with more updates and new features. This release offers new AJAX-enabled controls for developing interactive web applications, support for VB6 developers who want to take advantage of the LEADTOOLS V15 .NET Class Library, support for JPEG 2000 Part 2, improved documentation, new tutorials and much more.

New Features

• Our most advanced WPF Image Viewer This viewer, available in the LEADTOOLS for WPF Module that adds onto LEADTOOLS SDKs, supports displaying either a BitmapSource object or a LEADTOOLS RasterImage object, as well as provide built-in support for loading and saving image files. The fully styleable control includes scroll, zoom, pan, magnify glass, and image list.

• AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)Enabled Image Controls The new LEADTOOLS Raster Tiled Image Viewer and Web Thumbnail Viewer (image list) controls enable you to add fast, interactive image viewing to your AJAX web applications. Support also includes a Pan Viewer control. Ships with source code for complete document and color image processing demo applications. Try them online at:

  • Document Cleaning Ajax Demo (C#)
  • Image Processing Ajax Demo (C#)
• .NET 3.0 - LEADTOOLS now supports the .NET 3.0 Framework. A new conversion class allows developers to convert the LEAD RasterImage class to and from the .NET 3.0 BitmapSource class. Your WPF-based applications can now leverage the power of LEADTOOLS image processing and file input / output functionality.
• LEADTOOLS now supports development for x64 (64-bit CPU support) platforms as well as x86 (32-bit CPU support)
• LEADTOOLS now supports JPX (JPEG 2000 part 2)- especially useful for document, medical, and satellite imagery archiving systems. All LEADTOOLS Imaging Pro, Document Imaging, and Medical Imaging toolkits can read /write JPEG 2000 file formats (JP2 and JPX). LEADTOOLS Document/Medical toolkits also add support for manipulating JPX boxes, frames, GML Data, and other advanced JPX features.
• This release adds XPS (XML Paper Specification) file support, a new electronic document format supported natively by Office 2007 and Windows VISTA. For more information on XPS, refer to XML Paper Specification: Overview.
• A new BlankPageDetectorCommand class, designed to help reduce disk storage and unnecessary processing of blank pages in document imaging applications. Can detect noisy, bleed through and lined blank pages with high precision and speed.

• Support for the following LEADTOOLS image file formats has been enhanced to improve performance:

  Raster

• PSD (Photoshop Format): Adds support for saving Unicode layer names, and enhances reading layers, masks, and alpha channels.

• LEADTOOLS now supports using the .NET database engine to store and retrieve images to/from any database supported by .NET.
• Up to 200 percent increase in performance over version 14.5
• The .NET Viewer and ImageList have been enhanced with multi-select with mouse and rubber band select. Annotations now support a pan window and magnifying glass.
• LEADTOOLS now supports reading TIFF images with ZIP compression.
• LEADTOOLS now ships with new .NET tutorials, including demonstrations of COM interoperability, how to use the registration marks demo, how to scan and create a searchable PDF file, and how to load and save images using databases without data binding.
• LEADTOOLS has added signed image support to 50 functions. Over half of all LEADTOOLS image functions now support both signed and unsigned images.
• Leadtools.Barcode - Support for reading and writing barcodes
• Leadtools.Dicom and Leadtools.Dicom.Annotations - Classes for working with DICOM data sets and DICOM communications
• Leadtools.Jpeg2000 - Classes that allow you to read, write and manipulate JPEG 2000 images.
• Leadtools.MedicalViewer - Support for displaying graphics from a bitmap, metafile, icon, JPEG, GIF or PNG (or any other image file format supported by Leadtools) file. It provides support for displaying one or more images and for the real-time manipulation of one or more images.
• Leadtools.Web - Contains classes for implementing imaging applications in ASP.NET
• Leadtools.ScreenCapture - Contains classes for capturing images from screen elements, including windows, client areas, objects, menus, the desktop, or the entire screen
• Leadtools.SpecialEffects - Contains classes for painting images with effects and transitions. Contains classes for drawing 3D shapes and text
• Leadtools.Windows.Media - Contains classes that add support for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) framework introduced in Microsoft .NET 3.0. These classes let you convert a LEADTOOLS image (Leadtools.RasterImage) to and from a WPF image (System.Windows.Media.ImageSource).
• New file filters:
  • Leadtools.Codecs.Fpx.dll - FlashPix format support
  • Leadtools.Codecs.Mng.dll - Multiple Network Graphics (MNG) format support
  • Leadtools.Codecs.Pct.dll - Macintosh Pict format support
  • Leadtools.Codecs.Tfx.dll - TIFF-FX format support
  • Leadtools.Codecs.Wmz.dll - Compressed Windows Metafile format support

Changes Made to Existing Class Libraries

• Leadtools Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• Leadtools.Codecs Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• Leadtools.WinForms Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• Leadtools.Annotations Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• Leadtools.Twain Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15.
• Leadtools.ColorConversion assembly/namespace has been completely re-designed
• Leadtools.Mrc Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• Leadtools.WinForms.CommonDialogs.Color Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• Leadtools.ImageOptimization Assembly Changes from Version 14.5 to Version 15
• The assemblies/namespaces Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Color and Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Effects have been rearranged into the following new assemblies/namespaces:
  • Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Color - Contains classes for color image processing routines
  • Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Core - Contains classes for transformations, medical and document image processing routines
  • Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Effects - Contains classes for image effects, such as edge detection, average, emboss, etc.
  • Leadtools.ImageProcessing.SpecialEffects - Contains classes for artistic effects image processing routine
  • Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Utilities.dll - Contains internal classes used by the other image processing DLLs

Removed Assemblies

Leadtools Changes from Version 14 to Version 14.5

Version 14.5 of the LEADTOOLS API has changed from Version 14.0 as follows:

• RasterImage now implements ISerializable.
• RasterImage now supports Image Overlays.
• LEADTOOLS now supports GeoKeys (GeoTIFF tags).
• New file formats and compressions, including
  • ABIC - ABIC Format
  • ABC - Advanced Bitonal Compression Format
  • JB2 - JBIG2 Format
  • AFP - AFP Format
  • AWD - Microsoft FAX Format
  • CRW - Canon RAW Format
  • DCR - Kodak Professional Digital
  • DCS - Kodak Professional Digital Camera System Format
  • ECW - Enhanced Compressed Wavelet Format
  • KDC - Kodak Digital Camera Format
  • PCD - Kodak Format
  • PSD - PhotoShop 3.0 Format
  • TXT - TEXT Format
• For JBIG2, you can use the CodecsJbig2Options class.
• For PSD, you can load and save PSD layers.
• The RasterCodecs.CompactFile method allows you to compact multipage TIFF files.
• For ABIC, you can encode and decode RAW ABIC data.
• Enumerate all tags in a TIFF file using RasterCodecs.EnumTags.
• RasterCodecs.LoadStatus can be used to detect successful loads of corrupted image files.
• LEADTOOLS now supports loading CMYK images and keeping the data in memory as CMYK (no CMYK => RGB conversion). The following new methods allow working with CMYK data as separate planes to avoid the conversion:
• RasterCodecs.LoadCmykPlanes
• RasterCodecs.SaveCmykPlanes
• RasterImagePainter.PaintCmykPlanes
• Advanced colorspace conversion functionality is provided in the Leadtools.ColorConversion namespace.
• The new Leadtools.ImageOptimization.ImageOptimizer class provides functionality for optimizing a supported image or a directory full of supported images.
• The Leadtools.Mrc namespace provides classes for working with Mixed Raster Content images.
• The Leadtools.Pdf namespace provides advanced PDF compression functionality.
• New features have been added to the LEADTOOLS TWAIN support including:
• TWAIN JPEG Compression options
• TWAIN File System options
• New image processing features have been added, including:
  • GammaCorrectExtendedCommand
  • MinimumToZeroCommand
  • ZeroToNegativeCommand
  • BricksTextureCommand
  • CanvasCommand
  • CloudsCommand
  • ColoredBallsCommand
  • ColoredPencilCommand
  • CorrelationListCommand
  • DiffuseGlowCommand
  • DisplacementCommand
  • FragmentCommand
  • HalfTonePatternCommand
  • HighPassCommand
  • KaufmannRegionCommand
  • MaskConvolutionCommand
  • MosaicTilesCommand
  • OffsetCommand
  • PerlinCommand
  • PerspectiveCommand
  • PlasmaCommand
  • PointillistCommand
  • RomanMosaicCommand
  • VignnetCommand
  • ZigZagCommand
• You can now save LEADTOOLS Annotation data as XML.
• New features have been added to the LEADTOOLS Annotation support. For more details see New Annotation Features of Version 14.5.
• LEADTOOLS now provides a RasterImageList Control for displaying a collection of images.
• For automatic generation of thumbnails from files stored on your computer, use the new RasterThumbnailBrowser class.
• LEADTOOLS now provides File Open and File Save common dialog boxes.
• LEADTOOLS now provides a built-in Window Level dialog box.

Leadtools Changes from Version 13 to Version 14

Version 14.0 of the LEADTOOLS for .NET Class Library is a complete re-write from Version 13.0. The newly supported features include the following:

• Automated mode Annotations
• Redesigned low-level Annotation classes
• Annotation load and save capabilities that are compatible with non-.NET LEADTOOLS
• Annotation load and save capabilities that are compatible with WANG Imaging Annotations
• Localization for Annotation automation menus and dialogs
• Annotation print class
• Pan viewer control
• Magnifying glass control
• Raster print class
• Updated documentation samples and tutorials
• A series of new demos including:
  • JPEG 2000
  • Twain Multi-page
  • Opening and saving stamps
  • Drawing
  • Magnifying glass
  • Basic features
  • OCR Finding zones
  • OCR MICR
  • OCR MOR
  • OCR Hand written numbers and text
  • OCR memory
  • OCR Recognized characters
• New file formats, including
  • Cineon
  • CMW
  • Dr Halo
  • FITS
  • Flic Animation
  • IFF
  • IMG
  • Intergraph
  • Lead 1-Bit
  • MSP
  • Sun Raster
  • RAW
  • Scitext
  • Structured Fax File
  • Silicon Graphics Image
  • SMP
  • WFX
  • Wireless Bitmap
  • Word Perfect Graphics
  • XWD