Changes from Version 11.5 to Version 12

Version 12 of the LEADTOOLS ActiveX has changed from version 11.5 as follows:

The product line in Version 12 has been redesigned. If you are an existing LEADTOOLS customer, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the new line of products and the new features.

Essentially the changes are as follows:

LEADTOOLS no longer supports 16-bit development environments.

LEADTOOLS Imaging is now LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging.

LEADTOOLS Imaging Pro is now LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging Pro.

LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Suite is no longer available.

LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro Suite is now LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro. It no longer includes LEADTOOLS Imaging Pro, but provides many more vector features, including automation, container and toolbar capabilities.

LEADTOOLS Document Express is now LEADTOOLS Document. It no longer includes support for Multimedia and Vector features.

LEADTOOLS Document Express Suite is now LEADTOOLS Document Suite. It no longer includes support for Multimedia and Vector features. It now includes a "Clean-up" module for improving 1-bit images.

LEADTOOLS Medical Express is now LEADTOOLS Medical. It no longer includes Multimedia and Vector support.

LEADTOOLS Medical Express Suite is now LEADTOOLS Medical Suite. It no longer includes Multimedia and Vector support.

Optional Raster plug-ins for vector file format support (DXF, DWG, DRW, PLT, TIFF with DXF, and INTERGRAPH_VECTOR) are now available.

Optional PDF plug-in for PDF file format support (PDF, PS, and EPS) is now available.

New document "Clean-up" features including hole-punch removal, line removal, border removal, invert text, smooth filter, and dot removal. Additionally, region of interest has been enhanced to allow preview of changes and composite viewing of the modified regions.

Optimized memory management, which increases the speed of all LEADTOOLS functions.

Reduced the number of TLS slots (thread local storage) used by LEADTOOLS DLLs. Previous versions of LEADTOOLS used up to 23 TLS slots. LEADTOOLS v12 now uses up to 2 TLS slots.

Added more flavors to most LEADTOOLS 12 file filters.

Redesigned the CCITT G3/G4 compression/decompression engine, resulting in an additional 80% speed increase over version 11.5.

Loading (decompressing) and saving (compressing) JPEG files have been hand-optimized for (MMX, PII and PIII). Most files now compress 100% faster and decompress 50% faster.

TIFF comments have been enhanced.

Loading and saving TIFF files with CMP and JBIG compression are now supported.

Saving vector images as a DXF inside a TIFF file is now supported in LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro.

Loading and saving SGI files has been added.

A New feature that allows you to specify the preferred load format when loading files has been added.

A new Selection Style for the ImageList that lets you mark selected items with a bitmap has been added.

The Picturize algorithm now supports more options.

A new magnifying glass tool for zooming in on an image has been added.

A new magic wand which creates a region from an X, Y location and a color tolerance has been added.

A new region frame with color feature has been added.

Regions can now be displayed with a color "highlight" in addition to an animated frame.

Writing TIFF tags to any page in an existing file is now supported.

The LEADTOOLS Multimedia toolkits currently include many of the functions documented in the Ltnetlibn.chm help file and this manual. This is the final version of the LEADTOOLS Multimedia toolkit that will contain those functions. In future releases, the functions documented in the Ltnetlibn.chm help file will only be available in the LEADTOOLS Internet Imaging toolkits.

Changed Functions

The following functions have changed since version 11.5:

LAnimationWindow::Load (takes another parameter)

LBitmapBase::Load (takes another parameter)

LBitmapList::Load (takes another parameter)

LBitmapWindow::Load (takes another parameter)

LFile::LoadBitmap (takes another parameter)

LFile::LoadBitmapList (takes another parameter)

LFile::LoadFile (takes another parameter)

LFile::LoadTile (takes another parameter)

LFile::LoadOffset (takes another parameter)

Changed Structures