You guys might have seen the screencast video I have uploaded to YouTube. Now I'm happy to spread the word that Aurigma Channel on YouTube is finally set up.

There is only 1 video - and it has been already viewed more than 500 times over 3 weeks. I think that's a good start. I'm very much looking forward to making more screencasts and tutorial videos. Here, I certainly need your advice. Just feel free to throw in some interesting ideas - these will be really valuable to me.

We have released a major update of File Downloader today. For those who do not know what is is - it is an ActiveX control which allows clients to download multiple files from a server with a single click. A kind of Image Uploader, but it works vice versa. We can call it a junior sibling of Image Uploader.

So what is new there? In fact main purpose of this update was to improve performance, make it more stable, etc. In particular, now File Downloader is able to handle huge file lists (i.e. when the user downloads thousands of files). But of course we could not miss the opportunity to add couple killer features during refactoring. 

First of all - it is possibility to resume broken downloads automatically. The good news is that unlike Image Uploader, it does not discard partially downloaded file. If connection breaks at 50% while downloading 100MB file, no need to start to download it from the very beginning.

Another great improvement is that now Vista users can work with File Downloader much easier. Now it works when Internet Explorer is in protected mode (in which it is by default). In previous version it could work only if website that hosts downloaded files was in list of trusted sites. The only thing I do not like with File Downloader on Vista is that if UAC is enabled, it will still display these annoying dialogs asking to increase permission level. But this is a price the user pay for Vista security, and if they enable UAC, it asks for permission a dozen times per day.

So if you are already using File Downloader, I believe it makes sense to take a look at this new version. I believe you will find it worth of upgrading.

Add Multiple Image Upload Tool to your Site in Just 3 Minutes!

At idle moments, some folks (Alex and Fed) here at Aurigma have created a cool image upload control for ASP.NET - big thanks to them! I just thought that the ASP.NET control deserves much more attention than it gets :) So I recorded this short video to show how emebedding Image Uploader into your web site can be easy when using Visual Studio.

Learn more and download the free ASP.NET control at Aurigma forums.

If you don't like the quality of the YouTube video (below), you can download a HIGH QUALITY VIDEO (35MB) HERE (BOX.NET).

Some of you guys might have noticed a Google ad which pops up on the right from the search results if you type 'Aurigma Image Upload'.

Hence an explanation: VersalSoft (China) has never had, does not have and will not have affiliation with Aurigma. Not ever.

Hence a disclaimer: we have no responsibility for whatever harm VersalSoft products may cause to web site owners and end users.

Thanks for your attention and be sure to fight for your copyright! ;)

Standard vs. Pro

Aurigma Inc. announces an anniversary version of Graphics Mill for .NET, the popular SDK for the developers of image processing solutions. Version 5.0 marks a new milestone in the product life cycle: Graphics Mill is now offered in two flavors, Standard and Pro. This allows the developers to choose the optimal tool for precisely addressing the goals in an economically efficient manner. Now the developers of basic imaging solutions do not need to pay for expert Pro version functionality, having the Standard package contain all necessary imaging features. Normally, Standard version proves sufficient for such solutions as image editing web applications, image viewers, photo galleries and catalogs, etc. More demanding customers, however, would rather choose to buy the Pro version that includes all the expert features needed to develop such serious products as preprint preparation solutions, document management systems, satellite photo processing applications, etc. Graphics Mill Pro has native support for x64 platforms that allows for addressing more than 2 gigabytes of RAM per process for imaging needs.

Also the Pro version has enhanced support for multi-processor and multi-core systems, detecting the amount of CPUs/cores and accordingly optimizing imaging computations.

Other prominent Graphics Mill Pro features include support for Adobe Color Management Module and 16 bits per channel for images, real-time color space conversion, etc.

Graphics Mill code is native .NET (ASP.NET) which delivers valuable advantages for the developer.

One of the greatest improvements in version 5.0 is the introduction of Red-Eye Removal Add-on into Graphics Mill SDK. Therefore, there is no need now to purchase this add-on separately from Graphics Mill. Now the Graphics Mill SDK includes everything necessary to develop photo imaging solutions, including red-eye removal tool. Red-Eye Removal Add-on makes the entire process as easy as possible: it features a unique semi-automatic mode that only requires selecting the necessary face – and the natural eye tint is automatically restored. The process is split up into steps and features undo operation.

Other add-ons are included into Graphics Mill, depending on the package type: AVI Processor and Media Processor are available both with Graphics Mill Standard and Graphics Mill Pro, while Advanced PSD Add-on is only limited to Graphics Mill Pro.

Advanced PSD Add-on.

There is no doubt PSD format is immensely popular with artists engaged in graphic and web design. Very often a customer gets the final result (and sometimes even the mockups) in a PSD file. This allows for making minor changes without resorting to the designer expertise. However, sometimes there is a pressing need to streamline PSD file processing, inserting some custom content on-the-fly. The most typical example of such usage can be an online business card editor.

Objective: generate a business card from the person’s name and position input via a web form. Assets: business card PSD template that includes text and raster layers as well as the person name and position (and possibly a photo).

Solution: Advanced PSD Add-on reads the template and merges PSD graphics with custom personal data such as name and position (as rasterized text), personal photo, etc. The data can be input through a web form or be retrieved from a database – at developer discretion. The final image can be saved into a file for further printing.

More complex examples include discount cards, brochures and booklets with custom regional and cultural data, etc.

AVI Processor Add-on and Media Processor Add-on.

The advent of broadband connections brought video processing online. AVI Processor Add-on allows for AVI format manipulation: retrieving frames and soundtracks and saving them to files, adding frames and soundtracks from files and much more.

Providing metadata processing and multimedia format support, Media Processor Add-on makes a handy addition to AVI Processor.

Imaging Controls

To fully reveal Graphics Mill potential in web and desktop applications, a WinForms control set and an AJAX control set for ASP.NET 2.0 are included into the SDK.

WinForms controls include multilayer controls, containers for manipulating vector and raster objects, zoom and pan controls, thumbnail view control and many more.

AJAX controls for ASP.NET 2.0 are specifically intended for providing smooth online image editing experience even for slow Internet connections.

Graphics Mill is a comprehensive development tool for building imaging solutions of varying complexity. A more detailed Graphics Mill feature list is well beyond the limits of this brief article, while a complete understanding of Graphics Mill capabilities can be achieved by reading the extensive SDK documentation.

Hi guys,

On this week we are launching help desk system on Aurigma website. In fact it is already available, and you can start submitting support cases. But before we start using it into full force, we would like to test it and see how people take it. Also, some bugs still may encounter (for example, today one of our customer reported about problems with Mac which we have successfully fixed). So we do not like an idea to shut down our existing support system.

Currently we are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. It has a service module which we use to track all issues submitted by our customers. When we have implemented this module about one year ago, it solved certain problems, but now we face new challenges. In particular:

• Email-based system is not reliable enough. From time to time we suffer from problems with spam filters, blocked attachments, corrupted emails (during conversion from email to CRM record).
  
• Microsoft did a great job, but this system is overcomplicated for such small company as Aurigma. Too much IT expenses and other headaches.
• It is not integrated with our website. It was not a problem at the first time, but we want to move forward. Of course, we could customize it, but, firstly, it would require a bunch of coding, secondly, there are some licensing issues.
  
• Microsoft CRM is not the best thing from usability point of view. On one hand this is a matter of habit, but on another hand bad usability = more time to spend to carry out some operation.
  

So we analyzed how we could overcome these problems, and found out that we need to implement some web-based help desk system instead of CRM.

Our first idea was to find some out-of-the-box solution, implement it on our website and integrate with it. But surprisingly we did not find anything which would work fine for us. All these system would require too much customization (time expenses comparable with creating it from a scratch). So we thought - we are software company after all! Couple weeks of development, the same amount time of testing and the new Aurigma help desk system is ready to go.

Let me outline concepts of this help desk system briefly:

• Single access point to customer's issues. We will shut down support@aurigma.com, and all support requests should be submitted into help desk system. It will make life easier both for customers and for us.
  
• Self-service system. It will try to suggest useful information whenever possible. Customers will be able to find solutions for most wide-spread issues without waiting for Aurigma support representative response.
  
• User-friendliness. On one hand the system gives the user hints what information we need to be able to help to overcome the problem, on the other hand, it does not require to fill in huge counter-intuitive questionaries.
• Satisfaction rating. We always tried to provide premium-quality support to everyone. That's why we need your feedback so that we could improve our support service if something is wrong at your opinion.
  

So we finished this system and to tell the truth, I like it. It looks capable to solve all goals we determined for it: decrease time necessary to solve issues and improve support quality. So let's see it in action, and I sincerely hope you will love it as strong as I do.

On these weekends we have released Graphics Mill 5.0. We have already wrote about main changes in this version before, but let me outline

• Post about new features (by Dmitry)
• Post about new licensing policy (by me)

In addition to it, you can find the following information about new release:

• Full change list.
• New pricing and licensing (note, SDK license has different meaning than Windows Forms Developer, and Server Deployment license has different meaning than old Server license).
  
• Download page.
• Std vs. Pro comparison chart. 

For existing customers we offer special upgrade offer:

• If you purchased Graphics Mill after April 2, 2008, you get free upgrade to Std or Pro (on your choice). Note, this is time limited offer - to get a free version, you should contact sales@aurigma.com before June 3, 2008.
  
• If you purchased Graphics Mill before April 2, 2008, you can purchase new version for 60% of the license price (however you need to keep new licensing model).

Any feedback about new version is welcome. 

Just want to follow up Dmitry's post Graphics Mill 5.0: Coming Soon. The upcoming Graphics Mill release will introduce not just new features, but new licensing policy. This is what I would like to tell in this post about.

Briefly speaking, there are two essential changes:

1. Graphics Mill will be splitted into Std and Pro editions.
2. Licensing policy becomes closer to industry standards. 
   

Std and Pro editions

When we analyzed how our customers are using Graphics Mill we have realized that some of advanced features we proud of are useful not for all of our customers. Most of features which make Graphics Mill unique are especially important for customer who build applications for printing business. But these features are not really important for those who develop other kind of applications. Why such customer should purchase unnecessary functionality?

That's why we decided to create two editions:

• Std edition will include all features necessary for general purpose imaging applications. For example:
  • Basic imaging functionality (image resize, crop, rotate, etc).
  • Support of common image formats like JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, etc.
  • Visual controls (both for Windows and Web development).
  • Text rendering (including multiline and formatted text), as well as other drawing features.
  • All addons except of Advanced PSD.
    
• Pro edition will include features of Std edition + print business specific functionality, namely:
  • PDF output.
  • Multi-channel and multipage TIFF support.
  • Color management (ICC profiles, etc)
  • CMYK color space and extended pixel formats (16 bits per channel)
  • x64 version
  • OpenMP-powered resize (parallel computations).
  • Advanced PSD addon

As you can notice, we decided to include addons in editions to make things simpler.

Licensing model changes

Our current licensing may seem to be not very consistent. It defines different rules for Windows and Web applications, and may be a bit unclear if you compare it with competitors. This licensing model is a kind of legacy, and it is a time to follow the same rules as other imaging libraries vendors do.

The main thing we did - we separated a right to develop application using Graphics Mill (so-called SDK license) and a right to run application with Graphics Mill in production environment (so-called deployment license). So now the licensing model looks as follows.

• To include Graphics Mill into application of any type you should purchase SDK license (which is licensed per developer).
• To distribute application you should have an appropriate number of deployment licenses:
  • If this is an end-user desktop Windows application, royalty-free deployment license is included into SDK.
  • If this is a web application, deployment license should be purchased per each server.
  • If this is a kiosk application (i.e. target computer is accessible in a public place by multiple people), special deployment licensing is required.

 

So these are the main changes in licensing model of Graphics Mill. If anything is unclear, feel free to post a comment. I will be happy to clarify all your questions.

Long time passed since our last Graphics Mill 4.5 release. All this time Graphics Mill team was working over new version of the product. Unfortunately the new version is late for about a month but it is not wasted time. The team spent this time to refactor the code, complete the implementation of several important features and fix some problems. We hope that new Graphics Mill 5.0 is the exact imaging software our customers were waiting for and it will meet their expectations. It is high time to tell what our new Graphics Mill 5.0 is.

Now Graphics Mill supports x64 platform. It is long-awaited feature for our customers. Now you should not compile your application in backward compatibility mode and run it using WOW64. Especially it is important for the guys who develop web-based applications and host them on 64-bit version of IIS. Before there was no option to use Graphics Mill in such kind of services except to switch IIS to 32-bit mode. It means that all web applications on the server had to be running in 32-bit mode.

It is not a secret that modern computers have multi-core processors. And software vendors tend to develop software that able to utilize these hardware resources. Especially it is important for imaging software because this class of operations requires a lot of computing resources. We did the first step in this direction. Now Graphics Mill supports multi-core calculations for resize and interpolation algorithms. And you need to do nothing to start to support multi-core platforms in your application with Graphics Mill. It analyzes the platform during start-up of application and does calculations in the most effective way.

We did some work to improve text rendering support in Graphics Mill 4.5. Upcoming Graphics Mill 5.0 will make the step in this direction too. New Graphics Mill can render formatted text now. It means that you can mark your text up with special XML-like syntax. It will allow you to render portions of multi-line text with different justification, font and color settings. This feature will provide the customers who develop pre-print solutions with flexible text-rendering tool.

Now Graphics Mill supports extra channels for TIFF format. We know that ordinary image formats support well-defined set of channels. For example, if we have RGB JPEG image we know that it contains 3 channels: red, green and blue. But according to TIFF specification this format can contain unlimited amount of channels in addition to basic ones. And these extra channels are used to store some specific color information. And Graphics Mill is able to handle them now.

Now Graphics Mill supports Adobe color management engine. Now you are able to switch color management engine between lCMS and Adobe CMM. It is important for those customers who care about quality of color management in their software.

Red Eye Removal transformation moved to Graphics Mill assembly. Now it is not add-on and you do not need to pay additional money to use this functionality in your software. Now it is included to Graphics Mill license.

Also the upcoming Graphics Mill 5.0 contains a lot of minor improvements and bug fixes. We hope you will like new version.

This post is insired by a pretty sad event. Alex Makhov, one of oldest Aurigma team members, leaves our company today. He brought up our main product Image Uploader from awkward $50-worth ActiveX control version 1.0 to current powerful solution used by many major Web 2.0 players. He did a great job, but he had to move to another city due some family circumstances. So me personally and all Aurigma team wish him good luck with his new life and thank him for all years he spent with us.

But life goes on, and Image Uploader is still actively evolving. Our CTO Dmitry will take care on this project since now. We have a lot of great plans for this product and Alex's leave will not break them. I will be glad to share these plans in my future posts. ;-)

That's all for now. Stay tuned!