zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) (02/17/91)
[ I edited this document somewhat to remove a few lines of what ]
[ the company called "opinions". Don't worry. Nothing of ]
[ actual use is left out. This looks like an interesting prod- ]
[ uct. Would anybody be willing to write a review? ]
[ -Dan ]
Product Information Release
---------------------------
Image Professional
------------------
This document refers to release 1.4, which is currently shipping
====================================================================
Introduction
------------
Black Belt Systems is extremely pleased to introduce our newest
addition to the HAM-E display hardware family of support software,
Image Professional.
General:
--------
Image Professional is a 24 bit image processing system that uses the
HAM-E display device to show you in 24 bits exactly what your image
looks like, allowing you to select regions for processing at your will.
Without the HAM-E device, although the software is still functional,
you cannot see the image you are working and so it's utility in this
regard has to be described as limited or nil. It is provided free of
charge with the purchase of a HAM-E unit ($299.95 retail).
Compatibility:
--------------
Image Professional loads and saves standard IFF 24 bit files; CLUT
chunks are not saved, only image data.
Display
-------
Image can be displayed in a number of different formats which each have
various uses, depending on the image in question:
- 256 grey level Average [ (R + G + B) / 3 ]
- 256 grey level Luma [ (.3 x R) + (.59 x G) + (.11 x B)]
- 256 color ordered dither
- 18 bit (256k colors)
- 24 bit (16m colors)
NOTE: There has been a significant amount of debate over
what can reasonably be constituted as a 24 bit image
display. We use a combination of carefully chosen,
full 24 bit registers in "needy" regions of an image,
combined with quarter million color dithering to
achieve smooth 24 bit output to your eye. Dithering
in an 18 bit space is imperceptible to most eyes even
under close examination and achieves the required
color resolution at the expense of perhaps an extra
second during image rendering proceedure operation.
No "dither dots" are perceptible on the resulting
image, however smooth shading of all colors well
beyond 18 bits is clearly demonstrated.
All of these display modes are subject to the following modifiers:
- Entire image (screen becomes virtual image sized)
- Exact Image (representation is pixel for pixel, with panning)
- Interlace
Selecting Regions:
------------------
Any region of any image can be selected using any one of the following
tools:
- Rectangle
- Ellipse
- Freehand
- Polygon
- Polyarc
- Entire Image
- Exclude (selects the area you did NOT pick with the tool)
- Previous Region (to be used after UnDO, to try new settings)
Regions may be further qualified for inclusion in various operations by
the use of Minimum, Maximum, Minimum color keying and Maximum color
keying. Lastly, regions that have been clipped or clip-stretched to new
buffers may contain masks that are local to that clip which bound the
usable region. These masks are transparent to the user, but do affect
the operable region of the buffer.
Buffer Managment:
-----------------
Any number of buffers of any size (up to 32767 by 32767, which is huge)
may be maintained by the software. Buffers are named entities that can
be sources for many operation [rubthru, for example] as well as
destinations for any operation. Clipped buffers remember their "parent"
buffer and can be restored to the parent at the clip location after any
amount of work has been done to the clip. Undo is available for the
current primary operating buffer at the users option.
Buffers can be:
- Killed
- Renamed
- Clipped from
- Stretched from
- Shrunken from
- Created at any resolution
- Loaded
- Saved
- Restored to their parent (If there was a parent)
- Targets for any operation
- Sources for any two-buffer operation
Image Composition
-----------------
Many composition operations are available, all are available in one of
two classes, or both.
First is the "Merge" class. When a Secondary image is Merged into a
Primary image, the entire Secondary image is made to "fit" within the
selected region in the Primary image. This means that if you draw a
small rectangle in the primary image, the entire Secondary image will
appear in that rectangle.
The second class of operation is the "Rub-Thru". In this class of
operation, the Secondary image is treated as "virtually" the same size
as the Primary image; if that same rectangle were selected in the
Primary image, only that portion of the Secondary that virtually lies
under that location will be composited.
Composition operations that are currently available include:
- Merge
- Minimum Merge
- Maximum Merge
- Minimum color keyed Merge with minimum "fuzziness" control
- Maximum color keyed Merge with maximum "fuzziness" control
- Rubthru
- Minimum Rubthru
- Maximum Rubthru
- Minimum color keyed Rubthru with minimum "fuzziness" control
- Maximum color keyed Rubthru with maximum "fuzziness" control
- Add Secondary to Primary
- Subtract Secondary from Primary
- Xor Secondary into Primary
- Warp Primary image across X using Secondary Red intensity as key
- Warp Primary image across Y using Secondary Green intensity as key
- Shade Primary image using Secondary Blue intensity as key
- Create target buffer of any size from antialiased source region
- Create target buffer of exact size from source region
- Set region blend coefficients (4-way blending, mouse driven)
Blending
--------
Blending offers 4 axis (center-left, center-right, center-top, center-
bottom) control. Graphs clearly indicate the exact blending state for
each axis. The following operations are available for individual graphs:
- Draw curve using mouse
- Lock and Unlock (locked graphs cannot be modifed)
- Flip Vertical axis
- Flip Horizontal axis
- Copy to any other (unlocked) graph
- Copy to all other (unlocked) graphs
- Exchange between any two (unlocked) graphs
The following operations are available for all graphs as a group:
- Load from disk (locked graphs are not loaded)
- Autoload on startup (if file "Default.bld" exists in s: or CD)
- Save to disk
- Preset all (unlocked) graphs to any of six useful "stock" curves
Image Processing
----------------
All image processing operations are available for any selected region.
All operations work with a single buffer, except that several require
the presence of an UnDo buffer in order to function. The following
operations are currently implemented in Image Professional:
- Contrast
- Brightness
- Gamma
- Anti-Gamma
- Sharpen I
- Sharpen II (more compute-intensive, more "optical")
- Smear
- Decontour
- Contour
- RIP (Remove Isolated Pixel)
- RIS (Remove Isolated Streak)
- RIC (Remove Isolated Chunk)
- Make Manochrome [( R + G + B ) / 3]
- Make Luma [(.3 x R) + (.59 x G) + (.11 x B)]
- Monochrome Negative
- Luma Negative
- Color Negative
- Colorize
- Pseudo Color
- False Color
- B&W Line Art
- Color Line Art
- Edge B&W line art (original image is retained)
- Edge color line art (original image is retained)
- Red adjust
- Green adjust
- Blue adjust
- Leftwards motion blur
- Rightwards motion blur
- Upwards motion blur
- Downwards motion blur
- Motion blur in any linear direction
- Exploding motion blur
- Imploding motion blur
- Inward spiral motion blur
- Outward spiral motion blur
- Region thinning
- Region thickening
- Hue adjust
- Saturation adjust
- Low pass filtering (electronic camera resample analog)
- High pass filtering (electronic camera resample analog)
- Solarize
- Pixelize
- Horizontal Flip
- Vertical Flip
- Color Derivative
- White balance entire image to sample region adjusted to white
- Area fill (uses 4-way blending cues)
- Antique Tint
- Un-Antique
- BluePrint (special line art mode)
- Remove Features and replace with synthetic empty region
- Dynamic Range Maximum (maximum contrast expansion w/o distortion)
- Connect nearby pixels
- Disconnect nearby pixels
- Anti-Alias
- Define color and fuzzyness settings from average of selected region
About the HAM-E
---------------
This is a hardware device which attaches to any Amiga at the 23 pin RGB
port between the Amiga and it's monitor. The output is passed-thru
Amiga video, plus two new types of graphics modes: 256 24 bit colors, or
a mixture of 18 bit color and up to 240 24 bit register colors. The
output is sharp, clear RGB, and the new modes appear on screens that
pull up and down, go front to back just like "normal" Amiga screens.
These new modes can overlap and underlap normal Amiga modes. HAM-E
images and ANIM-5 animations work with AmigaVision, CanDo, UltraCard,
and virtually any image viewer that can display a normal high-
resolution (640 or more pixels per line) image. It uses it's own power
supply which is UL approved, and is also FCC class B rated. It is the
least expensive and most flexible of all the new graphics hardware add
ons that are now appearing. The HAM-E has been shipping more than four
months previous to any of the other devices, and provides several
significant hardware performance advantages over all of them. See our
ad on page 68 of the March AmigaWorld for ten sample screen photos. A
high resolution 24 bit hardware anti-alias engine is now available as
an optional addition to the HAM-E unit; this provides up to 768 24 bit
pixels to the RGB monitor per scan line without incurring any extra
memory or DMA bandwidth loading.
Concluding Remarks
------------------
Since Image Professional can handle images of any size in 24 bits
(assuming you have the memory), it is ideal for processing images that
you are using with other 24 bit systems such as Impulses excellent
FireCracker 24, NewTeks Toaster, or with any desktop publishing
software that handles 24 bit images. ASDG's TadPro (The Art Department
Professional) is an ideal companion package which provides color
separation, device driver, and file format conversion capabilities that
are extremely useful.
Black Belt Systems is committed to the continued support and
improvement of the Image Professional package and the rest of the HAM-E
family of support software. The HAM-E is shipped with paint software, file
conversion software, image rendering software, as well as Image
Professional. All these items are included in the $299.95 retail price.
There is a three-year warranty on the hardware, and there is also a ten
day return privilege you may exercise once you have received the unit
if you feel that it does not meet your needs.
You can order by calling our tool-free [sales only] line at:
(800) TK-AMIGA (800-852-6442) (all US states)
You can obtain more information by calling technical support at:
(406) 367-5509
You may fax us requests for data or VISA/Mc orders at:
(406) 367-AFAX (406-367-2329)
And finally, you can sign onto our BBS at:
(406) 367-ABBS (406-367-2227)
Our address is:
Black Belt Systems
398 Johnson Road
Glasgow, Montana
59230
--
Please see monthly postings for the disclaimer, the introduction, the charter,
and submission instructions. Comments to zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu.
Submissions to announce@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu. Flames to /dev/null.