Qimage Pro updated to v2.0!
By
Mike Tomkins
(Tuesday, May 14, 2002 - 17:16 EDT)
Latest release of the popular Windows-only imaging utility improves printing, on-screen viewing and more...
Mike Chaney, author of the Qimage Pro and Profile Prism imaging utilities, has emailed to let us know of a new release of the former. Qimage Pro 2002 v2.0 has a number of new features (from the official update history): - Ability to manage associative filters by selectively adding to/deleting from existing filters
- New WYSIWYG view of entire printed page including printable and non-printable areas
- Ability to center images on the physical page versus centering within the printable area
- Locate prints at exact locations on the page by nudging or direct entry of location
- Ability to duplicate scanned prints at their original (scanned) size via click/drag
- High quality sizing of images displayed via full screen and slide show reduces "jaggies"
- Support for full size (3072 x 2040) Kodak Photo CD images
- Additive Filters: With v2.0, it is now possible to add associative filters in batch for a "cummulative" effect on overall appearance to images. Whether you want to create downsized copies of filtered images for the web by adding an additional resize filter on a one-shot conversion, or add a filter temporarily for a special print session (like printing black and white or creating a sepia color effect), v2.0 will let you truly manage your associative filters. You can even selectively delete filters on the fly, to one image or an entire batch, removing only the filters you want to remove. When converting images or creating copies of your images that have associative filters, you can also select whether you want to apply existing filters, add to them for the current conversion only, or completely ignore filters to give you copies of your originals! Options for adding to filters when converting images from the queue are available on the "Convert Images" dialog. When adding filters to existing associative filters, you will be prompted to "Replace" or "Add to" existing filters. Selective deletion of filters is accomplished by multi-selecting thumbnails and using "Add/Remove Associative Filter", and clicking "Delete Filters".
- WYSIWYG page views and editing: Version 2.0 shows the entire printed page and clearly delineates the difference between the physical paper and the printable area as defined by your printer. With v2.0, you can now see exactly what your entire page will look like before printing. The ability to view the entire page, including non-printable borders, is a big help when creating album pages or just trying to decide what driver options you need to cover the most paper!
- New physical centering option: Also handy for creating album pages, v2.0 now allows you to center images on the physical page rather than centering within the printable area defined by the printer. The new "physical" centering option works by compensating for your printer's off-center printable area by adjusting margins. The new option can be accessed with a single click under "Page", "Margins" by clicking on the "Center on Physical Page" button. Help is available under "Help", "Contents", "Listing of Major Functions", "Margins".
- Nudging and absolute placement via the page editor: Each print on the printed page can now be "nudged" left/right/up/down using the arrow keys. Simply open the page editor, select the print in question, and use the arrow keys to make small adjustments in the location of the print on the page. In addition to fine tuning the location via visual movement with the cursor keys, you can also simply enter the location of the print by typing the location in the "Location" boxes on the right side of the page editor window. Need your print to be exactly 2 inches from the right side of the page and 1.75 inches from the bottom? No problem, just type in the values and you're done! The location can be entered by specifying the distance from any of the four sides of the page!
- Duplicate your scanned prints at their original size: You can now create exact copies of scanned images by allowing Qimage Pro to size the images based on the size/resolution stored in the image file (or by entering the PPI of the image manually). If you scanned several 4x6, 3.5 x 5, and 5x7 photos and just want to reproduce them at their original sizes, simply multi-select the images and drag them to the "Quick Size" dialog, dropping them on the "Size by PPI" option. The images will be added to the queue at the size scanned; the 4x6 prints will be 4x6, the 3.5 x 5 prints will be 3.5 x 5, etc.! More info is available on how to use this function in the help file under "Help", "Contents", "Learn by Example", example 3b.
- High quality full screen display: Version 2.0 uses a much higher quality algorithm to size images for display in the slide show and full screen image display windows, rendering full screen images with smooth contours and lack of "jaggies" that appear in most software. The result is a much higher quality on screen display.
- Support for full size PCD images: Version 2.0 supports full resolution (3072 x 2048) for PCD images.
A trial version of Qimage Pro 2002 v2.0 can be downloaded from the DDI Software website, and the program can be purchased for a very reasonable cost of $35. Registered users are entitled to free upgrades, and hence don't have to pay again for the latest version...
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