Hello all,
The latest version of the PixInsight Standard core application,
1.0.1.225 Beta 3, is now available for download:
http://pleiades-astrophoto.com/download/STD/index.html Build 225 is an extremely stable core application, very close to a first release candidate version.
This version is entirely based on our customized version of Qt 4.2.0, PCL 1.0.1.83 (second release version of the PixInsight Class Library), and the LittleCMS color management engine.
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New Portable Color Management System: Integration of the LittleCMS Engine We have rewritten PixInsight's color management subsystem around the LittleCMS engine. Previous versions, including PixInsight LE, depended on the ICM engine built in MS Windows. LittleCMS is a portable, completely independent and extremely powerful color management engine. Now we have virtually no dependencies on Windows and the whole PixInsight platform is much easier to be ported to its natural environment, i.e. Linux 32/64.
We have integrated LittleCMS both in the core PixInsight application and in the PixInsight Class Library (build 83). Besides portability, we have made the decision to switch to LittleCMS for performance reasons. Users will notice that color management runs now faster and is more accurate than in previous versions. The performance gain is especially significant in the real-time preview interface of the core application.
The color management processes,
ICCProfileTransform,
AssignICCProfile (ColorManagement category) and
ColorManagementSetup (Global category) have basically the same functionality as before. We have added two new options to ICCProfileTransform:
use black point compensation and
use floating-point ICC profile transforms.
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New Transparency / Alpha Channel Support Now PixInsight supports variable transparency through
alpha channels. Alpha channels are those in excess of the nominal channels corresponding to the color space of the image: a fourth channel in a RGB color image, or a second channel in a grayscale image, for example.
PixInsight supports an unlimited number of alpha channels. However, only the first alpha channel —which we call
active alpha channel— defines the transparency of the image. Where the alpha channel is white (normalized value of 1.0), the image is opaque; where the alpha channel is black (normalized value of 0.0), the image is completely transparent. Intermediate alpha values define semitransparent regions.
For now, the FITS, TIFF and JPEG2000 file formats fully support alpha channels in PixInsight. The next release will also implement the PNG format, where alpha channels and transparencies are directly supported by web browsers and most graphics applications.
Two new processes,
AddAlphaChannels and
ExtractAlphaChannels (Image category) have been included in this build to implement creation, extraction, replacement and deletion of alpha channels.
To create a new alpha channel, use AddAlphaChannels. This process will add a new alpha channel with the luminance of the specified image (which is the same target image by default), or with a constant transparency value. You can optionally replace the existing active alpha channel with this process.
Now the
HistogramTransform and
CurvesTransform interfaces include a new 'A' channel that allows you to modify the active alpha channel of any image directly. Of course, you can play with the alpha channel and see how the transparency of the image varies on the Real-Time Preview interface.
To modify alpha channels in more complex ways, you can use the ExtractAlphaChannels process to obtain a copy of the active alpha channel as an independent grayscale image, modify it in any way, and then use AddAlphaChannels to reinsert it.
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New Clipboard Support The clipboard menu actions under the Edit main menu item have been implemented in this build. This means that you can copy the current view image (either main view or preview) to the clipboard, or paste the existing image data from the clipboard to a new image window.
Clipboard image data are copied/pasted as 8-bit integer images. PixInsight has much more sophisticated tools to duplicate, import and export images in any of the five data formats that are supported transparently (8, 16, 32-bit integers, 32 and 64-bit floating point).
The clipboard functionality is very useful to obtain
screenshots. On Windows, press the Print Screen (PrtScr) key to grab a screenshot, then go to PixInsight and press Ctrl+V to obtain the screenshot as a new 8-bit image that you can edit and save as a new image file.
You can use the clipboard to quickly import/export images from/to other applications. For example, you can copy any view in PixInsight by pressing Ctrl+C (Edit > Copy) and paste it in an OpenOffice.org Writer document by pressing Ctrl+V. This is a nice and quick way to add images to your documents.
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New File Drag/Drop Support Now you can select a set of image files on the Windows Explorer and drag them to the PixInsight workspace. The PixInsight core application will load the dragged files automatically. This is a handy way to load a set images in PixInsight. Of course, different file types can be freely mixed: you can drag a set composed of JPEG and FITS files, for example.
PSM files still can't be dragged in this way. This functionality will be implemented in the next release.
Note that file dragging works only
towards PixInsight. This means that you can't drag an image from PixInsight to another application.
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Feel free to write on PixInsight Forum to let us know your suggestions, opinions, complaints, criticisms, and of course bug discoveries.
Enjoy it!
The Pleiades Software Development Team
