LEAD Technologies Announces the Release of LEADTOOLS 8.0

LEADing color imaging toolkit adds new image processing functions, expanded file format support,
enhanced paint effects, and multimedia special effects

Charlotte, NC(June 2, 1997) – LEAD Technologies has just released it's newest version of LEADTOOLS, offering the widest variety of imaging technology available in a single integrated development toolkit with nearly 300 functions, properties and methods for color and document imaging. Twelve imaging technology categories are available covering scanning, color conversion, display, annotation, animation, image processing (over 50 filters) with region of interest, compression, image format import/export filters (most comprehensive in the industry), multimedia special effects, Internet imaging, database imaging and printing.

" Our job as an imaging toolkit developer has always been to anticipate the imaging needs of our clients and provide encompassing solutions integrated into one toolkit," said Rich Little, President of LEAD Technologies, Inc. "In anticipation of our client's new areas of application interests we have added one of the largest feature sets to our toolkits in recent history." In LEADTOOLS version 8.0, specific features have been added in the areas of image processing, file support, paint effects and multimedia special effects to allow greater flexibility and functionality of use.

LEADTOOLS 8.0 added paint effects and multimedia special effects which are great for developing multimedia projects, presentation applications, or enhancing your web site. Features include:

• Enhanced control over speed and granularity of all paint effects, with hundreds of new variations, including overlays of text and geometrical shapes.
• 113 paint effects, 64 dissolve effects, and 24 transition effects including pushes, wipes, diagonals, pulls, melts, splits, blinds, rolls and many more, with delays, grain sizes, pattern brushes (up to 64 passes), a colored wand, and transparent color capabilities which allow you to paint images on top of other images with a transparent color.
• 3D shapes, 3D rotated text, 3D frames, with a variety of gradients, patterns, fills, shadows, shapes, backgrounds, foregrounds, borders, highlights and thickness'.
• 3D shapes include rectangles, squares, ovals, circles, octagons, stars, triangles, diamonds pentagons, lines and freehand regions.

 LEADTOOLS' 8.0 other support features include:

• Monitor calibration, including gamma, brightness and contrast on the display without affecting the image.
• Auto crop (trim)
• Fast 90 degree rotation (Pro Express only)
• Load/Save annotations in memory
• View image according to the DPI.
• New properties for ActiveX behavior that allow loading of images using OLE drag and drop.
• Transparent control - (The control itself does not have to have a background).
• Annotation datapath allowing annotations to be read from anywhere on the Internet (Pro Express only)
• Pixel (X,Y) low-level access for ActiveX. You can now read and write individual pixels.
• Implemented the source and destination rectangles to the render method.
• Enhanced GDI drawing capabilities in the ActiveX.

LEAD's TIFF support is the most comprehensive in the industry and with version 8.0 the TIFF support just got better!

LEADTOOLS' 8.0 added file format support features include:

• Enhanced TIFF file support which includes reading and writing of 32 bit images, Packbit compressed images and images with CMYK or YCbCr color space.
• Reading and writing of Fuji EXIF, Windows Icon (ICO), Cursor (CUR) and Microsoft FAX (AWD) files.
• Read and write DICOM files for medical imaging. (Pro Express only)
• Read and write comments in files that support comments, including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, DICOM, and EXIF files.
• Allows creation of personal TIFF tags (in addition to the standard comment tags).
• Additional "flavor" support within the file formats that LEAD supports.

LEADTOOLS' 8.0 added image processing functions include:

• Drawing tools for adding shapes or text to the control or bitmap (reducing reliance on traditional Windows GDI functions).
• Automated rubberband, zoom in on a selection or trim a bitmap without translating mouse coordinates to bitmap coordinates.
• Region processing added to Pro toolkit versions. The region of interest makes it possible to process only a specific portion of an image rather than the entire bitmap. Regions can be comprised of any combination of rectangles, ellipses, rounded-rectangles, freehand shapes, polygons, transparent color and more. (This is a very powerful feature, previously available only in Pro Express version)
• Control over brightness and contrast of displayed images without bitmap modification.
• Control of erosion or dilation of dark objects.
• Application of artistic effects to an image (simulating oil painting effects or accidental exposure of photo graphic film to light).
• Preservation of alpha channel information. Get and set the alpha channel information in 16 and 32 bit bitmaps while maintaining the alpha-channel during image processing.

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About LEAD Technologies, Inc.
Founded in 1990, LEAD grew out of years of research headed by Moe Daher to find a comprehensive compression standard for digital images. LEAD is now the world-leading supplier of imaging development toolkits, providing technology of the future, today. LEAD brings to the market the most innovative and technically superior products that provide the greatest possible value for its customers. LEAD’s award winning imaging technology is chosen by Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Boeing, Xerox and thousands of other companies for use in their high volume applications and internal systems.