Creating, Viewing and Merging Color Separations

Take the following steps to add code that creates CMYK color separations, displays each of the color planes, merges the planes, and displays the result. The code increases the contrast of the K plane to demonstrate how you can manipulate the color separations:

1. Start Visual Studio.
2. Choose File->New->Project… from the menu.
3. In the New Project dialog box, choose either "Visual C# Projects" or "VB Projects" in the Projects Type List, and choose "Windows Application " in the Templates List.
4. Type the project name as "Separate and Merge Image Colors" in the Project Name field, and then choose OK. If desired, type a new location for your project or select a directory using the Browse button, and then click OK.

5. In the "Solution Explorer" window, right-click the "References" folder, and select "Add Reference…" from the context menu. In the "Add Reference" dialog box, select the ".NET" tab and browse to Leadtools For .NET "<LEADTOOLS_INSTALLDIR>\Bin\DotNet4\Win32 " folder and select the following DLLs:

   • Leadtools.dll
   • Leadtools.Codecs.dll
   • Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Color.dll
   • Leadtools.Codecs.Cmp.dll
   • Leadtools.Controls.WinForms.dll

6. Click the Select button and then press the OK button to add the above DLLs to the application.

7. Make sure Form1 is in design view. Go to the toolbox (View->Toolbox) and Drag and drop an instance of ImageViewer to the form. If you do not have ImageViewer in your toolbox, select Tools->Add Remove Toolbox Items from the menu. Click Browse and then select Leadtools.Controls.WinForms.DLL from "<LEADTOOLS_INSTALLDIR>\Bin\DotNet4\Win32" and then click Open and then click OK.
8. From the toolbox (View->Toolbox), add a Button control (text = "Next") and a Label control to the form.

9. Switch to Form1 code view (right-click Form1 in the solution explorer then select View Code ) and add the following lines at the beginning of the file:

   VB

   Imports Leadtools 
   Imports Leadtools.Codecs 
   Imports Leadtools.Controls.WinForms 
   Imports Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Color 

   C#

   using Leadtools; 
   using Leadtools.Codecs; 
   using Leadtools.Controls.WinForms; 
   using Leadtools.ImageProcessing.Color; 

10. Add an event handler to the Form1 Load event and add the following code:

    VB

    ' To keep track of what step in the tutorial we are 
    Private clicksCount As Integer 
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load 
       ' initialize a new RasterCodecs object 
       Dim codecs As New RasterCodecs 
       ' load the main image into our viewer 
       RasterImageViewer1.Image = codecs.Load("C:\Users\Public\Documents\LEADTOOLS Images\Sample1.cmp") 
       Label1.Text = "Click to separate this image into CMYK components" 
    End Sub 

    C#

    // To keep track of what step in the tutorial we are 
    private int clicksCount; 
    private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e) 
    { 
       // initialize a new RasterCodecs object 
       RasterCodecs codecs = new RasterCodecs(); 
       // load the main image into our viewer 
       rasterImageViewer1.Image = codecs.Load(@"C:\Users\Public\Documents\LEADTOOLS Images\Sample1.cmp"); 
       label1.Text = "Click to separate this image into CMYK components"; 
    } 

11. Double-click the button1 Button on the form to add the event handler for it and add the following code:

    VB

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click 
       Select Case (clicksCount) 
          Case 0 
             ' Separate the image into 4 images based on the CMYK color space 
             Dim seperateCommand As New ColorSeparateCommand 
             seperateCommand.Type = ColorSeparateCommandType.Cmyk 
             seperateCommand.Run(RasterImageViewer1.Image) 
                              
             ' put this new image (4 pages, 1 for each component) in the viewer 
             RasterImageViewer1.Image = seperateCommand.DestinationImage 
             Label1.Text = "C component" 
                              
          Case 1 
             ' View the second page that represents the M component 
             RasterImageViewer1.Image.Page = 2 
             Label1.Text = "M component" 
                              
          Case 2 
             ' View the third page that represents the Y component 
             RasterImageViewer1.Image.Page = 3 
             Label1.Text = "Y component" 
                              
          Case 3 
             ' View the forth page that represents the K component 
             RasterImageViewer1.Image.Page = 4 
             Label1.Text = "K component" 
                              
          Case 4 
             ' Merge the 4 images to get the original image again, and reset the clickCount so the user can perform the entire process again. 
             Dim mergeCommand As New ColorMergeCommand(ColorMergeCommandType.Cmyk) 
             mergeCommand.Run(RasterImageViewer1.Image) 
             RasterImageViewer1.Image = mergeCommand.DestinationImage 
             Label1.Text = "Image colors have been merged again.  Click to separate this image into CMYK components" 
             clicksCount = -1 
       End Select 
                        
       clicksCount = clicksCount + 1 
    End Sub 

    C#

    private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e) 
    { 
       switch(clicksCount) 
       { 
          case 0: 
             // Separate the image into 4 images based on the CMYK color space 
             ColorSeparateCommand seperateCommand = new ColorSeparateCommand(); 
             seperateCommand.Type = ColorSeparateCommandType.Cmyk; 
             seperateCommand.Run(rasterImageViewer1.Image); 
                              
             // put this new image (4 pages, 1 for each component) in the viewer 
             rasterImageViewer1.Image = seperateCommand.DestinationImage; 
             label1.Text = "C component"; 
             break; 
                              
          case 1: 
             // View the second page that represents the M component 
             rasterImageViewer1.Image.Page = 2; 
             label1.Text = "M component"; 
             break; 
                              
          case 2: 
             // View the third page that represents the Y component 
             rasterImageViewer1.Image.Page = 3; 
             label1.Text = "Y component"; 
             break; 
                              
          case 3: 
             // View the forth page that represents the K component 
             rasterImageViewer1.Image.Page = 4; 
             label1.Text = "K component"; 
             break; 
                              
          case 4: 
             // Merge the 4 images to get the original image again, and reset the clickCount so the user can perform the entire process again. 
             ColorMergeCommand mergeCommand = new ColorMergeCommand(ColorMergeCommandType.Cmyk); 
             mergeCommand.Run(rasterImageViewer1.Image); 
             rasterImageViewer1.Image = mergeCommand.DestinationImage; 
             label1.Text = "Image colors have been merged again.  Click to separate this image into CMYK components"; 
             clicksCount = -1; 
             break; 
       } 
                        
       clicksCount++; 
    } 

12. Build, and Run the program to test it. NOTE: If you encounter an "Invalid File Format" or "Feature Not Supported" exception, refer to the Invalid File Format/Feature Not Supported topic.