Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

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jsachs
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Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

Post by jsachs »

I have posted a new release (27-Oct-2018) in full installer and executable-only versions. Minor changes to help file.

The changes (taken from the update log) are:

Rewrote code that zooms images in and out for display – should result in faster, sharper downsized images. Eliminated main window flashing when zooming.

Fixed some problems with minimizing dialog boxes on multiple monitor systems.

Fixed problems with failure to minimize or crash on minimizing certain transformation dialog boxes, including Levels and Color.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
davidh
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Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:16 am

Re: Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

Post by davidh »

....Rewrote code that zooms images in and out for display – should result in faster, sharper downsized images...

This is no doubt a good improvement. However, it it seems to have a drawback when you display a halfoned image zoomed to less then 1:1, usually to Zoom to fit.
The preview is visibly checkered with acute bright white dots which make it difficult to evaluate the overall contrast of the image.
Sometime it helps a bit to zoom out the preview but then the preview might get too small to read the details.

I can't help thinking that, if possible, Halftone transformation would profit from and deserve the former way of previewing.

The attached crops are viewed at 1:3,5 (zoom to fit).
Attachments
Halfone preview2.PNG
Halfone preview2.PNG (8.83 KiB) Viewed 1652 times
Halfone preview.PNG
Halfone preview.PNG (10.25 KiB) Viewed 1652 times
jsachs
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Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

Post by jsachs »

The old way blurred normal images when zoomed out and was slower. The artifacts are mainly due to zooming out by non-integer factors. If you zoom to 1:1 and then zoom out in steps, every 4th one will be an integer and will look better.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
davidh
Posts: 835
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:16 am

Re: Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

Post by davidh »

...every 4th one will be an integer and will look better...
I noticed that a wondered about the regularity.
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

Post by jsachs »

If you are using one of the screens that has a certain cell size, such as Ordered 8x8, the best viewing zoom factor is probably 1:8 which averages all the values in each cell.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
davidh
Posts: 835
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:16 am

Re: Bug fix release 27-Oct-20184

Post by davidh »

Sorry to return to it.
There are sometimes other artifacts then just the exagerated sharp checkers of the high contrast.
The first attached image shows a crop from 8x8 classical method viewed at 1:4. The image is divided right in the middle into two halves of different brightness.
If the image is viewed in Alpha 6-Oct, the whole preview is smooth with no such or similar artifacts under any non-integer zooming factor.

The next attached image shows two previews zoomed just one step of the mouse wheel apart. The difference is rather coarse, which makes most of the zooming factors totaly unusable.

It would be really good if the Halftone transformation could preserve that blurring effect while previewing its outputs, even at a cost of slower output rendering.
Attachments
8x8 classical.PNG
8x8 classical.PNG (4.42 KiB) Viewed 1618 times
8x8 classical -one mouse wheel step.png
8x8 classical -one mouse wheel step.png (10.21 KiB) Viewed 1618 times
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