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New Functions in Version 12.50

General Enhancements

Image on Image

The effect filter "Image on Image" now allows to use a shape for the foreground image:

Stars

The vector tool "Stars" can now create stars with round "corners":

Browse/Show Image: Additional Informations in the Window Title

The image view of the browse tool now shows the picture size, the picture type and the creation date in addition to the filename.

EXIF Data

The focal length of digital cameras isn't directly comparable to that of a miniature camera. Therefore PhotoLine now shows optionally the corresponding focal length of a miniature camera. In order to do this PhotoLine needs the correct conversion factor for the given camera.

Color Picker

The Color Picker now has a little tool window which follows the mouse cursor and shows the color at the current mouse position.
If you have to save screen space, you can now turn off the dialog Picture Info.

Text Layers With Unicode

Mac OS X: Status Bar

On Mac OS X document windows now have a status bar at the bottom.
By that the bottom right corner of an image is no longer hidden by the scaling field of the window. Furthermore PhotoLine shows context-sensitive help in this status bar.

File Formats

PDF

PDF Export (1)
Bitmap images are now compressed using CCITT-Fax4. This compression allows smaller files with the same quality.
PDF Export (2)
The PDF export is now able to save text containing non-western characters like Greek and Chinese. Because fonts supporting those characters are usually quite large, TrueType fonts are no longer embedded completely, but only those characters used in the document are written.
PDF Import
The PDF import has been enhanced once more. Vector graphics with transparency is now imported correctly. Furthermore on Windows NT/2000/XP and Mac OS X Unicode text is now imported correctly, if the PDF file supports this.

Raw Files

EXIF Data
PhotoLine is now able to import the EXIF data of many RAW file formats. This allows to save them when exporting a RAW file as JPEG.
Thumbnails in the Browse Window
Many RAW files contain thumbnails. PhotoLine now uses these thumbnails in its Browse function. Browsing is therefore now much faster.

Other Formats

PSD Import
The PSD Import has been enhanced on request of many users. It is now possible to import layer masks and the effect "shadow"
Save Pictures
On saving PhotoLine now optionally creates a backup file.
Raw Image Data
PhotoLine can now export raw image data. These are mostly used by special or self-written software.

Various Enhancements

Text Layers
The "Pos1" and "End" should now behave the same way as in other applications.
Layer Rotation Center
Many user don't need to modify the center of rotation of a layer. Those users now can turn it off.
Display of Images
When drawing image on the screen, PhotoLine now optionally antialiases them, if they are scaled down. Especially when displaying line-art and screenshots the quality is now much better.
Undo
Aside from the number of undo steps it is now possible to restrict the amount of memory consumed by undo. When using a computer, that has not much memory, this ensures, that the memory is used for working and not for undo.
Histogram Correction
The tonal range can now be adjusted for each channel separately.
Drawing Tools
By holding the Alt-key the foreground or background color is read from the active image layer. If the Ctrl-key is pressed additionally, the color will be read from all layers at the mouse position.
Flood Fill
Flood Fill now has two new options.
If "Read Merged" is activated, calculating the filling area will be based on all visible layers and not only on the active image layer.
"Overfill" enlarges the filling area a little bit in order fill gaps which may be caused by antialiasing.
Both functions are mostly useful for comic painters, because they allow them to draw the outlines of their graphic on a different layer than the colored filling.
Dragging of Files
Dragging a file to PhotoLine no longer opens the file as a new document. The behavior now depends on the drop location.
If the file is dragged to a free location, still a new document is created. But if it is dropped on an existing document, a new layer will be created in this document. It is possible to drop an image file on a color field, too, which will create a pattern.
Automatic Adjustment of the Window Size
The adjustment of the window size can now be controlled separately for the document and the picture mode.
In document mode the window should usually have the maximum size, and changing the zoom should only affect its content. But in picture mode the window should fill the available screen space. This behavior is now possible.
Rotation Dialog
The standard angles 90°, 180° and 270° can now be entered quickly by using icons.
Lasso
The lasso is now optionally antialiased.
"Form Lasso"-Dialog
The lasso is now still editable in the document window, even if the dialog "Form Lasso" is on-screen.
Pasting Images
Using the picture mode the size of pasted images will be at most the size of the background layer.
Layer Settings "Text"
The icons are nicer now.
Filter
The filter intensity can now vary from -500% to +500%.
Size of Text Layers
There is now a new function to reduce the size of a text layer to its minimum.
Text Fields
Text fields now allow the input of unicode.
Switch Foreground/Background Color
Switch Foreground/Background Color can now have a shortcut. Additionally it can be recorded as action.
Layer Intensity
Modifying the layer intensity can now be recorded as action.
Browse Window
If a photo was taken by using the flash, this photo will be marked with a yellow star in the browse window.

New Functions in Version 12.00

Digital Photography

New Filter: White Point, Automatic White Point

The two new filters "White Point" and "Automatic White Point" are used to simplify the white balance of digital photos. Both functions can be found in "Filter/Digital Camera". Usually it is sufficient to use "Automatic White Point" which corrects the image without any further input. Extreme image - i.e. the image is completely dominated by a single color - it may be necessary to perform a manual white point correction. This can be done by "White Point".

The following image was made by a digital camera:
imag/rnote/ver12_0.jpg

After a manual white point correction the colors are more natural and the result looks like this:
imag/rnote/ver12_1.jpg

New Filter: Chromatic Aberration

Wrong colors at edges in digital photos ("Chromatic Aberration") can be reduced by the corresponding filter found in "Filter/Digital Camera". Here is an image with a color shift before and after editing:
imag/rnote/ver12_2.png

New Filter: Image Noise

Images, that have been lightened up afterwards, are often noisy. This noise can be reduced by using "Filter/Digital Camera/Image Noise". Color noise and lightness noise can be edited independently. Additionally the edges of an image can be protected, so that the existing structure remains.
imag/rnote/ver12_4.png

New Filter: Color Temperature

"Color Temperature" (Filter/Digital Camera) allows to set or correct the color temperature of an image. On correcting the color temperature of taking the photo has to be entered. PhotoLine will convert the image from this temperature to the color temperature of the working color space. On setting it is the other way round: PhotoLine converts the image using the color temperature of the working color space as the starting point.
A low color temperature simulates the sunny south:
imag/rnote/ver12_6.jpg

On the opposite a high color temperature looks colder:
imag/rnote/ver12_7.jpg

New Filter: Connect Images

"Connect Images" (Filter/Digital Camera) uses the capability of some digital cameras to take several pictures with different exposures at the same time. "Connect Images" can combine two of these photos - usually one with correctly exposed lights and one with correct shadows - to one which will have good lights and shadows.
At the left there is the dark picture with correct lights and at the right there is the bright picture with the correct shadows. imag/rnote/ver12_8.jpg

The result is a combination of both:
imag/rnote/ver12_10.jpg

Next Picture/Previous Picture

"Next Picture" and "Previous Picture" (File/Functions) are a fast and convenient way to switch between all images inside a folder on the hard disk. Especially digital photographers can get a get a quick overview of the existing pictures. If these functions are used regularly, they can be placed in an icon bar.
imag/rnote/ver12_11.png

Common Image Editing

New Color Space: CIE Lab

PhotoLine is now supporting the deviceindependent color space CIE Lab. It allows creating and editing Lab images and Lab colors. Furthermore many filters can filter the separate Lab-channels in other kinds of images, too.
Lab images can have 8 or 16 bits per channel.

New Filter: Picture on Picture

Using "Picture on Picture" documents like the one below can be created very easily. The various options can be optionally edited later, too. For Example the color of the sepia effect can be modified or the sepia effect may be applied to the background layer only.
imag/rnote/ver12_12.png

New Filter: Remove Dust/Scratches

"Remove Dust/Scratches" (Filter/Quality) is used to remove dust or scratches from scanned images.

New Filter: Distort Image with Image

"Distort Image with Image" (Filter/Shape Tools) distorts the content of an image accordingly to the content of another one.

Enhanced Layer Masks

A layer, that is the child of another one, can now explicitly be made a layer mask or be converted back to a normal layer. This an be accomplished by using the menu function "Layer/Layer Mask/Layer Mask" or - faster - by doing an Alt+click on the show field of a layer in the layer dialog.
Layer masks can now be applied to any kind of layer and not only to images.
Every kind of layer can now become a layer mask. This means text layers and vector graphics can now be used, too.
The function "Convert for Previous" (Layer/Layer Mask) simplifies converting an existing layer into a layer mask.

Histogram

Histogram (View/Dialogs) is showing permanently the distribution of the channels in a document. This allows fast finding of the flaws of an image.
imag/rnote/ver12_13.png

Optionally the histogram can be calculated based on the active image layer or based on the complete document.

New Browse Functions

Enhanced Editing Of Keywords

Everyone, who had to assign keywords to many pictures, knows that this can be very time-consuming. Therefore in the new version 12 of PhotoLine the assignment and editing of keywords have been simplified. If the context menu is accessed while pressing the Ctrl-key (Windows) or the Commandkey (Mac OS X), a special keyword context menu is shown:
imag/rnote/ver12_14.png

The function "New Keyword" assigns one or more keywords to the currently selected files. Furthermore it can manage a list of the most important keywords. These keywords will be listed in the keyword context menu allowing fast assignment.
The keywords, which are already contained in the selected files, appear in the context menu with the prefix "Remove" to delete them quickly.

New Search Function

The Browse function now has a very powerful search function:
imag/rnote/ver12_15.png

It allows searching for many criteria like file properties, keywords or EXIF-data. Searching for several criteria at the same time is also possible. Of course the search result can be searched, too.

Minor Enhancements

Using the embedded preview when browsing RAW-files
Optionally using the file icon for PDF- and RAWfiles
If PDF- or RAW-files don't contain an embedded preview image, creating one may last very long. Therefore PDF and RAW allow to use the file icon in the browse window instead.
Optionally no preview for external file formats
Creation of preview images for file formats which can't be imported directly by PhotoLine can be turned off. This feature affects Aldus- und Quicktime-import.

Enhancements in Graphics and Text

Virtual Copies

A virtual copy is not a real copy. It only stores a reference to the source layer which will be drawn instead of the virtual copy. If the content of the source layer is modified, the virtual copy will be changed accordingly.

3D Bodies

The function "3D Body" displays simple layers as 3D bodies. This works with all kind of layers. The layer itself isn't modified and can be edited like before.
imag/rnote/ver12_16.png

Embedding Of Pictures In Text

PhotoLine is now able to directly insert pictures into text. This way the position of pictures doesn't have to be corrected manually every time the formatting of the text changes. After insertion the pictures can be edited like before and can be managed by using the layer dialog.
An example for pictures in text is this document which has been created using PhotoLine. The main text consists of several pages and the pictures are embedded.

Enhanced Paragraph Formatting

PhotoLine is now supporting various now paragraph attributes:

Right edge
The right edge of a paragraph can now be edited by using the dialog Text Settings.
Distance before and after a paragraph
The distance of a paragraph to its predecessor or successor is now adjustable. Alignment by using empty lines is no longer needed.
Page Formatting
The behaviour of paragraphs at the beginning or the end of a page can now be controlled. Furthermore a paragraph can be forced to be on the same page as its successor (i.e. for headlines and the accompanied text), it may be always completely on one page or there always has to be at least two lines of a paragraph on a page.

New Working Layers

In PhotoLine there are 5 new types of working layers: the color balance and the 4 filters "Unsharp Masking", "Gaussian Blur", "Median" and "Perturbation".

Better User Interface

Dockable Dialogs (only Windows)

On Windows every dialog from "View/Dialogs" can now be docked. This means they can be connected to the edge of the main window. By holding a modifier key (Shift, Ctrl) the docking behaviour can be flexibly modified.
Additionally the various list fields - like color list, brush list and so on - are resizable even if docked.

Color Editor Embedded In Color List

The color list now contains a small color editor:
imag/rnote/ver12_19.png

This editor is in the pop-up window, too, that appears when clicking on the list-arrow of a color field. This small editor is especially comfortable for users of a graphic tablet, because accessing it doesn't require a double-click.

Enhanced Color List

The context menu of the color list now contains a list of the recently loaded color files. This way changing between the commonly used color list is simplified. Additionally PhotoLine is can now import more file formats of other applications.

Better List Views

List fields are offering additional view modes now. Aside from "Standard Mode" there are "Large Mode", "Small Text List" and "Large Text List":
imag/rnote/ver12_20.png

Helper Functions

Font Overview (Tool/Text)

PhotoLine can now automatically create an overview of the installed fonts:
imag/rnote/ver12_21.png

A list like that simplifies finding a special font.

Pixel Mode (View)

Even if enlarged Photoline normally renders text and vector graphics in best quality as it would be output to a printer. The pixel mode is different: it shows the result you will get on saving the document as image. It is especially useful for web designers, because this way they can see what their text and vector layers will look like when converted to raster graphics.
imag/rnote/ver12_22.png

Original Size (View)

On using "Original Size" PhotoLine will display the active document in the same size it will have printed on paper.
In order to do this PhotoLine has to know the exact resolution of the used monitor. This resolution can be entered in the options by using "Display/Screen Resolution".
imag/rnote/ver12_23.png

Crop Document (Document)

This functions crops a document, so that invisible parts like transparent space or clipped layers are outside of the document.

New Printing Mode: Pages

For multi-page documents PhotoLine has the new printing mode "Pages". It offers three choices:

Multiple Pages
Using this mode several (2, 4, 8 or 16) pages are printed on one sheet of paper.
Booklet
Two pages are printed on one side of a sheet of paper. The pages are ordered so that they can be used to create a booklet.
Greeting Card
The four first pages of a document are printed on one sheet of paper so that this sheet can be folded to create a greeting card.

Additionally documents now allow printing every page, only the even or only the odd pages.
imag/rnote/ver12_24.png

Minor enhancements

Import Of RAW-Files (1)
The camera white point stored in RAW-files can now be used.
Import Of RAW-Files (2)
The corresponding dialog has been enhanced.
Channels
The layer dialog now allows controlling the visibility and editing of the channels in a document.
Mask Brush
The mask brush is a new tool to edit masks created by using the lasso or the automask.
Edit Vector Points: Invert Direction of Sub Path
The direction of sub paths can now be changed by using the tool settings of "Edit Vector Points".
Hue/Saturation reworked
Hue/Saturation has been reworked completely. It is more flexible now and offers a higher quality.
Light/Shadow reworked
Light/Shadow has been reworked and offers a higher quality now.
Lasso: "Crop Lasso" enhanced
"Crop Lasso" now allows straightening the content of the lasso. This can be used to undo perspective distortions, too.
Rotate Layer with cropping-option
"Rotate Layer" now allows to automatically crop edges created by rotating.
Layer/alignment
"Layer/alignment" now offers more commands.
Brush field
By using the context menu the brush field now accepts layers from the clipboard.
Color Management
Monitor profiles can now be used for printers and proof.
Context menu of the document window
The context menu of the document window now lists every layer at the mouse position in order to order to allow faster and more determinate selection. Only layers are listed, which have a name and are allowed to be edited in the layer dialog.
Edit Vector Points (1)
Selected vector points can be moved by using the arrow keys.
Edit Vector Points (2)
Curves can be edited by clicking and dragging the curve directly.
Curve editor
Selected curve points can be moved by using the arrow keys.
Basic vector shapes
The basic vector shapes can now be drawn directly to an image layer by holding Shift. If "Edit Mask" is activated, holding Ctrl subtracts from the mask, otherwise the vector shape is added.
Text on Path
There is the new alignment "Top Line".

and many more...

What was new in:
Version 11.50
Version 11.00
Version 10.50
Version 9.50