ImageGear for .NET v15

asp:review

ImageGear for .NET v15

Imaging Redefined

By Anand Narayanaswamy

Do you want to create software to process your images? Doyou want to upload your vacation images and view them in various ways using anASP.NET application? If you would like to develop .NET-based applications forthese scenarios, you need powerful class libraries. ImageGear for .NET,developed by AccuSoft, extends the functionalities provided by the defaultnamespaces and classes of the .NET Framework by including more features withminimum effort to access them.

ImageGear for .NET enables you to develop powerful imagingapplications using Windows Forms, ASP.NET Web Forms, and Web Services on both32- and 64-bit platforms. The product allows you to create, control, and deploysecure and high-quality imaging applications with minimum effort using WindowsVista, Visual Studio 2005, .NET Compact Framework, and .NET Framework 3.0. Youwill be able to develop applications to manipulate images according to your ownrequirements by making use of the controls and namespaces that ship with theproduct.

A fully functional trial version of the product can bedownloaded from the AccuSoft Web site (http://www.accusoft.com/support/s_login.aspx?link=downloads)after registration. Unlike other products, ImageGear .NET is packaged as aSoftware Development Kit (SDK), similar to the .NET Framework SDK. Once theinstallation process is completed you need to learn the functions of variousnamespaces and their associated classes in order to work with the product.

I managed to easily work with the product by following thestep-by-step instructions provided in the documentation. The backbone of theproduct is highly code intensive, and developers should be prepared to writemany lines of code to achieve the desired results for complex applications.However, the product is designed in such a way to achieve the desired resultswith minimum effort.

The core feature of the product is that it providessupport for all major formats, such as BMP, PNG, EPS, PSD, CAD/Vector, JPX,JP2, PDF, GIF, and TIFF. The vendor provides a detailed list of all thesupported file formats at http://www.accusoft.com/products/imagegear/file_formats_net.asp.The product includes support for advanced PDF annotation, OCR/ICR/OMR/barcoderecognition, and TWAIN scanning. Moreover, the product enhances the imagesusing such advanced features as color reduction, promotion, and dithering. Inaddition to the above features, the product provides support for ICC ColorProfiles, fast color anti-aliasing, and resampling and ImageClean processing.

You can even use Microsoft s Windows Media Photo format toproduce high-quality still images. Because the product supports Windows Vista,you can develop applications using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)component files to produce cutting-edge user interfaces. With the help of thisfeature, it is possible to load images from a specific directory into yourapplication to create thumbnails, then magnify each one of them to view theenlarged image. I would like to see support for Microsoft Silverlight in thenext version of the product.

I found that ImageGear for .NET works without causingexcessive CPU usage; hence, it is ideal for hosting ASP.NET applications in ashared server. With the help of the product, you can include pseudo-coloringfunctionality in your applications. This will enable you to transform thestandard 12-bit grayscale image into a color image, allowing all the detail ofthe image to be visible, which I hope will be highly useful for medicalprofessionals. The product also supports advanced technologies, such as 3D and multi-planarreconstruction technologies.

An interesting feature of the product is that it providesthree rendering methods: Windows GDI, OpenGL, and Direct3D for flexiblerendering of vector/CAD drawings. With the help of ImageGear for .NET you caneasily create thumbnails of images. You ll also be able to perform zoomingwithin an image. You can also rotate images by an arbitrary angle usingbilinear or bicubic interpolation methods and build applications using thelatest Adobe PDF Library v7.07 through a native .NET PDF wrapper. AccuSoftprovides rapid support through e-mail and hosts an online resource centerconsisting of live samples, code snippets, and a discussion board at http://www.accusoft.com/resourcecenter.

ImageGear for .NET provides support for high-resolutiondigital camera RAW and AutoCAD 2007 file formats. It also supports frequencydomain image processing algorithms such as fast Fourier transforms,convolution, discrete cosine, and sine transformations. AccuSoft provides acomprehensive list of all the important features at http://www.accusoft.com/products/imagegear/ignet/overview.asp.

I must say that the documentation supplied with theproduct is very exhaustive and pinpoints each and every feature of the productin detail, with a detailed API reference.

AccuSoft has included samples for various types ofapplications, such as Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and WPF, which I believe willsurely reduce the learning curve associated with the product. You can directlywork with these samples from the Start menu. AccuSoft has fully integrated theSDK with Visual Studio 2005 and provides a deployment wizard, with which developerscan easily create the relevant executable file of the final output byintegrating all the required libraries. I hope they will provide fullintegration for Visual Studio 2008 in the next version.

From my point of view, ImageGear for .NET will be highlyuseful for advanced .NET developers to implement powerful imagingfunctionalities into their products.

Anand Narayanaswamy, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional(MVP), works as an independent consultant and runs NetAns Technologies (http://www.netans.com),which provides Web hosting services based in Trivandrum, India. Anand also worksas chief technical editor for http://ASPAlliance.com.Anand is the author of Community Server Quicklypublished by Packt Publishing (http://www.packtpub.com/community-server/book).He runs http://Learnxpress.com, http://Dotnetalbum.com, and http://Csharpfaq.com. Find out more about himat http://www.visualanand.net ore-mail him at mailto:[email protected].

Rating:

Web Site: http://www.accusoft.com

Price: Startsat US$3,995