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From: "Floris van den Berg" <flvdberg@wxs.nl>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.programming,alt.games.programming,comp.graphics.algorithms,comp.lang.python,comp.programming,nl.comp.programmeren
Subject: [ANNOUNCE] FreeImage 2.0.0 out!
To: python-list@python.org
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 15:02:05 +0100

Hi there,

Via this post we want to announce the new version of FreeImage (2.0.0).
Attached below is the FreeImage FAQ, which will provide all the info you
need to use this poweful c++ library for Windows.

FreeImage can be downloaded from: http://home.wxs.nl/~flvdberg
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

01) WHAT IS FREEIMAGE
--------------------
FreeImage is an Open Source project, initiated by Floris van den Berg, for
developers who would like to support popular graphics image formats like
BMP, JPEG, TIFF and PCX and others as needed by today's multimedia
applications in their C++ applications for Windows.

Key points in the design of FreeImage are:
- Ease of use; FreeImage's functions are easy to learn.
- Fast; the FreeImage functions are as optimized as possible.
- Multithreading safe; FreeImage works both in single- and multithreaded
programs and works together with all kinds of additional libraries.
- Compatible with all 32-bit versions of Windows, including Windows 2000.

Formats supported:
BMP, ICO, JPEG/JIF, KOALA, Kodak PhotoCD, PCX, PNG, PNM, TARGA, TIFF and
WBMP

FreeImage is seperated into three groups of functions:
* Load functions (FI_LoadXXX); Loads a certain bitmap type into memory.
* Info functions; Retrieves information from a loaded bitmap. Possible
information includes image size, bit depth and palette information.
* Conversion functions; converts a bitmap to another bitdepth

02) WHO IS FREEIMAGE FOR?
-------------------------
FreeImage is designed for multimedia specialists (users of C++, Python or
Magenta II) working on Windows or Linux. FreeImage doesn't work on any other
platform than Windows or Linux at this moment. Support for other platforms
is considered.

FreeImage only compiles under Microsoft Visual C++ 6. If you want to use
FreeImage with any other compiler, you will have to download the sourcecode
and modify it so that it works with this new compiler. FreeImage ships with
project-files for MSVC6.

03) LICENSING FREEIMAGE
-----------------------
FreeImage is free to the public and ships with full source code. The source
is protected by law though. This means you have to agree to the license
agreement before you use FreeImage. You can find a copy of the license
agreement on http://home.wxs.nl/~flvdberg

04) BECOMING A DEVELOPMENT TEAM MEMBER
--------------------------------------
I am currently looking for experienced graphics programmers who can help to
further design and develop FreeImage. The idea is to create a dedicated team
of developers who want to spend some free time writing bitmap loaders for
new
graphic formats and enhance already working routines. Communication will go
using e-mail (freeimage@wxs.nl) and the web.

The following things need to be done design wise:
- look into a way to generate seperate targets for the same source, hence
merging the DLL and static library versions of FreeImage code-wise. - design
a system to modify FreeImage's internal image format, for easy porting.
- design a resource script loader, so that bitmaps can be easily appended
to a Windows EXE file

The following things need to be done development wise:
- add more graphic formats
- add more image effects (for the upcoming library FreeEffects)
- enhance existing image effects, particulary 16 bit alpha blending

If you can do one or more of the above things, or maybe something completely
different we didn't think about yet, you can be a valuable - and highly
appreciated - member of the FreeImage Development Team!

05) CONTACT
-----------
My e-mail address is: freeimage@wxs.nl




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