Introduction

Author: Ulrich von Zadow
Stettiner Straße 39
D-13357 Berlin
Germany
email: uzadow@cs.tu-berlin.de.

This is library version 1.32, 11/21/98. The newest version of paintlib can be found via http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~uzadow/paintlib/index.html.

Copyright © 1996-1998, Ulrich von Zadow.
Use of this software is restricted. See the copyright page for details.
Trademarks used are the property of their owners.


paintlib is a C++ class library for image file decoding and manipulation. It currently supports the PNG, TGA, TIFF, JPEG/JFIF, Windows BMP, and Mac PICT formats as well as EPS previews. The PNG, TIFF and JPEG decoders are based on libpng, libtiff and libjpeg, respectively. Data source and destination formats can be tailored as necessary. Additionally, format-independent but fast bitmap manipulation classes are available.

Although there are a few Windows-specific functions, the library is portable. Makefiles are included for Microsoft Visual C++ (Win32) and GNU C++ (DOS and SunOS). Prerequisite is a C++-compiler with standard C libraries and support for exception handling. The library also requires support for 32-bit memory addressing.

paintlib is copyrighted free software. For details, see the copyright page. In a nutshell: You may use paintlib in any way you wish, providing you preserve the copyright if you redistribute any source. I welcome feedback. If you're using the library, send me a mail :-). If you can't get something to work, send me a mail and I'll try to help.

The core features of this library have been tested extensively and used in production code since october 1996, and version 1.0 was released to the public in february 1997. While there still is (and always will be) a long list of missing features, the core library is stable.

Andreas Köpf added the "Load from resource" feature for version 1.2. Gilles Vollant helped with the PNG support for version 1.3. EPS preview support was added by Roger Willcocks. Bernard Delmée added true 8-bit tiff support and the piclook sample, and lots of other people have contributed with bugfixes and ideas. Martin Skinner did some much-needed beta testing. Thanks, everyone.

I'd like to thank Twosuns GmbH, Boxhagenerstr. 18, D-10245 Berlin, for making this project possible.