Image Eye: All versions - Software Informer

v9.1 [Nov 1, 2015]
Image Eye and the underlying ieC library are now both Open Source under the GPL v3 license and available on GITHub.
The window "glass" effect is now working on Windows 8/10 (for index windows and for viewer windows when the image has alpha or transparency and "Translucent background" enabled).
Added a new "Auto-background color" viewer option. When enabled, it tries to compute a pleasant background color by examining the image. It's used for the letter-box borders in full screen mode and as background to transparent images (in windowed mode only if "Translucent background" is disabled). NB; if a background color is available as meta data (PNG and GIF files), then that has priority. If the auto-option is disabled, the selected "Window background color" is always used.
40% faster JPEG decoding (thanx to Huffman look-up tables, SIMD-optimized YCbCr color conversion and using a secondary thread for IDCT, upsampling and YCbCr→RGB).
Added support for .JPEG's using Arithmetic-encoding (this gives 5-10% smaller files with an identical image compared to the normal Huffman-encoding - but alas it is not very widely supported since this optional part of the JPEG spec was covered by a patent until recently).
Added support for .LBM images using the old Amiga modes HAM8, HAM6 and Half-Brite.
Added supported for APNG - Animated PNG's (.PNG or .APNG).
Reduced the flickering of the cursor when switching between images.
Added a "Sort files alphabetically" option to the "Create Slideshow" dialog.
Fixed several issues with animated .GIF's.
Faster sorting and better handling of folders with many files in index mode.
Many fixes and minor improvements.

v9.0 [Nov 19, 2013]
Main improvements:
- Now available as both an x86 (32-bit) version and a brand new x64 (64-bit) version. The x64 version is a bit faster – e.g. ~10% faster JPEG decoding.
- Added true support for "deep color" images (16 bits/color component). Earlier versions would read such files too, but threw away the lower 8 bits. Color adjustments, image resizing et c are now done at the full data precision.
- Added support for "HDR" images (high dynamic range images with than 32-bit floating point/color component). Image processing operations are done at full precision here too.
- High quality dithering is used when displaying deep color and HDR images. Neither Windows, nor most displays support more 32-bit display modes (8 bits/color component), which most apps solve by truncating higher bit depth data. This can cause ugly "banding" artifacts in smooth gradients. Adding the dithering takes a fair bit of CPU-power but can greatly improve the perceived image quality.
More improvements:
- If you open multiple Image Eye windows, they will now all run in the same process. This makes new windows open faster and conserves memory. The image caching and preloading system also works more effectively and use less total memory. (One drawback though; if one file hangs it, then they all go down...)
- You can now zoom in on an image until it reaches the maximum size that Windows will allow for a bitmap (typically 2GB RAM / ~512 Megapixels for the x64 version). The cursor will temporarily change to a stop sign when you hit the limit.
- Dithering is also used for superior display in 15/16-bit display modes (5 bits/color component).
- Added a View->Freeze window option to the index window. If you set it, the index window will not resize to fit the icons if you browse to a different folder. Also, if you close it, then open a new index window, it'll remember the size and position from last time.
Image decoding progress is now shown in the Windows task-bar (Windows Vista/7/8 only).
- Added support for the Radiance RGBE HDR image format (.HDR/.PIC/.IMG).
- Added support for .TIFF's and .PSD's with floating point HDR data.
- Added support for .TIFF's with SGI RLE compressed LogLuv and LogL-format HDR data.
- Added a "Slideshow->Slideshow" command (short key: S). It creates a slideshow script and runs it without further ado (bypassing the "Create slideshow script" dialog, but using your last used setting).
- Added a Chinese translation.
- Added SSE4.1 instruction support.
- Built with our new ieC v2.0 library ("Image Engine in C ").

v8.0 [Aug 30, 2010]
General improvements:
-Image Eye is now "donationware" for non-commercial use. This is a type of freeware. There's no fee to use it, no nag boxes, no advertising, no time limit, no reg-codes, and no crippled features. However we do make this plea, that if you like it and use it, you can/should to make a voluntary donation - both as a "thank you", and to support the continued development of Image Eye.
-Added parallel processing support for several operations - boosting performance considerably when running on modern multi-core CPU's.
-Unicode text is now supported - both for file names and for translations of the user interface.
-Added support for "keyword" text meta data.
-Added support for several types of EXIF-format camera meta data: Manufacturer, Model, Exposure time, F-Number, ISO speed rating, Shutter speed, Aperture, Exposure bias, Flash, Focal length, Exposure mode, White balance.
-Added support for Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform ("XMP") text meta data with the following file types: .JPEG/.JPG, .PNG, .GIF, .PSD, .TIFF.
-The program now supports the Windows Vista / 7 "Default programs" and "Open with" features (this replaces the deprecated "file types" tab in the options).
-The program settings will now be remembered (stored in the Windows registry) *only-if the program has been installed using Setup.exe. I.e. if you run Image Eye.exe on a machine where it has not been installed, then it wont leave any traces on that system. This can be usefull if e.g. running it on a borrowed computer.
-Several additional performance enhancements through rewrites & code optimizations, e.g. ~10% faster JPEG decoder.
Viewer improvements:
-The background is now translucent (with "glass effect") when viewing transparent images, or if you make the viewer window larger than the image (NB, this can be turned off in the viewer options, and it is automatically disabled in fullscreen mode; furthermore, it's not availabe in Windows XP, and neither is it when viewing 1..8-bit non-transparent images).
-When the viewer window is not captioned, any images with transparency will now have a transparent background, i.e. they'll be "look through" (when the window is captioned, it gets the translucent background).
-File directories are now parsed by a background thread that caches the file names in memory. This makes the "Next / Previous image" commands much faster when there's very many files in a directory, or when working e.g. with network drives.
-Multi-core (parallel processing) support for very much faster resampling (scaling) of large images.
-Additional image resampling speed improvements through various tricks and code improvements, e.g. better cache usage & a bit of data prefetching, data dependency optimizations, and new SSSE3 instruction code paths (if your CPU supports it).
-Multi-core (parallel processing) support for faster image adjustments (color, contrast, sharpness et c).
-The image adjustment 'Sharpness' control now has a separate (considerably faster) code path for grayscale images.
-Improved the file open dialog:
- It is now resizeable, i.e. you can enlarge it in order to more easily browse among many files.
- The "recent" (paths) list now looks better.
- The right-hand preview pane has been replaced with a smaller preview image below the file list.
- File information is shown next to the preview image (file type, resolution, comments - if any).
- As an alternative to the "View" button, you can click on the preview image to open it.
-Added support for displaying up to three overlay texts of various kinds (e.g. comment meta data - c.f. the viewer options).
NB; these are show only when the viewer window is captioned (i.e. when you move the mouse over it).
-The "Next / Previous image file" commands will now also show images from file links.
-Improved compatibility with Windows 7 and Vista.
Index improvements:
-Multi-core support for parallell decoding of multiple thumbnail images.
-For a more modern look, the image icons are now drawn with a simple black border, replacing the 'button' style. It now also high-lights when you move the mouse over an icon.
-Added support for a translucent background ("glass effect" - NB; not available in Windows XP).
-You can now navigate using the keyboard (cursor keys move focus, enter viewes, context key shows menu).
-You can now select multiple icons by holding down control or shift while clicking with the mouse (or using the enter key), then right click to do a copy/move/delete on all the selected files.
-Added an option to show image comments. (Note: if you are using index cache files created by an earlier version of Image Eye, then you need to delete the cache before you see any comments).
-Smarter automatic window sizing.
-You can now double-click (on the background, not on an icon) to a maximize or restore the window. Also, the mouse "browse back" button now navigates to the parent directory.
-An option named "Icon size stored in cache overrides selected icon size" replaces the earlier per-directory "Save options in cache file" option.
-Link files now also get image icons, and can be opened the same as other files.
Axed features:
-Dropped support for older Windows versions - minimum required OS version is now Windows XP with SP3.
-Dropped printing support (there are better ways to print, with more layout control).
-Dropped some seldom used file formats (.FIF, .JP2/.JPC, .MAC, .NEO, .PIC, .PBM/.PGM/.PNM/.PPM, .PXR, .RAS). NB: these can still be read & converted using our Any Image software.
-Dropped MMX instruction support (MMX was superceeded by SSE2 with the Pentium 4 and later).
The axing of these features served to reduce the executable size by ~100KB (a saving which unfortunately was eaten up by the size of the new multi-core run-time).