From alchemyreply8750 at mindworkshop.com Sat Oct 27 10:50:21 2018 From: alchemyreply8750 at mindworkshop.com (alchemyreply8750 at mindworkshop.com) Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2018 10:50:21 -0400 Subject: [Newsletter] Announcements from Alchemy Mindworks Message-ID: <9430aff7-d161-bf3d-e74e-32b87ebd6a13@mindworkshop.com> Click here to UNSUBSCRIBE . ( http://mindworkshop.com/mailman/options/newsletter ) Contents: 1. *Announcing GIF Construction Set Professional 9 * 2. *Graphic Workshop Professional 9 *Revision 2**(second notification)* * 3. *?Alpha Paint + Icon Editor*Revision 2 (second notification) 4. ***Graphic Workshop HTML In-line Graphics Plugin***(second notification)** 5. **Replying to this Message, List Removal and Details *Not all parasitic, blood-sucking carnivorous reptiles work for the government.* * Click on the book. * ** Announcing GIF Construction Set Professional 9 GIF Construction Set Professional 9 has been released. We've further refined its architecture to make it more memory-efficient, and to better utilize the resources available under Windows 10. (We hasten to add that it still performs admirably under earlier builds of Windows, all the way back to Windows XP, if you're feeling retro.) Among the new features and enhancements to GIF Construction Set Professional 9, you'll find that it: * Exports GIF animations as *in-line graphics*. This allows animations to be embedded directly in the HTML files of web pages, rather than referenced as discrete GIF files. Pages so constructed load faster, and are pretty much impervious to finding that their animations have become lost or damaged. * Updates all the image import libraries to improve their performance and to deal with more weird-beard PNG and JPG files. They're out there, lurking... * Adds a window to build animated *throbbers* ? examples of which are shown here. Additional styles are available in the Throbbers window. Throbbers are the graphics that indicate there will be a brief delay before something happens. We hasten to add that we didn't make up that name. * Improves the logic for the application status bar so GIF Construction Set doesn't go into vapor lock during long processes. * Adjusts the *memory footprint* of GIF Construction Set. This allows it to better get along with Windows' memory management logic, load a bit quicker and run more effectively and reliably, especially if it finds itself on a system that's a bit short of memory. * Enhances the sneakiness of the *validation logic* to further reduce the likelihood of GIF Construction Set un-registering itself and thereafter deciding that its key is already in use because Windows 10 has silently updated something. Hopefully this one nails the problem until the end of time. * Improves the color management in Animation Wizard and Combine. It's a ceaseless quest... * Improves the general level of aggressiveness in the Supercompressor. * Fixes a bug that prevented several of the plugins from accessing the multi-color gradient library. * Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that software developers never really stop meddling with. * Updates the documentation. Upgrades If you have registered or upgraded a registration for GIF Construction Set Professional 8 on or after April 1, 2018, you're welcome to a *no-cost upgrade* to GIF Construction Set Professional 9. If you have registered or upgraded a registration for GIF Construction Set Professional 8 prior to April 1, 2018, we invite you to upgrade to GIF Construction Set Professional 9 for *half the current new-user price*. The first time you run GIF Construction Set Professional 9, it will determine which upgrade option applies to your license. Click on the blue button below to visit the upgrade page. You can access the no-cost upgrade page directly by clicking on the foregoing link. Plugins All the animation plugins for GIF Construction Set Professional have been upgraded to run with GIF Construction Set Professional 9. If you have registered one or more plugins for a previous release of GIF Construction Set, your existing registration keys are still valid. You'll just need to download the version 8 installers for your plugins. All the animation plugins are at: * * *IMPORTANT:* If you have plugins installed under GIF Construction Set 8 or PNG MNG Construction Set 8 and you plan to uninstall GIF Construction Set 8 or PNG MNG Construction Set 8 to replace them with the new version 9 software, please be sure uninstall all your version 8 plugins, and then uninstall GIF Construction Set 8 and PNG MNG Construction Set 8. GIF Construction Set 9 will offer to automatically remove your old plugins for you the first time it runs - go for it, as this will save you lots of clicking later on. We've also created a quick way to reinstall your plugins once you've downloaded the version 8 installers. Please see the the plugin help page for assistance. Graphic Workshop Professional 9 Revision 2 (second notification) This release addresses a number of minor issues that crept into the initial Graphic Workshop Professional 9. We recommend that all users of Graphic Workshop Professional 9 update to this release. Among other things, it: * Fixes a bug in the plugin interface that caused alpha-channel graphics to read incorrectly. This would prevent the In-line Graphics Plugin, elsewhere in this posting, from working properly with transparent images. * Fixes a bug in the Icon Editor toolbox that could cause its buttons not to display correctly under some builds of Windows. * Addresses several further issues in the gradient window and the multi-color gradient control that appears in various places around Graphic Workshop and its ancillary applications. * Adjusts the memory footprint of Graphic Workshop and its ancillary applications... or footprints... or feetprint... This allows all these applications to better get along with Windows' memory management logic, load a bit quicker and run more effectively and reliably, especially if they find themselves on a system that's a bit short of memory. * Addresses some performance issues in the new Print windows. __________________________________________________________ *From The Initial Posting* Graphic Workshop Professional 9 has been released. We've further refined its architecture to make it more memory-efficient, and to better utilize the resources available under Windows 10. (We hasten to add that it still performs admirably under earlier builds of Windows, all the way back to Windows XP, if you're feeling retro.) Among the new features and enhancements to Graphic Workshop Professional 9, you'll find that it: * Adds a *Print Photographs* function. Print your pictures two, four, nine or sixteen to a page in eye-watering high resolution ? with margins and cut lines to trim them out so they look like traditional paper photos. Load your color printer with glossy paper to complete the effect. Sharing a stack of paper photographs with your friends and family is /way/ less scary than handing around an $800-dollar smartphone. * Adds a *Print Posters* function. Have your best photographs ? or any other graphics you like look of ? printed over multiple pages. Cut along the included guides, stick the resulting tiles together and you can create posters of pretty much any size you like... at least until you run out of paper and sticky tape. * Adds a *Print Cube* function. Yes, we did a lot with printers this time. Select six pictures and Graphic Workshop will print them such that they can be cut out and folded into a three-dimensional photo-cube, complete with glue tabs. Assembling one of these things entails about five minutes of arts and crafts, but they look really cool. * Adds a *Print Dodecahedron* function. Contrary to that which is believed in some circles, a dodecahedron is twelve-sided three-dimensional solid, not an experimental particle accelerator in Switzerland powered by extinct flightless birds. Select twelve photographs and Graphic Workshop will print them out such that they can be cut and folded into a twelve-sided desk ornament / yuletide tree decoration / reduced attention-span cat toy. In fairness, this one takes a few minutes longer to assemble than the aforementioned photo-cube, but it's cooler still. * Adds *Icon Editor* UltraLight. A simplified version of the Windows icon editor feature of our Alpha Paint application, Icon Editor UltraLight will create and modify icons with full alpha transparency, and a rich selection of tools. Enhance your Windows desktop with your own icons, build favicons for your web page and generally own the universe... or at least, its clickable shortcuts. * Enhances the copyright of your photography ? adds the option of *watermarking* your photographs with *graphics* as well as text through the batch mode and View window Watermark functions. The graphic watermark functionality supports alpha transparency, so you can arrange for fancy text and logos, translucent watermarks and innumerable other effects. * Adds a prompt to the *View* window to alert you to *unsaved changes* made through the Filters function... so you don't right-click your flawlessly-refined pictures into oblivion by mistake. Note that this prompt can be disabled through the View mode Configuration window if you prefer to live dangerously. * Renames the *Picture* menu in the View and Crop windows to *File*, for those of us with fingers that naturally Alt-F S and Alt-F A to Save and Save As. * Adds a *Pipes texture* to the Textures and Fractals window. Pipes generates intricate, complex tangles of industrial plumbing with a variety of color and style options. The resulting graphics are wholly tile-able ? they can be used as Windows wallpaper, web page backgrounds and other repeating media. While we'd be the first to agree that it would take cleverer minds than ours to find a genuinely practical use for Pipes, this is easily one of the most diverting features we've added to Graphic Workshop in years. * Improves the *File Open* window that appears in Montage UltraLight, among others, to display pictures with alpha transparency correctly in its preview pane. * Adds more color options to the *Channels* filter in the View mode Filters window. * Fixes a memory leak in the View mode*Undo*. * Fixes a bug in the*multiple-color gradient selector* that appears at various places around Graphic Workshop itself and its ancillary applications, such as Montage UltraLight. This was a particularly insidious little menace, which could crash its parent application if the Manage Library window were opened, under some builds of Windows. * Enhances the sneakiness of the *validation logic* to further reduce the likelihood of Graphic Workshop un-registering itself and thereafter deciding that its key is already in use because Windows 10 has silently updated something. Hopefully this one nails the problem until the end of time. * Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that software developers never really stop meddling with. * Updates the documentation. The *Graphic Workshop**Printed Reference* has been revised for the version9 software, and it includes sections for all the new functionality. It's available through Amazon -- there's a link to it at the Graphic Workshop web page, and you can access it through the Get The Graphic Workshop Printed Reference item of Graphic Workshop's Help menu. All the *Graphic Workshop plugins* have been upgraded to install in the version 9 software. Note that if you're currently using an earlier version of Graphic Workshop and its attendant plugins: * Be sure to uninstall the version 8 plugins before you install Graphic Workshop Professional 9. Failing this, Graphic Workshop Professional 9 should prompt you to do so automatically the first time you run it. * You'll need to download and install the new plugin installers to run under Graphic Workshop Professional 9. If you're using a registered copy of the Graphic Workshop RAW Digital Camera and Smartphone plugin for an earlier release of Graphic Workshop, note that your existing registration key will work with the version 9 plugin ? you won't have to buy it again. As in years past, when you run Graphic Workshop Professional 9 for the first time, it will look for a previous installation of Graphic Workshop Professional 8 and optionally *copy your existing configuration*, so you won't have to set everything up by hand. Even your open browser windows will be preserved. Click on the blue button to download Graphic Workshop Professional 9. Upgrades If you have registered or upgraded a registration for Graphic Workshop Professional 8 on or after April 1, 2018, you're welcome to a *no-cost upgrade* to Graphic Workshop Professional 9. If you have registered or upgraded a registration for Graphic Workshop Professional 8 prior to April 1, 2018, we invite you to upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional 9 for *half the current new-user price*. The first time you run Graphic Workshop Professional 9, it will determine which upgrade option applies to your license. Click on the blue button below to visit the upgrade page. You can access the no-cost upgrade page directly by clicking on the foregoing link. Alpha Paint + Icon Editor Revision 3 (second notification) This release addresses a number of issues in the initial version, including: * Fixes several problems with the Gradient window. * Fixes a bug in the toolbox that could cause its buttons not to display correctly under some builds of Windows. * Adjusts the memory footprint of Alpha Paint. This allows it to better get along with Windows' memory management logic, load a bit quicker and run more effectively and reliably, especially if they find themselves on a system that's a bit short of memory. * ... and several further nettlesome concerns. __________________________________________________________ *From the first release posting:* Alpha Paint is a sophisticated Windows paint application to draw and manage graphics with full alpha transparency. It will create: * Professional web page images * Eye-catching effects for social media * Killer graphics for PowerPoint presentations * Titles for videos ...and pretty much anything else that requires leading-edge art and transparency. In addition, it can create and edit Windows icons. Alpha Paint is intuitive, easy to use and it won't require that you get involved with complicated mathematics, higher-order spatial dimensions or a manual that requires more than one human lifetime to read. Anyone with sufficient eye-hand coordination to successfully operate a web browser should be able to master Alpha Paint in under an hour. We invite you to download an evaluation copy of Alpha Paint and try it out. Click on the huge blue button. If you'd like to share your experience with Alpha Paint, or if you have any suggestions or you encounter a problem with the initial release, please click on this next huge blue button. Announcing the Graphic Workshop HTML In-line Graphics Plugin (second notification) If you build web pages, you'll want this one... The HTML In-line Graphics Plugin will encode conventional graphics, such as PNG and JPG files, so they can be included within the text of HTML documents. Handled this way, web pages load quicker, and they can't lose their graphics because said graphics are part of the HTML text. We hasten to add that this feature, while seriously obscure, is supported by all the current web browsers. It's just not very widely known. The In-line Graphics Plugin is available at no cost to registered users of Graphic Workshop Professional 9. Note that the Help that accompanies the In-line Graphics Plugin includes complete instructions for creating inline graphics and adding them to your web page. Click on the huge blue button below to download theIn-line Graphics Plugin. Replying to this Message, List Removal and Details This message has been sent from an unmonitored address - please do not reply to it. To remove your address from this mailing list or to change your address, please visit our web page at http://www.mindworkshop.com/update-list.html or click on the Unsubscribe button: Removal requests will be processed instantly. If you have questions about this list or any Alchemy Mindworks products, please contact us at http://www.mindworkshop.com/email-alchemy.html or click on the button below: You can also contact us by telephone at (705) 789-5238, and by snail-mail at Alchemy Mindworks, L10 C8 Brunel, Huntsville, ON P1H 2J3, CANADA. If you don't see any graphics in this message, your mail reader is probably blocking them. Please visit: http://blog.mindworkshop.com/alchemy-mindworks/graphics-in-update-list/ for assistance with resolving this issue. Follow us on: Copyright (c) 1998 - 2018 Alchemy Mindworks. All rights reserved. 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