From time to time we post maintenance releases to address problems that come to our attention or to add minor features. If you already own Picture Window 4.0 or Picture Window Pro 4.0, to obtain the latest maintenance version simply download and install the latest files from the Downloads section of our web site and your previous version will be updated to the latest version. Your original serial number will continue to work with the new version. To tell what version of Picture Window you currently have, use the Help/About Picture Window command from the main menu.
28-Nov-2007 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.12
Raw Update: Updates PWRaw.dll to include recently introduced digital cameras.
New Measurement Functionality in the Arrow Tool: The Arrow tool can now be used to measure lengths and angles of features in an image.
EXIF Comments: Fixes a problem in EXIF create dates set by Leica cameras. These dates are now interpeted correctly.
Text Transformation: Fixes a problem causing the text in the text transformation to translate periods and ellipses to pathname variables. Periods and ellipses are now rendered as is.
2-Aug-2007 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.11
Raw Update: Updates PWRaw.dll to include recently introduced digital cameras.
Support for V4 Color Profiles: Adds support for Version 4 ICC Color Profiles.
LCMS Update: Updated to the latest version (1.17) of the LCMS color management engine.
Text Transformation: Fixes a problem causing the text in the text transformation to be limited to about 200 characters. The limit is now 8000 characters.
Transformation Entry Delay: The keyboard entry delay in transformations before the preview image is automatically refreshed has been made uniform; some short delays have been lengthened to give more time for keyboard entry.
2-May-2007 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.10
Tiff LZW Compression: Added a lossless LZW compression option to TIFF File/Save. The option applies to both 8 and 16 bit images. In addition, 16 bit images can be saved with one or more least-significant bits set to zero. This improves compression ratios and does not compromise image quality in cases where these bits do not hold information. Also Picture Window now supports some LZW compressed files which formally returned read errors.
Save File Widget: Added the TIFF compression options to the Save Fie widget.
Album Widget: Added an option to link the album to files saved earlier in the workfow. This feature allows greater flexibility in the types of files that can be placed into the album. Previously the files were restricted to jpeg files only.
Composition Guides: Added composition guides to the Crop transformation. Guides projecting diagonals, classical golden ratio, thirds, and others can now be displayed within the crop rectangle, aiding composition.
Raw Update: Updated PWRaw.dll to include recently introduced digital cameras.
22-March-2007 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.9
Change Color Profile Widget: Fixed a problem with some settings not being properly transmitted to the workflow.
Change Color Profile Transformation: Added a 'sticky settings' feature. When the transformation is opened, all settings except the output profile are now set as they were when the transformation was last used and the output profile is set to the input profile.
Edge Transformation: Fixed bug when the Sobel/Lighten/HSV options were chosen.
Raw Update: Updated PWRaw.dll to include recently introduced digital cameras.
Color Negative Transformation: Fixed a problem in slider display when the transformation window was resized.
17-February-2007 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.8
HTML Help: The help system has been updated to use HTML help rather than the older Winhelp. This change makes Picture Window compatible with Microsoft's new Vista version of Windows. HTML Help has better search and navigation features, so the change will benefit all users, regardless of the Windows version they are using.
Updated LCMS Engine: Updated Picture Window Pro to the latest version of the LCMS color management engine, version 1.16.
Raw Update: Updated PWRaw.dll to include digital cameras introduced in the last several months.
Relative path problem in Album: Fixed a problem in Album wherein moving an Album file and its images to a different folder broke the links to the images. The album now attempts to treat links as relative links and then as absolute links. This allows albums to stay intact when albums and images are moved to a new folder, as long as the relative paths remain unchanged.
File Reading Bug: Attempting to display EXIF data or rotating an image in browse during a file read operation could cause Picture Window to hang. Menu items for these operations are now greyed out during a file read operation to prevent the conflict from arising.
26-November-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.7
Text Widget Improvements: Text in the text widget is now restored when a saved workflow is loaded. Fonts are now saved by name, to make workflows more shareable between different computers. (If a font is not available in the environment when a workflow is loaded, the font is set to Arial.)
Epson Raw File Support Added: Epson .erf raw files are now supported.
Delete Folder Command Added: Folders displayed in the browser can now be deleted from the browser window. The command requires confirmation to guard against inadvertent deletion.
Browse Window Focus Problem: There were cases when the browse window would retain focus even when the cursor was in an overlapping window. This problem has been fixed.
Grid in Preview Window Problem: There was a problem displaying a grid in the preview window. This problem has been fixed. The grid is displayed using XOR, just as in the main window, so the grid stands out regardless of the colors in the image.
Color Curves Widget Problem: The Color Curves widget did not work properly when Preferences 'Remember Settings' was set to No. This problem has been fixed.
Count Display Problem: The image count display in the Workflow window was cutoff under certain circumstances. This problem has been fixed.
25-September-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.6
Text Widget Added: This widget lets you add captions, copyrights and other text to your images. In addition to all the features of the Text transformation, it has scaling and positioning features that allows it to place the text intelligently, even when a workflow contains images of different sizes and orientations. It also has a macro feature (see below) for specifying filenames, dates, and exposure parameters. (See Batch Processing in Picture Window.)
Tint Widget Added: This widget brings all the features of the Tint transformation to workflows.
Macros Added to Slide Show and Text Transformation: Macro expressions can now be used to insert dates, filenames, and camera and exposure information.
Sony A-100 Support Added: A profile is also available for this camera.
Grid Display Improved: The Windows/Grid display has been improved. Previously the grid was drawn using black lines, making them hard to distinguish in dark image areas. The grid is now drawn by inverting image pixels, making it visible regardless of image content.
Choice of Origins Added to Readout Tool: The Readout tool now lets the user to set the location of the origin to either the lower eft or the upper left corner of the image. The choice is made using the Options menu.
Save File Widget Numbering Improved: The Save File widget can optionally add a sequence number to image names. Previously the number used a maximum of two leading zeros, limiting the number of images that could be properly sorted to 1000. The user can now insert an additional leading zero, raising the number of images that can be sorted to 10,000.
Raw Thumbnail Display Improved: Raw thumbnails are now displayed in their correct orientation when the camera provides orientation information.
Acquire profile problem fixed: Added the 'Ask on profile mismatch' option to Acquire.
Spurious Files on Clipboard problem fixed: In some cases earlier versions of Picture Window would attempt to open old clipboard content when a user double-clicked on an image file in Windows Explorer or sent an image file from an external application to PW.
20-August-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.5
Internal test release.
10-August-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.4
Fixed a problem wherein some raw thumbnails were displayed at the wrong aspect ratio. This revision affects the pro version only.
4-August-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.3
Slide Show Dialog. Fixed a problem wherein the filename portion of long pathnames was not visible. The display now uses ellipses if necessary to to preferentially display the filename portion of the pathname.
Added Support for Minolta 7D Comments: EXIF comments for this camera are now supported. Also a problem in showing the correct image size has been fixed. Thanks to several users for supplying sample images.
Fast Sorting by Create Date: Sorting by create date has been sped up considerably.
Sorting by File Extension Added: Thumbnails displayed in browse and batch windows can now be sorted by file extension.
Added Support to Tiff files created by Nikon Capture: These files stored color profiles in a way that is not fully compliant with the Tiff spec. Added support to handle them.
Opening Images from Windows: Fixed a problem wherein double-clicking on an image in Windows sometimes failed to open the image in Picture Window. (The image was actually being opened by one of the Picture Window background processes instead.)
Jpeg Read Error: Fixed problem wherein opening Jpeg files resulted in an incorrect 'Out of Memory' error in rare cases.
17-June-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.2
Crop-Add Border Widget Added: The powerful Crop-Add Border transformation now has a widget version that you can use within a workflow. The widget implements all the cropping and border features of the transformation and adds controls for determining how the crops and borders should be scaled to images of different sizes and orientations. You can use the widget to convert all images to the same aspect ratio and to add both solid and textured borders. You can string multiple copies of the widget within the workflow to build up complex borders.
Winzip Access: Files and folders can now be zipped directly from the Browse and Workflow windows. To place images into a zip file, select the images, right-click and choose Winzip from the menu. Among the options is placing the new zip file on the clipboard. This makes it very easy to zip a group of images and attach them to an e-mail message, for instance. The function requires that Winzip and Wzzip (the Winzip command line front-end) are installed on your computer. See PWP Support for details.
File Rename: Images can now be renamed in Browse and Workflow windows. To rename an image, right-click on the thumbnail and select Rename.
New Color Management Settings Option: If you use the 'Ask on Color Space Mismatch' option you will be interested in this feature. There are now two Ask options. 'Always Ask' asks whether or not there is a mismatch, allowing you to make a custom profile setting each time a file is read. 'Ask On Profile Mismatch Only' asks if thee is a mismatch between the file's profile and the working color space. If there is no mismatch, the file is opened silently.
Incorrect "Window in use" message: Fixed a problem whereby Picture Window erroneously indicated that an image window was in use by a transformation. This condition prevented Picture Window from exiting when it was terminated.
Raw Settings Problem: Fixed problem in Raw Settings dialog whereby the dialog was not saving settings for newly added cameras.
Album 'Insert from screen' Problem: Fixed problem whereby images created by the Mirror/Rotate transformation were not displayed in the Album 'Insert from screen' dialog and were not appearing correctly in the history display.
Seconds Display Problem: A bug causing the seconds portion of the EXIF create time to be displayed incorrectly has been fixed. This value was used by the Save File and Copy/Move widgets.
Obsolete Browse Info File Problem: An obsolete version of the Browse Info file could cause PWP to crash. This file version is now recognized and bypassed.
5-May-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.1
Added a new File Copy/Move widget. This widget moves or copies files without opening them. It can be used for archiving images, including raw images. The widget has the same features as the Save File widget, except that it cannot resize of convert files to a different format since these operations would require opening the file. (See Batch Processing in Picture Window.)
In the Save File widget, added macro expressions for the creation time and filename.
Added control over color space and use of camera whitepoint to the Raw Settings dialog. (See Raw Processing in PWP 4.0.)
Improved interpretation of lens information for Pentax cameras.
Made generating thumbnails of raw files located on CDs considerably faster.
Fixed problem in executing workflow against images located in a root directory.
Fixed the Help/Check for Updates link so it points to the correct web page.
Fixed problem reading EXIF comments from jpeg files produced by Nikon Capture. Added function to use companion .thm files produced by some older Canon cameras.
Fixed problem reading certain upgrade serial numbers.
15-April-2006 -- Picture Window Version 4.0.1.0
Original release. See Picture Window Pro 4.0 New Features for a description.