DotImage .NET 1.1 - 5.0.2624.23839
DotImage .NET 2.0 - 5.0.2624.22875

For information on upgrading from DotImage 4.0 to DotImage 5.0, see this knowledgebase article.

New DotImage Modules

• ASP.NET Web Annotations using AJAX Technology

Improvements to the core DotImage library

• A new TIFF Codec developed from the ground up for improved support and performance
  • Tested on our extensive image database of thousands of customer images
  • Benchmarked to be generally faster than the old codec based on LibTIFF
  • Images with TIFF Tags occupying many megabytes of memory no longer affects decoding performance
  • Supports more flavors of TIFF and improved OJPEG decoding
  • Now supports writing OJPEG Compression 6 to support legacy TIFF readers
• Optimizations for multi-core processors.  Added an interface for multi-threaded image processing commands which will parallelize image processing and improve performance on multi-core machines
• AdaptiveThresholdCommand performance improvement for multi-core processors
• SimpleThresholdCommand performance improvement for multi-core processors
• Improved Memory Management API via a PixelAccessor class.  This class raises events when certain memory thresholds are met or exceeded and can track all AtalaImage memory in use.
• New event in PDF encoding allowing the selection of compression parameters such as JPEG quality for each encoded page.
• Added chroma subsampling support to the JPEG encoder.

Improvements to PDF Rasterizer

• Major performance and compatibility improvements since the initial 4.0 release (see Press Release)
• Occupies less memory when rendering color PDF's (24-bits per pixel as opposed to 32-bits per pixel)
• Occupies less memory when reading gray or B&W PDF's (8-bits per pixel as opposed to 32-bits per pixel)

Improvements to Annotations

• The Annotation features are now only included with DotImage Document Imaging 5.0, and no longer offered to purchase standalone.  However Annotations can still be deployed without DotImage dependencies.
• Refactored into a Model – View – Controller pattern for increased extensibility and the ability to use other rendering mechanisms
• Supports full matrix based transformations
• Added Ability to flip Annotations
• Added ability to interactively rotate individual annotations
• Added support for Undo and Redo
• Added a new Callout Annotation
• Added support for custom line endcaps for line, lines, freehand, and callout (arrow, rectangle, ellipse, etc.)
• Improvements to Rubberstamp Annotation
• Custom-designed icons for each annotation type are available as resources in multiple sizes (32x32, 24x24, 16x16).
• Since this was a redesign, there are interface changes from previous versions.
• Added the ability to change the behavior and visibility of individual grips
• Added clipboard support through Cut, Copy and Paste methods
• Added the ability to create annotations on a single click or double click with optional annotation centering
• Improved the annotation security features
• Added nested layer support
• Improved Text Annotation with a fully transparent editor and auto sizing to the text content.
• Now different actions can be set to different mouse buttons

Improvements to ASP.NET WebControls

• Controls can now be placed in an ASP.NET 2.0 MultiView control
• Controls can now be placed in an ASP.NET AJAX (Atlas) UpdatePanel control.
• Added support for Atalasoft Web Controls to be included within a parent control that is invisible.
• Added getDisplayImageUrl javascript method to provide a URL to the current viewable image in the control.
• WebThumbnailControl now supports the ability to select multiple thumbnails at once by holding down the control key while selecting.
• Added caption support to individual thumbnails in the WebThumbnail Control supporting custom captions with page number and filename.

New AJAX enabled Web Annotations Module

• Extends the AJAX enabled WebImageViewer to add annotations support to the existing image viewing, panning, zooming, and editing control.
• Requires no applets or plug-ins
• Supports IE6, IE7, FireFox, and Safari
• Renders annotations stored within an image file or an external file.
• Uses same mechanism and data layer as the Windows Forms Annotations module.
• Move, resize, and create annotations within the browser.
• Annotations are updated from the server once placed, or resized fully enabling the rendering of all built-in annotations as well as any custom annotations.
• Supports Layering and changing rendering order (z-order)
• Programmatic access to annotations via server-side code
• A full Javascript API to programmatically access all annotation properties and methods without server postbacks
• Edit text Annotations interactively in the browser

Improvements to Advanced Document Cleanup Module

• Overall performance and quality has been increased
• AutoBorderCropCommand quality of results have been improved
• MarginCropCommand has been improved and is now much faster
• HolePunchRemovalCommand has been improved, and does a better job eliminating false positives.  Now reports the number of holes removed, and hole locations. No longer removes non-elliptical holes.
• AdvancedBorderRemovalCommand has been improved and will no longer remove features that extend from the border to the relevant areas of the document.
• HalftoneRemovalCommand has been added, which eliminates shaded areas of an image that when thresholded create ordered dots and negatively affect OCR. Reports halftone locations.
• LineRemovalCommand has been improved with better speed and accuracy.  Can specify Orthogonal, Vertical, or Horizontal lines to remove.  Reports line end points and thickness. 

Improvements to OCR Modules

• Pre-processing can now occur before, during, and after deskew and the point where the searchable PDF module grabs the image to embed.
• Pre-processing options now represented as a class as opposed to a bit field for easier manipulation.
• More consistent event model.
• Text regions now report orientations in GlyphReader
• GlyphReader now supports automatically detecting rotated documents
• New property in Searchable PDF Module (PdfTranslator) to automatically fix page orientation in the resulting PDF when page rotation is detected.

Improvements to DotTwain Scanning Module

• CreateDeviceSession method was added to the Acquisition object to allow a temporary Device object to be created, used and disposed.  This is required for some network scanning situations that may change the device identity between sessions.

General Changes

• DotImage SDK can be installed in Windows Vista with UAC Permissions
• License files are now stored in the Local User Settings folder
• DotTwain assemblies and demos are now installed in the same folder as DotImage unless installing DotTwain seperately.
• DotAnnotate is no longer offered as a standalone product.  Those who have purchased DotAnnotate in the past can continue to upgrade to newer versions with active gold support contracts.