RIOT Plugin for IrfanView

[luciansabo]

Is the batch feature already working in RIOT 0.4 ??

Yes, but is not yet complete.

Then please release 0.4 with batch feature.

As you can see, I follow a schedule and a development life cycle. The next version will be released when it will become ready.

[junseng]

Hi there,

Recently when I'm using RIOT, I found something which I would consider a bug, I don't know much about the problem but it does affect one of my picture on its WHITE color.
I'm not sure whether is all the WHITE color on all picture affected but in this pic it does happen, Please feel free to have a look. If you need additional detail please don't hessitate to pronouns it.

[luciansabo]

I really don't see noticeable color changes in those areas.
JPEG is not the best candidate if you want perfect color accuracy. It uses a lossy compression, especially discarding chroma.

[junseng]

Its the stripes if you notice, let me rephrase, is not the color change but the additional of stripes on the affected area.

[luciansabo]

You obviously have a better eyesight than me. I still don't notice any visible changes.
As I said JPEG is not a lossless format. If you care about details don't save as JPEG.
You will have the same problems with other programs.

[Frank]

Hi junseng and Lucian Sabo,

I think it's (not only) a problem of the JPG format!
I think it's also a problem of converting/handling pictures with pure unicolor content!

See also these german threads:
- "Weißer Hintergrund wird Grau bei Konvertierungen", that means: "white background becomes grey after conversion"
- "Problem mit farbiger Schrift", that means: "problem with colored writing"

This effect occurs using (batch) conversion of IrfanView!
Some time ago I have told this fact also to Irfan Skiljan! He wants to see, what he can make!

@junseng

• For a better comparsion it would be better to give us the two pictures (you show us in the RIOT window) in fullsize!
  Then it's really better two see the differences! (That's why, please upload these two pictures!)
• Does such problem also occur with other colors than white?
• Do you know programs which doesn't have this problem with JPG format? (If, then give us their names!!!)
• But possibly Lucian Sabo has right and the cause is in the algorithm of the JPG creation and this can't be improved!?
• In knowledge of this effect at present it's better to use the PNG format for such pictures!

regards
Frank

[junseng]

You obviously have a better eyesight than me. I still don't notice any visible changes.
As I said JPEG is not a lossless format. If you care about details don't save as JPEG.
You will have the same problems with other programs.

Its alright, I think I notice another thing.
This stripes only occurs on the program's preview display, and it turn out to be streak free after the conversion is done and save as in a new file.
So in the end, it doesn't really matters, and if it did, it only does it to the previews.

Hi junseng and Lucian Sabo,

I think it's (not only) a problem of the JPG format!
I think it's also a problem of converting/handling pictures with pure unicolor content!

See also these german threads:
- "Weißer Hintergrund wird Grau bei Konvertierungen", that means: "white background becomes grey after conversion"
- "Problem mit farbiger Schrift", that means: "problem with colored writing"

This effect occurs using (batch) conversion of IrfanView!
Some time ago I have told this fact also to Irfan Skiljan! He wants to see, what he can make!

@junseng

• For a better comparsion it would be better to give us the two pictures (you show us in the RIOT window) in fullsize!
  Then it's really better two see the differences! (That's why, please upload these two pictures!)
• Does such problem also occur with other colors than white?
• Do you know programs which doesn't have this problem with JPG format? (If, then give us their names!!!)
• But possibly Lucian Sabo has right and the cause is in the algorithm of the JPG creation and this can't be improved!?
• In knowledge of this effect at present it's better to use the PNG format for such pictures!

regards
Frank

that's what to expect from an experienced moderator.

Dear Frank,

Thats really some awesome attention to detail and experience in troubleshooting by you.
I would like to thank you very much for being such attentive and serious to this matter i brought up.

Still thanks, but you made me just realise something. To come up with a full size picture, I've done some resizing from the original source and I found out that the streaks only affects the preview display of RIOT plugin but not on the final converted product.

[luciansabo]

ok, junseng, I looked more careful at your image and I do see some stripes and artifacts.
One thing that comes into my mind is the the fast method used for loading the resulting JPEG into memory.
The JPEG image is initially loaded with a slower, more accurate method, then for each processing it is loaded from memory with the fast DCT method and fancy upsampling turned off. This affects only screen display, not saving.
The noise is noticeable only with a large zoom.

What I can do is put an option in the new 0.4 Performance tab to use the accurate (slower) method for preview, and enable it by default.
Is this ok for you?

[junseng]

ok, junseng, I looked more careful at your image and I do see some stripes and artifacts.
One thing that comes into my mind is the the fast method used for loading the resulting JPEG into memory.
The JPEG image is initially loaded with a slower, more accurate method, then for each processing it is loaded from memory with the fast DCT method and fancy upsampling turned off. This affects only screen display, not saving.
The noise is noticeable only with a large zoom.

What I can do is put an option in the new 0.4 Performance tab to use the accurate (slower) method for preview, and enable it by default.
Is this ok for you?

Thats some excellent solution. but I think for the purpose of being a lightweight/fast image optimizer, I guess is better not to enable it by default since the situation here only comes up once in a bluemoon(those white/gray).

Once again I thank you for looking into this small issue mentioned.

Adds: Thanks and I'm looking forward for the next release version of this very nice plugins optimizer

[luciansabo]

According to my tests, there is a small speed penalty when enabling accurate loading (less than 7%), so I will enable it by default without a way to disable it. This way all previews will reflect perfectly the resulting image quality.

[lewel]

How can I get the newest lite dll version?

[luciansabo]

The development of the Lite version was discontinued. I may release a 0.3.5 version but it is not a promise.

[luciansabo]

The long expected new version of RIOT – 0.4 is finally available. This version contains very interesting new features and improvements.

More info here:

http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/2010/04/new-version-0-4-with-batch-optimizer/

Changelog:

v.0.4.0 (beta)
- new: the much requested Batch Optimizer (optimize multiple files with a few clicks)
- new: Basic image adjustments (Adjust brightness, contrast, gamma, invert colors along with the optimization process)
- new: Open even more image types
The new open plugin architecture lets you extend the number of recognized formats
The RAW + HDR plugin collection adds support for opening RAW camera images from all major manufacturers, OpenEXR and HDR images.
- added Macintosh PICT image format support
- Improved PNG compression (The internal PNG "best compression" was substantially improved.)
- new: ability to easily use well known external PNG optimizers like optiPNG, PNGOut.
Also, any other tools can be added for use (for example AdvanceCOMP, pngCrush, etc).
- option to apply by default the fastest PNG (ZLIB) compression when "Best compression" is unchecked (speeds some things up, like performing quantization, removing metadata, etc)
- updated libraries to LibTIFF 3.9.2, zlib 1.2.4, libpng 1.4.1 and OpenJPEG 1.3.0
- main form position is now remembered when "Save settings on exit" is enabled
- added decoding support for the old and outdated JPEG-in-TIFF 6.0 format in TIFF
- fixed loading of JNG with progressive-JPEG formats
- fixed loading of TGA with a corrupted RLE count
- drag & drop multiple files support (opens the batch optimizer)
- command line option: when multiple files are specified, the batch dialog is showed with the supported files added to the list
- comments/textual data from other formats are now successfully transferred to JPEG comment
- optimized math functions (faster zooming)
- replaced some code snippets with faster and smaller equivalents
- the file filter for the open dialog is now built dynamically based on available internal and external plugins with read support
- small bugfixes for showing the compress to size function enabled or not
- other small fixes and improvements

[Sam_Zen]

Great !
I suppose the hdr & raw plugins are only for the standalone version ?

[luciansabo]

I suppose the hdr & raw plugins are only for the standalone version ?

Nope, the plugins work even in the DLL version. You just need to copy them in the "plugins"folder or in the main IrfanView folder.
The same for the external PNG optimizers.