Graphics Programming
Monday, June 5, 2017 by codewar65 | Discussion: Personal Computing
My current project is coming along nicely. I've been thinking about doing this one for years now. I just finally got around to finally getting around to it.
Backstory: My father has old books on lithography and printing from when he went to technical school back in the 50s. Some of the stuff in there is not even done anymore. I remember spending hours going through them and seeing stuff on color separations (done the old fashioned way lol) and stuff. The images of some of the halftoning really stuck with me.
I wanted to replicate some of these processes on the PC. I was normally developing in C# but have recently fell in love with Free Pascal / Lazarus. I like to think of it as the speed of C with the ease of .NET, plus I get to play around with inline x86 assembler again.
I call the project Lithoize. It's a specialize layered halftoning application that can use various linear wave patterns or concentric circles with variable line width depending on the lightness of the source image under the line. Currently it can save bitmap results (bmp, jpg, png, tif) and vector output to SVG so it can be imported into vector editors (AI / Corel) for further effects.
Here are some screenies:
I haven't decided what I will do with this program. I might see if I can find a publisher who handles this sort of thing. I am ill equipped to do my own marketing or sales. Any ideas?
Thought I'd share what's been eating up my time lately. 
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Reply #22 Wednesday, June 21, 2017 5:55 PM
Currently I have it rigger to run for 30 days before it either expires (and the Save function doesn't get hooked up any more) or you apply an activation key. It seems like standard fare for software these days.
I am currently typing up documentation for use in a little HTML based help viewer I put together. Once that's done, I need to put together a Inno installation process and it should be ready for testing. I do have one memory leak in the rendering engine but that is not a show stopper at this point. I will find it eventually. haha
I will keep all here in mind when it comes to testing. I imagine some skinners could make an old timey WindowBlind using it or something. 
I still am unsure on what to do with it once it's ready for prime time; sell it outright to someone, or self publish (on Amazon or Steam).
Peace
Dan
Reply #23 Wednesday, June 21, 2017 9:05 PM
What development system are you using? VS usually helps out detecting the source of the memory leak. I know, my software used to leak like a sieve. 
Reply #24 Wednesday, June 21, 2017 9:06 PM
The first beta version is available on my website in the miscellaneous section at www.vtxemu.com.
It would be inapropriate to comment on it here (as it is not directly related to StarDock or it's products) but can be used in the creation of art assets for use with their products.
Anyone here is free to give it a spin. 30 day free trial. That should give us time to hammer out bugs and stuff. We can do another round at anytime before that if need be.
I am accepting open discussion about this beta on my VTX Facebook page.
Have fun, Make art!
Dan
Reply #25 Friday, June 23, 2017 5:18 AM
for some strage reason i get 1.00 is an invalid float message whenever i try to open a image be it gif bmp jpeg.
Press OK to ignore and risk data corruption Press cancel to kill the program.
whenever i proceed there wont be any visual of the picture, only the Layer Color tab on the right will show the image under the Original state.
Any suggestions?
Reply #26 Friday, June 23, 2017 7:53 AM
for some strage reason i get 1.00 is an invalid float message whenever i try to open a image be it gif bmp jpeg.
Press OK to ignore and risk data corruption Press cancel to kill the program.
whenever i proceed there wont be any visual of the picture, only the Layer Color tab on the right will show the image under the Original state.
Any suggestions?
Let me do a rebuild with less aggressive optimizations. This might be an issue with the BGRABitmap library I am using. I ran into a similar problem with my Retroize program. Thanks for the the feedback!
Edit: new build is up. hopefully that takes care of that issue. we should move this conversation to fb or i will see about setting up a forum someplace.
Reply #27 Friday, June 23, 2017 9:52 AM
Edit: new build is up. hopefully that takes care of that issue. we should move this conversation to fb or i will see about setting up a forum someplace.
Why move it? There is nothing wrong with having this here. I'm sure I'm not the only one checking the progress that isn't trying it. I find it interesting.
Reply #28 Friday, June 23, 2017 1:47 PM
Edit: new build is up. hopefully that takes care of that issue. we should move this conversation to fb or i will see about setting up a forum someplace.
Why move it? There is nothing wrong with having this here. I'm sure I'm not the only one checking the progress that isn't trying it. I find it interesting.
Okay. I just feel it might be in appropriate to discuss my software on a Stardock discussion forum. We can continue then until told otherwise by a moderator. If that occurs, I can setup a phpBB on my website..
Reply #29 Friday, June 23, 2017 7:50 PM
Both Retroize (the 8 bit pixel dithering package) and Lithoize now have proper install routines that make start menu folders, an uninstall path, desktop links, etc.
Reply #30 Saturday, June 24, 2017 1:16 AM
Playing around with computing halftone strength against CMYK color planes so see if I can emulate benday halftoning (the little colored dots from comic books from the 60s and 70s). This is experiemental and will need much fine tuning before I am happy with it.
Alternate using linear wave patterns:
Reply #31 Saturday, June 24, 2017 12:43 PM
for some strage reason i get 1.00 is an invalid float message whenever i try to open a image be it gif bmp jpeg.
Press OK to ignore and risk data corruption Press cancel to kill the program.
whenever i proceed there wont be any visual of the picture, only the Layer Color tab on the right will show the image under the Original state.
Any suggestions?
Build 1.0.2 is up with better validation of input values. I've tested it on another Windows 10 system and it runs without incident. Hopefully this fixes the glitch.
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Reply #21 Tuesday, June 20, 2017 6:40 PM
I've just spent the last few week coming up with a software activation system that I am happy with. I realize that no software is hacker proof, but I went to great lengths to make it a royal pain in the ass. lol.
I best describe it as a Rube Goldberg state machine interlaced into the workings of the application. haha.
that means you are ready for beta invites
send me one cant wait
I'll take a beta copy as well (use a timed license key).