Introduction
With Windows 8 now here, developers are eager to
start working on the next generation of applications. LEAD Technologies, the
award winning provider of imaging development toolkits, is ahead of the game
and has released its new WinRT SDK that will help any developer interested in
getting a head start at developing imaging enabled Windows Store applications for desktops,
tablets and Windows Phones.
The advanced WinRT
imaging technology in LEADTOOLS includes everything developers need to
build imaging enabled Windows Store applications including support for loading
and saving over 150 file formats, PDF and PDF/A, touch screen enabled viewer
controls, annotations and image processing. The viewer controls work
seamlessly with the new Windows Store application style and feature multi-touch
input and interactive modes such as Pan, Scale, Pinch & Zoom, Magnifying
Glass and annotations. Beyond the standard image display and processing
functionality, LEAD has also ported its advanced OCR, Barcode, PDF, DICOM and
PACS technology into native WinRT libraries allowing your image enabled Windows
Store applications to run at maximum efficiency.
Key WinRT Features in LEADTOOLS SDKs
- Native WinRT libraries for Win32, x64 and ARM
-
Develop a single application that works on any Windows 8
compatible desktop, tablet or mobile device
-
Load, convert and save more than 100 image formats such as TIFF,
JPEG2000, PDF, and PDF/A
-
Convert a LEADTOOLS
RasterImage
to/from
Windows Runtime ImageSource
and WritableBitmap
-
Interactive
image viewers
-
Supports both mouse and multi-touch gesture input
-
Built-in interactive modes such as pan, scale, pinch and zoom,
magnifying glass and more
-
Drag and Drop
-
Scale to Gray, Bicubic and Resample image display
-
Window level 8-16 bit extended grayscale
-
Over 200 advanced Image processing functions for document cleanup
(deskew, remove lines, hole punches, borders, etc.), color correction, edge
detection, image enhancement, artistic effects and more
-
Comprehensive Annotation and Markup including geometric shapes,
sticky note, redact, highlight and rubber stamp
-
Detect, read and write Barcodes such as UPC, EAN, Code 128, Data
Matrix, QR Code and PDF417
-
Recognize and convert text in images using OCR
-
Load, view, process and save DICOM
The WinRT Code
In the following example, we will implement the basic
foundations of any image enabled application: loading, displaying, processing
and saving an image. LEADTOOLS makes all of this possible in only a few lines
of code with its fully-featured, high level and programmer friendly controls
and classes.
To load an image, use the RasterCodecs
object. This class supports loading an image from a variety of sources, such as
a physical file, a StorageFile
, IInputStream
,
etc. The following snippet shows how to use the Windows.Storage.Pickers.FileOpenPicker
class to select and load a PDF image:
var picker = new FileOpenPicker();
picker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.PicturesLibrary;
picker.ViewMode = PickerViewMode.List;
picker.FileTypeFilter.Add("*.pdf");
StorageFile file = await picker.PickSingleFileAsync();
RasterCodecs codecs = new RasterCodecs();
RasterImage rasterImage = await codecs.LoadAsync(LeadStreamFactory.Create(file));
Saving an image is done in a similar manner as loading an
image and makes use of the FileSavePicker
and its
built-in asynchronous events to get the file object to which RasterCodecs.Save
can write the image data out as a stream.
var picker = new FileSavePicker();
picker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.PicturesLibrary;
picker.ViewMode = PickerViewMode.List;
picker.FileTypeFilter.Add("*.tif");
StorageFile file = await picker.PickSaveFileAsync();
codecs.Save(rasterImage, leadStream = LeadStreamFactory.Create(file), RasterImageFormat.Tiff, 0);
Displaying images is extremely simple with the LEADTOOLS RasterImageViewer
control. After installing the control into
visual studio, simply drag and drop the control from the toolbox into your XAML
page:
<Page
...
<Grid>
<Controls:RasterImageViewer x:Name="rasterImageViewer1" />
</Grid>
</Page>
Then assign the RasterImage
we loaded previously to the
viewer’s Image
property:
rasterImageViewer1.Image = rasterImage
Image processing, in the broadest sense, is the bread and
butter of imaging applications because that’s where the most advanced
technology is put on display. In addition to your traditional image
manipulations and effects, features such as OCR and barcode are also possible
with LEADTOOLS’ native WinRT libraries. Most image processing can be
accomplished with only a couple lines of code, such as inverting the image’s
colors shown below:
InvertCommand invert = new InvertCommand();
invert.Run(rasterImage);
LEADTOOLS can also be used to fill in the blanks or extend
additional imaging functionality to your existing application by offering interoperability
between LEADTOOLS’ RasterImage
and the standard Windows
Runtime objects such as ImageSource
and WritableBitmap
. For example, you can add PDF support to your
existing application by using LEADTOOLS to load a PDF into an ImageSource
:
ImageSource imageSource = RasterImageConverter.ConvertToImageSource(rasterImage, ConvertToImageOptions.None);
rasterImage = RasterImageConverter.ConvertFromImageSource(imageSource, ConvertFromImageOptions.None
There you have it: a solid foundation for developing image
enabled Windows Store applications. With LEADTOOLS, developing the next
generation of powerful, fast and fully-featured Windows 8 desktop, tablet and
mobile phone apps is right at your fingertips.
Conclusion
LEADTOOLS provides developers with access to the world’s
best performing and most stable imaging libraries in an easy-to-use, high-level
programming interface enabling rapid development of business-critical
applications.
Its WinRT SDK is only one of the many technologies LEADTOOLS
has to offer. For more information on our other products, be sure to visit our
home
page, download a free fully functioning evaluation SDK, and take advantage
of our free technical support during your evaluation.
Download the Full WinRT Example
You can download a fully functional demo which includes the
features discussed above. To run this example you will need the following:
Need help getting this sample up and going? Contact
our support team for free technical support! For pricing or licensing
questions, you can contact our sales team (sales@leadtools.com)
or call us at 704-332-5532.
For More Information on WinRT Imaging with LEADTOOLS