What is it?
PixeLook library is a powerful set of components for Delphi 6 for creating professional-looking image and 2D-data processing applications. PixeLook`s ease of use makes it particularly suitable for developers who need to create professional-quality image and data processing applications quickly and easily. Many components in the library do not require writing a code - they are ready to use straight after visually adjusting their properties.
Features of the library	Reference
The library works with different data types
Windows bitmap images (1-,4-,8-bit grayscale, 1-,4-,8-bit indexed color, 16-, 24- and 32-bit color) are supported
AVI files are supported. Each frame of an AVI file can be accessed, processed and visualized	Tutorial 2
Custom multichannel 2D-data of the following types: byte, 16-bit integer (unsigned, signed), 32-bit integer, 32- and 64-bit float) are supported. For example, in your program you can define 2D-data where each “pixel” is a vector of 10 32-bit float numbers.	More
Large images and data matrices are easily handled	Screenshot
Internal data format is compatible with the one used in Intel Image Processing Library
Many image formats (JPEG, TIFF, GIF ...) can be handled using third party libraries	Tutorial 1
Many visualization options are available
Visualization of single images	More
Visualization of stereo images	More, Screenshot
Visualization of image sequences (including AVI files)	More, Screenshot
Many options of thumbnail image visualization	More
2D- and 3D-plots visualization	More
Easy scrolling/ zooming of 2D-data using mouse clicks or mouse wheel in combination with keyboard shortcuts	More
Different transparency options (transparent color, opacity, alpha-blending, alpha-channel for 32-bit color images) and any combination of them Image visualization options (non-integer and non-uniform scale, resampling filters, tiling, stretching, centering)
All visualization components can hold graphics layers
Graphics layers components (fully customizable layers, layers of vector objects, raster layers) are included	More
Built-in vector graphics editor can manipulate different objects (points, lines, curves, polygons, rectangles,  circles, ellipses)	More
Two or more graphics layers can be synchronized. This is useful in stereo-editing or outlining correspondent features in multiple images.
Advanced Image Viewer
Image analysis tools (histogram/thresholding, projections, profiles, aperture, surface, look-up-table transformations, scattergrams, Hough transform, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Connectivity analysis)	More
Plugin-based image processing (linear filtering, image rotation, image warping)	Screenshot
Wrapper for Intel Image Processing Library (IPL)	Download
Highly optimized for modern processors (including Pentium 4) low-level IPL functions can be easily used together with the PixeLook library.
No overhead in using IPL functions, as IPL image and PixeLook image share the same image data and header conversion is fast
Supports IPL data types: 1-,8-,16-,32-bit integer and 32-bit floating point images with any number of channels
Supports Regions Of Interest (ROI), Channel Of Interest (COI), Mask ROIs for input and output images Supports all image interpolation methods
Detailed knowledge of IPL architecture not required; simplifies using IPL functions by introducing higher-level function. Each wrapper function covers several IPL functions.
80% of IPL functionality is now supported:
Arithmetic and logical operations (between two images, between an image and a constant) Linear filtering (convolution with one kernel, convolution with two kernels and combining the results, convolution with separable kernels, fast filtering by predefined kernels); Non-linear filtering (median, maximum, minimum); Morphological filtering (erode, dilate, open, close); Forward and inverse FFT and DCT; Wavelet decomposition and reconstruction by many methods (Haar, B-Spline, and many more) Color space conversions (HSV, HLS, XYZ, YUV, YCrCb, YCC, L*u*v*, L*a*b*), linear transformation of color; Geometric image transforms (scale, shear, affine, bilinear, perspective); Arbitrary geometric transforms using coordinate look-up tables Normalized cross-correlation; Noise generation Data type conversion Compare images (two images, image and a constant)
Connection to GDI and GDI+
All GDI operations can be used with image objects: HBITMAP, HPALETTE and Device Context (DC) are supported; Large DC are supported All GDI+ possibilities for image processing and format conversion can be used; special interface to GDI+ image is provided
Other features
AVI files creation:  image and AVI sequences can be saved to an AVI file of any pixel format (1-,4-,8-,16-,24-,32-bit) with or without compression
Clipboard support: Paste bitmaps from any application Copy/Paste images in PixeLook format without copying image data. This feature supports large images. Useful for debug purposes. Cut/copy/paste vector objects.
Window decoration features: Gradient background Textured background; images of any pixel format can be used as textures; textures can be read either from the resources or from a file Image transition effects are supported (more 150 effects are available) Interface to GraphicsEx library: many image formats can be opened
Image processing functions
Linear filtering; 27 predefined filters Image morphing and warping Grayscale morphology Image resampling Connectivity analysis (8-,4-connectivity, region and border modes) Geometric transformations: rotation, mirroring, artistic effects Magic Wand tool Seamless texture creation

System requirements

PixeLook library requires Microsoft (R) Windows 95/98/2000/Me/XP and Borland Delphi 6. After downloading and unzipping the library, demos and Help file require 1.5 MB of hard drive space. The compiled package ZPixeLook.bpl requires about 550 KB. We recommend installing Intel Image Processing Library (IPL) which can be used together with the PixeLook library for fast image processing. In the near future some plugins for the PixeLook library will require the IPL.

Images and 2D data

Images and 2D data of the following types are supported Image data type  System name Windows’ native Number of channels 1-bit black and white or two-color image dt1BitImage Yes 1 4-bit grayscale or indexed color image dt4BitImage Yes 1 8-bit grayscale or indexed color image dt8BitImage Yes 1 15-bit high color image: 5-5-5 bit mask dt15BitImage Yes 1 (two-byte) 16-bit high color image: 5-6-5 bit mask dt16BitImage Yes 1 (two-byte) 24-bit true color image dt24BitImage Yes 3 32-bit true color image dt32BitImage Yes 4 8-bit multichannel unsigned integer dtByte No Any 16-bit multichannel unsigned integer dtWord No Any 16-bit multichannel signed integer dtSmallInt No Any 32-bit multichannel signed integer dtInteger No Any 32-bit multichannel floating point dtSingle No Any 64-bit multichannel floating point dtDouble No Any 32-bit floating point 1D-signal dt1D No 1 Such variety of data types allows working with images of a different nature. For example, radio-location deals with complex images consisting of two channels (the real and imaginary parts). In the PixeLook library such images can be modelled by a 2-channel dtSingle data type. All non-standard images (dtByte...dt1D) are stored in Windows DIB format. For example, if you have a 5-channel image of dtDouble data type with dimensions NX x NY, it will be stored as a 32-bit true color Windows bitmap of dimensions 10NX x NY. A few specific fields will be added at the end of the image file to allow the PixeLook library to recognize its format. For visualization of multichannel images only 3 channels are used. By default these are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd channels, but this can be changed within the program or visually in the TZImageViewer component. For each channel, the minimum and maximum values are computed and all values are mapped into the byte range. As a result you can see your data as a color image. To work with images, the PixeLook library uses the powerful Windows technology of  memory-mapped files. Therefore, all images opened via PixeLook components or functions are global and can be accessed from any application or DLL.

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