Technical Specifications - Version 2.4

Input Image Formats

JPEG ,JPEG2000, TIFF, PSD, PNG, BMP,PGM, PPM, JPEG XR

RAW Formats:
.dng, .crw, .cr2, .mrw, .nef, .raf, .orf, .pef, .srf, .arw
Toolbox uses dcraw library

Support for following JPEG color spaces: RGB, GrayScale, YCbCr, CMYK, YCbCrK

Support for following TIFF types: TIFF (rev.6.0 and Tech.Note #2, Packbits, JPEG, LZW, CCITT G.3 and G.4, ZIP) with RGB, CMYK, B/W, CIELab

Output Image Formats

JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PSD, BMP

PSD files are saved with two layers
[Original Image / Improved Image] Support for following JPEG color spaces: RGB, GrayScale, YCbCr, CMYK, YCbCrK

Support for following TIFF types: TIFF (6.0, Packbits, JPEG, LZW, CCITT G.3 and G.4, ZIP) with RGB, CMYK, B/W, CIELab

Original EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata information are saved to output file.
ICC profiles are embedded to output files when color management is used.

Automatic Color Correction

SoftColor Engine 3.0 which fix color balance, exposure and contrast problems automatically.

All color correction steps are layer based, non-linear and non-destructive operations.

Manual Adjustments

Color EQ, Adjust color tones in improved image

Non-linear Exposure
Non-linear Contrast

Correction intensity, mixing improved and original images 0-100%

Layer based processing

All image processing is layer based and non-destructive.

Resize

Resizing pixel size of improved image. If only one dimension (width or height) is given then aspect ratio is saved.

Resample

Resampling improved image's resolution to certain DPI value.

Crop

Cropping by width / height ratio. Cropping is centered automatically.

Rotate automatically

Images are rotated automatically by EXIF-orientation information.

Rotate

Manual rotating and straightening for improved images (0-360 degrees). If rotation is single degree value (eg. 2 degrees) then image is cropped automatically to get straight borders.

Flip and mirror

Flip improved image across the horizontal or vertical axis.

Filter - Sharpness

Adjust sharpness to improved image. This filter has one parameter, sharpness [-100 <-> +100 values]. Positive values sharpen image and negative values soften image.

Filter - Unsharp masking

Filter - Noise removing

Filter - Motion blur

Convert and render output image to selected output icc-profile. Rendering is done by using supported rendering intent. Embedded icc profiles are supported.

When color management is used icc profile is embedded to output image.

Only JPEG and TIFF formats supported for color management because other formats doesn't support embedded profile.

Rendering intents:
PERCEPTUAL
RELATIVE COLORIMETRIC
ABSOLUTE COLORIMETRIC
SATURATION

Blackpoint compensation: [ON/OFF]

Color Management Module

SoftColor Toolbox uses Little CMS 2.0 as Color Management Module(CMM).

Little CMS 2.0 is a full v4 CMM, which can accept v2 profiles. It uses 32 bits precision for processing.

Batch-processing

SoftColor Toolbox's main tool is command softcolor.exe. It is for single file processing.

SoftColor Toolbox includes utility program softcolor4folder.exe which process all supported file formats in input directory and saves files to output directory.

softcolor4folder.exe uses softcolor.exe to process images.

All settings are read from INI-configuration file.

Server Processing

SoftColor Toolbox includes utility program directoryserver.exe which is on the background running version of softcolor4folder.exe.

It starts working the background and checks input directory for new files to process. Directoryserver.exe uses softcolor.exe to process images.

There can be multiple server configurations running simultaneous.

SoftColor Server Toolbox configuration files are stored in INI-flies.

Command softcolor.exe can generate template configuration file with all available adjustments.

Configure template INI file is generated by command:

softcolor.exe /MakeTemplate FiletoSaveTemplate.ini

This template contains all adjustments for color correction, image processing, color management and folder processing settings.

Configuration file format:

Parameters

The basic element contained in an INI file is the parameter. Every parameter has a name and a value, delimited by an equals sign (=). The name appears to the left of the equals sign.

name=value

Sections

Parameters may be grouped into arbitrarily-named sections. The section name appears on a line by itself, in square brackets ([ and ]). All parameters after the section declaration are associated with that section.

[section]

Comments

Semicolons (;) indicate the start of a comment. Comments continue to the end of the line. Everything between the semicolon and the end of line is ignored.

Any PC running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008

1000-MHz Pentium-class processor or better
1Gb of RAM
40 Mb of disc space

SoftColor Toolbox is 32bit Windows application and it works on 32bit and 64bit Windows.

Administrator rights are required for installing and configuring SoftColor Toolbox