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260 lines
6.5 KiB
260 lines
6.5 KiB
WARNING: OBSOLETE (Chalk's internal code has become much better by now)
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From time to time, people come up with the suggestion to use an
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existing imaging library with Chalk, to replace our own core. This
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file contains a list of all libraries known to me, and a short
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evaluation.
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Perhaps, one day, we will decide to either use an existing library, or
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remodel our core after one of those. Of the libraries present, except
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for our own Chalk, Vigra look like it's the best bet from a technical
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point of view, with Vips a good runner-up.
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* Chalk (http://koffice.kde.org/chalk)
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Chalk contains its own 2D image library, consisting of the tile
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manager, the layer classes and KisPainter. We really should separate
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this 2d lib from the interface code, and put it in a real lib with
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a well-defined interface.
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Advantages:
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- Already works
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- Optimized for interactive work
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- Allows different colour models
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- Uses GraphicsMagick or ImageMagick for loading and saving.
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Disadvantages:
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- Does not work well with different channel depths
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- Not integrated with CMS
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- TileManager complicated and slow for pixel reading and
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writing.
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* Gimp (http://www.gimp.org)
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The Gimp contains a complex core that allows interactive painting of
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images with a channel depth of 8 bits.
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Advantages:
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- Well tested, very complete
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- Optimized for interactive usage
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Disadvantages:
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- Written in C.
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- Not readily available as a library.
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- Depends on glib and gtk
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- 8-bit only
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- No colour models
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- Has problems handling really large images
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* Vigra (http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~koethe/vigra/)
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Vigra is a C++ imaging library written by Ullrich Koetthe to
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demonstrate his Phd thesis on flexible image algorithms.
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Advantages:
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- Supports very large images
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- Supports colour models
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- Supports different bit depths through templating
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- C++
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- Relatively small
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- Relatively well-documented
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Disadvantages:
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- License incompatible with GPL?
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- Not optimized for interactive use
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- Unsure about future development since this was a research
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project.
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* Vips (http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/)
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Vips is a C library with a C++ layer. It has been designed for
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handling very large images, mainly in the context of research into
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paintings in museums like the National Gallery. It comes with a gtk2
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gui.
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Advantages:
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- Handles very large images
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- Handles colour models
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- Handles different bit depths
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- C++ interface
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Disadvantages:
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- Not optimized for paintbox type apps (even though it is
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possible).
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- Very large.
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* VXL (http://vxl.sourceforge.net/)
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VXL is a collection of small libraries that are used for compution
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vision and imaging purposes in an academic setting.
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Advantages:
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- Handles very large images
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- C++
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Disadvantages:
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- Not recently updated
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- Comes with its own core libraries that replace standard C++
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- Optimized for simple rgb images.
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- No license at all
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- Badly documented
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* CImg (http://cimg.sourceforge.net/)
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CImg is a very cool, very small library that offers some extremely
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innovative image effects, like inpainting of damaged or noise images.
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Advantages:
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- Small
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- GPL
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- Cool stuff
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Disadvantages:
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- Everything, including GUI stuff, in one header file.
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- badly documented.
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* Gegl (http://www.gegl.org/)
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Gegl was intended to become the Gimp 2.0 core, but development had
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stalled so much that the move to Gegl didn't happen before Gimp 2.0.
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However, the Thawte millionaire whose name has escaped me, has
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promised to support gegl development financially, freeing the
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developer to work full-time on it. It is, more or less, an attempt to
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write a templated library in C++ with the help of a custom language to
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describe image operations.
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Advantages:
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- It's got money behind it
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- Small
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- Optimized for interactive use
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Disadvantages:
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- Not finished yet
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- C
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- Complex hack around the fact that C is a low-level language
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* libart_lgpl (http://www.levien.com/libart/)
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Libart isn't really an image library, but rather a canvas that can be
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used to paint images on. It is optimized for vector graphics, and is
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used by Karbon to render shapes before display.
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Advantages:
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- Raph Levien is really good at this stuff, so libart is
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quality
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Disadvantages:
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- C
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- It isn't an image library, really
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* java2D (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/2d/index.html)
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Java2D is more or less complete library to write a paint app around.
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It offers image types, colour spaces, kernel convolutions and text.
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It's in Java, of course, and the free re-implementation is not done
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yet, and besides, is based around Cairo.
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Advantages:
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- Neat OO design
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- Complete
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Disadvantages:
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- Java
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- Not free
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- Has some legacy cruft.
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* ImageMagick/GraphicsMagick (http://imagemagick.org/, http://www.graphicsmagick.org/)
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GraphicsMagick is ImageMagick with a different license, and a
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focus on API stability. GM and IM now also differ slightly in terms of
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features offered. Chalk used to be based around IM (which can still be
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seen in many places in the code). The IM core was dropped in favour of
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the present core because it turned out that IM was not re-entrant,
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making it hard to use in an interactive application.
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Advantages:
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- Mature
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- C++ interface
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- Full-featured
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- RGB and CMYK (but not more)
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- License compatible with Chalk
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- Under active development
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Disadvantages:
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- Bit-depth a compile-time option
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- Not re-entrant: not optimized for interactive use.
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* Paintlib2 (http://www.paintlib.de/paintlib/)
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A portable (windows/Linux) library for image loading, manipulation and
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saving. The same kind of thing as IM/GM, but not quite as mature.
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Advantages:
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Disadvantages:
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- No support for larger bit depths per channel
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- Windows (bmp) centric
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- Development seems to have stopped in 2000
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* Antigrain (http://www.antigrain.com/)
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Antigrain is a graphics lib that specializes in high-quality anti-aliasing. It can be
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useful to mine for algorithms, but is mainly a library to render vector data to bitmaps,
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just like libart or cairo.
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Advantages:
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- High quality algorithms
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- Completely free license.
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- Colour-space agnostic
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Disadvantages:
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- Not a complete 2D library
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- self-admittedly complex and hard to use.
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- No support for greater bit-depths.
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* The Visualization Toolkit (VTK, http://public.kitware.com/VTK/)
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A very big C++ library for 2d and 3d image processing and visualisation. It's
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too big to easily evaluate for me.
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Advantages
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- It is used in other TQt applications, like Julius
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- Probably very good
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Disadvantages
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- The book is very expensive
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- Uses its own make equivalent, CMake
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- Very large
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* Java Advanced Imaging
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