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64 bit support:
64 bits provides a much larger address space and thus allows processing very large images. With 64 bits,
the theoretical maximum memory increases from 2 gigabytes to 2 gigabytes squared or 4 x 1018 bytes, a truly astounding
amount for current technology. To support older 32 bit machines, a 32 bit version is also available.
Workflow Improvements
New drag and drop editing: Drag and drop editing introduces new convenience and speed in dealing
with the large numbers of images. It works like this. Open and edit an image of a given series as you normally would. Then
select other images from the same series in the browser. Drag and drop them on the image you have just edited. The same workflow
is applied to the new images, eliminating the tedium of performing the same steps over and over again. This feature requires no
pre-planning and does not require explicitly creating and saving workflows, so it can be used as soon as you realize that you
have additional images which require the same treatment as one you have just finished. The workflow is processed in the
background, leaving PWP available for other work.
Breakpoints: You can now pause a workflow at a selected widget and set its parameters manually.
For example suppose you want to customize the cropping of each image in a workflow. You can do so by setting a breakpoint at the
crop widget. As you execute the workflow all the other operations would be performed automatically as usual. However each time
the workflow encountered the crop widget it would display the image in the workflow window and pause, allowing you to change the
crop settings in the crop transformation. After making the settings, you click OK in the transformation. The workflow then
continues executing automatically until it reaches another breakpoint or completes. Breakpoints can be set at most widgets.
Exceptions are the Raw widget and the output widgets.
Higher performance: Workflows are now take advantage of multi-core machines to run significantly faster.
Performance is improved by a factor approximately equal to the number of cores. So even on a two-core machine performance is close
to doubled. An option allows you to force single-threaded operation when necessary. This is useful if the workflow relies on the
images being run in sequence. The option is set in the workflow's File menu.
Adding open images to a workflow: You can now add an open image to a workflow. This allows you to edit
an image and then add to a workflow for additional standardized operations. For instance you may want to use a workflow to add
borders, a copyright notice or watermark to your images after you edit them. The new Add To Workflow function can be found in
the image window's right-click menu.
Save As Widget: There is now a new option for saving images. You can use the Save As widget instead
of the conventional Windows Save dialog. The Save As widget lets you specify the save path and file name as a macro that can be
relative to the current location of the image. This makes saving quicker and lets you etablish conventions on where you save
images. Importantly, it also adds the Save As widget to the image's workflow. Then if you use the workflow later to process other
images, saving is defined as well.
New wfl file structure: The wfl file structure has been entirely rewritten. Masks and other images
stored in the wfl files are now compressed. The file structure is more flexible and robust which will allow us to add workflow
features more easily in the future. For backward compatibility, PWP 6.0 reads 5.0 and earlier wfl files.
Save File Widget: All jpeg and tiff options are now settable.
Copy/Move Widget: Performance is improved,so copying files from a camera card is much faster.
The widget now has a Skip on duplicate name option, so if a card is read a second time, images previously transferred are
ignored.
Video images can now be transferred: In addition to image files, Copy/Move widget now also
transfers .mov, .avi, .mts and .mp4 video files. This allows you to transfer the entire camera card. The video files are
displayed in the browser as icons. Double clicking on them launches the media player (or other viewer) and runs the video.
Raw Improvements
Better Color and Tonality: Several improvements have been made for better, purer color rendition
and better control of shadow and highlight areas. These include control over gamma curve shape, addition of preserve options
for saturation, color probe size settings and modifications to the shadow and highlight slider algorithms.
Faster more responsive raw dialog The raw dialog is now faster. If an new edit is made before
processing of a previous edit is complete, the previous processing is immediately cancelled, making the dialog much more
responsive to quick changes.
Jpeg Extraction: High-quality jpegs can now be extracted from raw files allowing quick previewing
the image.
Raw Settings Improvements Defaults for additional parameters can now be set, including sharpening
and saturation resulting in a better initial image in the raw dialog.
New and Enhanced Transformations
Noise Reduction: A new noise reduction transformation has been added. The transformation is not only
effective in making noise less obvious but can also be used for other smoothing tasks, such as the smoothing of skin tones in
portrait photography or reducing the effect of grain in images scanned from film.
Button: This transformation builds button graphics that can be used for web sites or other purposes.
The transformation gives extensive control over color, surface properties like shadows, highlights and reflectivity, and degrees
of apparent convexness.
Calendar: The Calendar transformation has several new features. Holidays and Sundays (or any other
days of the week) can now be displayed in a contrasting color. Holidays are editable, so you can easily add family birthdays
and other events. The last days of the previous month and first days of the following month can also be included.
Album
Text: Album now supports text for captions and titles. Captions can be anchored to any edge of an
image and stay in the same relative position as the image is moved on the page.
Image Save: Album can now save images automatically when you save the album. You have a choice of
copying all imaes to a new folder, so all images are together, or saving the image in place.
Comments
Geotagging Support: Latitude and longitude captured by GPS enabled cameras is now displayed in
properties. You can also open a mapping site such as Google Maps, with coordinates preloaded, directly from the properties
dialog.
IPTC keywords and location fields: Editing of IPTC keyword and location fields is now supported.
Access to comments: Comments are now more easily accessed. They are available from the browser, the
image window and the raw dialog.
Browser, Play Image
Larger thumbs Thumbnails are now larger. They are stored in compressed form in a new-format browseinfo
file.
Browser folder name field The field has been enlarged to the full width of the browse window and is
now clickable, so you can navigate to any root folder by clicking on the pathname.
Higher performance play image display. Performance has been improved, particularly for raw files.
The play display for raw uses the embedded jpg and no longer opens the raw file itself. The play image now uses a separate window
so that it may be run full-screen.
Delete browseinfo file. A new function has been added to the folder right-click menu. It deletes the
browse info file. Deleting the file forces browse to regenerate all the thumbnails in a folder the next time the folder is opened
in the browser.
Other Changes
Monitor curves renamed The monitor curves function has been renamed Printer Curves to better represent
its function.
Photo CD support has been dropped from the 64 bit version of PWP because the required Kodak dll is
not available in a 64 bit version. Photo CD continues to be supported by the 32 bit version.
Light-falloff Transformation: Camera and lens data is now displayed in the transformation. This data
can be used to identify the best pre-stored setting file to load.
Menu Changes: In the File menu, creation of a new image, album, and workflow are all grouped under
the New command. In the Transformation menu, sharpen, blur, and noise reduction are grouped under a common heading. Both changes
were made to streamline the menus.
Magnified Previews Previews for the Sharpen, Blur, Noise Reduction, and Chromatic Aberration
transformations now display images magnified at 1:1, to make it easier to see how the structure of the image is affected. You
can center the preview display on any point of the image by clicking on that point in the main image window.
Auxilliary file location Auxilliary files which used to be stored in the main Picture Window folder
are now saved in you App folder under Digital Light & Color\Picture Window. This allows the executable folder to remain write
protected in normal use, improving security. (Note that the application folder may be hidden. You must set Folder Options in
Windows Explorer to display display hidden folders and files to view or edit these files.)
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