[Openicc] LPROF development snap shot version 1.11.0 released

[Hal V. Engel]

I'm pleased to announce that version 1.11.0 of LPROF is now available.  LPROF 
is an open source application that will create ICC profiles for use with 
other applications such as Scribus, CinePaint, Krita, UFRAW and the 
development version of GIMP. This is the first development snap shot of the 
work that has been underway since LPROF became a SourceForge project.  Please 
see  the LPROF SourceForge web pages http://sourceforge.net/projects/lprof

This is a development snap shot of what will become version 1.12 when it is 
stable.  Although testing by the development team indicates that this snap 
shot appears to be stable it is a development release and as such it should 
not considered to be a stable release.  It has not been extensively tested 
and may have significant unknown bugs.  This is being made available so that 
users can test the new release and report problems and make suggestions for 
improvements.

The major goals of this version are:

1.Consolidation of the user interface into a single executable to facilitate 
an improved and simplified work flow.
2.Elimination or a major reduction of duplicate code to facilitate maintenance 
and future enhancements.
3.Use of a standardized location for storing configuration information.
4.Improved documentation and the addition of a help system.
5.Increased portability.

Significant changes in this version include:

1.A unified user interface with a greatly simplified work flow.
2.The user interface and logic for placing the IT8.7 picker template has been 
hugely improved and will now work for skewed chart images that would have 
been impossible to use with the old picker template positioning user 
interface.  The user interface is also much simpler to use.
3.A new help system has been implemented and new documentation written for the 
help system.  This includes information on how to use this version of LPROF 
and there is also has a section on how to create profiles for use with UFRAW.
4.The charts for setting monitor gamma in the rough monitor profiler are now 
the Norman Koren gamma charts.  These are being used with the permission of 
Norman Koren.  These new charts will also help users set the black point for 
their monitors.  See http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html  for 
more information about these charts.  
5.LPROF now uses system standard locations for saving and locating profiles by 
default.  On Linux/Unix systems profiles will be saved to $HOME/.color/icc 
and when looking for profiles it will look in /usr/share/color/icc if these 
directories exist.  On Windows systems it will use the default Windows 
directory for ICC profiles (normally c:
\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color).  Users can specify other locations.
6.LPROF configuration and temporary files are now stored in  $HOME/.lprof.
7.On Linux systems SCons is now used as the build system.  The SCons build is 
not currently working on Windows or other platforms.
8.The library used to support tiff IT8.7 target images has been changed from 
QTiffIO to TiffIO for increased portability (QTiffIO does not build on 
Windows).  LPROF can be built and will run without this library installed but 
it will not support the use of tiff files unless this library is installed.
9. A new target reference file installer has been added.  This installs target 
reference files in a standard location and also requires the user to select 
the correct picker template when installing a new target reference file.  
LPROF will automatically use the specified picker template when ever the user 
selects a target reference file in the Camera/Scanner Profiler tab.
10.A significant amount of work has been done on Windows portability issues 
and most of the features are working on Windows systems.
11.Some work has been done to insure that this will run on big-endian systems.  
This code still needs to be tested. (The development team only has access to 
little-endian hardware).
12.A bunch of other bug fixes and improvements.  

Please feel free to download, build, install and test the development snap 
shot.  User feedback is very much appreciated.  In addition, LPROF could use 
your help in other ways and we are looking for volunteers to handle various 
tasks.  For example, I would really like to have someone work on getting the 
Windows SCons build working correctly and there are many other areas where we 
could use additional help.   Many of the things that need to be done are 
non-technical so even those that do not have a technical back ground can 
contribute.  Please contact me if you would like to get involved in this 
effort in any way.