[Openicc] LPROF developement snapshot 1.11.4 released

[Hal V. Engel]

I'm pleased to announce that development snapshot version 1.11.4 of LProf is 
now available.  This is the sixth development snapshot of the work that has 
been underway since LProf became a SourceForge project.  Please see the 
LProf SourceForge home page at http://lprof.sourceforge.net/ for details.

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 
snapshot appears to be stable it is none the less a development release and as 
such it should not be considered a stable release.  It has not been 
extensively tested and on some platforms has had very little testing and may 
have significant unknown bugs.  This is being made available so that users 
can test the new release to report problems and make suggestions for 
improvements.

Significant changes since the last development snapshot include:

1. The LProf user interface is now translatable and the following translations 
are included in this release:

	French 
	Russian
	Norwegian
        German

Several other translations are in the pipeline.   As these are completed 
additional language only releases (language packs) will be made available 
along with installation instructions.

The LProf project is looking for volunteers to do translations to other 
languages.  If you would like to assist with this effort please feel free to 
contact anyone on the LProf development team.

2. For the first time since version 1.09 LProf now has a Windows installation 
binary.  LProf now has a volunteer who has taken responsibility for the 
Windows port.  Previously none of the LProf developers were Windows users and 
we needed someone who would do the Windows port justice.  It took a while to 
find a volunteer but Joe Pizzi stepped forward and is highly qualified.  This 
is the first release that will show case his hard work.

This Windows port has not been extensively tested and may have significant 
unknown problems.  Windows users are encouraged to test this release and to 
report any problems to the LProf team.

3. The Mac build scripts have been updated and one Mac user has tested the 
build and reported that it works.   This will build a native (non-Fink) 
executable for the Mac.  The Mac port has not been extensively tested (even 
less than the Windows port) and may have significant unknown problems.  Mac 
users are invited to give it a try and to report results to the LProf team.

4. Improved pick template placement code.  In previous versions of LProf the 
pick template placement code would sometimes exhibit unpredictable behavior. 
In addition, it would sometimes place the hot zones in slightly different 
locations than in the UI when pulling the color data from the target image.  
These problems have now been fixed.

5. LProf now has a work around that will allow it to build on systems with QT 
3.3.5 or 3.3.6 installed.

6. The proofing code has been improved and now correctly performs color 
space transformations on the actual high bit depth image data rather than on 
the 8 bits/channel display image data. 

7. The spline regression algorithm has been upgraded to produce smoother Color 
Look Up Table (CLUT) curves.

8. Most of the dialogs have been reworked to make them smaller, eliminate 
un-needed controls and to improve usability.   Among these changes LProf will 
now remember the sizes of windows and dialogs, if these are resized, both 
during execution and when the application is restarted.

9. LProf would sometimes blow up when opening profiles that were not ICC 
compliant.  It now detects many of these non-conforming profiles and by passes 
them.

10.  LProf now has a feature that will perform cross validation on the 
regression model to estimate how well the resulting profiles will work in 
real world conditions.  This will assist users with tuning the regression 
parameters used for creating input device profiles.

11. LProf now uses CIE based weighting for color patches in the regression 
model which gives higher weight to gray patches for improved neutrality in 
the critical gray and near gray region. 

12. Numerous other smaller bug fixes, enhancements and code cleans ups.

Please feel free to download, build, install and test this development 
snapshot.  User feedback is very much appreciated and any reported problems 
will receive prompt attention from the LProf development team.  

In addition, the LProf project could use your help in other ways and we are 
looking for volunteers to handle various tasks.   Many of the things that 
need to be done are non-technical.  Therefore even those that do not have a 
technical back ground can contribute.  Doing translations and working on 
documentation are examples of things that are not technical that need to be 
done.  Please contact me if you would like to get involved in this effort in 
any way.

Hal V. Engel