The 2008 buy-out of Yawah by Adobe presented DMP with an interesting challenge. eRez, the imaging server built by Yawah and sold as a license, was an integral part of the DMP FLO Suite. It was used for image manipulation (resampling, color conversions, etc.). Next to that, it presented us with the possibility to employ streaming technology, to visualize images in a flash viewer.
After the purchase of Yawah, eRez was very quickly taken off the market as a license. Future use of the technology will be restricted to ASP models, integrated into Scene7. Leaving us with a big gap in our technology.
Not only did we overcome this challenge, but our software has improved because of it. Rather than try to simply replace the existing functionalities, we went in search of new possibilities. And those were found in Elpical’s Claro Single.
About Elpical
Elpical Software, based in Giesbeek, The Netherlands, develops and markets software solutions for the production and enhancement of digital images and the automation of image workflows. Established in 1997 by a management buy-out of the electronic imaging department of Victor Hasselblad AB., Elpical’s strong pedigree and technical expertise mean the company has quickly become a leading specialist in the field of digital image enhancement and management.
Unlike other automated image enhancement solutions, Elpical software is distinguished by the extremely high quality results it achieves on an image-by-image basis. Elpical technologies make an extensive analysis of every image processed before making adjustments or enhancements. This guarantees a quality far in excess of traditional batch processing methods where an uniform set of adjustments is applied to every image. Photographers, publishing houses and printers can now automate the enhancement of digital images without fear of loss of quality.
Elpical’s ground-breaking image enhancement technologies can also analyze and enhance images embedded in PDF files. This technology not only provides huge time-savings on the enhancement of PDF files, but does what was previously impossible! As a result, Elpical technology has been integrated into a wide range of editorial and production automation systems.
One of these systems is the DMP FLO Suite. In our case, we implemented ClaroSingle into the application.
About Claro Single
Claro Single is a giant leap beyond other automatic image enhancement tools which only apply one set of filters or algorithms to every image they receive. Claro Single analyzes each image for such parameters as sharpness, brightness, contrast, color balance, natural greens, skin tones, Exif information and much more. The image is then enhanced for consistently high-quality results based on its particular requirements. For example, the type of sharpening applied will depend on sharpness and noise levels in the original, ensuring crisp images every time with no more over-sharpened edges.
Integrate Claro Single into a Gradual SWITCH workflow and you have a multi-processing, server-based alternative to Photoshop that offers the ground-breaking ability to automatically enhance, resample and color convert images using intelligent ICC color conversions and profile assignment/embedding. Claro Single can also make local contrast enhancements that respect overall image brightness and even process images inside a PDF - all features which add up to make it an indispensable cornerstone of your print or web-based workflow.
Some of the key features of Claro Single include:
• Automated image enhancement based on each image’s specific requirements
• Consistent image enhancements across a wide range of image types
• Local contrast enhancement of image details
• Images in PDF files can be enhanced, resampled and color converted
• ICC based color conversions and profile assignment/embedding
• Fully integrates into SWITCH workflows
• Embed processing information into XMP
Backoffice integration
First of all, the integration of ClaroSingle replaces all old functionalities that were already available to DMP FLO Suite customers. Image resampling, cropping, color conversions, and so on. These are functionalities in assetFLO, our digital asset management module.
In the FLO backoffice, users can maintain and manipulate images. Images are stored in directory structures and are given metadata to find them when needed.
Basic metadata of the images (fully expandable to the customer’s needs) can be maintained and searched for each individual image. Assets can be downloaded as original files, but end users typically download them through the basket.
When images are placed in the basket, the user will enter the type of file to download. Depending on the user rights, certain options will not be available here. The original file may only be possible for the administrators. Going through to the Advanced region of the basket (where profiles can be saved or individual settings can be requested) is typically only for administrators. So an end user could be presented with a choice of two download types: “Powerpoint Presentation” or “Print”.
The advanced settings allow administrator (or more qualified users) to enter more specific settings. Output type, resolution, cropping for individual images, and so on. All of these settings can be saved into a profile, and can be presented to the end users in that way.
After the selection of the output settings, the user chooses how the new images will be presented to him.
Images can be uploaded to assetFLO in many ways. One of those is the creation of a dropfolder on a server. The inclusion of Claro Single in assetFLO allows for automatic image enhancements to be executed. Each image uploaded to the dropfolder (end users usually get an FTP account to this directory) will be placed in assetFLO after the execution of the Claro Single enhancement.
Workflow integration
Enhancement and processing of images by Claro Single is fast. And speed counts when you’re embedding the functionalities in a database publishing workflow. But there’s a different type of speed. And that is the speed of integration.
At DMP, we are used to implementing complex technologies. As a matter of fact, we prefer this. The more complex the technology is, the less chance that our competition can duplicate our efforts. Unfortunately, this is an advantage we won’t have with Claro Single. It is a dream to integrate, and we rarely have had an easier development cycle. We’re sure that the technology will be implemented by many of our colleagues over the next few years. So we transformed this into a different type of advantage, and we opened up the power of Claro Single as well to our integrators and external developers. With just a few lines of code, they can unleash the power of Claro Single in any database publishing or asset management workflow. Enhancing all images for a single publication, converting all images to grayscale for use in a faxed document, creating low resolution versions for an export to an external content management system. The list goes on and on. Your imagination is the only limiting factor.
Interface integration
And the integration needn’t be limited to workflows or automatic processes. One of the most powerful features of the DMP FLO Suite is contentFLO. Our content management system allows us (or external integrators, or you) to create new interfaces on top of the FLO Suite functionalities. Now that those functionalities include image enhancement and fast image resampling, a whole new world of possibilities is opened.
In our content management system, HTML pages can be created with any look and feel that you like. The look and feel of these pages are created by you, your design department or an external integrator (based on your input). The end result is a new application for web2print, management of prepress workflows, database publishing, ...
Behind these pages programmers can add new functionalities. These are written in VB.NET. The implementation of this can be done by yourself (if you have technical know-how), or by an integrator. But the result is that any logic that you require can be presented to the end user in any interface you want.
That was the technical part. Only administrators or system integrators would ever see that. What the end user sees, is the interface that you developed for him. It might allow the end user to unleash the image enhancement capabilities of Claro Single and the DMP FLO Suite on any image in a job queue. After approving the result, the image is sent on into the workflow.