Where can we buy an OPTPiX iMageStudio series product? Is it only for sale on the internet? If it is not, could you introduce us a distributor or a shop?

Thank you for your interest in OPTPiX iMageStudio. All our products are only for direct sale from us, "Web Technology Corp." We do not have any distributor or shop to sell our product. Please order by E-mail or facsimile so that we can inform you the estimates.

We are considering buying three copies of iMageStudio. In this case, shall we buy three packages or is it possible to purchase one package and pay license fee for the rest?

Thank you for your interest in our products. We are sorry to tell you that you can purchase our OPTPiX iMageStudio products only by packages but not on license basis.

Do you put any limitation on using images that we produce with iMageStudio's color reduction function?

No, you should not pay any kind of royalties to us on your image data that you create with OPTPiX iMageStudio.

Would you tell me how do you manage OPTPIX iMageStudio license?

We manage license of OPTPIX iMageStudio series products by hardware keys. There are two types of the hardware keys that you can use: for parallel (printer) port and for USB port of your PC.

I want to know whether you reissue a lost hardware key or not. If it is possible, how much should it cost?

We do not reissue hardware key for any reason.

I use Windows XP SP2 and executed Windows Update. And now iMageStudio does not recognize the USB hardware key.

We are reported that iMageStudio does not recognize the USB hardware key on Windows XP after Windows Update. Please also refer to "Versions Compatible with Windows XP / Hardware Key Driver Update for Windows XP/2000" for more details.

I use Windows XP installed in AMD Athlon64 machine. And now iMageStudio does not recognize the Parallel Port hardware key.

We confirmed unavailability of the Parallel Port hardware key in AMD Athlon64 IA-32 compatibility mode. Please Note: However the USB hardware key functions in this mode, the manufacture of the hardware key does not guarantee of its proper operation.

Do you think that two hardware keys work well with one parallel port of a PC?

No, we do not recommend to use more than one hardware keys on a parallel port of your PC because that does not satisfy the specification of the hardware key. If you want to switch different hardware keys, for example to use different applications, we recommend you to use hardware key for USB port because it is easier to connect and disconnect.

I'd like to have a copy of OPTPiX Plugin SDK. Should I buy the product in order to get it?

We provide OPTPiX Plugin SDK (Software Development Kit) for the sake of iMageStudio users who want to develop OPTPiX Plugins. OPTPiX Plugin SDK is "license-free" in a sense that an iMageStudio user can freely use the SDK to create OPTPiX Plugins. You have to be an iMageStudio user (who have proper User ID and Password) in order to download the Plugin SDK from our web site. In other words, you can not get it before you buy the product and register yourself. Here is a brief explanation of OPTPiX Plugins. There are different kinds of Plugins that you can use to load image files, save image files, or filter images in OPTPiX iMageStudio. These are called "functions." The current Plugin SDK specification defines the following five functions: File Loading Function File Saving Function Filter Function Importing Function Exporting Function

I am creating an MIPMAP output Plugin. I read the specification of the OPTPiX Plugin Version 2.0 SDK and I suppose it is not possible to output MIPMAP layers but I am not sure. Can an output Plugin support multiple layers?

Yes. An Export Plugin or a File Saving Plugin does support MIPMAP output, although a Filter Plugin does not. When you create such Plugins, be careful to set OPT_FLAG_MULTILAYER flag in "nPluginFlags" member of OPT_PLUGIN_INFO structure. * This function was supported from OPTPiX Plugin Version 5.0 SDK.

I am using OPTPiX Plugin SDK to create an iMageStudio Plugin. The trouble is when I save a file. In the StratOperation() function, I cast OPT_PLUGIN_INFO structure into OPT_FILEWRITE_INFO and get BITMAPINFOHEADER information but its "biBitCount" member has value of 8 for a 4-bit color image !

It is because iMageStudio version 3 or 4 converts image data of under 8-bpp color depth into 8-bpp data automatically when it reads the image file. This behavior makes your Plugin development easier. When you read a 4-bpp image file, value of 8 is set to "biBitCount" and 16 to "biClrUsed", and the image data is loaded in a standard way in which one pixel occupies one byte in the memory. Consequently, you only have to process 8-bpp and 24-bpp image data in a Plugin in order to get ready for files of various color depth. To a File Saving Plugin, iMageStudio gives image data in either 8-bpp or 24-bpp format. So, if you process images with few colors (say, 16 or less), you might want to convert the image into 4-bpp format, and then save the data into the output file.

I am creating a iMageStudio Plugin using OPTPiX Plugin SDK. My problem is that when it reads a multi-layer image (a MIPMAP) from file, bad colors appear on the upper two dots of the 2x2 pixel sized image.

As the image data is stored in Windows standard DIB format for OPTPiX Plugins, an image data of 24-bbp RGB format will be stored in a data structure with each horizontal line of image data aligned to 4-byte boundary. It means that you do not always get "height x width x 3" bytes of memory filled with image data. Here is a sample code to load the image properly: for (k = 0 ;k < h ; k++) { for (j = 0 ;j < w ; j++) { *byte_p = (char)(BLUE) ; byte_p++; // B *byte_p = (char)(GREEN); byte_p++; // G *byte_p = (char)(RED) ; byte_p++; // R } byte_p = (BYTE *)(((DWORD)byte_p + 3) & ~3); /* align 4 */ } You may either adjust the alignment for each line in this way or calculate the delta from the line length before going into the loop and add the delta to the top address for each line. Also note that image data is stored upside down in Windows standard DIB format!

I am wondering where I should place the copy of "Plugin for Photoshop" that comes with iMageStudio software.

Please copy the file to the "Plug-Ins" sub-folder of the folder you have installed the Photoshop and then start the Photoshop program (for example "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Plug-Ins" folder). You can place the copy in any sub-folder of the "Plug-Ins" folder as it is automatically scanned by Photoshop in its startup process.

When I use "Color Reduction with OPTPiX iMageStudio" filter plugin from Photoshop's Filter menu, where the color-reduced data goes? I tried to do the color reduction from Photoshop and save the result to a file, but when I load the file in OPTPiX iMageStudio, the colors do not seem to be reduced.

When you apply color reduction from Adobe® Photoshop® via the Filter Plugin, the image you see on the Photoshop window is indeed the image after the color reduction process. However, as the filter "plugin" function of Adobe® Photoshop® does not support other image data structure than Direct Color, the image data after color reduction by iMageStudio will be converted into a Direct Color image before it is loaded back into Photoshop. In this case, the used colors in the image are reduced to the number you have specified at the color reduction process (say, 256 colors). To convert the image to Indexed Color, you can select [Mode] - [Indexed Color] item from Photoshop's [Image] menu and then, from Palette list of the dialog, select Exact.

Please tell me how to apply color reduction feature of OPTPiX iMageStudio to convert full-color or indexed color files into two-color monochrome images.

There are two ways to create a monochrome image: Use Grayscale Filter to convert the original image to a grayscale image, and then apply Color Reduction, specifying 2 as Output Colors. Use Grayscale Filter to convert the original image to a grayscale image. Next, in the Palette tab of Color Reduction Setting dialog, check "Use Fixed Palette" option and then apply Color Reduction. In this case, you can use an external Black & White palette file called "MONO.ACT" which is provided in with iMageStudio and placed in "PALETTE" sub-folder of the folder you have installed iMageStudio. Hint: You often get a better result by decreasing Gamma before Color Reduction (say, about 0.70) to make the picture slightly darker, and for Color Reduction, selecting Ordered Dithering as the Error Diffusion method and specifying Major (75%) as the Diffusion Level.

Can I use my own palette for OPTPiX iMageStudio color reduction?

Yes. You can specify your own palette by using "Fixed Palette" color reduction. In the Palette tab of [Color Reduction Setting] dialog, check Use Fixed Palette option and specify your palette, and then apply color reduction.

Is there size restriction about loadable PSD file size?

The current version of iMageStudio supports PSD files as large as 9999 x 9999 pixels. This is the upper limit.

To use iMageStudio's macro function, I want to start a macro by using command line interface, or CLI, to launch the iMageStudio program itself, rather than using ordinary GUI (graphical user interface). Is that possible?

Yes, it is possible. The following command-line startup options are supported by iMageStudio to help you: istudio.exe imagefile [imagefile ...] This command starts up iMageStudio and let it load the specified image file and open a window for it. You can specify multiple image files. istudio.exe /t imagefile This one starts up iMageStudio, let it load the specified image file and open a window for it. After loading the image file, iMageStudio will delete the file. This option is useful when you pass an image from an external application to iMageStudio by using a temporary file. istudio.exe /macro macrofile This command starts up iMageStudio and let it execute the specified macro file. Please note that iMageStudio is not designed for fully automatic execution. Many functions are not available for command line options.

We are using our own 210-color palette and we want to keep color numbers of this palette after applying color reduction by this palette to 64 colors. Is that possible?

Although it is possible to use a 210-color fixed palette for color reduction, there is no feature to reduce the 210 colors into specific 64 colors in the 210-color palette. If you choose fixed-palette color reduction and specify 64 as the Output Colors, the 64 Palette Entries at the beginning of the fixed palette will be used for the color reduction. However, if you can manually select 64 colors that you want to keep, here is a workaround for you: In the 210-color palette, leave the 64 colors that you want to keep and change all other entries, replacing original colors with "odd" colors that will not be used for color reduction (for example, extremely vivid colors not used in the original image). Apply "Fixed Palette" Color Reduction using the modified 210-color palette. An image will be created with a 210-color palette but using only 64 colors that you have chosen. Overwrite the palette of the created image with the data of the original 210-color palette.

Can I use "iMageStudio for Nintendo DS" to develop games for GAME BOY ADVANCE?

Yes, you can. iMageStudio for Nintendo DS also includes all the functions available in iMageStudio for GAME BOY ADVANCE.