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Graphic Workshop Professional 15 Revision 2

Graphic Workshop Professional 15 has been updated.

In this release:

WebP: The Graphic Workshop WebP library has been updated to version 1.3.2 to address a security issue. We'd like to take this opportunity to urge all users of Graphic Workshop to update to this release, 'coz the universe has a lot of really bad people in it.

Supercompressor: The Graphic Workshop supercompressor, which will interactively create the smallest possible JPG and WebP documents while avoiding turning your source art into sand paintings, has been updated. It now manages its deliberations without the use of temporary disk files, making it substantially quicker and imposing less stress on your storage devices.

MOZ JPEG: The MOZ JPEG plugin for Graphic Workshop, which creates way more compact JPG files than conventional JPEG writers, has been updated. Among other things, you'll need this if you use the new Supercompressor, as discussed above, with the MOZ JPEG option. Please click on the foregoing link to download it.

Matrix: Addresses an issue with the image indexing logic.

Randomization: The table randomization logic that appears throughout Graphic Workshop and some of its ancillary applications has been enhanced to create less predictable results for larger data sets.

Up To Date: Updates the Alchemy Mindworks notification agent. You might see a prompt from Up To Date during installation as a result. It's harmless.

Ahem...: A number of first-release issues in the revision 1 software have been addressed.

From the initial release:

We've added new functionality to the known universe's most popular image management application, improved its performance and generally refined it to better get along with Windows 10 and 11. (We hasten to add that it still performs admirably under earlier builds of Windows, all the way back to Windows XP, if you're feeling retro.)

Among the new features and enhancements to Graphic Workshop Professional
15, you'll find:

Speed: A quicker and more efficient architecture to make the most of the latest releases of Windows.

Matrix: Create picture matrices like the ones to your right with a few clicks. The Graphic Workshop 15 Matrix window offers a rich palette of matrix styles, at pretty much any resolution you need.

Select Matrix from the Graphic Workshop Image menu, select your favorite photographs and Graphic Workshop will do all the complex arithmetic for you.

Matrix graphics are an epic way to add multiple pictures to a web page without having to devise the HTML to arrange them.

AXES: Graphic Workshop 15 includes a downloadable no-cost plugin that supports AXES, our encrypted graphic standard. With a suitably robust pass phrase, an AXES graphic can resist attempts to crack its encryption for approximately 26-trillion years.

JPEG XL: The 64-bit edition of Graphic Workshop 15 supports JPEG XL, a leading-edge enhancement of JPEG by the JPEG format's original creators.

JPEG XR: The 64-bit edition of Graphic Workshop 15 also supports JPEG XR, Microsoft's putative replacement for JPEG.

JPEG 2000: Graphic Workshop 15 includes full read and write support for JPEG 2000 documents.

SVG: The 64-bit edition of Graphic Workshop 15 includes SVG support, to view and convert from scalable vector graphics.

ICNS: Graphic Workshop 15 can read and create Macintosh ICNS icon documents. If you like to collect icons, it opens up a huge library of hitherto inaccessible pictures.

QR Codes: Graphic Workshop 15 can create QR codes with any content you need. Embed them in your graphics to include copyright information or a link to your web page.

Print them as hard copy and affix them to walls — passers-by will scan them to see what they're up to.

The 64-bit edition of Graphic Workshop can locate QR codes in your pictures and tell you what they say. It will also provide you with clickable links to any web page addresses it finds therein.

QOI: Graphic Workshop 15 supports the Quite OK Image format, a shockingly quick way to store pictures.

EXR: The 64-bit edition of Graphic Workshop 15 includes support for Industrial Light & Magic's EXR graphics.
PBM, PGM and PPM: Graphic Workshop 15 supports the standard Linux graphic formats.
XCF: Graphic Workshop 15 will read and write GIMP XCF graphic documents.
Mosaic: Graphic Workshop 15's Mosaic window will build photographic mosaics - graphics created from tiles derived from your library of pictures.

Click on the example to your right to see what it's really up to. Zoom in to see how it was constructed.

We hasten to add that while mosaic graphics look cool on screen, they're amazing printed as hard copy.
Photoshop Plugins: The 64-bit edition of Graphic Workshop 15 can import most third-party Photoshop-compatible plugins, and subsequently apply the effects contained therein to your graphics. Be sure to read the discussion of Photoshop plugins in the Reference section of Graphic Workshop's documentation.
Status Bar: The Graphic Workshop 15 status bar has been updated to display the aggregate file size for selected objects... a hitherto implemented feature that vanished some time ago when an unnoticed bug crept into it.
Smart Thumbnails: Graphic Workshop 15 includes a new smart thumbnail mode that fetches its thumbnail images from the Windows thumbnail cache. If you'll be looking at graphics in common formats, such as JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF, smart thumbnails are quick, uncomplicated and they don't require the creation of THN files. See the discussion of Smart Thumbnail in the Thumbnails section of Graphic Workshop's Reference document.
Favorites: The Graphic Workshop Favorites window will now fetch its thumbnails from the Windows thumbnail cache by default, making it substantially quicker for common file formats.
View: Graphic Workshop 15's View window now includes jump buttons to move to the previous or next graphic in a browser. Hover your mouse cursor over the left or right edge of the View window to summon a jump button.

Jump buttons can be disabled in the View mode Configuration window if you aren't in a jumping mood.

The un-maximize button the title bar of Graphic Workshop's View window is now disabled by default. It can be restored in Setup. Users who found the View window being resized by other applications can stop wondering what caused this phenomenon. We don't know either, but it's history.
Plugin SDK: If you'd like to see Graphic Workshop support formats it currently doesn't, we invite you to download the Graphic Workshop Plugin SDK, everything you'll need to create your own format plugins... as long as you have a suitable language compiler and you know how to use it.
WebP: The WebP Override window has been updated to correctly apply its parameters to animations.
Animation Workshop UltraLight: Several issues in the application's user interface have been addressed.
Themes: An issue in the theme interface common to most Alchemy Mindworks software that could leak resources and occasionally crash the applications in question has been mercilessly stomped.

The Graphic Workshop Printed Reference has been revised for the version 15 software, and it includes sections for all the new functionality. It's available through Amazon — there's a link to it at the Graphic Workshop web page, and you can access it through the Get The Graphic Workshop Printed Reference item of Graphic Workshop's Help menu. Alternately, just click on the book to your right.

All the Graphic Workshop plugins have been upgraded to install in version 15. Note that if you're currently using an earlier version of Graphic Workshop and its attendant plugins:

Be sure to uninstall the version 14 plugins before you install Graphic Workshop Professional 15. Failing this, Graphic Workshop Professional 15 should prompt you to do so automatically the first time you run it.
You'll need to download and install the new plugin installers to run under Graphic Workshop Professional 15.
The plugin installers will install plugins for both the 32- and 64-bit editions of Graphic Workshop as applicable — you don't have to download separate 32- and 64-bit plugins.

If you're using a registered installation of the Graphic Workshop RAW Digital Camera and Smartphone plugin for an earlier release of Graphic Workshop, note that your existing registration key will work with the version 15 plugin — you won't have to buy it again.

As in years past, when you run Graphic Workshop Professional 15 for the first time, it will look for a previous installation of Graphic Workshop Professional 14 and optionally copy your existing configuration, so you won't have to set everything up by hand. Even your open browser windows will be preserved.

Note that if you installed both the 32- and 64-bit editions of Graphic Workshop Professional 14 on the same computer, the automatic uninstall will only remove one of them. You'll need to uninstall its sibling by hand.

Click on the blue button to download Graphic Workshop Professional 15.

If you haven't done so previously, we recommend that you install the Alchemy Mindworks trusted certificate and disable the Smart Screen blue window of doom prior to downloading Alchemy Mindworks software.

Upgrades

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for Graphic Workshop Professional 14 on or after May 1, 2023, you're welcome to a no-cost upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional 15.

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for Graphic Workshop Professional 14 prior to May 1, 2023, we invite you to upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional 15 for half the current new-user price.

The first time you run Graphic Workshop Professional 15, it will determine which upgrade option applies to your license.

Click on the blue button below to visit the upgrade page.

You can access the no-cost upgrade page directly by clicking on the foregoing link.

The graphic of the woman with a digital camera is by Kurhan and is used under license from StockFresh. The people in the example graphics in this section don't exist — their pictures were created by an AI at
This-Person-Does-not-Exist.com. Photoshop is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Alchemy Mindworks has no business relationship with Adobe Systems Incorporated, and the name Photoshop is used herein for descriptive purposes only.

Announcing PNG MNG Construction Set 15

PNG MNG Construction Set 15 has been released.

We've added new functionality to PNG MNG Construction Set, improved its performance and generally refined it to better get along with Windows 10 and 11. (We hasten to add that it still performs admirably under earlier builds of Windows, all the way back to Windows XP, if you're feeling retro.)

If you need to build leading-edge animations, this is the application to make it happen.

Among the new features and enhancements to PNG MNG Construction Set 15, you'll find...

Speed: A quicker and more efficient architecture to make the most of the latest releases of Windows.
Graphic Matrix: Create animated matrices like the one to your right with a few clicks. Featuring the epic matrix library of the The Graphic Workshop 15 Matrix window, illustrated earlier in this posting, PNG MNG Construction Set offers a rich palette of matrix styles, at pretty much any resolution you need... with dynamic transitions, as shown here.

Select Graphic Matrix from the PNG MNG Construction Set Chunk menu, add your pictures and PNG MNG Construction Set will do all the complex arithmetic for you.

Matrix animations are a cool way to add multiple pictures to a web page or your social media posts.

Multiple-level Undo: PNG MNG Construction Set's document windows now feature multiple undo levels. Step back through each change you make to an animation if things go sideways. Avoid inflicting dents shaped like your head upon nearby walls.
Supercompressor: A bug in the PNG MNG Construction Set Supercompressor has been addressed to squeeze your animations into even smaller quarters.
Plugins: The PNG MNG Construction Set animation plugins have been updated and a number of performance and quality issues have been addressed.
Shadow: An issue with the Shadow window that caused it to misbehave when it was asked to apply shadows to WebP animations under some configurations of Windows has been addressed.
Manage: The Manage window has been updated to correctly apply absolute offsets to WebP animations correctly.
WebP: The WebP writer has been updated to correctly handle Source content with no alpha transparency.
Performance: Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that software developers never really stop meddling with.
Documentation: Updates the documentation.

Click on the blue button to download PNG MNG Construction Set 15.

Upgrades

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for PNG MNG Construction Set 14 on or after May 1, 2023, you're welcome to a no-cost upgrade to PNG MNG Construction Set 15.

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for PNG MNG Construction Set 14 prior to May 1, 2023, we invite you to upgrade to PNG MNG Construction Set 14 for half the current new-user price.

The first time you run PNG MNG Construction Set 14, it will determine which upgrade option applies to your license.

Click on the blue button below to visit the upgrade page.

You can access the no-cost upgrade page directly by clicking on the foregoing link.

Plugins

All the animation plugins for PNG MNG Construction Set have been upgraded to run with PNG MNG Construction Set 15.

If you have registered one or more plugins for a previous release of PNG MNG Construction Set, your existing registration keys are still valid. You'll just need to download the version 15 installers for your plugins.

All the animation plugins are at:

IMPORTANT: If you have plugins installed under GIF Construction Set 14 or PNG MNG Construction Set 14 and you plan to uninstall GIF Construction Set 15 or PNG MNG Construction Set 15 to replace them with the new version 15 software, please be sure uninstall all your version 14 plugins, and then uninstall GIF Construction Set 14 and PNG MNG Construction Set 14.

PNG MNG Construction Set 15 will offer to automatically remove your old plugins for you the first time it runs — go for it, as this will save you lots of clicking later on.

We've also created a quick way to reinstall your plugins once you've downloaded the version 15 installers. Please see the the plugin help page for assistance.

The background of the banner graphic above, a detail from a picture by Jimi Backhouse, is used under license from freeimages.com. The ink well icon for PNG MNG Construction Set was created by Eugen Buzuk of icondrawer.com, and is used under license. The people in the example graphics in this section don't exist — their pictures were created by an AI at This-Person-Does-not-Exist.com.

Announcing GIF Construction Set
Professional 15

GIF Construction Set Professional 15 has been released.

We've added new functionality to GIF Construction Set Professional, improved its performance and generally refined it to better get along with Windows 10 and 11. (We hasten to add that it still performs admirably under earlier builds of Windows, all the way back to Windows XP, if you're feeling retro.)

Among the new features and enhancements to GIF Construction Set Professional 15, you'll find...

Speed: A quicker and more efficient architecture to make the most of the latest releases of Windows.
Graphic Matrix: Create animated matrices like the one to your right with a few clicks. Featuring the epic matrix library of the The Graphic Workshop 15 Matrix window, illustrated earlier in this posting, GIF Construction Set offers a rich palette of matrix styles, at pretty much any resolution you need... with dynamic transitions, as shown here.

Select Matrix from the GIF Construction Set Block menu, add your pictures and GIF Construction Set will do all the complex arithmetic for you.

Matrix graphics are a cool way to add multiple pictures to a web page or your social media posts.

Multiple-level Undo: GIF Construction Set's document windows now feature multiple undo levels. Step back through each change you make to an animation if things go sideways. Avoid inflicting dents shaped like your head upon nearby walls.
Supercompressor: A bug in the GIF Construction Set Supercompressor has been addressed to squeeze your animations into even smaller quarters.
Plugins: The GIF Construction Set animation plugins have been updated and a number of performance and quality issues have been addressed.
Performance: Addresses a number of GDI and performance issues that software developers never really stop meddling with.
Documentation: Updates the documentation.

Click on the blue button to download GIF Construction Set Professional 15.

Upgrades

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for GIF Construction Set Professional 14 on or after May 1, 2023, you're welcome to a no-cost upgrade to GIF Construction Set Professional 15.

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for GIF Construction Set Professional 14 prior to May 1, 2023, we invite you to upgrade to GIF Construction Set Professional 14 for half the current new-user price.

The first time you run GIF Construction Set Professional 14, it will determine which upgrade option applies to your license.

Click on the blue button below to visit the upgrade page.

You can access the no-cost upgrade page directly by clicking on the foregoing link.

Plugins

All the animation plugins for GIF Construction Set Professional have been upgraded to run with GIF Construction Set Professional 15.

If you have registered one or more plugins for a previous release of GIF Construction Set, your existing registration keys are still valid. You'll just need to download the version 15 installers for your plugins.

All the animation plugins are at:

GIF Construction Set 15 will offer to automatically remove your old plugins for you the first time it runs — go for it, as this will save you lots of clicking later on.

We've also created a quick way to reinstall your plugins once you've downloaded the version 15 installers. Please see the the plugin help page for assistance.

The background of the banner graphic above, a detail from a picture by Fabibel, is used under license from freeimages.com. The people in the example graphics in this section don't exist — their pictures were created by an AI at This-Person-Does-not-Exist.com.

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If you have questions about this list or any Alchemy Mindworks products, please contact us or click on the button below:

You can also contact us by telephone at (705) 789-5238, and by snail-mail at Alchemy Mindworks, L10 C8 Brunel Box 3-11, Huntsville, ON P1H 2J3, CANADA.

IMPORTANT: Prior to downloading Alchemy Mindworks software, we strongly recommend that you install the Alchemy Mindworks trusted certificate, and forego several of Windows' scarier pseudo-warnings. While you're busy ridding your computer of nettlesome popups, we'd like to suggest you disable its Smart Screen blue window of doom as well.

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The archive for this newsletter includes access to earlier postings.

Contents:

Graphic Workshop Professional 15 Revision 2

Upgrades

Announcing PNG MNG Construction Set 15

Upgrades

Plugins

Announcing GIF Construction Set Professional 15

Upgrades

Plugins

Replying to this Message, List Removal and Details

Announcing GIF Construction Set
Professional 15