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Contents:

1. Graphic Workshop Professional 15 Revision 5 (second notification)
2. GIF Construction Set Professional 15 Revision 2 (new this weekend)
3. Announcing Screen Saver Construction Set 15 (additional notification)
4. New Reviews at Storm Gods (new this weekend)
5. Replying to this Message, List Removal and Details

Graphic Workshop Professional 15 Revision 5

Graphic Workshop Professional 15 has been updated.

In this release:

• Information Window: The Graphic Workshop document information window has been updated to make it easier to read, and to allow for longer comments.
  
  
• MP3: The Graphic Workshop MP3 writer has been addressed to nail a problem that could cause it to write invalid metadata under some configurations of Windows.
  
  
• Paint: The Paint and Paint and Save as items in the browser right-click menus have been disabled for file types that can't be painted, such as video and sound files.
  
  
• Destination: The Destination window has been redesigned to improve its performance, and to move the audio file types to their own column.
  
  
• Filters: A number of issues with the View mode Filters window have been addressed..
  
  
• Preview: A cosmetic issue in the middle-click preview window of Filters has been fixed.
  
  
• Performance: Several performance improvements have been implemented throughout the application.
  
  

GIF Construction Set
Professional 15 Revision 2

GIF Construction Set Professional has been updated.

• Adjust View To Fit: Really extensive animations that are too large to fit on your desktop are now resized in memory when they're viewed by default. This behavior can be disabled by unselecting Adjust Oversize View Windows in Setup.
  
  It has come to our attention that some users of GIF Construction Set have found an unusual application for it. They render animations of machine parts to watch how they behave. Some of these renderings are created at very high resolutions, hence this feature.
  
  
• PNG Security: The GIF Construction Set PNG library has been updated to the latest release to address several potential security and performance issues. We'd like to take this opportunity to urge all users of GIF Construction Set to update to this release, 'coz the universe has a lot of really bad people in it.
  
  The current version of the PNG library is now available in the About → Credits window. It's currently 1.6.40.
  
  
• JPEG: The GIF Construction Set JPEG library has been updated to version 3.0.1 to address a security issue. We'd like to take this opportunity to urge all users of GIF Construction Set to update to this release.
  
  
• WebP: The GIF Construction Set 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 GIF Construction Set to update to this release.
  
  
• Memory Leak: A resource memory issue that could cause GIF Construction Set to terminate unexpectedly has 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.
  
  
• Supercompressor: A bug in the GIF Construction Set Supercompressor that could see it create invalid animation files in some circumstances has been stomped.
  
  
• 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.

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 GIF Construction Set Professional 14, we invite you to upgrade to GIF Construction Set Professional 15 for half the current new-user price.

The background of the banner graphic above, a detail from a picture by Fabibel, is used under license from freeimages.com. 

Announcing Screen Saver Construction Set 15

Screen Saver Construction Set 15 has been released.

We've added new functionality to Screen Saver 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.)

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

• PNG Security: The Screen Saver Construction Set PNG library has been updated to the latest release to address several potential security and performance issues. We'd like to take this opportunity to urge all users of Screen Saver Construction Set to update to this release, 'coz the universe has a lot of really bad people in it.
  
  The current version of the PNG library is now available in the About → Credits window. It's currently 1.6.40.
  
  
• JPEG: The Screen Saver Construction Set JPEG library has been updated to version 3.0.1 to address a security issue. We'd like to take this opportunity to urge all users of Screen Saver Construction Set to update to this release.
  
  
• WebP: The Screen Saver Construction Set 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 Screen Saver Construction Set to update to this release.
  
  
• Memory Leak: A resource memory issue that could cause Screen Saver Construction Set to terminate unexpectedly has 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.
  
  
• WIX Installer: A bug in the version field of the installer creation logic has been addressed.
  
  
• Private Documents: Screen Saver Construction Set optionally can create its documents without storing creator information. Enable the Save Without Creator Information option in Setup.
  
  
• Drawing Engine: A number of metrics and details have been improved in the Presentation drawing engines for Screen Saver Construction Set.
  
  
• 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 Screen Saver Construction Set 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 Screen Saver Construction Set 14 on or after August 1, 2023, you're welcome to a no-cost upgrade to Screen Saver Construction Set 15.

If you have registered or upgraded a registration for Screen Saver Construction Set 14 prior to August 1, 2023, we invite you to upgrade to Screen Saver Construction Set 15 for half the current new-user price.

The first time you run Screen Saver Construction Set 15, it will determine which upgrade option applies to your license.

New Reviews at Storm Gods

A number of fresh entries have been posted at Storm Gods.

Storm Gods — product reviews by the staff of Alchemy Mindworks — features objective reviews of the things we've bought.

It might betray a significant collective character flaw, but we buy a lot of stuff. For the most part, we research our purchases carefully. Storm Gods will share our choices and our experiences with them.

Unlike product review pages with larger staff and actual production budgets, Storm Gods is based exclusively on items we would have bought anyway. No compensation was provided to us by their manufacturers — not that we'd necessarily have objected if they'd tried — and as such, all the reviews at Storm Gods are wholly unbiased.

Alchemy Mindworks has no affiliation with any of the manufacturers mentioned at Storm Gods — in most cases, we never even filled in the warranty cards.

The banner graphic above is a detail from the painting Ancient of Days, by William Blake, circa 1794, which appeared as a front piece to his book Europe a Prophecy.

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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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