photobie

Special day

2006-09-27T03:46:00.000-04:00

Today is a special day for my little Cindy, I just finished a new version for Photobie, which includes a set of cutomizable brushes. I also enhanced the enbedded filters to handle transparent colors. It is 3:40am, I am ready to celebrate tonight!

I did it!

2006-09-10T17:56:00.000-04:00

Hi, guys,

As I promised, Photobie now can support Photoshop filter plugins (.8bf files).
Yes, it's not easy work, I still have lot to do for some bug fixing. However, most plugins works quite well. As you can image how excited I am now, there are thousands of such fantastic free plugins out there, now I can apply all sorts of effect on my images.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

My friends, please do let me know if you discovered some real good filter plugins. Let me enjoy it.

What next?

Hmmmmm maybe flash editor? ....... I know it is not easy. But I really want to make a flash movie for my daughter with my own software ... I gonna try it by all means.

Check out Photobie 2.8 and enjoy!

Cheers
--Cheng

Photobie 2.6.1

2006-06-30T15:51:00.000-04:00

Well, Well, Well,

I didn't keep up Photobie Blogger for a long time.
This time, I am here to let you know current development status of Photobie.

Currently, I am working on the Photoshop Filter Plugin feature which will enable Photobie user to use thousands free Photoshop Plugin out there. I have made some progress on it, and I will publish the new release with this feature soon. Meantime, I will keep fixing some bugs and adding few features.

My next goal is to allow Photobie user to create Flash within Photobie easily. Since Photobie already embedded with a Gif Animation Editor and a Flash player. A Flash editor will make it complete. I need this feature desperately for myself. I can't wait to make flash cartoons and movies for my little daughter.

Wish me good luck, and I will keep up this blog with new updated status.

--Cheng

photobie 2.0.2 is ready

2005-11-19T11:30:00.000-05:00

Hi, guys,

I am very pleased to announce that Photobie 2.0.2 is released today.

Today, my lovely daughter turns to 12-week old. I am typing while having her sit on my lap and smiling at me.
What a wonderful moment!

Here I want you to share my happiness. Go download Photobie 2.0.2,
and you will find lots of new features and much less bugs :)

Don't forget to try out the new fuzzy region selector feature?

Also, if you know Chinese, please follow this link to a good Photobie demonstration.

Enjoy.

--Cheng

Share my happiness

2005-08-29T11:22:00.000-04:00

My baby girl Cindy was born on Last Saturday. She is so cute and verything goes very well. I am so happy.

Now we have another beautiful model for Photobie show!

:) :) :) :) --Cheng

photobie 1.9.9 is ready

2005-08-26T11:25:00.000-04:00

Photobie 1.9.9 is ready,

Enhancement:
support redo
layer merge with/without removing mergeing layer
apply filter to layer as well as whole image
copy the select layer region to clipborad
and more....

Enjoy!

--Cheng

Creating professional logo with Photobie

2005-08-15T12:43:00.000-04:00

Don't you know you can creat professional logo with Photobie.

Check the Photobie Forum, there is an example showing you how to create an profession logo step by step. Extremely simple and flexible!!!

Cheers!
--Cheng

Photobie 1.9.1

2005-08-15T12:42:00.000-04:00

Small bug fixing release.
Now you can create more professional images.

--Cheng

Using MS Word's WordArt feature with Photobie!

2005-07-28T11:19:00.000-04:00

You may know that MS Word allows you to create fancy flexible WordArt text. Here I just want to let you that. You can use this feature together with Photobie to create perfect fancy text. The process is simple:
First, create the WordArt text in Word, should be simple to you.
Second, use the screencapture tool in Photobie (either to use notification menu which located on system tray of right bottom on you screen, or to use the predefined the hotkey) to capture the selected rectangle that contains the text.
Third, paste to the image that you are editing, and set the transparent color to the white. Bingo!

Note, to get the perfect effect, you may need to adjust the layer transparent color tolerance in the lay manager property list.

Well, This is just a sample usage, you can definitely explore more usages with Photobie integrated Screen Capture feature.

--Cheng

Why didn't I get the transparent GIF image?

2005-07-28T11:00:00.000-04:00

Sometime, you may have a perfect transparent image in the Photobie editor, but when you save it as a transparent GIF file, there is a background in certain color, which makes it not transparent. It happens due to the Photobie tries to set the GIF transparent color as the Global transparent color, it works if there is no dominate color in your image that is close to the Global transparent color. So, the solution is simple, set the Global transparent color to whatever color that isn't in the current image before you save it.

Bingo!

Photobie 1.9 is now available

2005-07-28T10:06:00.000-04:00

What's new in version1.9:

1. 32 bit true color Icon support: now you can create 32 bit true color icon easily. Do whatever you do as editing other image (including the transparent part), make sure the background image have square dimension. Then config the icon output setup on the Icon_GIF menu. You can set the output as 64x64,32x32,16x16 bitmaps within the single icon file. By default, the icon file consists 32x32 and 16x16 bitmaps. Click on the save button, give the icon file name, press enter, Bingo! You got you nice icon.

2. Image directory viewer allows you to batch resize/rotate multiple images: simply select the images in the top image browser (for multiple selection, you need to hold the Ctrl key while click on the destinate image), click on the resize/rotate button on the toolbar, then set the dimension/angle values. click the action button. Then you will see the resized/rotated images

3. Enhanced layer manager: the layer manager holds more buttons which enable you to clone a layer, copy/paste a layer, merge multiple layers. Also there is a button enable to import the color label on the left tool bar of the main form to be the layer transparent color. To make the GUI nicer, now you can hide the layer property info by click on the show/hide property button on the layer manager.

4. Autoscroll active window capture: Photobie enable you to capture the whole scroll window automatically. When setup the hotkeys, you need to check the autoscroll checkbox together with the capture the active window checkbox.

Note: For some reason, the Firefox browser doesn't scroll; Be sure to check the captured image to see if it is captured correctly by all means! (Will work on such problem in future release. At least you can try to use it now, maybe it works perfect for you already.)

5. Smart path recorder: Photobie now records you last save/open directory, so that you don't have to find directory tediously.

6. Few bug fixes.

Now, I will really work on the Photo album feature in the next few weeks. I have to get it done by my daughter/son birth, which should be the end of August.

I can't wait to be a new Daddy!

Enjoy the Photobie,

--Cheng

Photobie 1.8 is ready.

2005-07-12T00:40:00.000-04:00

Advanced screen capture features added.
1. allow up to 8 customized hotkeys for screen capture.
2. can capture the cursor,
3. can capture active window
4. can capture predefined area
5. can output to clipboard as well as new photobie image
6. can invoke other programs that can take bmp image file as command line argument

Also, Photobie now support high quality transparent GIF image.

The image directory viewer is also enhanced you can press arrow keys to switch images . It also allows full screen view.

Updated the help file (finally, I did it.) :)

Enjoy!

How to use Photo Frame feature

2005-05-28T12:36:00.000-04:00

Now let me show you how you can create a Photo Frame and how apply it to your photos

Step 1: find a best image that can be used as a Frame
(Trick, from google image use keyword "frame". Then you will get many candidate frame images)

Here is the image I got: JOYO

Step 2: Download it (or simply capture it to Photobie using photobie screencapture feature)
See screenshot.

Step 3: Make frame by click on Menu->Frame->make current image as picture frame See screen shot., then you will see a new photo panel created in Photobie. It actually consists two layers (background layer is in green color, layer 1 is the image you captured.)See screenshot

Step 4: Edit frame by set up the front layer's transparent color. In my sample we can use the layerManager in right side of Photobie window (see screenshot ) to set the transparent color (TPColor) as white and set tolerance (TPRangeBlue/Green/Red) to appropriate value see screenshot. You might need to adjust the color and tolerance several times to get the perfect effect.

Step 5: Save frame to .pob file see screenshot

Step 6: Open the photo you want to be framed see screenshot 1. see screenshot 2

Step 7: Apply frame by click on Menu->Frame->apply a picture frame to current image see screenshot, and select the .pob file that you just saved.see screenshot. Then you will see the new Photo panel with current image as the middle layer.see screenshot, you need to drag that layer to the propriate place.

Step 8: Save the framed pictured as .jpg or .pob file. If you save it as .pob file, you can retouch it easily later. see screenshot

Step 9: Open saved frame picture which is saved as .jpg or .pob format.

All done. Here is the my final image screenshot, actural image saveFramedPhoto.jpg

Now you can apply the frame to more pictures. Then it is really simple process maybe two clicks away. Some time you may want to adjust the image size first before apply the frame.

Have fun and enjoy it!
--Cheng

Photobie 1.6 is available

2005-05-28T12:23:00.000-04:00

Hi, folks,
After several weeks database project development (CStore), I finally got some free time to enhance my Photobie.
Regarding my wife's request, I added the photo frame feature. Now you can do:
Create a photobie Frame
Edit the photobie Frame
Save the photobie Frame as .pob file format
Apply Frame to your current photos.

Sample images with frame is available in
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~xuedchen/Photobie/Gallary/tinaImgs/
Sample frame (.pob) files is available in
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~xuedchen/Photobie/Gallary/frames/

Besides, I fixed few bugs and enhanced the performance.

What next?
I am planning to add the photo ablum editing feature in next few month, may be ready next two weeks :)

Have fun, try to edit your favorite frames and apply them to your photos

--Cheng

Photobie1.5 is available

2005-05-22T21:44:00.000-04:00

Starting from May 20th 2005, Photobie is officially posted for free download at CNet download.com. There has been more thousands of download from various download websites.
As Photobie is gaining the popularity, photobie developer is looking forward to add more features to it. So please email photobie@yahoo.com for some new feature suggestions. Let's build Photobie in your preference.

Photobie Blog

2004-12-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

This is the Blog related to Photobie development and publishing.