Version 3.5 is a giant leap forward for ImageNest.   Both print quality and Color Quality are significantly improved.   Our new print system processes all files in 32 bit floating point and automatically re-sizes them to final print resolution.  This change is largely transparent and happens automatically but the difference in print quality is striking.  How are we doing this?  Here is how printing is done from other applications”

Photoshop, ImageNest 3.0, Apple Preview, Lightroom, Etc:

Customer has a 300 PPI image open in their application that they wish to print.  They click Print and send the file to the print control panel for their Epson Printer

Printer Driver resizes the 300PPI image to 720PPI using nearest neighbor (low quality) or Bi-Liner (low quality) interpolation.  This happens in 100% of all print jobs that are printed from Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.   Why?  An inkjet printer has a native resolution that all images must be set to in order to print.  The same is true for canon and hp printer but their native PPI is 600 PPI.

Print Driver applies a microweave process that converts the PPI (pixels per inch) to DPI (Dots Per Inch with options for 720, 1440, or 2880 DPI  on an Epson printer- Canon and HP microweave to different sizes).   Printers don’t put pixels on paper,  they print dots on paper and microweaving is the process of converting pixels to dots.  There is no Image quality lost in this part of the process but a higher level of microweaving generally results in a higher quality print but a slower print time.

New ImageNest 3.5 Print Process:

Customer has a 300 PPI image open in ImageNest that they wish to print.  They click Print and ImageNest interpolates the image to 720 PPI using a very high quality Vector Based Interpolation.

Print driver recognizes that the image is at printer resolution and does not perform any interpolation.

Print Driver applies a microweave process that converts the PPI (pixels per inch) to DPI (Dots Per Inch with options for 720, 1440, or 2880 DPI in the case of Epson printer,  Canon and HP microweave to different sizes).

We have received many inquiries about our support for Apples upcoming release of OSX 10.7 (Lion) and we are very happy to announce that we will support 10.7 prior to it’s public release so any customers who are beta testing Lion will be able to test with ImageNest.

Here are some facts about ImageNest and OSX 10.7

ImageNest is natively programmed in 64 bit (cocoa) so it is capable of taking advantage of all the benefits of a 64 bit OS such as OSX 10.7

ImageNest does not run any of our code under Rosetta.  With Rosetta not being available in OSX 10.7 we will have no problems at all.   This is a major potential problem for any 32 bit (Carbon based) software packages.

ImageNest will continue to offer free upgrades so all improvements that we make to take advantage of new features found in 10.7 will be completely free to all users.

ImageNest is very happy to announce that in version 3.0.1 (currently on the website) customers can now accurately soft-proof images in the ImageNest layout.   After many months we have finished redesigning the ImageNest Color Management to add the ability to color manage inside the ImageNest application.   With this new update customers will not be locked in to only using “Printer Manages Colors” and can now use “ImageNest Manages Colors” to perform all color management prior to printing.

A few facts about “ImageNest Manages Colors”

Uses the rendering intent selected in ImageNest preferences to map image colors from source ICC profile (input) to destination ICC profile (output)

Performs all color management prior to printing.

Works with printing and creating PDF files

BlueCubit LLC is very happy to announce that version 3.0 is now available.   Version 3.o contains not only many new features but is a complete re-write of core functions including support for using both GPU and CPU for faster Image Processing.  Some of the major features of version 3.0 include:

Rotation in Layout: Users can now rotate with any nesting method.  Previously,  all rotation was done automatically.  ImageNest can still rotate images automatically for best fit but now has an option for manual rotation as well.

Grid:   ImageNest 3.0 has a customizable grid that images can “Snap to”.  This allows for quick and accurate image spacing for optimal paper usage.

Snap to Image Edges:  3.0 now has the ability to align images with the edges of other images with easy to use guidlines.

- Copy and paste: Copy and Paste images in the layout with Control C and Control V hotkeys.

- Ability to drag images between pages: Users can now drag images from one page to another with ease both quickly and easily.

- Image Overlap: Images can be set to overlap for collages or an image can be trimmed simply by moving it beneath another image.

- Image Editor: Our built in image editor now contains additional information about resolution and pixel dimensions.

- Manually add/delete pages: In addition to our automatic page creation users can now add or delete pages manually.

ImageNest 3.0 can be downloaded here:  Download ImageNest RIP 3.0

ImageNest 3.0 Demo can be downloaded here:  Download ImageNest RIP 3.o Demo

Version 3.0 contains a new feature for flipping and image either horizontally, Vertically, or both !

The first row contains the original image and an image that has been flipped horizontally

The second row contains the original image and an image that has been flipped vertically

Version 3.0 contains a much requested feature that will allow users to lay pictures on top of one another. This new feature will allow users to trim any picture simply by placing it beneath another image. This feature is not only great for saving space but is the perfect tool to create photo collages that print perfectly.

In the image below the top column shows each image:

Row 1: Both images are show in their entirety with no overlap
Row 2: The image of the Scuba Diver overlaps and is on top of the Snowmobiler
Row 3: The image of the Snowmobiler overlaps on top of the scuba diver