[Zope-Annce] VarImage 2.3 Released

[Terry Hancock]

VarImage means "Variable Image" -- it is a Zope product 
which allows you to load a single image and serve modified 
versions of it, but with efficient caching. Thus you can 
have most of the flexibility of "on-the-fly" image 
generation, with very little penalty compared to 
pre-prepared images.

Available from:
http://www.anansispaceworks.com/papers_html#VarImage-2.3.tgz

Provided plugins allow for: scaling, resizing, cropping, 
foveal thumbnailing, photonegative, black-and-white 
conversion, color tinting, superimposition of "image 
components" to construct composite images, and simple 
drop-shadow effects.

Although VarImage itself does not explicitly rely on
Python Imaging Library, all of the currently distributed
plugin operators do.

VarImage supports a simple plugin API for writing your
own image operators.

New in 2.3:
Interactive graphical ZMI tool for setting the image fovea.
(Requires manager to use a javascript/CSS capable
browser -- tested working on Mozilla 1.0.0, Konqueror 2.2.2,
probably works on IE 5+ (untested), doesn't work on 
Netscape 4.77).

"Key" syntax for calling from Python expressions or code, 
e.g.:
<dtml-var expr="my_image_png['tn_100_100.jpg']">

Streamlined regeneration code, and fixed several bugs
affecting large or unusual images.  Foveal thumbnailing
algorithm fixed for some edge cases that failed to preserve
correct aspect ratios.

There is also a "drop shadow" plugin, contributed by
Andrew Meier, and a "no-op" plugin for testing images for
PIL compatibility.

Improved the failover behavior for errors occuring in the
plug-ins (usually in PIL): in most cases, a "VarImage 
Error" will be served if the conversion fails.

Enjoy!
Terry Hancock

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com