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Dynamic image composition by using Elements
ImageDraw Elements are simple graphical objects which are assembled together to
create a composite image. All elements are drawn on the Canvas producing the
output composite image. In addition, each element can have associated to it
zero or more imaging Actions that affect its appearance (more on this later).
| IMAGEDRAW
ELEMENTS |
| IMAGES (ImageElement) |
TEXTS (TextElement), WORDART
(WordArtElemnet) & RICH TEXT (RichTextElement) |
AUTOSHAPES (ShapeElement) |
Image Elements can be acquired from several sources such as a URL
or path file, Base64 string, byte array, or System.Drawing.Image object. Input
Image formats supported: GIF, JPG/JPEG, BMP, TIFF, ICO, WMF, EMF and PNG.
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Text & WordArt Elements are created by specifying some basic properties
such as Text, Font, ForeColor, StrokeColor, etc. They are useful for drawing
custom captions and watermarks. Text & WordArt Elements support
Custom Font Files (*.TTF), Outlined Texts, Multiline, AutoSize, etc.
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AutoShape Elements are preset shapes like rectangles, ovals,
lines, arrows, stars, callouts (a.k.a. speech bubbles), paths and polygons. AutoShapes support imaging effects, text
inside them by allowing padding text feature, border roundness and dashed
patterns.
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Imaging Effects (Actions)
ImageDraw Actions are imaging effects that are applied on any ImageDraw
Element objects. ImageDraw comes with 51 built-in ready to use
Actions.
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Merging Actions
ImageDraw architecture allows you to apply more than one Action on a given
Element (ImageElement, TextElement, WordArtElement, ShapeElement and RichTextElement). The following figures
show how some combination of Actions applied on an Element can improve its
appearance.
ConvertToSepia +
Filmstrip + PerspectiveShadow
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Polaroid + DropShadow
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Image Formats Supported and Cross-Browser Compatibility
ImageDraw controls support the following image formats.
| (i) INPUT IMAGE FORMATS |
(ii) OUTPUT IMAGE FORMATS |
| GIF (Transparency Support) |
JPEG / JPG |
PNG (Transparency Support) |
BMP |
WBMP |
| PNG |
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| GIF |
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| JPEG / JPG |
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| BMP |
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| TIFF |
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| WMF |
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| EMF |
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| ICO |
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| GDI+ Image Object |
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(i) Input Image Formats
ImageDraw controls manage input images by wrapping them through ImageElement
objects.
(ii) Output Image Formats
Each ImageDraw control features the ImageFormat property which
indicates what image format must be rendered.
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GIF output images support Index Transparency
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PNG output images support Alpha Channel Transparency with PNG
Hacking for Internet Explorer 5.x & 6.x (Win32 Platform) out-of-the-box.
Please refer to the product help documentation to learn more about this topic.
Do you need Cross-Browser Compatibility?
ImageDraw controls render images in all the most popular browsers,
including Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.
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Visual Studio, VWD and Expression Web Design-time Support
ImageDraw for ASP.NET features a powerful designer and utilities. When you drag
& drop ImageDraw from Visual Studio Toolbox, the ImageDraw Designer shows
you the output image that ImageDraw will render at runtime.
ImageDraw for ASP.NET works in most popular and modern ASP.NET Development
Tools including:
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Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/2008/2010
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Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005/2008/2010 Express Edition
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Microsoft Expression Web
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Neodynamic ImageDraw controls allow you to design and create composite images
using a designer tool called ImageDraw Visual Editor. ImageDraw Visual Editor
is fully integrated with Visual Studio allowing you to manage ImageElements,
TextElements and ShapeElements as well as built-in Imaging Actions. You get
instant visual feedback of how the composite image will look like. The Preview
Output Image tab lets you to setting up the output image format, color depth,
and with the possibility of saving the image on your disk.
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SQL Server BLOB (Binary Large Object) Data Binding
ImageDraw controls can be bound to SQL Server BLOB (Binary Large Object)
data type allowing you to deliver dynamic images which are stored in that kind
of data source. Not only you can deliver BLOB images as is but built-in
Imaging Actions can be applied on those items as well, greatly
enhancing their appearance without efforts.
The following figure is a screenshot of one of the ImageDraw Demos available at
our website. This particular demo features most ImageDraw Data Binding capabilities
in SQL Server BLOB scenarios. Please take a look at this white paper "How
To: SQL BLOB Composite Images Data Binding using ASP.NET and ImageDraw"
about SQL Server BLOB Data Binding and ImageDraw controls.
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XML Base64 string Data Binding
Images or pictures stored in XML Base64 string format, is another Data
Binding scenario that ImageDraw controls support out-of-the-box.
Just as for SQL Server BLOB scenario, images stored in XML Base64 string format
can be rendered as is or with built-in Imaging Actions applied on those
items as well, enhancing their appearance without efforts.
The following figure is a screenshot of one of the ImageDraw Demos available at
our website. This demo features most ImageDraw Data Binding capabilities
in XML Base64 scenarios. Please take a look at this Step-By-Step Guide "Dynamic
Composite Image using ASP.NET GridView Data Binding" about XML Base64
Data Binding and ImageDraw controls.
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Dynamic Image Composition with an ASP.NET Live Weather XML RSS
Service
If you have read all info about ImageDraw so far, you had realized that
it's very flexible and powerful. The next figure illustrates how you can
use ImageDraw controls to develop an ASP.NET Web Application that
features Live Weather info consuming Yahoo! Weather XML RSS service.
This demo uses an ImageDrawMap control to dynamically create a Weather
Composite Image consuming Yahoo! Weather XML RSS service in an ASP.NET
Web Application. This demo does intensive use of TextElements and
ImageElements (all texts on the previous figure are created by TextElements)
applying onto them some impressive Actions such as GlassTable effect.
Please take a look at this Step-By-Step Guide "How
to create a Dynamic Weather Composite Image Map using ASP.NET and RSS"
about ImageDraw Dynamic Image Composition in ASP.NET Web Applications.
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Manipulate and use Images embedded into ASP.NET Resources
(*.RESX)
ASP.NET 2.0 features new Resources capabilities allowing you, for example, to
store image files embedded into RESX files without you need to deploy
those files. ImageDraw was designed keeping in mind that feature and
thus, you can manipulate and use those embedded images to dynamically create
composite images. The following figure is a screenshot of one of the ImageDraw
Demos available at our website. Please take a look at this Step-By-Step Guide "How
to dynamically create composite images using embedded images in ASP.NET
Resource RESX" about Images Embedded into Resource (RESX) files and
ImageDraw controls.
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ASP.NET Mobile technology support
ImageDraw for ASP.NET Mobile technology lets you to easily create Mobile
WebForms for displaying dynamic composite images on Mobile Device's Internet
Browsers supporting XHTML MP/HTML/C-HTML or WAP/WML standards.
For HTML-based Mobile Browsers, ImageDraw can be instructed to render output
images in the image format preferred by them i.e. GIF, JPEG, PNG or BMP; and
for WAP/WML-based Mobile Browsers, ImageDraw can render the output composite
image in Wireless Bitmap (WBMP) format.
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XML Templates for Dynamic Image Composition
ImageDraw features XML Template i.e. you can instruct an ImageDraw object for
exporting/importing the composite image in XML text formatting. By invoking a
simple class method you can get a string representation of the Output Composite
Image in XML format allowing you to save it in any kind of data source be it
SQL Server Database, file on disk, and so on. In the same way, you can restore
the Composite Image from a XML Template by just invoking a simple class method
as well.
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