src/tiff/html/v3.5.3.html

   1 <HTML>
   2 <HEAD>
   3 <TITLE>
   4 Changes in TIFF v3.5.3
   5 </TITLE>
   6 </HEAD>
   7
   8 <BODY BGCOLOR=white>
   9 <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans">
  10 <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Sans">
  11
  12 <BASEFONT SIZE=4>
  13 <B><FONT SIZE=+3>T</FONT>IFF <FONT SIZE=+2>C</FONT>HANGE <FONT SIZE=+2>I</FONT>NFORMATION</B>
  14 <BASEFONT SIZE=3>
  15
  16 <UL>
  17 <HR SIZE=4 WIDTH=65% ALIGN=left>
  18 <B>Current Version</B>: v3.5.3<BR>
  19 <B>Previous Version</B>: <A HREF=v3.5.2.html>v3.5.2</a><BR>
  20 <B>Master FTP Site</B>: <A HREF="ftp://ftp.onshore.com/pub/libtiff">ftp.onshore.com</a>, directory pub/libtiff</A><BR>
  21 <B>Master HTTP Site</B>: <A HREF="http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/">http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff</a>
  22 <HR SIZE=4 WIDTH=65% ALIGN=left>
  23 </UL>
  24
  25 <P>
  26 This document describes the changes made to the software between the
  27 <I>previous</I> and <I>current</I> versions (see above).
  28 If you don't find something listed here, then it was not done in this
  29 timeframe, or it was not considered important enough to be mentioned.
  30 The following information is located here:
  31 <UL>
  32 <LI><A HREF="#configure">Changes in the software configuration</A>
  33 <LI><A HREF="#libtiff">Changes in libtiff</A>
  34 <LI><A HREF="#tools">Changes in the tools</A>
  35 </UL>
  36 <p>
  37 The ChangeLog will follow, but please note the most important change:
  38 LZW compression has been removed.
  39 <p>
  40 Unisys has the patent on LZW compression and have been very active in
  41 their enforcement of late, demanding payments of $5000 or more from
  42 websites using unlicensed software to create GIF's.  They could well
  43 do the same do persons using libtiff to create LZW compressed TIFF
  44 images.
  45 <p>
  46 From <A HREF=http://burnallgifs.org>Burn All GIF's Day</a>:
  47 <br>
  48 <em>The catch is that it appears to be difficult or impossible to get a
  49 Unisys license to use LZW in free software that complies with the Open
  50 Source Definition</em>
  51 <P>
  52 Unfortunatly, the removal of LZW compression means that saved image size has
  53 grown dramatically.  Without a change in the TIFF spec to support
  54 another lossless compression format, this is unavoidable.
  55 <P>
  56 The library can use zip for lossless compression, but as this is not
  57 part of the spec, TIFFs using zip compression may not work with other
  58 software
  59 <P>
  60 We will be making a patch available that will contain the LZW
  61 compression code for users who have either obtained a license from
  62 Unisys or are willing to risk it.
  63 <p>
  64 LZW decompression is unchanged.
  65 <p>
  66 <P><HR WIDTH=65% ALIGN=left>
  67
  68 <A NAME="configure"><B><FONT SIZE=+3>C</FONT>HANGES IN THE SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:</B></A>
  69
  70 <UL>
  71         <LI> Added zip creation to release makefile target
  72
  73
  74 </UL>
  75
  76 <P><HR WIDTH=65% ALIGN=left>
  77
  78 <A NAME="libtiff"><B><FONT SIZE=+3>C</FONT>HANGES IN LIBTIFF:</B></A>
  79
  80
  81 <UL>
  82
  83         <LI> Added html for TIFFWriteTile.3t man page.
  84
  85         <LI> Added some changes to tif_write.c to support rewriting existing
  86         fixed sized tiles and strips.  Code mods disabled by default, only
  87         enabled if REWRITE_HACK is defined for now.
  88
  89         <LI> Added TIFFWriteTile.3t man page.
  90
  91         <LI> Added notes on use of makefile.vc in build.html, and fixed
  92         email subscription address.
  93
  94         <LI>  Fixed apocalypse-inducing y2k bug in contrib/ras/ras2tiff.c
  95
  96         <LI>  Did some casts cleaning up to reduce compiler warnings in tif_fax3.c,
  97            from Bruce Carmeron <cameron@petris.com> -- modifications of
  98            changes made by Frank (sun cc still complained on cast).
  99
 100         <LI> fixed various VC++ warnings as suggested by Gilles Vollant
 101         <info@winimage.com>.
 102
 103         <LI> Modified TIFFquery.3t man pages info on TIFFIsByteSwapped() to
 104         not imply applications are responsible for image data swapping.
 105
 106         <LI>  HTML-ized the man pages, added to html/man
 107
 108         <LI>  Removed LZW Compression to comply with Unisys patent extortion.
 109
 110         <LI>  Corrected one remaining 16 -> 32 bit value in tif_fax3.c,
 111            From Ivo Penzar <ivo.penzar@infolink-software.com.
 112
 113         <LI>  Added patch from Ivo Penzar to have TiffAdvanceDirectory handle
 114            memory mapped files. <ivo.penzar@infolink-software.com>
 115 </UL>
 116
 117 <P><HR WIDTH=65% ALIGN=left>
 118
 119 <A NAME="tools"><B><FONT SIZE=+3>C</FONT>HANGES IN THE TOOLS:</B></A>
 120
 121 <UL>
 122         <LI> Fixed apocalypse-inducing y2k bug in contrib/ras/ras2tiff.c
 123 </UL>
 124
 125 <A HREF="index.html"><IMG SRC="images/back.gif"></A> TIFF home page.<BR>
 126
 127 <HR>
 128
 129 Last updated $Date: 2004/11/26 14:37:20 $.
 130
 131 </BODY>
 132 </HTML>