Barco Creator

Last updated
Barco Creator
Developer(s) Barco Graphics
Stable release
7.2 / 1999;25 years ago (1999)?
Operating system Silicon Graphics IRIX
Type Graphics editor
License Proprietary
Website Archived December 6, 1998, at the Wayback Machine

Barco Creator was an image manipulation program targeted at the repro and print shop markets. It was developed by Barco Creative Systems a division of the Barco Group and first shown as a prototype at Parigraph in April 1988, then later at Ipex 88 [1] ). Barco Creative Systems together with D.I.S.C. and Aesthedes merged into Barco Graphics. It ran on several generations of Silicon Graphics computers till the late 1990s. Barco Graphics (later Esko) ColorTone for Windows NT is considered its successor.

Contents

History

Until the late 1980s, digital retouching required specialized hardware such as the Quantel Paintbox. Barco Creator was one of the first products to run on off-the-shelf SGI workstations instead.[ citation needed ] Originally targeted at the "high end", Creator evolved into a slightly more mid-market program with the "personal"-edition running on the Indy. Still the price was in the $10k to $100k range depending on options, and additional hardware was sometimes needed to speed up specific operations. While Creator could rely on superior features and performance to justify its price through the mid-1990s, as time progressed each new Photoshop version made the Barco package harder to sell. After the release of version 7.1 in late 1997 there were few new sales. [1] In the end Creator was abandoned, like many of its contemporaries; Dalim Tango, Linotype-Hell DaVinci and Alias Eclipse. Its lineal successor, known as Esko ColorTone was discontinued in 2013.

Features

Software modules

Creator was set up to be a modular system, tailored to the specific needs of each "shop" or user. The base for version 7.0 was the "CT-Brix" software library (colour selection, basic compositing, selection, transformation, shapes, basic colour correction, densitometer, layers etc.), also featured in other Barco Graphics CT (continuous tone) products, e.g. ColorTone. On top of this Creator added the "Creative functions" libraries (special effect filters; mosaic, emboss, b/w, warp etc.), "basic brush" module (size, thickness, shapes, styles, pressure sensitivity), "advanced brush" module (brush profiles, textures), "basic colour correction" module (gradation correction, pick mixer, plane mixer, colour mixer), "advanced colour correction" module (chain all of the basic correction tools, batch corrections, instant preview) and finally the "auto mask" module.

Optional software modules included "PrintView" (preview a given CMYK printing process), "BlackSmith" (modify CMYK files to reduce ink usage, better print quality) and "InkSwitch" (convert CMYK into special ink separations for packaging printing).

Barco ColorTone adds an "Image quality estimator" module (evaluate if an image is printable according to certain quality parameters), but lacks several of the other Creator modules.

Using the "Brix Organizer" software it was possible to group CT-Brix modules into "sessions" customised for the current workflow. One could for example disable both colour correction and the creative functions/filters, giving the operator an interface more focused on painting.

File formats

As of Barco Creator 7 support for foreign (non-Barco) file formats depended on a dedicated software "interface". Interfaces for Creator CVW files, TIFF, PSD (no layers) and EPS/DCS were standard. Optionally one could order interfaces for Hell and Scitex and Scitex online file formats.

Output

For the earlier versions, at least, the primary output were CT RGB (Scitex CT to be exposed on film recorders as LVT and Fire 1000) and CMYK formats (to Scitex, Hell, and IT8). One must keep in mind that the internet was just coming of age, and the whole prepress/magazine industry was almost exclusively based on film photographers and a film workflow.

Development

Hardware

A typical hardware setup with Indigo2, 12x18" WACOM graphics tablet and 29" (2000x1600) Barco Calibrator monitor. Barco creator workstation.png
A typical hardware setup with Indigo2, 12x18" WACOM graphics tablet and 29" (2000x1600) Barco Calibrator monitor.

Creator originally ran on Silicon Graphics Power Series computers with one or more processors. By 1993 "Personal Creator" was available for the Indigo, while the "full" Power Creator ran on a Crimson. Later releases were available for the Indy, Indigo2, 02 and Octane computers. It is unknown if Creator will run on the later Octane2, Fuel and Tezro workstations with VPro graphics.

Due to its high end focus Barco developed several dedicated hardware options to speed up Creator.

For the Power Series and Crimson Barco originally supplied a "Colcom/VME" colour computer board, a fast multi-dimensional interpolator. [2] This was replaced in early 1993 with the more powerful "Chameleon" board, integrating the discrete logic of the Colcom board in a custom ASIC. Its main purpose was displaying CMYK colours on the (RGB) monitor quickly. After version 7.0 the Chameleon was also used for accelerating certain colour correction operations.

For the release of Creator 6 Barco also added a Brush-accelerator board that made retouching with large brushes on files of several hundred megabytes possible.

Turnkey workstations were additionally supplied with a WACOM tablet, a Barco Reference Calibrator self-calibrating or Personal Calibrator monitor and SCSI RAID storage, though stripped down versions were also available.

Input was usually from high-end scanners: Linotype-Hell, Crosfield Electronics, Dainippon Screen, or ICG (Itek Color Graphics). From the Indigo/Crimson versions the Howtek D4000 (4000dpi) drum scanner was usually offered as an option. Version 7 supported both the D4000 and the D7500 (5000dpi) scanner.

Release history

The feature set was basically frozen after Creator 7 (June 1996). The most apt comparison to the final release, featurewise, would be Adobe Photoshop 4 (November 1996).

VersionHardwareO/SRelease datePriceSignificant changes (selected)
Creator 1.0 Prototype [1] IRIX 3.XFall 1988 ?
Creator CD, SP, SPX and MP
  • Personal Iris (CD)?, Power Series (SP, SPX and MP)?
  • Highest spec BG-Creator 540 (4D 240) with 4 R3000 processors at 25 MHz, 64MB RAM and 1.2GB harddrive. BG-530 and BG-520 with 2 and 1 processors respectively. [3]
IRIX 3.X1990 ?
  • RGB only
Repro CreatorPower Series, later CrimsonIRIX 4.X?1992$155,000 incl Crimson
  • CMYK via Colorcom/VME board
  • Considerable price reduction compared to the previous models.
Personal Creator(BG-510) Indigo, 32-96MB RAM, 1.2GB HDIRIX 5.X?1993$25,000
  • RGB only
  • CMYK "Repro" version available w/96MB RAM, conversion done entirely in software
  • Considerable price reduction compared to the previous models.
Power Creator(replaced BG-540) Crimson, 128MB RAMIRIX 5.X?1993 ?
  • RGB only
  • CMYK "Repro" version available w/Chameleon board
  • Considerable price reduction compared to the previous models.
Personal Creator 5.0Indy R4000 100mhz (61 SPECfp92, 57 SPECint92 - compare Intel P66; 55 fp, int 64) ?1993£38,000 (incl. Indy). ?
Creator 5.2 ? ?1994$17,000 ?
Creator 6.0 ?IRIX 5.X?January 1995$17,000
  • Interface improvements
  • Introduction of the Brush Accelerator board
  • Intelligent/Automated trapping
  • The ability to see color-correction operations alongside the reference image.
Creator 7.0Indy and Indigo2, except R8000IRIX 5.328/06/96 (CD1375C), 09/07/96 (CD1377C)$30,000 [1]
  • X Window-based GUI
  • Tool bar with icons for the main tools
  • Line art module is based on a subset of Barco Strike!
  • Typesetting based on the Barco Strike! text engine
  • Unlimited amount of image and mask layers
  • Maximum brush size doubled, now 512 pixels. Faster brush drawing. Brush Accelerator is supported.
  • As of 09/07/96 IRIX 6.2 not supported, testing ongoing.
Creator 7.1Indigo2 R10000, O2, OctaneIRIX 5.3, 6.2, 6.3, 6.415/12/97 (CD1488C)$30,000 [1]
  • Higher performance overall. Between 1.5 and 4 times faster, depending on the operation.
  • Menus snap to each other
  • It is possible to control the behaviour of the Wacom tablet
  • Balloon help
Creator 7.2O2, OctaneIRIX 6.508/04/99 (CD1546C)$30,000 [1]
  • Updated to support IRIX 6.5

Availability

Barco Creator was discontinued in the late 1990s, and was not picked up by Purup-Eskofot after it purchased the Graphics division of Barco. Neither Barco nor Esko have the ability to issue new licenses anymore. As Creator was only available in single nodelocked licenses, one would need to buy an original system with the license included to have a "full legal version".

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GIMP</span> Open source raster graphics editor

GNU Image Manipulation Program, commonly known by its acronym GIMP, is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized tasks. It is extensible by means of plugins, and scriptable. It is not designed to be used for drawing, though some artists and creators have used it in this way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Photoshop</span> Raster graphics editing software

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editing. Owing to its fame, the program's name has become genericised as a verb although Adobe disapproves of such use.

Tag Image File Format or Tagged Image File Format, commonly known by the abbreviations TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processing, optical character recognition, image manipulation, desktop publishing, and page-layout applications. The format was created by the Aldus Corporation for use in desktop publishing. It published the latest version 6.0 in 1992, subsequently updated with an Adobe Systems copyright after the latter acquired Aldus in 1994. Several Aldus or Adobe technical notes have been published with minor extensions to the format, and several specifications have been based on TIFF 6.0, including TIFF/EP, TIFF/IT, TIFF-F and TIFF-FX.

ColorSync is Apple Inc.'s color management API for the Mac OS and Mac OS X Operating Systems.

The Cineon System was one of the first computer based digital film systems, created by Kodak in the early 1990s. It was an integrated suite of components consisting a Motion picture film scanner, a film recorder and workstation hardware with software for compositing, visual effects, image restoration and color management.

A number of vector graphics editors exist for various platforms. Potential users of these editors will make a comparison of vector graphics editors based on factors such as the availability for the user's platform, the software license, the feature set, the merits of the user interface (UI) and the focus of the program. Some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. Another important factor is the application's support of various vector and bitmap image formats for import and export.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VAXstation</span> Family of DEC workstation computers

The VAXstation is a discontinued family of workstation computers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation using processors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture. VAXstation systems were typically shipped with either the OpenVMS or ULTRIX operating systems. Many members of the VAXstation family had corresponding MicroVAX variants, which primarily differ by the lack of graphics hardware.

QFX is an image editing computer program developed by Ron Scott, a Texan photographer and software engineer. The first version was released in 1990. At the time of its release, QFX was one of the most feature-rich image editing applications available on the PC platform. It was the software of choice for digital artists and image postproduction studios in the times when 1024x768 truecolor graphics were a luxury, far before Photoshop could have been considered a serious professional tool. Its clean interface and clever workflow helped build a devoted user base, some of whom continue using it, despite QFXs being long ago eclipsed in features and users by Photoshop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Lightroom</span> Photo editing and management software

Adobe Lightroom is an image organization and image processing software developed by Adobe as part of the Creative Cloud subscription family. It is supported on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and tvOS. Its primary uses include importing, saving, viewing, organizing, tagging, editing, and sharing large numbers of digital images. Lightroom's editing functions include white balance, presence, tone, tone curve, HSL, color grading, detail, lens corrections, and calibration manipulation, as well as transformation, spot removal, red eye correction, graduated filters, radial filters, and adjustment brushing. The name of the software is based on darkrooms used for processing light-sensitive photographic materials.

Barco Strike was a vector-based drawing program targeted at the repro and print shop markets. It was developed by the Graphics division of the Barco Group from 1993 to the late 1990s on both Barco's own proprietary workstations and SGI computers. It was meant both as a replacement for the proprietary Aesthedes systems, and as a companion linework product to the Creator continuous tone software.

Linotype-Hell DaVinci was an image manipulation program targeted at the repro and print shop markets. It originally ran on proprietary hardware, but was later ported to Silicon Graphics workstations. The first version was released in 1993, and it continued to see regular releases until Heidelberg acquired Linotype-Hell in 1997. Heidelberg continued to update the software a few times before it was discontinued in April 2001, but the core engines for trapping and color management were recoded to work on PDF files and were a key contributor to the commercial success of Prinergy, which benefitted from the Heidelberg-Creo joint venture.

In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Profiles describe the color attributes of a particular device or viewing requirement by defining a mapping between the device source or target color space and a profile connection space (PCS). This PCS is either CIELAB (L*a*b*) or CIEXYZ. Mappings may be specified using tables, to which interpolation is applied, or through a series of parameters for transformations.

PDF/X is a subset of the ISO standard for PDF. The purpose of PDF/X is to facilitate graphics exchange, and it therefore has a series of printing-related requirements which do not apply to standard PDF files. For example, in PDF/X-1a all fonts need to be embedded and all images need to be CMYK or spot colors. PDF/X-3 accepts calibrated RGB and CIELAB colors, while retaining most of the other restrictions of PDF/X-1a.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaserSoft Imaging</span> German computer software company

LaserSoft Imaging AG is a software developer designing image processing software such as SilverFast for scanners and large format printers. The company's headquarters is located in Kiel, Germany, 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Hamburg, and another office in Sarasota, Florida, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SilverFast</span>

SilverFast is the name of a family of software for image scanning and processing, including photos, documents and slides, developed by LaserSoft Imaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chasys Draw IES</span>

Chasys Draw IES is a suite of applications including a layer-based raster graphics editor with adjustment layers, linked layers, timeline and frame-based animation, icon editing, image stacking and comprehensive plug-in support, a fast multi-threaded image file converter and a fast image viewer, with RAW image support in all components. It supports the native file formats of several competitors including Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Corel Photo-Paint, GIMP, Krita, Paint.NET and PaintShop Pro, and the whole suite is designed to make effective use of multi-core processors, touch-screens and pen-input devices.

MEDUSA, is a CAD program used in the areas of mechanical and plant engineering by manufacturers and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies. The system's history is closely tied to the beginnings of mainstream CAD and the research culture fostered by Cambridge University and the UK government as well as the resulting transformation of Cambridge into a world-class tech centre in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darktable</span> Photography software

Darktable is a free and open-source photography application and raw developer. Rather than being a raster graphics editor like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, it comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive raw image post-production. It is primarily focused on improving a photographer's workflow by facilitating the handling of large numbers of images. It is freely available in versions tailored for most major Linux distributions, macOS, Solaris and Windows and is released under the GPL-3.0-or-later.

Chromatics Inc. was a color graphics display manufacturer based in Tucker, Georgia. Their systems predated the personal computer era of inexpensive graphics displays, and were typically used as peripheral devices, connected to a mainframe or minicomputer. In some configurations, a Chromatics graphics terminal could be used as a stand-alone workstation, with disk drives and an operating system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalim</span>

Dalim Software GmbH, originally Dalim GmbH, is a German software company focused on prepress, digital imaging, and digital and print media creation and management. It was founded in 1986 by Francis Lamy in Frankfurt. The company enjoyed a large market share within high-end color houses before faltering in the late 1990s and entering receivership in 1998. In 1999, the company was split three ways, with the majority of Dalim's assets handed to their American reseller Blanchard Systems, who launched Dalim Software GmbH in Germany in the same year.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ipex series tracks image manipulation. (highlights of the 1998 Ipex series of international shows)." Graphic Arts Monthly. Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). 1998. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2008-11-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Device and method for transforming a color coordinate set" . Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  3. "Design services now on stream: a carefully weighed decision to expand into electronic design pays off. (Potomac Graphic Industries)(Focus on Design)." Graphic Arts Monthly. Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). 1991. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-05-09. Retrieved 2008-11-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)