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			{{Infobox software
	The '''Panorama Tools''', also known as The PanoTools are a free suite of programs and libraries originally written by the German physics and mathematics professor Helmut Dersch. PanoTools provides a powerful framework for re-projecting and blending multiple source images into immersive panoramics of many types. An updated version of the PanoTools library serves as the underlying core engine for many software ] GUI front-ends. For details see
			\| name = Panorama Tools
			\| logo =
			\| screenshot =
			\| caption =
			\| author = Helmut Dersch
			\| developer = Helmut Dersch
			\| released = {{Start date and age\|1998}}
			\| latest release version = {{wikidata\|property\|reference\|P348}}
			\| latest release date = {{start date and age\|{{wikidata\|qualifier\|P348\|P577}}}}
			\| latest preview version =
			\| latest preview date =
			\| programming language = C
			\| operating system =
			\| platform =
			\| language =
			\| status =
			\| genre = ]
			\| license = ] (] from ] 2007)
			\| website = {{URL\|panotools.sourceforge.net}}
			}}
			{{Portal\|Free and open-source software}}

			'''Panorama Tools''' ''(also known as '''PanoTools''')'' are a suite of programs and libraries for ], i.e., re-projecting and blending multiple source images into ]s of many types. It was originally written by German ] and ] professor Helmut Dersch. An updated version of the Panorama Tools library serves as the underlying core engine for many software panorama ] front ends.{{Citation needed\|date=February 2023}}
	Helmut started development on PanoTools in 1998, producing some of the most professional and versatile software available for building panoramas and more, but had to stop development in 2001 due to legal harassment and claims of patent infringement by a company called ]. In 2003 he released some modifications to the java-based online panorama viewer PTViewer. One involved a standalone .exe version and another version could display HDR (high dynamic range) panoramas.

			==History==
	The most recent release from Helmut is PTViewerME, a panorama viewer for PDAs and mobile devices. The home page of Helmut can be found . It has no links to his older work on PanoTools, but some list members managed to make a copy of his old home page before it shut down. See for some links to these pages and additional information.
			Dersch started development on Panorama Tools in 1998, producing software available for creating panoramas and more, but had to stop development in 2001 due to legal harassment and claims of ] by the company ].<ref>{{cite web \| url=http://wiki.ffii.org/SwxaiIpixEn \| title=iPIX vs. Dersch: German Mathematician silenced by US patent \| publisher=Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure}}</ref> Dersch released the core library (pano12) and some of the programs of Panorama Tools under the terms of the ]. The rest of the applications were made available as ] executables only and for free without a copyleft license.{{Citation needed\|date=February 2023}}

			The development of the source code of Panorama Tools was continued by some members of the original Panorama Tools mailing list. In December 2003 they initiated a ] project which is currently hosted by ]. SourceForge requires that all hosted software is released under an ]. For this reason Dersch's unlicensed binaries are not hosted there, although they can still be found on mirror websites.
	After Helmut stopped developing Panorama Tools, the members of his mailing-list took over development, and began enhancing the software suite on their own. They started a page which is maintained by a group of volunteers and have fixed some bugs and developed additional functionality. (see external links).

			On 5 August 2007, Dersch announced his intention to ] the Panorama Tools source code.<ref name="relicense">{{cite web\|url=http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/message/11850\|title=Panorama Tools License\|accessdate=2007-08-10\|last=Dersch\|first=Helmut\|date=2007-08-05\|work=PanoTools.org Mailing List\|publisher=\|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519105130/http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/auth?check=G&done=http%3A%2F%2Ftech%2Egroups%2Eyahoo%2Ecom%2Fgroup%2FPanoToolsNG%2Fmessage%2F11850\|archivedate=2011-05-19}} </ref> On 9 August 2007, Dersch changed the license to a ].<ref name="DerschRelicenseQuote">{{cite web\|url=http://webuser.fh-furtwangen.de/~dersch/\|title=Panorama Tools License Change\|accessdate=2007-08-10\|last=Dersch\|first=Helmut\|date=2007-08-09\|publisher=self published\|quote=The license to the Panorama Tools library (pano12.dll, pano12.lib, pano12.so, etc) used by several image processing utilities is changed from this license to the GNU Lesser General Public License. This change is in effect from today (August 9, 2007).}}</ref>
	== What software is included in the panorama tools ==
	Quoted from Dr Dersch's original home page:

			==Sub-components==
	'''PanoTools is a collection of free tools for Panorama and 3D Object creation. It consists of: '''
			] ''(top)'' into ] perspective ''(bottom)''.]]

			===Original release===
	{\|
			PanoTools consists of the following components:<ref>Dersch's original home page</ref>
	\| ''PTEditor'' \|\| Java interactive Panorama Editor.
	\|-
	\| ''PTPicker'' \|\| Java front end to panorama stitcher and other tools. It provides a graphical interface for feature point selection and position optimization.
	\|-
	\| ''PTCrypt'' \|\| Java tool for scrambling pictures intended to be viewed online with PTViewer.
	\|-
	\| ''PTStitcher'' \|\| Panorama stitching tool which remaps, adjusts and combines arbitrary images to panoramic views.
	\|-
	\| ''PTOptimizer'' \|\| Optimizes positions and sizes of images using control-point data.
	\|-
	\| ''PTStereo'' \|\| Creates 3-dimensional objects from 2 stereoscopic or more images.
	\|-
	\| ''PTInterpolate'' \|\| Physically valid true view interpolator. Given two images of the same scene taken from different positions, this tool creates views from any intermediate position.
	\|-
	\| ''PTMorpher'' \|\| Morphing tool.
	\|-
	\| ''PTAverage'' \|\| Averages images to reduce noise and enhance density.
	\|-
	\| ''PTStripe'' \|\| Combines images into movie-stripes for viewing in object-viewers (PTMovie extension to PTViewer).
	\|-
	\| ''Panorama Tools Plugins'' \|\| ], ] and ] plug-ins for image correction and remapping. Also compatible to many other programs that can use ] plugins.
	\|-
	\| ''pano12'' library \|\| The underlying panorama library, currently used by several different panorama front-ends and command line programs. This may be called pano12.dll, libpano12.so, libpano12.dylib or pano12.lib depending on the operating system.
	\|}

			;PTEditor: ] interactive panorama editor.
	To make working with PanoTools easier and to add functionality, many excellent interactive, graphical front-ends to PanoTools have been developed, both free and commercial, along with a variety of other companion applications, which in many cases make interacting directly with the programs in the original PanoTools toolset unnecessary.
			;PTPicker: Java front end to panorama stitcher and other tools. It provides a graphical interface for feature point selection and position optimization.
			;PTCrypt: Java tool for scrambling pictures intended to be viewed on-line with PTViewer.
			;PTStitcher: Panorama stitching tool which remaps, adjusts and combines arbitrary images to panoramic views.
			;PTOptimizer<sup>†</sup>: Optimizes positions and sizes of images using control-point data.
			;PTStereo: Creates 3-dimensional objects from 2 or more ] images.
			;PTInterpolate: Physically valid true view interpolator. Given two images of the same scene taken from different positions, this tool creates views from any intermediate position.
			;PTMorpher: ] tool.
			;PTAverage: Averages images to reduce noise and enhance density.
			;PTStripe: Combines images into movie-stripes for viewing in object-viewers (PTMovie extension to PTViewer).
			;PanoTools Plugins:], ] and ] plug-ins for image correction and remapping. Also compatible to many other programs that can use ] plug-ins.
			;pano12 library<sup>†</sup>: The underlying panorama library, currently used by several different panorama front-ends and command line programs.
			;pano13 library<sup>†</sup>: Current version of the library. No longer compatible with programs for which no source code is available.
			<sup>†</sup><small>Open source.</small>

			===Further developments===
	==Common GUI frontends for PanoTools==
	*] - free, open source, multiplatform
	*] - commercial, Windows and Mac OSX
	*] - commercial, Mac OSX
	*] - commercial, Windows

			In 2006 the functionality of PTstitcher was reproduced by the developers of Panorama Tools. Its functionality was broken into several program, in an attempt to modularize it:
	== Other popular companion applications ==
	*
	*
	*]

			;PTmender<sup>†</sup>: Remaps one image at a time
	==External links==
			;PTblender<sup>†</sup>: Implements the rudimentary colour correction algorithm found in later versions of PTstitcher
			;PTmasker<sup>†</sup>: Computes stitching masks. It implements the ability to increase depth-of-field by stacking images
			;PTroller<sup>†</sup>: Takes a set of images and merges them into a single one
			;PTcrop<sup>†</sup>: Crops an image to its outer rectangle.
			;PTuncrop<sup>†</sup>: Opposite of PTcrop: takes a cropped file and creates an uncropped one.
			;PTtiff2psd<sup>†</sup>: Takes a series of input images and creates a Photoshop PSD file where each input file is a layer.
			<sup>†</sup><small>Open source.</small>

			===Front-ends and applications===
	'''Software Related Sites (GPL)'''
			To make working with Panorama Tools easier and to add functionality, many interactive, graphical front-ends to Panorama Tools have been developed, both open source (e.g. ]) and commercial (e.g. ] and PTMac), along with a variety of other companion applications (e.g. smartblend and {{Not a typo\|enblend}}), which in many cases make interacting directly with the programs in the original Panorama Tools toolset unnecessary.
	*
	* - A frontend for PanoTools (open source - multi platform)

			==Further reading==
	'''Panorama Portals'''
			The software Panorama Tools is mentioned and covered in several books, e.g.
	*
			* Jacobs, Corinna - ''Interactive Panoramas: Techniques for Digital Panoramic Photography'' {{ISBN\|3-540-21140-3}}
			* Andrews, Philip - ''360 Degree Imaging: The Photographer's Panoramic Virtual Reality Manual'' {{ISBN\|2-88046-732-2}}
			* Gulbins, Jürgen & Steinmüller, Uwe - ''Art of RAW Conversion: How to Produce Art-Quality Photos with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Leading RAW Converters'' {{ISBN\|1-59327-067-4}}

			==References==
			{{Reflist\|30em}}

			==External links==
			* {{Official website\|panotools.sourceforge.net}}
			* author's current site.
			* author's site last state before it was taken offline in 2001.
			* primary community page recommended by the SourceForge project<ref name="recommended">{{cite web \|url=http://panotools.sourceforge.net/ \|title=Panorama Tools: SourceForge \|accessdate=2007-05-03 \|date=2007-05-03 \|publisher=] \|quote=Questions and answers about usage of the various tools and front-ends belong on the , you might want to consult the before posting. There is a panotools-devel mailing list for questions regarding compiling the source and developing it further. The PanoTools wiki aims to be the definitive reference for Panorama Tools. It contains a lot of usage documentation for the tools hosted here on sourceforge.}}</ref>

			{{Raster graphics editors}}
	'''Commercial PanoTools based Software'''
	* - A frontend for PanoTools (shareware - windows)
	* - A frontend for PanoTools (shareware - windows)
	* - A frontend for PanoTools (shareware - Mac OS)

	]		]
	]		]
	]		]

Latest revision as of 15:37, 9 December 2024

Panorama Tools
Original author(s)	Helmut Dersch
Developer(s)	Helmut Dersch
Initial release	1998; 26 years ago (1998)

Stable release	13-2.9.21 / 30 December 2021; 2 years ago (30 December 2021)

Written in	C
Type	post-production
License	GNU Lesser General Public License (relicensed from GNU GPL 2007)
Website	panotools.sourceforge.net

Panorama Tools (also known as PanoTools) are a suite of programs and libraries for image stitching, i.e., re-projecting and blending multiple source images into immersive panoramas of many types. It was originally written by German physics and mathematics professor Helmut Dersch. An updated version of the Panorama Tools library serves as the underlying core engine for many software panorama graphical user interface front ends.

History

Dersch started development on Panorama Tools in 1998, producing software available for creating panoramas and more, but had to stop development in 2001 due to legal harassment and claims of patent infringement by the company IPIX. Dersch released the core library (pano12) and some of the programs of Panorama Tools under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The rest of the applications were made available as binary executables only and for free without a copyleft license.

The development of the source code of Panorama Tools was continued by some members of the original Panorama Tools mailing list. In December 2003 they initiated a free software project which is currently hosted by SourceForge. SourceForge requires that all hosted software is released under an open source license. For this reason Dersch's unlicensed binaries are not hosted there, although they can still be found on mirror websites.

On 5 August 2007, Dersch announced his intention to relicense the Panorama Tools source code. On 9 August 2007, Dersch changed the license to a GNU Lesser General Public License.

Sub-components

An example of Panorama Tools' ability to remap an image shot with a fisheye lens *(top)* into rectilinear perspective *(bottom)*.

Original release

PanoTools consists of the following components:

PTEditor: Java interactive panorama editor.
PTPicker: Java front end to panorama stitcher and other tools. It provides a graphical interface for feature point selection and position optimization.
PTCrypt: Java tool for scrambling pictures intended to be viewed on-line with PTViewer.
PTStitcher: Panorama stitching tool which remaps, adjusts and combines arbitrary images to panoramic views.
PTOptimizer: Optimizes positions and sizes of images using control-point data.
PTStereo: Creates 3-dimensional objects from 2 or more stereoscopic images.
PTInterpolate: Physically valid true view interpolator. Given two images of the same scene taken from different positions, this tool creates views from any intermediate position.
PTMorpher: Morphing tool.
PTAverage: Averages images to reduce noise and enhance density.
PTStripe: Combines images into movie-stripes for viewing in object-viewers (PTMovie extension to PTViewer).
PanoTools Plugins: Photoshop, GraphicConverter and GIMP plug-ins for image correction and remapping. Also compatible to many other programs that can use Photoshop plug-ins.
pano12 library: The underlying panorama library, currently used by several different panorama front-ends and command line programs.
pano13 library: Current version of the library. No longer compatible with programs for which no source code is available.

Open source.

Further developments

In 2006 the functionality of PTstitcher was reproduced by the developers of Panorama Tools. Its functionality was broken into several program, in an attempt to modularize it:

PTmender: Remaps one image at a time
PTblender: Implements the rudimentary colour correction algorithm found in later versions of PTstitcher
PTmasker: Computes stitching masks. It implements the ability to increase depth-of-field by stacking images
PTroller: Takes a set of images and merges them into a single one
PTcrop: Crops an image to its outer rectangle.
PTuncrop: Opposite of PTcrop: takes a cropped file and creates an uncropped one.
PTtiff2psd: Takes a series of input images and creates a Photoshop PSD file where each input file is a layer.

Open source.

Front-ends and applications

To make working with Panorama Tools easier and to add functionality, many interactive, graphical front-ends to Panorama Tools have been developed, both open source (e.g. Hugin) and commercial (e.g. PTgui and PTMac), along with a variety of other companion applications (e.g. smartblend and enblend), which in many cases make interacting directly with the programs in the original Panorama Tools toolset unnecessary.

References

"Panorama Tools - Browse /libpano13/libpano13-2.9.21".
"iPIX vs. Dersch: German Mathematician silenced by US patent". Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure.
Dersch, Helmut (2007-08-05). "Panorama Tools License". PanoTools.org Mailing List. PanoTools.org. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2007-08-10. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help) Alt URL
Dersch, Helmut (2007-08-09). "Panorama Tools License Change". self published. Retrieved 2007-08-10. The license to the Panorama Tools library (pano12.dll, pano12.lib, pano12.so, etc) used by several image processing utilities is changed from this license to the GNU Lesser General Public License. This change is in effect from today (August 9, 2007).
Dersch's original home page

External links

Official website
Helmut Dersch author's current site.
Helmut Dersch old page author's site last state before it was taken offline in 2001.
PanoTools.org primary community page recommended by the SourceForge project

Raster graphics editors

Free software

Free-form drawing

Simple	GNU Paint GrafX2 KolourPaint LazPaint mtPaint Pinta Tux Paint GIMP GimPhoto GIMPshop Seashore

Photo editors

Simple	Fotografix
RAW	darktable LightZone Rawstudio RawTherapee UFRaw
Stitching	Hugin Panorama Tools

Image organizers

Digital painting

CLI

Specialized

Proprietary

Freeware	Adobe Photoshop Express AndreaMosaic Artweaver Brush Strokes Image Editor Chasys Draw IES Fatpaint Fresh Paint Microsoft Photos FastStone Image Viewer Fotografix IrfanView Paint 3D paint.net Photopea PhotoScape Pixia Windows Photo Gallery XnView
Commercial	ACD Canvas ACDSee Acorn Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop Album Adobe Photoshop Elements Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Affinity Photo Aldus PhotoStyler Aperture Artipic ArtRage Bibble Barco Creator Brilliance Clip Studio Paint CodedColor PhotoStudio Pro Corel Painter Essentials Corel Painter Corel Photo-Paint Dazzle Draw Deluxe Paint Deluxe Paint Animation Erdas Imagine GraphicConverter HDR PhotoStudio Helicon Filter Kid Pix KoalaPainter LiveQuartz LView Pro MacPaint Microsoft Digital Image NEOchrome NeoPaint OCP Art Studio OpenCanvas PC Paintbrush PCPaint PaintShop Pro Paint Tool SAI Photo Mechanic Photo Raster PhotoImpression PhotoLine Photon Paint PhotoPerfect PicMaster Picnik Pixelmator PMview Portrait Professional Procreate Project Dogwaffle QFX Quantel Paintbox Retouch4me Serif PhotoPlus SilverFast HDR Sketchbook SuperPaint TVPaint Ulead PhotoImpact Xara Photo & Graphic Designer Zoner Photo Studio
Bundled	Ability Photopaint Microsoft Photo Editor Microsoft Office Picture Manager Microsoft Paint Photos (Windows)

Comparison

Category

"Panorama Tools: SourceForge". SourceForge. 2007-05-03. Retrieved 2007-05-03. Questions and answers about usage of the various tools and front-ends belong on the PanoToolsNG mailing-list, you might want to consult the PanoTools wiki before posting. There is a panotools-devel mailing list for questions regarding compiling the source and developing it further. The PanoTools wiki aims to be the definitive reference for Panorama Tools. It contains a lot of usage documentation for the tools hosted here on sourceforge. {{cite web}}: External link in |quote= (help)

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