Untitled Document

Noise Ninja 2.0 release candidate (Beta 9)
For Macintosh OS X and Microsoft Windows

Noise Ninja 2.0 for is available for public beta testing. Before downloading and installing it, please read the following:

This is a release candidate , not a final release. It appears to be stable. The official release will happen as soon as it is confirmed to be working properly.

Documentation is available by selecting "User Guide" from the Help menu. The documentation is a currently little terse, but it should cover 98% of what you need, and it should only take about 10 minutes to read through. If you run into things that are unclear, send me an email. I'll be writing more documentation for the official release.

In addition, there is extensive "What's This?" pop-up help for practically every item and dialog in the user interface. Click on the "What's This" button, then click on an item in the interface, and you will see a description of the item. It works for menu items, too, providing they are not greyed-out.

Noise profiles for specific cameras and scanners are available here.

You will need the demo key, posted near the download link below, to temporarily unlock all the features of the software.

Permanent license keys can be bought via the Purchase page. If you already purchased a license for Version 1, you can request a Version 2 keycode via email, free of charge.

Please provide feedback. Let me know what system you tried it on and whether you ran into any issues. Please report bugs or installation problems so I can address them.

Known issues

On Windows, the File Save dialog does not update the current file extension when you select a different file filter (e.g. JPEG or TIFF) This is due to a bug in a third-party library. However, when you dismiss the dialog, the file extension will be changed to match the filter that you selected, so it is not necessary to manually edit the extension in the file name while the dialog is open.

Download software and noise profiles (Last updated July 11-- see Change Log below for details)

For Macintosh OS X 10.2 and 10.3 (6 megabytes): Click here to download the latest version. Unzip it, open the folder, and then you should be able to launch the Noise Ninja application. It has been confirmed to run on OS X 10.2.8 and later.

For Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP (4 megabytes): Click here to download the installer. Launch it and follow the instructions on the screen.

Noise Profiles: Click here for Version 2 noise profiles for particular cameras and scanners.

Demo key

User name: beta
Keycode: 6180f0-201f07-95df57-e00387-cc0048

Expires: July 23, 2004

Change log

July 11 -- Release candidate (Beta 9c) posted with minor changes

Status dialog eliminated from batch processor. Progress is now displayed on the Log page. It is now possible to completely hide the batch processor and main window during execution.
Refresh of file list in batch processor dialog is now more than 10 time faster, and more incremental
Destination directory now saved in batch settings file. (This changed the file format, so you won't be able to load batch settings files created before the change.)
Mouse wheel zooms image in and out when mouse is over the image area
F2 key activates What's This help
Fixed drag-to-icon for Macintosh
Added drag-to-icon for Windows
Layout of buttons on most dialogs made more conventional for Mac version
Added "slop factor" around screen geometry so window placement dialog doesn't pop up for a maximized window.
Tweaked Windows version so Ctrl-O shortcut works when app first launched.

July 6 -- Release candidate (Beta 9) posted for both Mac and Windows

Batch processing
Hand scroll tool -- press spacebar to scroll with mouse
Optimizations for large images (e.g. 20 megapixels) -- 5X speedup on Mac
File revert
Load undo buffer -- allows use of Noise Brush after batch processing
Quick auto-profile
Rotate 90/180/270 degrees (see Tool menu)
"What's this?" help -- extensive popup help for user interface elements and dialogs
Option to turn off marching ants in selections
Spring-loaded before/after button and "B" key
Buttons for undo/redo of undo brush strokes
Extract ISO from Panasonic maker note
Selectable preview size (in Preferences dialog)
Recognize ISO 800 in some Canon point-and-shoot models
Preview disabled while scrolling
Preview can be deactivated by right-clicking, alt-clicking, or control-clicking in image
Improved Windows support for non-Western characters in file names and metadata
"Open Profiling Chart" command added to File menu
EXIF resolution info overrides resolution info in JPEG header
Recognize alt-click (option-click on Mac) in addition to control-click for some operations
Save dialog recognizes uppercase "JPG" instead of defaulting to TIFF
"Remember directory for Save As" option enabled
Auto-loader ignores Multisampling field if Film field empty for both profile and image
Megapixels auto-loader default overrides image dimensions if set (useful for cropped images)
Screen positioning refined; prompt when window extends beyond main screen
Hourglass cursor cleared after filter
"_filtered" suffix not added again if already present in file name
Use native directory dialog for Install Profiles function
More memory-efficient bitmap representation used, might be easier on Win98 resources when multiple applications are running
Refined display of shutter speeds
Enabled reset button for Undo Brush
Reduced lag time to active Noise Filter panel
Fixed bug where JPEG saved as TIFF resulted in unreadable file if "Same format as original" option used in TIFF options dialog
Fixed bug in multi-stroke undo
Fixed minor memory leak in engine

May 24 -- Beta 8 posted for both Mac and Windows.

Profiles can be annotated with roughly 15 pieces of information including make, model, ISO, resolution, sharpness, contrast, saturation, illuminant, and ambient temperature. This does *not* mean that you need to profile your camera for every possible combination. What it means is that different users can create profiles for different preferences or for specialized applications, and now there is an "audit trail" that can make it easier to exchange profiles and match them to specific needs.
Version 2 profiles for approximately 50 cameras created. When possible, annotations have been added. Profiles are now distributed separately to keep the download size reasonable.
An automatic profile loader selects a "best match" profile based on profile annotations, EXIF data, and user-supplied default values when you open an image. It will default to the last profile that you opened if a match cannot be found. It seems to be working well, but it is searching through a 15 dimensional space, and that is often asking for trouble, so let me know if it you encounter odd behavior. It is intelligent enough to do some nonintuitive things when there isn't an "obvious" match -- for instance, if you try to filter a 3 megapixel image using 6 megapixel profiles, it will "derate" the ISO to account for the downsampling, and select a lower ISO than might be indicated in the image EXIF data. In general, however, you should make it "easy" for the auto profiler by creating profiles that are a reasonably close match to your preferred shooting conditions. See the Help file for more information. I've tried to make the mechanism easy to use and set up, let me know whether you think I've succeeded.
Automatic naming of profiles based on annotations. This uses a mnemonic scheme to make it easier to distinguish profiles that have been created for different shooting conditions. The auto loader ignores these names (it reads the embedded annotations), so you don't have to use them if you don't like them.
Automatic subdirectory naming and creation for profiles based on Maker, Model, and (for scanners) Film annotations. This eliminates naming mistakes that could confuse the auto loader, and it makes administration of profiles easier. The auto profiler *does* pay attention to subdirectory names, so you should probably keep this option enabled at all times.
An "Install noise profiles" feature automatically copies profiles to the correct location for use with the auto loader. Like the auto-naming features, this eliminates mistakes and makes it easier to work with the auto-loader.
When the automatic profile loader is successful in matching a profile, the filter panel is automatically activated. This should eliminate some "mousing around" in the user interface, and your work cycle can be reduced to open, filter, save.
Added an option in Preferences to zoom to actual pixels when an image is opened. Since you normally want to preview filtering at 100%, this saves a step or two.
Added option to skip Tiff and Jpeg options dialogs during Save As. Also, fields for these dialogs are now persistent, and they can be set from within the Preferences dialog. This should streamline the work cycle a bit.
Launch on file drop in Macintosh finder or dock.
A "Noise Index" summarizes noise levels for a profile.
Added progress dialogs with cancel buttons for filtering and auto-profiling
Display profile name and load status in window title bar
Changed layout to work better with 800x600 displays
Dialogs and main window adjusted to handle "Large Fonts" in Windows (up to 150%)
If preview toggle is off, it remains off when the active image changes or the filter panel is activated. This makes it easier to do comparisons after filtering.
If no license found on startup, display a dialog explaining that saved files will be watermarked.
Fixed crash when manual profile sample taken near edge of image.
Fixed possible self-deadlock condition in Mac version.
Fixed infinite loop in shutter speed display when value is zero.

May 3 -- Beta 7 posted for both Mac and Windows

Added a "Suppress halos" feature to the sharpen function to minimize bright artifacts during sharpening
Minor refinements to the auto profiler
EXIF ColorSpace tag set to same as original image, or to Uncalibrated if none
Calibration chart added to distribution files

April 26 -- Beta 6 posted

Fixed a bug that was causing streaks in regions containing identical pixel values (e.g. perfectly white background) due to an obscure roundoff error.

April 25 -- Beta 5 posted

Fixed problem where where PhotoShop could not read some JPEG files created by Noise Ninja when they contained IPTC data. (It does not seem to have been a problem for other applications.)

April 22 -- Beta 4 posted

Fixed bug where ICC profile wasn't saved if the image didn't also have an IPTC record
Fixed a silly bug introduced in the "fix" for the >2gb RAM issue in Beta 3, I think I got it right this time
File extensions are automatically added if the user omits them when saving profiles and filter settings
Added an option in the Preferences dialog to desaturate icons in the user interface in case the default colors are too distracting

April 21 -- Beta 3 posted

Scratch file location is now managed in the Preferences dialog. The NN_TEMP_DIR environment variable is no longer used.
Drag-drop from other applications is now supported. (Noise NInja must be running already to accept the drop.)
Save dialogs now launch with file name instead of "untitled"
Window size and position is remembered and restored when the application launches
Keyboard shortcuts added
Tools menu filled in
Magnification is now displayed in the toolbar
More tooltips added to buttons
Used higher-resolution icon for the application icon
Fixed hang when undo brush used before filtering applied
Fixed RAM usage in Preferences dialog to behave reasonably when more than 2 gibabytes of RAM is installed.

April 19, evening -- Beta 2 posted

Fixed problem reading files with non-ASCII characters.
Enabled help buttons on Profiler, Filter, and Undo Brush panels (the "question mark" buttons).
Restructured directories, set default directories to valid locations.
Added "Clear Settings" item to Edit menu to reset preferences and registry entries.

April 19, morning -- first beta posted for Mac OS X