PMGS Reveal Image Manipulating Software

For quite a while, there has been an excellent website -- RetroReveal -- where you could upload a scanned image, then see a variety of filters applied. It was useful in extracting postmarks and spotting flaws in stamps. However, the website is down, as it appears the domain name is no longer registered. There's a user on another stamp forum who's attempting to contact the operator about resurrecting the site, but in the interim, I've put together a small app to do something similar.

It's a JavaFX-based application that will run on Windows or OSX. I've linked two versions of each -- one with Java bundled and one without. If you already have Java installed on your computer, use the one without it bundled.

You can load an image, then cycle though a variety of different image manipulations. At this point, most are just various grayscale and single-color versions of the image. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast, and with non-grayscale images, the red, green, and blue color curves.



If you want to save the active image, just click the save button.

One known bug -- there's a bug in the save function which improperly sets the altered image's metadata to an incorrect print resolution (72 dpi), regardless of the real resolution of the image. This isn't a problem if you're only displaying the image on-screen, but it will cause problems if you attempt to print the image. I'm working on a fix. In the interim, you can manually change the print resolution in most photo programs (Photoshop, Gimp, etc.), or with free online tools such as this one (not an endorsement, just the first one that popped up on Google).

Downloads:
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Windows with Java bundled (49 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Windows without Java bundled (15 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Mac OSX with Java bundled (47 MB)
PMGS Reveal v1.03 -- Mac OSX without Java bundled (10 MB)

Java? Yuck. Any plans on doing this on a different platform?
Don

Not at the moment. I went with JavaFX because I needed easy cross-platform compatibility, and I already speak a little Java.

I'm open to suggestion, though.

As you know, installing desktop apps is a different animal than most of today's browser-based apps. Given the market trends, many people think that the desktop is a dead-end. Personally, I love my desktops and servers (and wide screen displays) and do not like being handcuffed 24/7 to a phone or smart device. But limiting my perspective to my own preferences is certainly not going to change the predominance of mobile device users in today's marketplace.

I'm having to relearn 20 years of web coding and am moving to strictly HTML5 and CSS. No more Flash, Java, or any other web technologies that have questionable future for mobile devices. Frankly it kinda sucks, I have a substantial investment in various development tools but what can you do?

Just this week I dropped more money, which I would have rather spent on stamps, buying a new web development tool. It is a desktop environment which generates responsive websites and supports Bootstrap, Foundation, and AngularJS. (It also has support for WordPress but I don't use that.) It is called PineGrow; http://pinegrow.com/ I would write the app logic in AngularJS and then do the interface in PineGrow. This would give you a responsive cross platform (including mobile devices) without any install, keep all the code on your server for easy updates and distribution, drive more visitors to your website.
Don

Nice stuff, Postmaster.

Nice Postmark too, Amerika in Saxony?

Thanks, Rod.

The postmark is actually from German East Africa. The stamp is one of the Königsberg / Möwe Provisionals.

Ah, yes. I see.

For curious members
Amerika in Germany

https://goscf.com/t/43740