Altostorm Rectilinear Panorama™

Product Information

Types of distortions that Rectilinear Panorama can correct

User interface

Using the program for heterogeneous images

Using the program for deliberate image distortion

Program editions

What's New (Release History)

Types of distortions that Rectilinear Panorama can correct

Rectilinear Panorama™ is a universal tool. It can be used to correct virtually any distortions of shape, size and position of objects. It corrects:

• barreling and pincushioning (optical distortion),
  
• perspective shift, image skewing, curved horizon (caused by camera tilt or unfavorable shooting spot),
  
• image rotation (caused by camera rotation),
  
• panorama distortion (common for panoramic images),
  
• any other distortions that cause curvature of straight lines or changes in shape or size.
  

Rectilinear Panorama™ can correct images that suffer from multiple problems. Processing is always done in a single pass.

Rectilinear Panorama™ can correct both scanned and digital images because the program does not use shooting info (from the EXIF headers of files) and it does not make any assumptions about image center, i.e. it can process cropped images.

Rectilinear Panorama™ can correct both panoramic and not panoramic images because the program can handle any asymmetrical and irregular distortions.

User interface

The easy-to-use visual distortions definition system helps you to work fast and precisely. Any correction won't take you more than several minutes and you won't have to search for the optimal settings to get the best possible result.

The user interface was designed as a step-by-step wizard. It has 4 simple steps:

Step 1. Distortions definition
Step 2. Final geometry definition
Step 3. Compensations definition
Step 4. Cropping area definition

In step 1 you define several distorted lines (originally straight) on the source image (up to 4 lines - 2 vertical and 2 horizontal). The exact number of lines depends on the distortions of the image.

In step 2 you choose what is going to happen with the defined lines after correction - (a) either they will just become straight lines (and their directions will remain the same) or (b) they will become strictly horizontal/vertical straight lines. You can use the (a) option for images taken with an angle if you do not want to correct the original angle and perspective but want to remove curvature. The (b) option results in recovery of parallelism of originally parallel straight lines and recovery of right angles.

In step 3 you define parameters that control the recovery of object sizes (compensations) and ratios of dimensions.

In step 4 you define the cropping area of the resulting image (if only a part of the image is needed, not the whole image).

The examples below show what lines you may define for different distortions to get the ideal rectilinear geometry (the lines are highlighted in red).

The compensations selected in step 3 influence object sizes and ratios of dimensions. Selecting different compensations allows you to simulate different shooting spots (see the example below).

To define distortions, you can apply 2 types of lines - arcs (that are defined with 3 points) and Bezier curves (that are defined with 2 line segments). The arcs are easier to use, but Bezier curves are more precise, especially in heavily distorted images.

In steps 3 and 4 you can see a large preview of the resulting image exactly as the way it will look after the correction. This helps you to select the optimal compensations and makes the program so easy-to-learn.

Rectilinear Panorama™ is very simple in use.

Download and try the free demo version in practice. It is not restricted functionally or limited in time anyhow, but every image processed with it will be watermarked with DEMO.

Using the program for heterogeneous images

Complex geometrical objects taken from a short distance may need a special approach. For example, in the panoramic image of a building below you can see that the building has 3 parts - a central part and 2 wings. Each part has different geometry and has to be processed separately.

Using the program for deliberate image distortion

Rectilinear Panorama™ can be used not only for image correction, but also for the inverse task or any other transformations (e.g. deformation of an object or straightening out something that does not have to be straight - mountains/hills, stems/trunks of plants, bridges, towers etc.)

Download demo

View screenshots

View examples

Program editions

Two editions of Rectilinear Panorama™ are available.

Rectilinear Panorama™ Professional is the full-featured product most suited to the complex requirements of professionals and amateurs in photography who need maximum quality and functionality.

• It has a commercial license,
  
• supports both 8 and 16-bit images in RGB, CMYK, Lab and Grayscale.
  

Rectilinear Panorama™ Home Edition is targeted for noncommercial (home) uses.

• It has a noncommercial license,
  
• supports 8-bit images in RGB and Grayscale only.
  

The distortion correction features are the same in both editions.

The maximum size of an uncompressed source image is theoretically unlimited, however physical, virtual memory and other OS and image editing application limitations impose an effective maximum. Our users have successfully processed files of up to 500 Mb.

What's New (Release History)

Version 1.2.2

• Support for Adobe® Photoshop® CS 3 and Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 5
• Minor fixes and improvements

Version 1.2.1

• Fixed accidental crashes on multiprocessor and multicore systems

Version 1.2

• Now both editions (Home and Professional) can save a full-sized (not downsampled) resulting image to a TIFF file
• Improved (more friendly) user interface
• Support for Microsoft® Digital Image and Macromedia® Fireworks® MX
• Fixed slow performance in Corel® PHOTO-PAINT® and other Corel® host applications
• Fixed black pixels around the edges of the resulting image.

Version 1.1

• 16-bit per channel color formats support (RGB, CMYK, Lab and Grayscale)
• Support for Adobe® Photoshop® CS 2.

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