Frameright Team
Hey all,
After a bit of waiting, we are happy to launch the latest version of Frameright.app. The major upgrade with the new version is support for the open IPTC Image Regions metadata format, making it easier and safer for anyone to rely on.
The release also coincides with the release of our frontend and backend open source libraries for a complete Image Display Control (IDC) stack and pipeline. From now on, it will be much easier to benefit from the IDC metadata created and saved with Frameright.
While the new version now defaults to the IPTC metadata, opening images saved with the old proprietary metadata format is still possible. Converting your data to the IPTC format is as easy as resaving the file. If your image pipeline depends on the old metadata version, you can still use the old version of Frameright at https://v1.frameright.app/ for the time being. Version 1 will be discontinued later this year, so we highly encourage already taking a look at the new open-source components that make adopting the new IPTC metadata format easy and fun.
A completely new backend powers the new version. As part of the update process, we have migrated all users from the v1 backend. This means that you should be able to sign in normally with your existing password or social media account and have access to all your previously made collections. Should you have issues with logging in, we recommend resetting your password with the "forgot your password" link in the login window. You can also always reach out to us for help at support@frameright.io. Also, please note that the old backend is now disconnected from the new backend. If you continue using the v1 version, changes made there will not be reflected on the new Frameright.app and vice versa.
One of the new features is the Quick Compose functionality. Quick Compose allows the automatic creation of crops for selected collections and is powered by the Frameright Composition AI. As always, all suggestions and crops from the AI can easily be verified and improved by the user when needed. To enable Quick Compose, go to the settings of a collection and click on the Quick Compose checkbox. Quick Compose is available for all users with a paid subscription or team membership.
The Preview panel has also been updated, allowing users to open new pictures directly in Preview mode. This combines well with the Quick Compose functionality, making it possible to create, verify and save crops without leaving Preview mode. Users should also experience a speedup in the creation and browsing of previews.
Opening files and using Frameright now requires users to sign up and login into the application. This allows us better to understand our user base's needs and wishes and customize their experience further. As previously, there is a free personal tier available for all users. The personal tier allows users to save five different crop regions in an image and to create one collection with up to five custom image definitions. Users on the personal tier can also keep an additional collection that has been shared with them. It is also still possible to use the Default Collections, which include up-to-date definitions for most common social media and other channels.
Users that sign up for a professional subscription can add unlimited crops into an image and have unlimited collections and crop definitions in the collections. They can also share their collections with other users and can access the new Quick Compose functionality and many other features.
For teams and organizations, we have created team and enterprise plans that offer new ways for teams to co-operate better: share and manage collections with your whole team and external stakeholders. They also introduce admin roles for more fine-grained control in managing changes. To ensure everything is running smoothly and that you are getting everything out of Image Display Control, we also invite you to book a free consultation with an image optimization expert.
Please read a complete description of all the available features and our early-bird pricing at https://www.frameright.io/pricing.
We had to leave some features out for the time being, but they are coming back soon. The ability to rotate crops has been improved and will be added back to Frameright soon, with full support also available in the open-source libraries and components.
A new user interface is in the works that will make it easier to create overlay masks that can be used to indicate regions that will have text and other overlays that will affect image composition.
We are also looking into different ways to introduce new crop shapes in addition to the traditional rectangle ones. Initially, this feature will be available as a custom feature for enterprise customers in the form of custom overlay masks.
To let our users make the most of Image Display Control, we have also released several open-source libraries that make it easy to take advantage of the IDC metadata in different online environments. For the front end, we have developed a Web Component capable of consuming the metadata and displaying the image correctly regardless of size or ratio. A version tailored explicitly for React is also available and powers this demo that showcases what kind of experiences you can now create.
While the frontend components can read the regions from the image's metadata on the fly, extracting the data already on the backend is often more performant. For that purpose, we have released metadata parsers for Node and PHP. These can, of course, be used in other contexts as well. An everyday use case is pre-cropping the assets on the backend, which is now easier than ever. However, we highly encourage all developers to look at the frontend components and find ways to retain the image in its original form when possible.
Read more about the open-source libraries and how to use them in our developer portal.
Image Display Control, or IDC, is a standard that chains together the various steps of the image lifecycle using image metadata. Image-specific display instructions spread across platforms behind the scenes in the embedded metadata of the image file. The IPTC Image Regions metadata format powers IDC.
Frameright and the IDC ecosystem are constantly evolving and improving, so it was about time for a new big release. We are super grateful for any feedback you might have. Please tell us at hello@frameright.io how Frameright could better fit your needs and how the new Frameright.app feels in your hands.
If your workflow requires one of the removed features or you have other ideas to bring your IDC game to the next level, don't hesitate to contact us. We love hearing from you, and keep a keen ear on all new ideas.
Thank you all!
