Update: MonoPhix HD 1.2 – The most powerful B&W photography app for iPad.

It’s been a while since our only iPad app got a little update love, but today we are pleased to announce the release of MonoPhix HD 1.2. And it’s not a minor release. It contains better support for multitasking, support for the new iPad’s retina display, a new mode allowing tonal adjustments, color filters, renewed vignetting and the ability to share your pictures on our new Phix filter and photo sharing service. We also fixed an entire busload of bugs and added some UI tweaks, including the ability to remove the tape from your preview.

Tonal adjustments

One request was to include the ability to control the contrast of each color channel separately. To make red parts of your picture stand out more for example. With the new “tonal controls” you can do just that. And just like the default controls you can still control light and dark tones separately.

Color filters

Just like in the iPhone version of MonoPhix, MonoPhix HD now has color filters aboard (Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow).

New settings panel and retina support

The new settings panel has been partially simplified and now also contains the ability to remove the tape ornaments from the picture preview. Instead of the many options to size your preview you now have 2 options, one for retina devices and one for the first and second generation iPad.

Share pictures and filters on Phix

With the release of iPhix for Mac we have created a new more rich way of sharing pictures and we call it “Phix”. Phix is a service you can use to share pictures, get a shortlink to your picture to share on twitter and facebook and most importantly, to show people what you did to your picture to make it look how it looks. With the recipe option you can upload all your changes along with your picture. For more info: http://phix.im/ .

If you already own MonoPhix HD you can update for free and if you don’t own it you can download it here for 1.99$.

Update: MonoPhix – Vintage Meets Technology v3.1

NOTE: The newest update contains a bug caused by an incorrect project setting which causes the opening screen to look all buggy and  glitchy. This issue will be fixed ASAP in a 3.1.1 update. It’s sad that these things always happen and simply cannot be caught during testing but they are a result of Apple’s lack of documentation regarding design for Retina Displays. The fix will be submitted tomorrow and will hopefully fix this annoying problem. I apologize sincerely for the mistake.

Today we are pleased to announce the newest version of the most feature rich black and white photo editor for iPhone, MonoPhix. Version 3.1 brings with it a number of fixes for annoying issues as well as stability and performance improvements but also a completely new often requested feature.

Filters

From now on you’ll be able to select a filter for your monochrome conversions. The preset filters are:
-”-” (default)
-Red
-Green
-Blue
-Cyan
-Magenta
-Yellow

Each filter will act like a filter on a camera and filter out light in that specific color. This can be used to enhance the intensity of grass or to accentuate the sky. All these preset filters are available with one tap from within the “Adjust” tab.

Example of the new filter function with the red filter enabled.

 Vignetting improvements

Something which has been bothering users was the quirk in the preview when vignetting was enabled which caused the vignetting to look like venetian blinds. In version 3.1 this is resolved further by adding a few new common picture resolutions to the exception list. If this glitch would still occur users are now able to adjust the preview offset by themselves with an extra slider in the vignetting tab. The vignetting is now also less intense by default and has a higher range.

The new vignetting tab in MonoPhix 3.1

Other fixes

Along with these major improvements came some minor fixes which you will probably not even notice. These include added reliability on iOS 4.3 and up and small performance improvements which speed up the processing slightly. Also there’s now a tooltip at the top of each tab when you next open MonoPhix which will display instructions on hiding a tab overlay and displaying the image unobstructed. These will disappear automatically when the user uses this feature for the first time.

Release cycle changes

We can also announce that MonoPhix will get a shorter release cycle which brings updates and improvements at a faster pace. We are already outlining the the featureset of MonoPhix 3.2 which will bring some more interesting features. MonoPhix normally gets only one major update a year and a few small bug fixing releases but from now one this will change to one major update a year (with UI changes) and about 4 significant minor updates which add extra features and improve existing ones.

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MonoPhix 3.1 is now available in the iTunes App Store and can be downloaded here.

Here’s the full feature list as seen in the App Store for reference:

• Color filters for Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and of course default (average blending) easily accessible with one tap
• Added a small tooltip to show people how they can hide the tool overlay (this will disappear automatically after being used)
• Vignetting is now lighter by default and has a higher range
• A slider was added to the vignetting tab to allow users to correct the vignetting on the preview in case of glitches
• Fixed vignetting preview glitch on some landscape images (1936×2691)
• Fixed a few minor issues to improve reliability on iOS 4.3 and up
• Small performance adjustments to make the filters run more smoothly

MonoPhix HD available for 0.99$ for an undetermined amount of time

Because we haven’t released anything in a while we have decided to bring the price of MonoPhix HD for iPad (black & white photography app) down from 1.99$ to the price of its iPhone companion, 0.99$. So grab it while you can. The sale might be over after 5 minutes or after 5 months. Who knows?

For those of you waiting for an update to eg. MonoPhix or a new app, don’t worry we’re currently working on some very interesting projects which might be killer apps in the making. As for a MonoPhix update, that one should arrive in Spring to fix the remaining vignetting issues and add some extra features.

App update: MonoPhix 3 – Vintage meets technology, again. [MAJOR]

NOTE: If you are using iOS 3.1.3 or lower you might want to wait a week until version 3.0.2 is out, this version fixes crashes on iOS 3.1.x devices and adds support for iOS 3.0 devices.

It’s been about a year since MonoPhix 2 was released. It was at that time called the black & white app with the best results around. In a year many things changed, a lot of competition with more feature rich apps got out of nowhere and things became silent around MonoPhix. But we weren’t partying or resting, in fact we spent an entire year developing great new features, filters and tried a lot of different angles to find the most suitable interface for our flagship app. The first results came in MonoPhix HD and now fans of the iPhone version can also rejoice. We present to you, the biggest app update in our entire history: MonoPhix 3.

MonoPhix 3 was built with one goal, to be the best Black & White app in the app store. If we succeeded is up to the user, but we certainly did our best. MonoPhix 3 has over 30 new features and changes and a completely redesigned UI optimized to provide easy access to all those tools.

What’s different?

The user interface

MonoPhix 3 has a completely redesigned dark wood UI as mentioned before. People who also use the iPad version will be very familiar with this interface as it’s based on the MonoPhix HD UI. Here’s an example of what you get when you open MonoPhix. You are welcomed by the social note which provides access to our twitter and facebook pages. The dock has been replaced by a simple brown bar which gives access to the controls to open and save your pictures.

The tonal sliders and the new MonoCore 3 filter

The tonal sliders which give users the ability to enhance the contrast of their monochrome picture have been there for a while and now they are even more powerful. Together with the new enhanced monochrome filter they allow for very high contrast while remaining details and quality.

Processing options

The MonoPhix 3 processing options

A lot of features are gathered under the processing tab. It allows you to blow out exposure, generate grain, posterize the image and invert the colors. But the most interesting feature is the alpha slider. It allows you to set the transparency for the monochrome layer and makes MonoPhix less of a monochrome app by allowing users to create desaturated high contrast vintage pics.

Vignetting

Vignetting

We believe that MonoPhix 3 has some of the most advanced vignetting options of any iPhone app. It allows with one slider which takes even Photoshop several actions, clicks and menus further. MonoPhix supports burned and bleached vignetting and you can adjust the radius and strength of the vignet to your specific needs.

Coloring

Coloring

MonoPhix 2 allowed coloring your monochrome pics to eg. Sepia or Antique. With MonoPhix 3 we took this to a whole new level. Now you can recolor the duotone to whatever you like with the 3 RGB sliders.

High resolution preview

Preview mode

The biggest complaint about MonoPhix 2 was that the previews were just too small. Complaints are there to be fixed, so now MonoPhix 3 provides users with an almost full screen preview. People even have the ability to hide the controls by double tapping any menu item or just tapping the active menu item. Now you can review your changes in detail before saving.

The Settings

Settings

For the first time in its history MonoPhix also contains a settings panel and a help file. The settings panel allows you to bring back the old more grainy MonoCore 2 filter under the “Fast film” tab. It allows people with an iPhone 4 or 4g iPod Touch to enable a huge high quality preview for the Retina Display and allows some other UI options to be set.

MonoPhix 3 is still available for 0.99$ in the App Store and even comes as a free update to the 3.000 existing users. But we might raise the price later, so we can give decent discounts on Black Friday and during the holidays.

We can’t wait to see some great MonoPhix edits appear on the web!

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MonoPhix HD 1.1 brings tons of new features to a great iPad photography app.

Our first iPad app, MonoPhix HD was an amazing success at release and has a steady download count at the moment, so we can’t neglect the tons of users who downloaded it. That’s why I’ve set up the roadmap for the next update to give people an idea of what to expect next time MonoPhix HD shows up in their update list.

First of all some people have had some performance issues, others think it’s justified, but the issue remains that some actions can be quite slow to be applied to the preview. We can’t fix this completely and provide a real time preview, there will always be some lag, but we’re going to improve the performance as good as we can and a lot of simultaneous actions will no longer clog up the app. So each action will be previewed within 2 seconds.

Other changes include better support for vignetting. MonoPhix HD already has great vignetting support, it’s even used by some with the filter alpha set to 0 to apply it to non-monochrome images, but it can be better. So MonoPhix HD 1.1 will have the best vignetting support of any iPad/iPhone app. New features include the ability to set an offset for the vignetting and a different type of vignetting to spread light or shadow from each corner instead of the default round vignetting.

Another interesting feature will be a noise generator which gives your pictures some extra grain. This will certainly benefit some users which like some added vintage effect to their pictures.

You will also have the ability to color your monochrome images in another way than just colouring the white parts in the selected color. In MonoPhix HD 1.1 you will choose what shade you want to recolor.

The other features include a help file, some social features on startup to guide you in showing off your MonoPhix pictures, some live tutorials and gesture support eg. Touch based gestures and shake to reset.

And for the iPhone users don’t fear cause all these features will be coming to MonoPhix 3 for iPhone as well.

MonoPhix HD 1.1 will appear somewhere in the next 2 months. It will not have the UI changes requested by some users yet because that requires some general research but it’s a more than worthy update to version 1.0.

In the meanwhile you can enjoy MonoPhix HD, version 1.1 will come as a free update for 1.0 users.

MonoCore 3, a new Hicon Mono filter for MonoPhix. (iPad/iPhone-App)

A lot of people have used our MonoPhix 2.0 for iPhone and it’s the favorite black & white app for people who like a bit of noise in a monochrome picture to get a certain vintage feel. But people who want smooth black and white always jumped to other apps with less control over the results and less functionality. Now MonoPhix will also get more smooth results without losing speed or control and without losing the old grainy filter, with MonoCore 3.0.

MonoCore 3.0 is the name of the Monochrome filter which will be used in the next generation of MonoPhix apps (MonoPhix HD for iPad, MonoPhix 3.0 for iPhone and MonoPhix Lite 3.0 for iPhone), it will be faster, provide higher quality results and will be even more adjustable. And for the grain lovers there will be the ability to choose for the old MonoPhix 2 filter.

Here are some comparisons between the black & white filter in MonoPhix 2 and the one in MonoPhix 3 and MonoPhix HD for iPad :

Time needed for certain actions on a 2.040x1.536 image - MonoCore 2 vs. MonoCore 3 (Measured on an iPad)

Quality in Bytes/Pixel on a 2.040x1.536 image (Measured on an iPad)

But of course it’s better to give a picture result of the quality changes, this image was processed with the development build of MonoPhix HD for iPad, the first image was generated with the MonoCore 2 filter also present in MonoPhix 2 for iPhone, the second image is filtered with MonoCore 3. As you will see the transitions are much smoother in MonoCore 3 and the details are preserved much better, while maintaining the depth of MonoCore 2.

MonoCore2 Result

MonoCore3 Result

MonoCore2 Detail Result

MonoCore3 Detail Result