img.ly SDK for iOS is a Cocoa Touch framework for creating stunning images with a nice selection of premium filters.
img.ly SDK provides tools to create photo applications for iOS with a big variety of filters that can be previewed in real-time. Unlike other apps that allow live preview of filters img.ly SDK provides high-resolution images. On iPhone 4 that is 2048 x 1593 pixels and on iPhone 5 full resolution (up to 4096 x 4096 pixels). It also comes with customizable view controllers for the general needs of such apps.
The easiest way to install img.ly SDK for iOS is via CocoaPods. In your Podfile, add the following:
pod 'imglyKit'
First there is the IMGLYCameraViewController. That controller shows a camera live stream, a filter selector, and UI controls to control the camera settings such as flash, front camera or back camera. After the user took an image the controller switches to accept mode. In that mode the user can accept (edit) the image, save it , or reject it. Also he can change the filter.
The other of the two public view controllers is the IMGLYEditorViewController. That controller allows the user to edit an image. The options are, Magic (automatic image enhancement), filter, orientation (flip rotate), focus (tiltshift), crop, brightness, contrast, saturation, noise, text. Also there is a reset / undo option that lets the user start over. Each of the view controllers provides a completion block, that returns the final high resolution image.
The img.ly SDK comes with an example app that shows different setups to demonstrate the simplicity and power of the SDK. Starting from the didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method, startupWithCamera, startupWithEditor or startupWithImageSelector can be called to setup the app in the chosen mode.
For example, startupWithCamera will start the app with the IMGLYCameraViewController. The method also set a IMGLYCameraViewControllerCompletionHandler. That is used to initiate an IMGLYEditorViewController when the user chose 'edit'. The new IMGLYEditorViewController will be pushed to the UINavigationController. After that view controller is dismissed the IMGLYCameraViewController will become active again. SwitchToCameraMode is called to set the controller back to photo-taking mode.
Both view controllers provide multiple init functions, with combinations of different parameters. Those parameters are: id<IMGLYCameraImageProvider>imageProvider. The imageProvider can be used to give the UI a different look. It must implement the IMGLYCameraImageProvider protocol. That protocol consists of getters for the individual images. Such as the camera button, or the background images. When no image provider is set, the SDK will use the default images. Also, the preview image for the filters, during live stream, is set via that protocol. See IMGLYDefaultCameraImageProvider class for more infos on that matter.
The IMGLYEditorImageProvider is the equivalent protocol for the IMGLYEditorViewController.
Another parameter is the availableFilterList. That is actually a NSArray of integers derived from the desired filter types. In our example app the listOfAvailableFilters method returns such an array. If that parameter is nil or not set, all filters of the SDK will be added. Note that this array also controls the order of the filters.
The IMGLYEditorViewController also has a parameter for the initial filter type. Using that parameter will add a filter to the image so its preview will look like the one in the IMGLYCameraController.
To get how the high level of the img.ly SDK works, read the source code of the example app carefully.
As low-level API the SDK comes with the IMGLYPhotoProcessor class. It can be used to apply filters and other operations directly from code. The IMGLYPhotoProcessor is a singleton. That is necessary to avoid threading issues with OpenGLES. To work with the IMGLYPhotoProcessor a IMGLYProcessingJob must be created. It holds a list of IMGLYOperations that we add to the job. That job then is handed over to the IMGLYPhotoProcessor and will be executed.
Here is an example that creates a IMGLYFilterOperation:
IMGLYProcessingJob *job = [[IMGLYProcessingJob alloc] init];
IMGLYFilterOperation *operation = [[IMGLYFilterOperation alloc] init];
operation.filterType = IMGLYFilterType669;
[job addOperation:(IMGLYOperation *)operation];
Note that we only add one operation here, but multiple operations can be added. After the job was setup we set the input image and run the job:
UIImage *inputImage= ...;
[IMGLYPhotoProcessor sharedPhotoProcessor].inputImage = inputImage;
[[IMGLYPhotoProcessor sharedPhotoProcessor] performProcessingJob:job];
UIImage *outputImage = [[IMGLYPhotoProcessor sharedPhotoProcessor] outputImage];
We just added a version with a 64-Bit lib. Please note that this version won't run on the 64-Bit simulator yet. 32-Bit simulators are supported tho. To get the camera working you need an iOS device.
We lately decided to provide the full source code in a seperate branch. Please note that this branch won't be distributed via cocoa-pods since its uncertain if it will work out well :D
img.ly SDK for iOS uses a private fork of GPUImage, which is released under the following license:
Copyright (c) 2012, Brad Larson, Ben Cochran, Hugues Lismonde, Keitaroh Kobayashi, Alaric Cole, Matthew Clark, Jacob Gundersen, Chris Williams. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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