Terian ID Creator End of Life

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the end of Terian ID Creator’s lifespan. We informed our customers in Q2 of 2022, and after allowing time to pass, we officially discontinued all support and development for the program as of March 2023.

Terian ID Creator has been an integral part of our journey, and we have been delighted to provide an ID card creation solution that has been used by many organizations worldwide. Unfortunately, changes in the market and technology have made it impossible for us to continue justifying the cost of ongoing development and support for the software.

We deeply appreciate the value and impact our product has had on our loyal customers. Some have been with us since its beta testing phase ten years ago when version 0.41 was released on 01/Mar/2013. Without your unwavering support and constructive feedback, our product would not have evolved into the feature-complete software it is today. We thank you for being a vital part of our journey and for helping us improve our product to meet your needs.

We understand that our users may be disappointed by this news. However, after careful reflection and considering market and technology changes, we have provided alternative pathways that will ultimately lead to a better solution for their business needs. We recognize the importance of providing our users with reliable and effective solutions and have taken steps to ensure they have access to the resources they need to achieve their objectives. Our commitment to delivering top-quality service and support remains unwavering, and we are confident that our users will find our recommended alternatives to be a valuable addition to their workflows.

We want to express our gratitude to all our customers once again for their support over the years.

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Terian ID Creator v1.95 Released

Terian ID Creator v1.94 has just been released; you can download it from the official website here.

Alongside the incorporation of InDesign CC 18.1.0 support, we have also implemented a significant update to the image capture framework.

The update to the image capture framework enhances the stability of the software and includes multiple bug fixes that were causing issues for users, resulting in a more reliable and streamlined image capture process.

Terian ID Creator v1.94 Released

Terian ID Creator v1.94 has just been released, you can download it from the official website here.

The sole addition to this release is the inclusion of support for InDesign CC 18.0.0

Terian ID Creator v1.93 Released

After a significant period in testing, we are excited to announce the release of Terian ID Creator v1.93. You can download it from the official website here.

This latest update is a significant one, offering a range of enhancements and new functionality to improve the user experience.

Indesign version support:

This release features the addition of support for InDesign CC 17.1.0, allowing users to leverage the latest capabilities of this powerful tool. At the same time, we have removed support for older versions of InDesign, including InDesign CC 2017 (v12), and InDesign CC 2018 (v13), to focus on delivering the best possible experience for our users.

Quality of life improvements:

With this release we have focused on improving the usability of the software. One of the significant changes we have made is the numerous improvements to form layouts. We understand the software is used by people with different screen sizes and resolutions, and we have optimized the layout to ensure that users have an enjoyable experience.

The forms have been updated to allow displaying wider fields, thereby making it easier to input and view data. We have also increased the space between UI elements, making it easier to differentiate between them and reduce the change of clicking on the wrong button or field.

Additionally, we have taken into consideration users who use touch screen devices such as tablets and laptops. We have made sure that the UI elements are appropriately sized, spaced, and positioned to allow for better touch input.

These improvements to form layouts are aimed at improving the usability of Terian ID Creator v1.93, making it easier and more intuitive for users to navigate and use the software.

Fixes:

Additionally, we have fixed a range of issues, including the save button not being visible on certain forms, global lookup GeneralText fields incorrectly repopulating, and forms being incorrectly displayed off-screen.

We have also fixed the missing registry key error on start-up and the issue with global data fields incorrectly exceeding range limits.

Terian ID Creator v1.92 Released

Terian ID Creator v1.92 has just been released; you can download it from the official website here.

The latest update is a small one, but it comes with an important enhancement. It now enables the automatic marking of lookup data as “issued” in the CardData table.

Issue Lookup Data Confirmation form:

Terian ID Creator v1.91 Released

Terian ID Creator v1.91 has just been released; you can download it from the official website here.

This release brings along several improvements and bug fixes. The updated version offers better support for InDesign CC 16.1.0 and includes a couple enhancements to improve user experience and functionality.

Quality of life improvement:

One of the small additions is the card type configuration button in the shipping form. This feature helps provide a more user-friendly interface and makes the process of creating and shipping ID cards much more accessible and efficient.

The new update also includes several enhancements to the create card, shipping, and maintenance forms. The width of these forms has been adjusted to allow for the display of wider fields. This improvement helps users to input and manage data more efficiently and accurately.

Fixes to @UUID and zoom:

Furthermore, the missing @UUID Parameter issue with the CSV Import process has been fixed, making it possible for users to import data without experiencing any difficulties. This improvement saves users time and effort when importing large amounts of data.

Another critical issue addressed in this update is the zoom feature not being considered when capturing images. This problem has been fixed, allowing users to capture images with the desired level of zoom. This enhancement ensures that the images captured are of high quality and meet the specific needs of users.

This release brings several improvements and bug fixes that enhance the overall user experience. The new features, such as the card type configuration button and the improved form width, make it easier and more efficient to create and manage ID cards. The fixed bugs also ensure that users can import data and capture images with ease and accuracy.

Terian ID Creator v1.90 Released

After a few months in testing, Terian ID Creator v1.90 has been released. You can download it from the official website here

In addition to bug fixes, this release includes Indesign 2021 (v16.0.1) support, QR Code generation support, Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) support, and improvements to capture functionality.

We have also removed support for older versions of Indesign as the Card Printing Application (CPA).

QR Code generation support:

Terian IDC now supports generating either a ‘Plain Text’ or ‘Web Hyperlink’ QR Code within Indesign. QR Code settings are configured as part of the GeneralText fields which allows data to be linked from other fields, global fields, global lookup lists or manually inserted.

Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) support:

A new UUID is generated every every time a card is printed and can be linked in a GeneralText field for use in QR Codes.

The UUID’s generated are version 4, variant 1 UUIDs, more information can be found here

Capture functionality improvements:

Focus and zoom sliders are now available from the main capture form (previously these were accessible via the camera control form).

The image adjustment and camera control forms have also been updated to be more compatible with touch screen devices by increasing the space and size of UI elements.

Indesign versions supported:

This release removes support for older versions of Indesign (CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CC). Currently only the following versions of Indesign are supported:

• Indesign CC 2017 (v12)
• Indesign CC 2018 (v13)
• Indesign CC 2019 (v14)
• Indesign CC 2020 (v15)
• Indesign CC 2021 (v16)

Additional bug fixes and quality of life improvements:

As highlighted in the changelog, there has also been additional bug fixes and a couple quality of life improvements.

An example of a fix/quality of life improvement is the improvement to the responsiveness of the form frame list when changing CPA form configuration settings.

Using Fast Reports as a Card Printing Application (CPA) Delayed:

In the previous blog here it was mentioned that we are working on supporting using Fast Reports as a CPA. This feature has been delayed and we hope to bring it in a future release.

Terian ID Creator v1.80 Released

Ooops, apologies, but it looks like we forgot to publish a blog post for this release.

Anyways, Terian ID Creator v1.80 was released in late July. You can download it from the official website here

This release brings support for the latest (at time of release) versions of both Indesign (15.1.0), and Bartender (11.1) along with improvements to image support and additional bug fixes.

Bartender 11.1 and Indesign 15.1.0 support:

The headline of this release is the added support for the most recent releases of Bartender and Indesign. This is especially important with support for Bartender v11.1 (also referred to as the 2019 Edition) as compared to the previous edition of Bartender, v11.1 is a significant enhancement in feature set.

You can find out more about the different editions of Bartender here

Improved data folder support:

To help provide more flexibility for data folder configuration, we now allow for the top level client data folder to be specified within the configuration. This is useful when creating card types as Terian will now browse from this top level folder and offer a suggestion for the naming of data folders for card types.

Improved image support:

Terian now supports PNG files in addition to JPG files for any of the images used for printing cards, this can be set individually on each photo field associated with a card type. The addition of PNG support helps provide card design flexibility, especially when it would be helpful to have a transparent image.

We also now provide support for an alternative image folder for each image, a copy of the photo will be saved to this alternative folder in addition to the primary photo folder. This alternative folder may be helpful for other processes that you may need to run on the photos used by the system while maintaining the integrity of the primary storage location.

Also included in this version is support for capturing the secondary and tertiary images (Photo 2, and Photo 3). Previously only Photo 1 supported obtaining an image via the capture process, image capture support is now available for all three photo fields.

Quality of life improvement:

A very small quality of life improvement has been provided with the addition of a card type configuration button on both the Create Card, and Card Maintenance forms. Previously this functionality existed in the popup menu, however now with a visible button it may be more apparent to users.

Additional bug fixes:

As highlighted in the changelog, there has also been additional bug fixes applied to this release.

Coming soon:

One advantage of forgetting to publish this post, is that we can now comment on what is currently in development for future versions of Terian ID Creator.

We are currently working on providing support for the built in Fast Reports engine to be used as a Card Printing Application (CPA) in the same way you can currently use either Indesign or Bartender. This will allow for cards to be printed using the internal engine, and will not require a third party printing application like Indesign or Bartender. Currently this feature is in its early development stages, but we hope upon its release it will greatly improve the flexibility of Terian ID Creator.

Terian ID Creator v1.71 Released

Terian ID Creator v1.71 has just been released. You can download it from the official website here

This is a minor update to correct an issue with the CPA Class library when dealing with some versions of Adobe Indesign.

Windows 8.1, no longer supported:

One update that was not mentioned in the previous blog post, was the dropping of support for Windows 8.1 (Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 8.1 on January 9th, 2018).

While Terian ID Creator may continue to work on Windows 8.1, we will no longer test or support it on that platform and recommend where possible users upgrade to Windows 10.

Microsoft SQL Server 2016 or later recommended:

The documentation has also been updated to recommend Microsoft SQL Server 2016 or later. Similarly to the note regarding older operating systems, Terian ID Creator may continue to work with SQL Server 2014 however we no longer test or support it on that platform.

Terian ID Creator v1.70 Released

Terian ID Creator v1.70 has just been released. You can download it from the official website here.

You may notice there has been a couple of interim releases since our last blog post, however these primarily contained bug fixes and backend changes so did not warrant a dedicated blog post.

Cropping Support:

The biggest feature of this release is support for cropping images to a 4:3 aspect ratio. With HDMI and 1080p (1920×1080) resolution output from cameras now being the norm, this 16:9 aspect ratio provides a lot of extra detail that may not be required for capturing identification photos.

Short of rotating the camera and capturing in a portrait mode (currently not supported by Terian IDC) it is difficult to zoom in on a person to frame a good identification image using 16:9 aspect ratio resolutions. This is where 4:3 cropping comes to the rescue, so you can go from something like this 1920×1080 (16:9) image…

To something like this 1440×1080 (4:3) image

You can see in the first image above, the blue cropping square which helps illustrate what part of the original image will remain in the cropped image.

To maximize the cropped image size you should match the vertical size to the original size (in this case 1080 pixels), and the horizontal size will be reduced to retain the 4:3 aspect ratio, however it is also possible to select a smaller cropping size if desired.

Renamed previous Image Crop Functionality:

Due to the introduction of proper cropping functionality the previous ‘Image Crop’ functionality has been renamed to ‘Image Border’ as this better represents what that function does.

The ‘Image Border’ function simply replaces the pixels on the edges of an image with white pixels, with each side being able to be set independently.

This feature was useful for analog video capture devices that would often include a couple lines of additional noise along the edges of the input image.

Indesign CC 2020 (v15.0.2) Support

This update also provides support for Indesign CC v15.0.2 (or Indesign CC 2020 as the shortcuts may refer to).

Next Up:

We are still evaluating the need to upgrade to a 64Bit executable, at this stage this is still lower on the priority list compared to other feature requests, however it is still being considered.

During development we had started to implement support for rotating the captured image (i.e. if you wanted to rotate your camera device and capture in portrait mode), however the capture framework we utilise did not correctly support this feature. We had worked with the vendor and an update was provided last week, however this still had some issues stopping us from implementing this feature. We continue to work with the vendor and hopefully we can implement this feature in a future version.