Customer Support
And fortunately for us, Atalasoft also takes bugs and software issues very seriously. Any image-rendering toolkit is, by definition, a work in progress. Image formats may appear to be standardized (JPEG, TIFF, PSD, and the like), but all those formats have dozens of variants and varieties of legacy images that may have been poorly constructed or are in some way not adherent to the specification. In addition, vendors continue to work around the formats with slight variants, and committees refine Standards over time. Because many of our customers are professionals, it is important that when they have issues, we are able to address them quickly. And of course, it is also crucial that we not damage their images in any way. Atalasoft has an extensive software-testing program and was happy to add our sample images to its test suite. When we (or a customer) did find an issue rendering an image, Atalasoft was quick to help and provide a workaround or updated code.
Conclusion
When selecting third-party components, it is often tempting to look only at your immediate needs. After all, there is always a release that is urgently needed in the customers' hands. But the real cost of any component—far greater than the licensing fees—is the energy you'll put into integrating, testing, and releasing it as part of your application. The lesson we learned was to start with the architecture and the company, then work through specific product features rather than the other way around.
