---
title: "Release Notes"
description: "What is new in each version of LumiScan Annotation Web: new features, improvements, bug fixes, performance and what to note when updating."
product: "LumiScan Annotation Web"
component: "lumiscan-annotation-web"
version: "2.4.0"
display_version: "2.4.0.0"
latest_version: false
language: "en"
url: "https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/release-notes.html"
---

# Release Notes – LumiScan Annotation Web

This page lists the changes in each version of LumiScan Annotation Web, newest first. Every entry is grouped into **New features**, **Improvements**, **Bug fixes** and **Performance**; **Update notes** say what to check when you install the version over an older one.

To update, install the new version over the old one ([server](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/installing-the-server.html) or [single-PC setup](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/single-pc-installation.html)). Projects, annotations, accounts and settings are kept. To be on the safe side, download a backup first under **your name → Users and sign-in → Backups** (see [Backup and Restore](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/backup-and-restore.html)).

## Version 2.4.0.0 {#v2-4}

The interface now speaks five languages. Edit locks are friendlier when several people work at the same time, and the app starts faster.

### New features

- **Interface in five languages:** English, German, Spanish, French and Chinese (simplified). The app starts in the language of the browser, English if there is none for it.
- **Language saved with your account:** choose a language on the login page or under **your name → Language**. Your choice applies in every browser and on every PC you sign in with. **Same as the browser** goes back to the browser’s language.
- **Own texts and languages without a new version:** administrators can correct texts, use the terms of their company or add a language by putting a translation table into the server’s `translations` folder. The change applies at the next reload of the page, without a restart. See [Languages and Translations](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/languages-and-translations.html).

### Improvements

- Dates and times are shown the way the chosen language writes them.
- Most messages of the server (for example "The current password is wrong.") appear in the chosen language too.
- Before an update changes the database format, the server now keeps a copy of the old database next to it (for example `annotation-server.db.v3.bak`). Going back to the previous version then only means installing it and putting the copy in place of the database.
- New configuration setting `translations_dir` (see [Configuration](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/configuration.html)).

### Bug fixes

- An image that was read-only because someone else, or another window of your own, had it open stayed read-only until it was opened again. It now becomes editable by itself as soon as it is free, and the app says so.
- A window that had lost its edit lock to someone else could take the lock back in the background while it still showed the image read-only. The image was then blocked for everyone. Fixed.
- Downloads with umlauts, accents or Chinese characters in their name (exports, project files, backups) could arrive with a garbled file name in some browsers. The exact name is now always kept.

### Performance

- Faster start: the app is loaded while the translations are fetched, and the language chosen before is fetched together with the list of languages.
- Unchanged translation tables are not sent again: the browser uses its copy.
- Adding images from the browser needs one listing of the folder less per file, which saves many requests in large S3 buckets.

### Update notes

- The database format changes (version 4). Older versions cannot open the updated database. The server keeps the old one as `annotation-server.db.v3.bak` next to it: to go back to 2.3, stop the server, install 2.3 and replace `annotation-server.db` with that copy (changes made with 2.4 in the meantime are then lost).

## Version 2.3.0.0 {#v2-3}

More image formats, adding images directly in the browser, a way to mark images as finished, and an export for other annotation and training tools.

### New features

- **JPEG, BMP and TIFF** besides PNG, including **multi-page TIFF**: every page is an image of its own with its own annotation file (see [Image Formats](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/image-formats.html)). 16-bit images are shown with the brightness range they actually use (10, 12, 14 or 16 bit).
- **Adding images in the browser** (project admins): **+ Add images** above the image list takes files, a whole folder or drag and drop, into an existing or a new folder. Large files are sent in pieces. Works for folders on the server and for S3 buckets (see [Adding Images](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/adding-images.html)).
- **Mark as done:** **Mark done** next to **Save**, or `Shift+D` to save, mark and go on, marks an image as finished, also when it has no boxes. The image list shows a ✓ and the count, and **Show** filters by it.
- **COCO export:** **Export** offers the COCO format, used by CVAT, Label Studio, FiftyOne and many training frameworks: images with annotations as ZIP, or only the annotations as JSON for one set or all (see [Exporting the Annotations](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/export-for-lumiscan-training.html)).
- **Set filter:** the image list shows in which set (training, validation, test) the export puts each image and can filter by it.

### Improvements

- **Keep each folder together** is remembered with the export settings of the project.
- The built-in networks for box suggestions read all image formats.
- Done marks are included in the project export and import.
- New configuration setting `upload_max_mb` for the largest file that can be added in the browser.

### Performance

- TIFF pages are converted for the browser once and then kept in a cache; the page list of a TIFF file is only read again when the file changes.
- Added images appear in the list at once, without waiting for the next scan of the folder.

### Update notes

- The database format changes (version 3). After the update, older versions can no longer open the database.

## Version 2.2.0.0 {#v2-2}

LumiScan Annotation on a single PC with its own window, faster annotation of series, finding the right images, and a direct path to LumiScan Training.

### New features

- **Single-PC installation:** a Windows installer with a start-menu and desktop shortcut. LumiScan Annotation runs in its own window, without a login, and only accepts connections from the same PC (see [Single-PC Installation](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/single-pc-installation.html)).
- **Copying boxes:** take the boxes of the previous image (`V`), copy boxes to the next images of a series, and copy and paste single boxes or all boxes with `Ctrl+C` / `Ctrl+V`, also between images (see [Copying Boxes and Templates](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/copying-boxes-and-templates.html)).
- **Box templates:** save a box as the typical size and orientation of its label; `T` places one at the mouse pointer.
- **Finding images:** search by file name, filter by state, by label or by the uncertainty of the network, and sort the list (see [Finding and Sorting Images](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/finding-and-sorting-images.html)).
- **Active learning:** **Rate with network** lets the project’s network rate the images; **Network least sure first** shows the images where annotation helps most.
- **Export for LumiScan Training:** a ready LumiScan Training project as ZIP, with a stable split into training, validation and test set.
- **Built-in box suggestions:** trained LumiScan networks run inside the server, without a separate service and without Python.
- **Update check:** project admins see when a newer version is available (single-PC installation; optional on servers).

### Improvements

- Closing the window asks about unsaved changes on macOS and Linux too (before: Windows only).

### Bug fixes

- Windows: configuration and data folders below user or folder names with umlauts did not work.

### Performance

- The image list knows the box count and the labels of every image from the image index, so filtering by label does not read the annotation files again.
- Box suggestions from the built-in networks need no round trip to a separate service.

## Version 2.1.0.0 {#v2-1}

The step from a single-user tool to a team application: sign-in with roles, projects, several annotators per image, history and revision notes.

### New features

- **Sign-in and roles:** local accounts, Active Directory / LDAP and single sign-on with OpenID Connect (Keycloak, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta and others); roles annotator, reviewer and admin, checked by the server (see [Users and Roles](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/users-and-roles.html), [Sign-in Methods](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/sign-in-methods.html)).
- **Projects:** independent annotation jobs with their own folder, settings, members, history and notes; export and import of a whole project as one file (see [Projects](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/projects.html)).
- **Projects in S3 buckets:** AWS S3, MinIO, SeaweedFS and other S3-compatible stores (see [Projects in S3 Buckets](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/projects-in-s3-buckets.html)).
- **Several annotators per image**: blind annotation, automatic reference when all agree, a review mode with the differences numbered, and agreement statistics (see [Several Annotators per Image](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/several-annotators-per-image.html)).
- **Version history and undo:** every saved version of an annotation can be viewed over the image and restored; undo and redo while editing (see [History and Undo](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/history-and-undo.html)).
- **Revision notes:** instructions on an image for a person, pinned to a box if needed, with replies (see [Revision Notes](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/revision-notes.html)).
- **Box suggestions:** a service with Grounding DINO and SAM 2, or with trained LumiScan networks, suggests boxes (`P`) (see [Box Suggestions](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/box-suggestions.html)).
- **Precise drawing:** magnifier with crosshair and pixel grid, center lines through every box, a second drawing mode (**edge rectangle**, `E`), and turning the bottom edge of a box (`R`).
- **Backup and restore** of the database and the configuration, automatic and on demand (see [Backup and Restore](https://docs.hdvisionsystems.com/en/lumiscan-annotation-web/2.4.0/backup-and-restore.html)).

### Improvements

- **HTTPS by default** with a self-signed certificate that the server creates and renews itself.
- Responses are compressed for browsers that accept it.
- New login page with the LumiScan apps.
- `A` / `D` skip images hidden by the filter of the image list.

### Bug fixes

- A second server on the same port shared the port silently on Linux; the server now refuses to start and says why.
- The read-only banner said "reviewing" in projects with one annotator per image, where the other person is annotating; it now says "editing".

### Performance

- Drawing, moving boxes, panning and the magnifier are smooth also with many boxes: about five to nine times less work per mouse movement.
- Image lists and statistics come from an index in the database instead of reading every file again.
- Images from S3 buckets are cached on the server and only downloaded again when they change.

### Update notes

- A server that listened on all addresses with plain HTTP now answers with HTTPS on the same port. Set `"https": "off"` in the configuration to keep HTTP.
- The access code (`auth_token`) of version 2.0 is replaced by sign-in; a configuration that still contains it is refused with a hint.

## Version 2.0.0.0 {#v2-0}

The first web version, successor of the desktop LumiScan Annotation 1.7.

### New features

- Annotation in the browser, served by a server for Windows and Linux.
- Annotation files byte for byte as written by the desktop tool, so LumiScan Training reads them unchanged.
- The same way of drawing oriented boxes as in the desktop tool, with its keyboard shortcuts, brightness and contrast, region of interest and labels on keys 1 to 9.
- Several people at once: edit locks per image, a read-only view for images others have open, and a warning when a file was changed by someone else.