ESPOO, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rightware®, the leader in user interface (UI) design and implementation software, is proud to announce that the latest version of the Kanzi® UI Solution is the first release targeting the millions of graphics designers and application developers working on UI solutions for touch screens. Targeting every designer from the large corporations working on mission critical UI designs to the medium-sized design studios to the individual designers looking to try something new, this latest version of Kanzi is one of the biggest additions to Rightware since its inception, focusing on ease of use and introducing new versions of the product, targeting an even greater potential audience.

”This is one of the most significant updates we’ve made to Kanzi,” stated Jonas Geust, CEO at Rightware. ”Recognizing that Kanzi has already become mission critical technology in several verticals, we’ve started focusing on an initiative to deliver a top-to-bottom product family with high-end capabilities for both the larger and smaller design teams. Our goal is to make Kanzi the best UI development choice for everyone and the latest release is our first step towards that goal.”

Kanzi is quickly becoming just as popular a choice with key customers and partners in the car industry as it is in the consumer electronics industry. Kanzi combines a powerful Kanzi Studio, a UI content creation tool running on PC, with a resource efficient cross platform graphics and user interface engine, Kanzi Engine, in one complete package. This is a complete solution for rapid creation and immediate deployment of advanced 2D and 3D graphical user interfaces for mobile, automotive, set-top-box, smart TV and other embedded devices.

“The User Interface and Infotainment System has become key differentiator among luxury cars, whether it's delivering the necessary information to the driver or offering state-of-the-art entertainment options to the passengers,” said Mathias Halliger, head of architecture, MMI system at Audi. “Our deep relationship with Rightware, demonstrates how we are able to continue to lead the industry in infotainment and instrument cluster design. We are excited about the continuous progress that Kanzi has shown, and we are thrilled it will continue to be a part of our award-winning infotainment systems."

Kanzi has played a key role in revolutionizing the in-dash infotainment system in the automotive industry, with design wins at Audi and other leading car manufacturers and Tier-1 suppliers as well as several smartphone and tablet manufacturers. The company is looking to expand aggressively into new and emerging markets including, entertainment, mobile tablet, smart TVs and other embedded verticals.

Significant new Kanzi features include:

• All new 3D model import from industry standard FBX and Collada formats
• Accurate and flexible presentation of text using 3D and 2D UI controls
• Layout system extended for 2D UI layers including stack and grid controls
• Proportional layouts to support UI deployment to diverse screen sizes
• Hardware texture compression supporting now ATC, ETC and DXT
• Precise rendering of transparency using pre-multiplied alpha

Features for usability and productivity:

• Context-sensitive access to reference documentation and new quick tutorials
• Video tutorials to support early learning
• Visual editing of the UI project with real time preview tools
• Quick access to materials in new material library
• Many more improvements to project navigation, event triggers, animation editor…

Refactored features:

• Easy creation of shadows with shadow map composer
• Accurate and fast rendering of reflections with cube-map composer
• User defined custom composers for post-processing effects such as motion blur
• Significantly reduced run time memory consumption with new resource management

“We are incredibly proud of this release,” stated Ville Illves, COO at Rightware. “Last year we took a deeper look at what designers and developers wanted, and began working based on their feedback. It took hard work to do this while keeping the intuitive and easy-to-use design that makes Kanzi desireable. We are sure that designers and developers are happy with the progress that we’ve made thus far.”

The New Product Family

There are three opportunities to license Kanzi:

• Rightware Kanzi 2.6 Trial– 30-day free trial for Android development
• Rightware Kanzi 2.6 Pro version - $999 for Android development with optional iOS development package
• Rightware Kanzi 2.6 Enterprise version - $10,999 for application and embedded product development on Windows, Android, Linux and QNX

For a complete list of products and features, please visit: http://www.rightware.com/kanzi-ui-solutions/

To download the free and feature-packed Kanzi for creating interactive applications, visit http://www.rightware.com/kanzi-ui-solutions/download-kanzi/

About Rightware

Rightware® is the market leader in advanced User Interface technology, serving mobile, automotive and other embedded industries with its Kanzi® solution for rapid user interface design and deployment. Rightware also develops industry leading system performance analysis tools and its renowned product portfolio includes the Basemark™ product family for various benchmarking purposes, including industry standard benchmarks for OpenGL ES, OpenVG, OpenCL, Android, Linux, and Windows Mobile performance measurement. Rightware is headquartered in Espoo, Finland and has offices in Saratoga, CA, Shanghai and Munich. More information: www.rightware.com

Rightware and Kanzi are trademarks or registered trademarks solely owned and controlled by Rightware Oy and are protected by applicable trademark law, and may not be used to any extent without the express prior written consent of Rightware Oy in each instance. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.