Have a question about the Orthanc Viewer, Osimis Viewer and the Osimis Pro Viewer.
I’ve evaluated the Orthanc Viewer and the Osimis Viewer (Standard Version). I don’t think I ever got to check out the Osimis Pro Viewer and my understanding is that that has been or will be discontinued and will no longer available. For non-diagnostic purposes the Standard Osimis Viewer is probably adequate, and it apparently supports viewing PDF documents that have been attached to the study using:
http://localhost:8042/tools/create-dicom
Haven’t had a change to check out the Stone of Orthanc, but that is apparently an SDK and not a fully developed viewer application.
Just wondering what the plans are for the Standard Osimis Viewer. Are we free to use that with an application that we are developing and will it continue to be available and/or developed. What sort of restrictions, requirements, or attributions are required if we want to package that with our application ?
https://book.orthanc-server.com/faq/licensing.html
That is helpful.
Hello,
First of all, I take a moment to review the different viewer-related tools that are proposed in the framework of the Orthanc project:
- The original “Orthanc Web viewer” started as a POC by CHU of Liège to demonstrate Orthanc plugins back in February 2015, as well as to demonstrate the use of GDCM to decode DICOM images using the JPEG2k transfer syntax. It featured Chris Hafey’s great Cornerstone JavaScript library to display the 2D images. It is only able to display one series at once, and the goal was to provide a quick review application targeted at PACS administrators (likewise the Orthanc Explorer).
- The “Osimis Web viewer” was bootstrapped in December 2015 by Osimis, taking the Orthanc Web viewer as its starting point. It added a huge number of new features (notably multi-series display, measure tools, reference lines, or synchronized series), making it suitable for clinical reviewing from a technical point of view (as long as no certification is required). This viewer is of huge help in emerging economies. As you noticed, it can indeed display PDF files created by “/tools/create-dicom”.
- The “Osimis Web viewer Pro” was a version of the “Osimis Web viewer” that was certified as “CE class I” under the MDD regulation of the European Union (“Medical Devices Directive”). This paying certification was part of the open-source business model of Osimis, which was an original way for us to gather money so as to make the Orthanc project self-sustainable in the long-term. Unfortunately, the MDR regulation (“Medical Devices Regulation”) is now replacing the MDD regulation across EU, and forces us to go from “CE class I” to “CE class IIa”, which comes at too high cost for us (both from a financial and from a process point of view). As a consequence, the “Osimis Web viewer Pro” is in phasing-out mode and will disappear in the next few months.
- The “Stone of Orthanc” is a C++ library that is a building block to create 2D/3D viewers for medical imaging (similarly to VTK or Cornerstone). Its main originality consists in being fully compatible with both native applications (desktop or mobile), as well as with Web applications. Compatibility with Web applications is done through WebAssembly. This library is under active development, and is already used by industrial clients of Osimis.
Back to your question, even if the “Stone of Orthanc” is a SDK/library, we are also developing the “Stone Web viewer” on the top of it. A prototype of this viewer was showcased during OrthancCon 2019:
https://www.orthanc-server.com/resources/orthanccon2019/OrthancCon-PM-06-SebastienJodogne.pdf
The “Stone Web viewer” is a full rewrite of the “Osimis Web viewer”, that internally replaces Cornerstone (using JavaScript) by Stone of Orthanc (using WebAssembly). Only the look&feel (essentially the CSS stylesheets) will be kept. This is also a standalone viewer, that can integrate with other PACS/VNA than Orthanc thanks to its built-in support of DICOMweb. A first version of the “Stone Web viewer” should be released in the next few weeks, under the terms of the AGPL license. The “Stone Web viewer” will be much more easy to maintain, and will replace the “Osimis Web viewer”, whose development will be discontinued, except for clients with paying support.
Regarding the discontinuation of the “Osimis Web viewer”, this software is released by Osimis under AGPL licence to the benefit of the medical imaging community. There is no plan to change this licence. So, the “restrictions/requirements/attributes” for your application exactly match those of the AGPL license:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html
Summarizing, if yourself or your company is creating derivative work out of the “Osimis Web viewer” according to the conditions of the AGPL, you must also publish your derivative work under the terms of the AGPL licence. If this is a problem to you, and if you don’t want to disclose your source code, your company can still buy license exceptions from Osimis (“dual licensing”). This is the way for us to fund new free and open-source developments, according to a virtuous circle:
https://book.orthanc-server.com/faq/licensing.html
HTH,
Sébastien-
Sébastien,
Thank you very much for going into detail about that and for sharing that !! Excited to see the Stone Web viewer when it is released.
/sds
Just wondering about:
`
The “Stone Web viewer” is a full rewrite of the “Osimis Web viewer”, that internally replaces Cornerstone (using JavaScript) by Stone of Orthanc (using WebAssembly). Only the look&feel (essentially the CSS stylesheets) will be kept. This is also a standalone viewer, that can integrate with other PACS/VNA than Orthanc thanks to its built-in support of DICOMweb. A first version of the “Stone Web viewer” should be released in the next few weeks, under the terms of the AGPL license. The “Stone Web viewer” will be much more easy to maintain, and will replace the “Osimis Web viewer”, whose development will be discontinued, except for clients with paying support.
`
Is that something that will be available soon. I would like to look at it when it becomes avaiable.
Your question is already answered in the excerpt you highlight: “A first version of the “Stone Web viewer” should be released in the next few weeks.”
As always, an announcement will be made on this forum.