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- GIFPUB (c) Copr. 1988-89 Lawrence Gozum & Marvin Gozum
- ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- User Manual
-
- DISCLAIMER
-
- This product is distributed AS IS. The authors specifically disclaim
- all warranties ,expressed or implied, including ,but not limited to,
- implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
- purpose with respect to defects in the diskette and documentation, and
- program license granted herein, in particular, and without limiting
- operation of the program license with respect to any particular
- application use or purpose. In no event shall the authors be liable
- for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including but
- not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.
-
-
- LICENSING AGREEMENT
-
- You may use this program on a TRIAL BASIS only; this means that you
- may freely evaluate the usefulness of this program for 10 DAY TRIAL
- PERIOD. Should you find this program useful, you must register it
- (see last section of this manual). You will then be provided with
- the latest releases of applications that will run on your system.
-
- You may freely distribute copies of this program in its UNMODIFIED
- state provided you do not include it in other software packages, with
- the exception of distributing it as part of a bundle of Public Domain
- or shareware programs on a single diskette. You may not charge more
- that $3.50 for copying and/or distributing this program in the absence
- of recognized Users Group guidelines (e.g., Association of Shareware
- Professionals or New York Amateur Computer Club)
-
-
- WHAT IS GIFPUB ?
-
- GIFPUB is a conversion utility that converts the colored GIF pictures
- and any of the following listed below to a dithered (Floyd-Steinberg)
- Black & White image and save it to a .PCX (ZSoft) file for use in
- First Publisher, Ventura Publisher, Publisher's Paintbrush, and PC
- Paintbrush+; if the file is renamed to .PCC you can also import the
- file in Aldus Pagemaker.
-
- 1) ANY colored GIF picture (4 colors and up recommended), with any
- size (up to 2048 x 2048 x 256) - NO VIDEO REQUIRED WITH GIF pics.
-
- 2) ANY VIEWABLE VGA/MCGA 320x200x256 picture captured with VGACAP;
-
- 3) VGACAD pictures;
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- 4) 16-color pictures converted to 320x200x256 with EGA2VGA;
-
- 5) Colorized/converted MacPaint (READMACs) with MAC2GIF.
-
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- GIFPUB is graphics card independent - NO VIDEO CARD IS NECESSARY. You
- can save and load images without viewing them. For viewing, GIFPUB
- supports video modes in CGA (640x200), Hercules (720x348), EGA
- (640x350), VGA (640x480) AND Extended EGA or SuperVGA (to 2KB x 2KB).
-
- GIFPUB converts your colored pictures to 256 grey shades on a 64 grey
- scale continuum; you can adjust the brightness and contrast levels
- through sophisticated Grey Scale Skewing (Brightness Adjustment) and
- Histogram-based Contrast Stretching algorithms.
-
- GIFPUB use the Floyd-Steinberg algorithm for dithering pictures; this
- error-distributed technique provides the illusion of a continuous grey
- scale limited only by your printer or video resolution. As such,
- having the "sister-utility", GIFDOT, would help you determine the
- printed image quality before you "set" it on your document. Since
- this method allows very fine grey shades to "appear", it doesn't take
- kindly to resizing. GIFPUB supports resizing of any image, while
- maintaining the aspect ration in ANY video mode (including Extended
- EGA and SuperVGA); this way you can be confident of the image you will
- integrate and have the best possible rendering for what ever size you
- choose to include in your document.
-
-
- WHAT IS VGACAP ?
-
- VGACAP is a terminate-stay-resident (TSR) utility that allows you to
- capture the 256 color palette and screen in the 320x200x256 color mode
- and save both the palette and screen in "Bloadable" formats. VGACAP's
- main purpose is to capture and "Bsave" the pictures of commercial and
- Shareware viewing/painting/graphics/CAD programs.
-
- VGACAD (one of the first 256 color paint/CAD shareware programs
- distributed in the Public domain) will load the captured pictures for
- extensive image processing and editing.
-
-
- REQUIREMENTS
-
- NO VIDEO CARD REQUIRED FOR USING GIFPUB. We are stating that about
- 512KB of memory is required, although it uses about half of that.
-
- You MUST have a VGA or MCGA adaptor (at least BIOS compatible) present
- and an analog monitor to use VGACAP. VGACAP uses less than 2K of your
- available memory !
-
-
- HOW TO USE VGACAP
-
- Run VGACAP before entering your painting/CAD or digitized picture
- viewer. Press <ALT-F10>, while viewing your picture in any
- drawing/paint/CAD program. Your current screen and palette will be
- saved in your default drive and directory in the standard Bsave format
- for all BASIC programs.
-
-
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-
-
-
- The first time you run the program it will save your screen and
- palette to SCREEN00.BLD and SCREEN00.PLT respectively. If there is an
- existing SCREENxx.BLD or SCREENxx.PLT file, then it will increment to
- the next higher number. You can use your favorite memory managers to
- remove this TSR or reboot to release it from memory.
-
- Note: When in DOS or using a picture viewer (e.g., PICEM, VPIC,
- VGAGIF) or application which requires a keypress to continue, it
- is necessary to hit another key after hitting the 'HOTKEY'.
-
-
- LOADING PICTURES INTO GIFPUB
-
- Two formats are accepted by GIFDOT: GIF and BLD/PLT files; At the
- start of the program, you will be prompted to select [G]IF or [B]LD
- files to to selected or [Q]uit if you forgot the filename.
-
- When loading GIF pictures, if you have a VGA/MCGA card, GIFPUB will
- display the picture as it decodes it and show its conversion to a 256
- grey scale picture. All other cards will load in memory; GIFPUB
- automatically senses if you have a VGA/MCGA or SuperVGA card.
-
- All pictures are interpolated to a 320x200 size. As such, LARGE
- SuperVGA GIF files (e.g., 640x480x256, 800x600x256 and 1024x768x256)
- are interpolated to 320x200x256; succeeding updates will take
- advantage of the rich color information in LARGE GIFs by creating
- virtual disk buffers. SQZGIF is recommended for LARGE GIF pictures to
- retain more color information for better printing results.
-
- 16-color EGA/EEGA/VGA pictures will also be interpolated; it is highly
- recommended that you use EGA2VGA to process such pictures before
- loading into GIFPUB. 2-color pictures will have very poor results
- since there is not much grey information to create nice dithering
- patterns from; these are mostly in a dithered form to begin with. Use
- MAC2GIF if you want to process MacPaint pictures with GIFPUB.
-
- You can select any filename by moving a highlighted bar (with the
- arrow keys) and pressing the <return> key. Pressing <Spc> allows you
- to select a different PATH, while <Esc> exits. When selecting a *.BLD
- file, be sure it has a corresponding *.PLT file or a error message
- will result.
-
- PATHs MUST end with a backslash character "\" or your specified PATH
- will be rejected (an error beep will result). The following are legal
- PATH examples:
-
- "A:\"
- "B:\"
- "C:\GIF\"
- "D:\GIF\VGA\LARGE\"
-
- Every captured picture, VGACAD picture, converted EGA2VGA or SSQZGIF
- or MAC2GIF picture will have two files: the screen and palette. The
- extension .BLD stands for BLoaD and .PLT for PaLetTe.
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-
-
- THE MAIN MENU
-
- After successful loading of your picture (a LARGE GIF may take 1-2
- minutes to load and interpolate) you will see this:
-
-
- [C]GA 640x200
- [E]GA 640x350
- [V]GA 640x480
- [H]GC 720x348
- [X]tended EGA (EEGA) NNNNxNNNN
- [S]uperVGA (SVGA) NNNNxNNNN
- [7]Video7 (SVGA) NNNNxNNNN
- [F]ile (no viewing) NNNNxNNNN
-
- [A]nalyze Histogram
- [B]rightness Threshold NNNNxNNNN
- [K]ontrast Threshold NNNNxNNNN
- [R]estore Screen
- [N]ew Picture
- [Q]uit
-
- Simply select the letter to initiate that function or option.
-
-
- CONTRAST STRETCHING & ENHANCEMENT
-
- [K] - Contrast Stretching is performed using a "histogram" of your
- pixel value distribution. Each pixel can have a grey value 0 to 255
- which corresponds to each of the colors 0 to 255.
-
- This function equalizes the distribution of grey scales to evenly span
- the range of grey values from 0 to 255. For example, a typically
- unequalized image may have the following distribution of pixels. The
- low and high bins are the edges of the histogram distribution. All
- pixels between the bins will be stretched to fill the 256 gray range.
-
- N ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ low ▓▓ high ║
- P ║ bin ──┐ ▓ ▓▓▓▓ bin ║
- i ║ │ ▓▓ ▓▓▓▓ │ ║
- x ║ ▓ ▓ ▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓ ▓ ║
- e ║ ▓ ▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓ ║
- l ║ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
- s ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
- 0 -------------------------127----------------------255
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- After Contrast Stretching the distribution will approximate this.
-
- N ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ ▓ ▓ ║
- P ║ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ║
- i ║ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ║
- x ║▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓║
- e ║▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓ ▓║
- l ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
- s ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
- 0 -------------------------127----------------------255
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- When prompted "Add Contrast 1-255", select a number within that range
- and both the high and low bins will be move accordingly; normally a
- value between 1 and 30 will yield the best results.
-
- Note that when you have a picture surrounded by a large "black" area,
- that area may not be black BUT a very dark shade of grey resulting in
- a few error-distributed patterns to appear; you must use at least a
- value of "1" to equalize the grey distribution so that BLACK WILL BE
- THE DARKEST COLOR and avoid error-distributed pixels in areas that are
- supposed to be black.
-
- VGA/MCGA users will have interactive feedback; they will see the
- results and can abort the process; all other cards will not have this
- option.
-
-
- BRIGHTNESS ADJUSTMENT
-
- When this option is selected, you will be prompted with "Adjust
- Brightness (+100-)"; the brightness of all pixels will be adjusted
- acoordingly. A value of "-10" will "darken" all pixels by 10% (it
- will skew the distribution towards BLACK"; conversely a value of "20"
- will "brighten" all pixels by 20%.
-
- This feature is VERY IMPORTANT since what you see is normally NOT what
- you get (for VGA/MCGA users); Since dot-matrix printers tend to
- emphasize BLACK rather than its absence, WHITE, a picture that looks
- fine on screen (VGA/MCGA users) will look much darker in print.
-
-
- RESIZING OPTIONS
-
- Whenever you select a video mode or file to be created you will see
- these options (this screen shows blanks filled with examples).
-
- Video Mode/Aspect Ratio: EGA 640x350
- Image Width (pixels) : 640
- Image Height (pixels) : 350
-
- Resizing Factor (1-100): 100%
- Pathname : C:\VENTURA\PCX
- Filename : NONAME.PCX
-
- Image Width and Height are set by the video mode you have chosen and
- cannot be changed except when e[X]tended EGA or [S]uperVGA or [F]ile
- is selected; it is automatically adjusted by the Resizing Factor.
-
- In this example the Image Width and Height matches the full screen
- since Resizing Factor is 100%; if it were 50% then each number will be
- cut in half. To maintain your aspect ratios in SuperVGA or EEGA
- modes, always start with a Resizing Factor of 100% then reduce it
- accordingly. Saving direct to files works similarly. Video7 SuperVGA
- users have a special option [7] to set SVGA modes.
-
- When a standard video mode is selected (CGA,EGA,VGA and HGC); the
- Image Height and Width will always follow what is stated in the Video
- Mode/Aspect ratio line; only the Resizing Factor can be altered. To
- retain an old setting, press return and the setting will remain.
-
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-
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- OPTIMAL DITHERING
-
- To get the BEST dither, we suggest that you experiment with a small
- image (e.g., VGA at 25%) while interactively adjusting the brightness
- and contrast stretching variables; you can always [R]estore Screen if
- you have made "messed-up" your picture. When satisfied with the
- results, you can progress to larger sizes or a LARGE file (up to 2048
- x 2048 pels).
-
-
- HISTOGRAM ANALYSIS
-
- Non-VGA useers will find this function VERY useful; it gives feedback
- on the quality of your picture. This function will display TWO(2)
- histograms. The first, labelled "Original", is the screen that will
- be restored with the [R]estore Screen function, while the second is
- the "Modified" picture which reflects all the changes made.
-
- The scales used in the histograms are based on the MODE, which is the
- highest grey scale frequency in the picture; normally these are the
- far bins: BLACK and WHITE. There are 64 points on the x-axis and 10
- points on the y-axis. The 64 x-axis points correspond to the 64 grey
- scale continuum; the entire picture is "stretched" to 256 grey shades,
- which means that each point on the x-axis represents 4 grey levels.
-
- Each point on the y-axis varies with the MODE. If the most frequent
- grey shade is BLACK and 20,000 pixels (about 1/3 of the screen) is
- BLACK, then each point on the y-axis will represent 2,000 pixels.
- With this in mind, grey shades with less that 2,000 pixels will appear
- as a "flat line". You will notice that changing the Contrast or
- Brightness may make your "Modified" histogram appear as a "flat line"
- with a few very high bins. You can magnify the scale (i.e, reduce the
- value each y-axis point represents) by pressing the <Spc> bar. Bins
- with the "┼" character show grey shades that extend beyond the MODE
- (as you magnify the scale, more Bins will have this symbol).
-
- After modifying a picture (Contrast Stretching or Brightness Skewing),
- the "modified" picture may not display the full distribution since the
- highest bins are so large that smaller bins come out as a "flat
- line". To see more data, reduce the [B]ins and/or magnify the scale
- with the <Spc> bar.
-
- Pressing the [B]ins key option will cut the "edges" or "anchors" of
- your "Modified" histogram by 1. Thus, the first time you press [B]in,
- you grey scale continuuum will become a 2-62 grey scale; the next will
- be 3-61 and so forth. Since pure BLACK and WHITE pixels tend to
- dominate the MODE, adjusting the [B]ins will make the distribution
- more viewable. Experiment freely with the scaling options; you can
- always press [R]eset to start over. TEST.GIF will appear as a
- "perfect binomial distribution", almost a normal curve, and is a good
- picture to use in becoming familiar with Histogram Analysis.
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- REGISTRATION
-
-
- BONUS: Registered users of VGACAD v1.4-1.5, VGA2EGA v1.0, SQZGIF
- v1.0-v1.2, GIFDOT v1.0-1.3, MAC2GIF v1-2 and/or EGA2VGA
- v1-3 are registered for GIFPUB. Copy your REGISTER.OVL
- file into the directory of GIFPUB and it will operate as a
- registered version. IF YOU HAVE NOT REGISTERED ANY OF
- THESE PROGRAMS, DO SO NOW; when VGACAD v1.60 is released,
- all new releases will require REGISTER.V16 to operate as a
- non-shareware version.
-
-
- For 19.95 (outside of U.S.A. add USD $15.00) you will be entitled to
- the latest update of GIFPUB and REGISTER.V16 file (when released).
- The following programs listed below are provided (latest copy or
- update) to registered users. As much as possible, we are
- reprogramming all utilities to work with ANY video card; programs
- that, at present, work with ANY video card are: GIFPUB, GIFPUB,
- EGA2VGA (v2-3), MAC2GIF and SQZGIF. We intend to modify all utilities
- to have device-independent graphics capabilities (with the obvious
- exception of VGACAD, VGACAP, VGA2EGA, and CGA2VGA). If you upgrade to
- VGA, please inform us as soon as possible so that we may send you
- VGA-dependent releases too.
-
- * Device-independent utilities
-
- GIFDOT - converts 256 color GIFs to B&W images of varying sizes
- for printing on IBM and Epson compatible printers (separate
- drivers). Several print sizes with perfect aspect ratios.
- Variable Brightness and Contrast Stretching. Single or Double
- pass printing. Histogram Analysis
-
- SQZGIF - converts LARGE GIF pictures (up to 2048x2048x256) to
- 320x200x256 using interpolation and "color averaging" techniques
- to blend/smooth "jaggies" inherent in reducing LARGE GIFS while
- retaining a maximum of color information. Version 1.3 is now
- 300% FASTER and features the same user interface.
-
- MAC2GIF - converts .MAC ("readmac") pictures to 5-16 grey shades
- or color and saves results as .GIF or BLD/PLT file, and other
- formats; graphics are viewable in VGA, MCGA or EGA - no video
- card is required for direct Black & White conversion to GIF.
-
- NEW! EGA2VGA (v2.0) - converts GIFs (16 colors and below) or ANY
- VIEWABLE 2-16 color EGA/EEGA/VGA picture to 320x200x256; creates
- 256 new colors; outputs load directly to GIFPUB, GIFDOT, and
- VGACAD. If you load converted MAC2GIF pics you can smooth and
- convert Black & White images to grey shades; B&W GIFs and
- captured pics will also be "smoothed" into grey shades.
-
- * Device-dependent utilities/applications
-
- VGA2EGA - conversion utility to convert 256 color pictures to EGA
- or Extended EGA picture with "35" grey shades or any combination
- of 42,875 COLORS for the BEST possible rendition of 256 color
- pictures on an EGA/Extended EGA system.
-
-
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- VGACAD - extensive paint/image processing program for VGA/MCGA
- users; v1.50 features extensive paintingcapabilities, an
- integrated GIF interface, Airbrushes, color and grey image
- processing functions (smoothing, noise removal, shading, contrast
- stertching, edge detection, high frequency-boosting, ... more),
- Bezier/spline curves, multi-featured Cut&Paste, variable sizing,
- multi-directiona 256-color gradient fills, 256 color 16x16
- pattern fills, and a LOT of other 256-color capabilities.
-
-
- Whats next ?
-
- SYNPCX is utility to convert dithered, monochrome .PCX (Zsoft) files
- to smooth grey shades.This utility is primarily designed to convert
- scanned Black & White images, saved to a .PCX file, for use image
- processing with VGACAD, redithering/resizing with GIFPUB, printing
- with GIFDOT, or EGA conversion with VGA2EGA. SYNPCX will be graphics
- device independent (No Video Required).
-
- VGA2EGA is being "turbo-charged" in speed and will feature error-
- distributed dithering of EGA colors for a standardized 16-color
- picture resulting in excellent detail retention and standardized
- viewing on any EGA/EEGA system, with the greatest possible number of
- colors "viewable".
-
- On the longer term, you can expect radical changes in VGACAD. We are
- also, developing VGASHW (a 256-color presentation system), VGACBT (the
- PROGRAMMABLE Computer-Based Training counterpart of VGASHW) AND
- MANNEQUIN (what "Weird Science" tried to do in the movie it will do on
- the computer screen with potential applications for Advertising and
- Fashion Design, aside from creating your own artistic nudes).
-
- If you support maverick authors like us, we will continue to develop
- innovative products like nothing seen commercially - otherwise they
- will, as many (sigh!) good Shareware programs, simply "DIE" from lack
- of support ! Compare the cost/benefit ratio of any of our products
- with commercial products; we want to continue supporting and
- developing these products. Please support the User-Supported
- (Shareware) concept; you, and you alone, determine whether it will be
- worthwhile to continue developing.
-
- To register, send in the registration form and check payable to
-
- Dr. Marvin Gozum
- 2 Independence Place Apt. 303-2
- 6th & Locust Street
- Philadelphia, PA 19106
-
-
- NEW! 3.5" disk users: We are now supporting this format.
- If you want your updates in this format, add $10.00.
-
-
-
- ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- Graphics Interchange Format and GIF are trademarks (tm)
- of CompuServe Inc. an H&R Block Company.
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