The MacApp software is proprietary to Apple Computer, Inc. and is licensed to Steve Daly for distribution only with the Figger program.
Apple® and Macintosh®, are registered trademarks, and Multifinder™ and QuickDraw™ are trademarks, of Apple Computer, Inc.
GIF and “Graphics Interchange Format” are trademarks of CompuServe, an H&R Block Company.
CompuServe® is a registered trademark of CompuServe Incorporated.
America Online (sm) is a service mark of Quantum Computer Services.
Microsoft® and MS-DOS® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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License
This Software, Figger, is licensed, not sold, and may be used only under the following terms:
You may use one copy of this Software on a single CPU.
You may use this Software on any number of CPUs, provided that only one copy of the Software is in use at any time.
You may not place this Software on a served disk unless a license has been purchased for each CPU connected to the served disk.
You may make a single copy of this Software for backup/archival purposes, or you may copy this Software to your hard disk and retain the original copy for backup purposes.
After written notification to Daly Associates, you may transfer this Software on a permanent basis to another person or entity, provided that you retain no copies of the Software or documentation, and that the transferee agrees to the terms of this agreement.
As outlined in the section "Figger is Shareware" below, you may freely distribute copies of this Software and documentation for evaluation purposes.
You may not sell this Software at a profit, nor may you rent this Software.
This Software contains trade secrets. You may not reverse-engineer, disassemble, decompile, or make any attempt to discover the source code of this Software.
You may not use this Software as part of another software program.
This license is automatically terminated upon breach of any of the terms of this license. Upon termination, all copies of this Software and the documentation must be destroyed.
This Software is sold “as is” under the terms of the Warranty listed below. Repairs to equipment and recovery of lost data is the responsibility of the purchaser, and in no way will the author be held liable for damages resulting from the use of this Software. Testing software for suitability is the sole responsibility of the purchaser.
The purchaser, by agreeing to this license, affirms that the software will not be used, sold, transferred, or exported in any form contrary to the laws of the United States of America or the laws of any State. The author assumes no liability for purchaser’s use of this Software resulting in the violation of a law.
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Warranty
The media upon which this software is distributed by Stephen W. Daly is warranted against defects in materials or workmanship for ninety (90) days from the date of purchase. If the media should prove defective, return it to the address listed above for replacement.
The Software is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. All other assumed or implied warranties are hereby disclaimed. No claim is made as to the fitness of this software for a particular purpose, nor is there any guarantee as to the performance of the software. The author will assume no liability for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from the use of this software, including loss or interruption of business, accidental loss of data, or damage to computer equipment.
The author does not guarantee that this Software will work in every environment. This Software is not guaranteed to work on Macintosh-compatible computers not manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc., or on Macintosh computers that did not exist at the time the program was written. It is not guaranteed to work in the presence of INITs, system extensions, or other software that modifies the operating system, system traps, or other portions of the software as provided by Apple Computer.
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Figger is Shareware
Figger is a shareware program. Shareware gives you the opportunity to try out a program before you make a commitment to purchase it. Note that Figger is a copyrighted program, and although it may be freely distributed, use of the program must be according to the license agreement above.
If you decide that you like the program, it is hoped that you will register it. Registration entitles you to a printed formatted copy of this documentation, a copy of the latest version of the program, support, and notification of future releases.
Feel free to give free copies of the program to friends. You may also upload copies to BBS's and information providers such as CompuServe or America Online, as long as these services do not charge more than normal connect time for downloading the program.
If you do share copies of this program, please pass on all the documents that came with it, so that others will be able to start with a complete package. Ideally, the original compressed archive is the best way to distribute the package.
I hope that you'll find this program to be very useful. If you have any suggestions, problems, or questions, please contact me at the above address. This is version 1.0 of the program, so I'm sure that there are plenty of new features that might be desirable. If you have any ideas, I hope you'll pass them on to me.
Steve Daly
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Contents of This Package
As a minimum, the package you have received should contain the following files:
ReadMe First A text file containing timely
information. You should read
this file first
Figger™ The program
Figger™ Documentation The file you are reading now
Example.GIF A GIF image file referenced in
the "Using Figger" chapter.
Figger™ Registration The registration form
Note that the "ReadMe First" file may list additional files that should be included in your package. If any files are missing and you are unable to locate a complete package, please contact Daly Associates and a complete package will be sent.
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Contents
I.......................What is Figger?
II......................File Formats
III.....................System Requirements
IV......................Using Figger
V.......................Menu Reference
VI......................Dialog Reference
VII.....................File Naming Conventions
VIII....................The "Figger Mark"
IX......................Registration
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I. What is Figger?
Figger is a graphics viewing and utility program designed specifically for use with GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) graphics files. In addition to providing a way to view GIF files, Figger provides the capability to remove parts of the image, by either cropping or blackening.
The resulting GIF file is a standard GIF image file that may be viewed using any properly constructed GIF viewing program. The file conforms to the standards put forth by CompuServe for GIF files.
Editing graphics images has become a rather mundane task. Where Figger differs from other graphics programs is that it saves the parts of the image that were removed into a secondary key (or "FIG") file.
The resulting two files are each smaller than the original GIF file.
Afterwards, for example, the new GIF file might be posted on a public bulletin board system so that users might examine a portion of the image to determine whether they are interested in obtaining the entire image. In the past, once the sample image was obtained, obtaining the entire image involved obtaining the larger GIF file. With the arrival of FIG files, the small key file is all that is needed to reconstruct the original image.
Both DisFigger™ and Figger may be used to combine the GIF and FIG files. The resulting file is another standard GIF file, containing essentially the same image as the original.
Whereas Figger allows the editing of images and production of GIF/FIG file combinations, DisFigger provides only the capability of joining the file combination to reproduce an original. DisFigger can run on a larger number of computers than Figger because of its limited capabilities.
II. File Formats
CompuServe published the GIF standard to establish a data format for the exchange of graphics images. This standard was designed to be used on many different types of computers. The standard provides an efficient way of exchanging graphics images electronically.
Images inside GIF files are compressed, but without the loss of image information that comes along with some other graphics compression methods.
On BBS's and information services, GIF files have been a popular medium for the exchange of images.
Figger is capable of reading any properly constructed GIF file. Any GIF file produced by Figger conforms to GIF standards and can be handled by any GIF utility.
The key (FIG) file produced by Figger has its own unique format that takes advantage of the compression method used in GIF files. A FIG file, though, is only meaningful to Figger or DisFigger.
Note that any portion of the image that is hidden using Figger is stored in the FIG file, not the GIF file. The GIF file that is produced does not contain any data other than the edited image.
III. System Requirements
Figger on the Macintosh requires the following:
• A 68020 or greater processor (68030, 68040...)
• Color QuickDraw. (32-bit QuickDraw is also supported)
• 768K of available memory (1MB preferred)
DisFigger on the Macintosh requires the following:
• 512K of available memory (1MB preferred)
Figger is System Seven aware. You may start Figger by dragging a GIF or FIG file and dropping it on the Figger icon.
At the time of this writing, the exact minimum requirements of the programs on the PC is undetermined, but the aim is to have Figger run under Windows 3.1 or later and DisFigger run on an MS-DOS machine with sufficient available memory.
IV. Using Figger
In this discussion, we'll presume that you are already familiar with the use of the Macintosh interface.
Begin the program by double-clicking on its icon while in the Finder.
The first thing you will see is the "About Box" which contains some essential information that's required so that we can legally distribute the software. While this screen is displayed, the program will be initializing.
After the program has initialized, the "About Box" will disappear if the program has been properly registered. If the program hasn't been registered, the About Box will hang around on the screen until you dismiss it by pressing one of the buttons on the bottom.
It's likely that the first time you use the program it will not have been registered, so go ahead and press the "Okay" button. The "About Box" will disappear until you re-summon it using the "About Figger" item in the Apple menu, or the next time you start the program.
When you have a file you want to work on, select "Open" from the File menu.
At this time, you might do one of two things. You might open a GIF file so that you can edit it and produce another GIF file and (usually) an associated FIG file. On the other hand, you might want to combine an existing GIF/FIG combination.
After you select "Open" from the File menu, you will be presented with a dialog similar to most dialogs you see when you request that a program open a file. As long as all the files that came with Figger are in the same directory as the program, you should see the file "Example.GIF" Go ahead and open this file.
The selected GIF file will be displayed in a window. At this point, you're ready to edit the file.
All selections in Figger are done by dragging a rectangle. Press the mouse button at some point in the image and drag to form a selection rectangle, (similar to how it is done in most paint and draw programs).
Once you have selected a rectangle and released the mouse button, the various editing commands in the menus become available. The rectangle you have selected will be visible to you because of the "ants" marching around its edges.
If you wish to select a different rectangle, simply repeat the process. The marching ants will stop marching around the first rectangle, and will reappear after you select the second. To completely forget about a rectangle, click anywhere in the image.
In the Edit menu, the only editing command is "Crop". This is the only true permanent editing command in Figger. If you select "Crop", then everything outside your selected rectangle will disappear from the image, and the image will shrink down to the size of the rectangle.
"Crop" does not cause any data to be saved in the key file. Data you remove with "Crop" will not be placed into any output files.
An alternative to "Crop" is in the Hide menu -- "Hide Borders". If you select this action, the visible effect will be the same as that of "Crop"--the image will shrink to contain only what is inside your selected rectangle.
However, if you use "Hide Borders", the image outside your rectangle will not be discarded permanently, but will be saved to be stored in a FIG file, if you choose to produce one.
Similar to "Hide Borders" is "Matte" in the Hide menu. This command will also hide all the image outside your selected rectangle. However, instead of removing the outside borders from the visible image, "Matte" covers these areas with black.
The "Blacken" command on the Hide menu is, in a way, the inverse of Matte. It causes the entire contents of your selected rectangle to be blackened.
In the cases of both "Matte" and "Blacken", the area that is blackened is saved so that it can be stored in a FIG file.
The "Unlock" command in the Hide menu is available after you have hidden data using other Hide menu commands. Unlock restores the image by undoing any previous "Hide Border", "Matte", or "Blacken" commands.
The "Undo" command in the Edit menu is available after you have done a "Crop", "Hide Border", "Matte", "Blacken", or "Unlock" command. It undoes the effect of the previous command. After you do an "Undo", the menu item changes into a "Redo" command, which essentially undoes the "Undo", by reversing the effect of the "Undo".
If you are editing an image and want to take a peek at what it will look like after it has been reconstructed later on, you can use the "Unlock" command, followed by the "Undo" command to re-hide the hidden data.
Note that the "Matte", "Hide Borders", "Blacken", and "Crop" commands have a cumulative effect. When you use the "Crop" command, any hidden data outside your selected rectangle disappears along with any visible data. If you crop out any blackened rectangles, they disappear with the visible parts of the image that have been cropped. If you do a "Hide Border" after doing a "Crop", the hidden border area will only extend out to the edge of the crop.
If you decide you want to start all over, close the file without saving it and then "Open" it again.
The Display menu offers options for magnifying or shrinking the image as it currently appears on your screen. "Zoom In" doubles the size of the image. "Zoom Out" shrinks the image to half of its size. "Normal Size" restores the image to its normal size.
The Display menu commands don't have any effect on the image as it is stored on file, only upon the way the image appears while you are viewing it at the moment.
After you have viewed and/or edited the image, you have the option of saving the result as a new GIF file. Note that you do not have to change the image at all; if you save the file, in some cases, the resulting file will actually be smaller than the original file but will contain an exact duplicate of the original image. If you save a file after doing a "Crop" command without performing any commands from the Hide menu, a new GIF file can be produced that contains only the cropped image.
If you save a file after performing the "Matte", "Hide Border", or "Blacken" commands, two files will be produced--the GIF file and the associated FIG file.
You can save a file using the "Save As…" command from the File menu. There is no "Save" command in Figger, because it is presumed that you'll typically not want to throw away your original GIF file in the process of using Figger.
After you issue the "Save As…" command, you will be presented with the normal Macintosh dialog used for saving files. The file name will be filled in as "Untitled.GIF". Fill in an appropriate file name (preferably one conforming to popular GIF file naming conventions: 'xxxxxxxx.GIF'). If you are trying out our example, use the name "Exam01.GIF".
Next you will be presented with a dialog for naming the output FIG file. If the name you used for the GIF file conformed to popular GIF naming conventions, the default name will be the name you provided with the '.GIF' suffix replaced with '.FIG'. Using this as the name will conform to the suggested FIG naming standards. If you are following our example, use the name "Exam01.FIG", which should have been the default.
Next begins the tedious part of the process. Writing the file takes quite a bit of time. A dialog will appear to give you an idea of how the process is going, but this takes a long time. (Speeding up this process is top priority for the next release.)
After the writing of the file or files, the resulting image will be presented on the screen. Close this file by clicking on the window's close box or using "Close" from the File menu.
If you would like to take a quick look at the resulting GIF file, use the "Open" command from the File menu to open the GIF file you just saved, (in the example, it would be "Exam01.GIF").
The resulting image should look like the image that was just closed. Note that hidden data is hidden. Also note that Figger has put a tiny "F" in the lower right-hand corner. This is an indication that this file has an associated FIG file.
The image you see is the same as it would appear when handled by any GIF viewing program. The file that you just opened is a legitimate GIF file.
Close this file. Then, using the "Open" command from the File menu, open the FIG file you produced earlier, ("Exam01.FIG"). Because you chose to open a FIG file rather than a GIF file, Figger will start the process of merging a FIG/GIF pair.
After you have selected the FIG file, you will be presented with a dialog for selecting the GIF file. Note that the name of the associated GIF file ("Exam01.GIF") appears at the top of the dialog box as a suggestion. Select the associated GIF file ("Exam01.GIF") to be opened.
A window will appear showing the merged image. This will be the same as the original image ("Example.GIF") except for any possible "Crop" commands that had been issued earlier.
You can save the merged file by using the "Save As…" command from the File Menu. Again, this is a very time-consuming process.
The file that is saved at this time reflects the image on the screen. Again, this file is a standard GIF format file.
