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VESAVIEW.EXE v 5.3 TABLE of CONTENTS: Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Brief Desc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 LEGAL STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 REGISTRATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 DISCLAIMER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PROGRAM FILE LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 REQUIREMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 FEATURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 INSTALLING PROGRAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 RUNNING with COMMAND LINE QUALIFIERS. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 SYSTEM DEFAULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 CHANGING DIRECTORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIEW SINGLE IMAGE (from Text directory) . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIEW MULTIPLE IMAGES (slide show) (from Text directory). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIEW / CREATE AN ARRAY OF IMAGES (from Text directory). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 AUTO ARRAY GENERATION/SAVING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VIEWING FILES (from a previously created Array image). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VIEWING GIF89A FILES - Special Case . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 VIEWING HPG or PLT FILES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 VIEWING ASCII FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 DELETING FILES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SEARCHING FILENAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 SPECIAL KEYS WHILE VIEWING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 FILTERING IMAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 SAVING SCREEN AS a BMP, GIF or PCX FILE. . . . . . . . . . 14 SAVING SCREEN AS a JPG FILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 CROPPING SCREEN & SAVING AS a BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX FILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 SCALING XMEM CONTENTS TO SCREEN & SAVING. . . . . . . . . . 15 SAVING XMEM CONTENTS AS an IMG or PCX FILE. . . . . . . . . 15 PRINTING IMAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 MOUSE USE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 RUNNING Under WINDOWS 3.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CAUTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 HINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 CARDS TESTED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 REVISION HISTORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 VESAVIEW.EXE v 5.3 Keywords: VESA BMP GIF IFF/LBM IMG JPG MAC PCX TGA TIF HPGL PRINT CATALOG VIEWER DESKJET LASERJET PAINTJET Brief Desc: View and print BMP, GIF, IFF/LBM, IMG/GEM, JPG, MAC, PCX, TGA & TIF images & HPGL plotter files. Arrays of up to 144 images/screen can be generated and saved for easy cataloging. HPGL plot files can be saved as B&W files. Mouse support. Requires a VESA driver for your graphics card and enough extended memory to hold entire image. Supports VESA modes thru 1280x1024x256. Quick panning of images larger than your screen resolution. Color/brightness/contrast adjustments, scaling & cropping of color images. Fade control for slide shows. 24 bit color reduction for BMP, JPG, TGA & PCX. Excellent Black & White printing to HP DeskJet or LaserJet. Superb Color printing to HP PaintJet, PaintJet XL, PaintJet XL300 and DeskJet 500C/550C. Images can be selected graphically from previously created arrays. LEGAL STUFF: Copyright (c) William M. White 1992,1993. Compuserve ID: 71170,2340 The VESAVIEW product is Shareware. If you find it useful, please register your copy and tell your friends about it. This product may not be sold or packaged, either individually, or as part of any other product without the express written consent of the author. This product may not be changed or altered and then distributed without the express written consent of the author. The VESAVIEW.DOC & VESAVIEW.LGO files must accompany VESAVIEW.EXE whenever the non-registered version is distributed. The JPEG decoding and encoding portion of this program "is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group". "The Graphics Interchange Format (c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF (sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated." REGISTRATION: Please send your $35.00 registration fee to: William M. White P. O. Box 2273 Glen Allen, VA. 23058-2273 By Registering your copy, you will receive an unhindered copy of the latest version of VESAVIEW and help support the continued development of the product. You will also receive a personal User Access Code so that you can easily convert any new shareware versions from the following BBSs into your new registered copy, thus eliminating additional fees for update mailings. Current shareware versions of the product will always be available on Compuserve in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum (GO PICS) and on the Blue Ridge Express Bulletin Board (804)-790-1675. Replacement or upgrade disks will be available for $10.00 to cover handling. NOTE: Your registered copy of the program produces a file named VESAVIEW.REG which should never be distributed since it will be encoded with your name and access code.. DISCLAIMER: VESAVIEW is offered to you on an as-is-basis without any guarantee as to the correct functioning or fitness for a specific purpose. The author believes this program to work as described but you use the program entirely at your own risk. The author will not be responsible for any hardware or software damage, loss of data, or incidental or consequential damage that may result from its use, whether or not such use is in accordance with the instructions. PROGRAM FILE LIST: The following files make up the shareware version of VESAVIEW which may be distributed to other BBSs or friends: VESAVIEW.EXE - Main program VESAVIEW.LGO - Logo Screen for SVGA VESAVIEW.LGX - Logo Screen for VGA VESAVIEW.ICO - Icon for use when running from Windows 3.1 VESAVIEW.DOC - ASCII version of document file VESAVIEW.WP - WordPerfect v 5.1/5.2 version of document file FILE_ID.DIZ - Brief program description used by some bulletin boards NOTE: After running VESAVIEW for the first time, a personal access file will be created named VESAVIEW.REG. Please DO NOT distribute this file. REQUIREMENTS: o IBM compatible 286 or better o Extended memory (and driver such as HIMEM). For 256 (& higher) color files, you'll need 1 byte/pixel in your image. For 2 color files, you'll need 1 byte per 8 pixels in your image. This program conforms to XMS 2.0 specification. 8MB of extended memory is recommended expecially if you will be using graphic array menus and working with JPEG files. o Will use a math coprocessor if available o A graphics card that supports the VESA BIOS EXTENSIONS for the 'Super VGA modes' either through hardware or a software driver. NOTE: If no VESA driver is found, you will be limited to 320x200x256 or 640x480x2 non-VESA modes which won't allow arrays to be generated. FEATURES: o Will read in any size up to 1280 x 1024: BMP (Windows) - 16, 256 color & 24 bit (16 million colors) GIF (Compuserve 87a/89a) - 16 & 256 color IFF/LBM (Amiga/Deluxe Paint)- 2, 16 & 256 color IMG (GEM/Digital Research ) - B & W MAC (MacPaint) - 2 color JPG (JPEG/JFIF) - Grayscale & 24 bit (16 million colors) PCX (Zsoft) - 2, 16, 256 color & 24 bit (16 million colors) TGA (Targa) - 8,16, 24 & 32 bit (non-compressed RGB & Run length encoded RGB) TIF - B & W, 16c, 256c & 24 bit (non-compressed & run length encoded) HPG - (Hewlett Packard) HPGL plot files (.HPG or .PLT) TEXT - ASCII files with up to 2000 lines with extensions of .1ST, .ANS, .ASC, .ASM, .BAT, .BAK, .C, CONFIG.SYS, .DIZ, .DOC, .INI, .H, .LIS, .ME, .TXT and .VNX. o Files can be selected either from a text directory listing or graphically from a previously created array of images (mouse required for graphic selection). Multiple selections are displayed in the order selected. o If the file is larger than the screen mode you selected, you can quickly pan around the image. Size of image is limited only by the amount of extended memory you have. NOTE: The entire image is read into Extended memory to allow for quick panning of large images. Black & White images are stored in memory with 1 byte per 8 pixels. 16 (4 bit) and 256 color (8 bit) images are stored in memory with 1 byte per pixel. 24 & 32 bit images are stored in memory as 256 color images so only 1 byte per pixel is required. o Black & White printing (color images will be halftoned) and Color printing are supported. Prints can be sized, rotated and positioned on paper. Printers supported are HP LaserJet Series, DeskJets, DeskJet 500/500C/550C, PaintJet, PaintJet XL, and PaintJet XL300. o Red/Blue/Green/Contrast/Brightness values may be changed while viewing a color image. Image can be converted to GrayTone. o Filters are available to enhance image and include blurring (smoothing), sharpening, edge detection and mosaic. o Color screen images can be saved as a 256 color BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file. These images may be cropped & scaled before saving. o Black & White images can be saved as an IMG or 2 color PCX file. This is useful to save a HPGL file that is displayed on screen out to a quicker retrieving raster file. If these images are displayed in a color VESA mode they can also be saved &/or cropped as 256 color BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX files. o Arrays of up to 144 images can be displayed on a single screen at once. This screen can then be saved as a single BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file for cataloging or printing or use as a graphic menu for VESAVIEW. o Supports VESA modes (assuming your graphics card can handle): 100 - 640 x 400 x 256 101 - 640 x 480 x 256 103 - 800 x 600 x 256 105 - 1024 x 768 x 256 107 - 1280 x 1024 x 256 o Will support a 800 x 600 x 2 color B&W mode if your card has one. (See /SVn option below) o Supports the use of a MicroSoft compatible 2-button mouse. NOTE: The annoying beeps and NON-Registered notices will be removed from registered copies. Also, the NON-Registered version does not support the new printing options (sizing, rotating and positioning), nor the Compressing of printer data. INSTALLING PROGRAM: Create a directory on your HardDrive to hold the VESAVIEW program files. Copy the zipped file you downloaded from a BBS or received on diskette into this directory. The ZIP file is usually named VESAVWnn.ZIP where nn represents the version number. Unzip it using PKUNZIP version 2.04g or higher (earlier versions will not work). Set your default directory to the VESAVIEW directory you've created and type in VESAVIEW to run the program. The first time you run it, you'll be asked to enter your registration information including User Name and Access Code. This personal access information will be stored in a new file named VESAVIEW.REG in your VESAVIEW directory. Please DO NOT distribute this file. All files in the original zipped file may be distributed to your friends or other BBS as the Shareware version. RUNNING with COMMAND LINE QUALIFIERS: Make sure you have enough extended memory available and that a driver (such as HIMEM) is loaded. Make sure your graphics card has VESA BIOS EXTENSIONS (VBE) either built-in or that you have installed a VESA software driver. Keyin: VESAVIEW [/AB or /AW] [/AMmode] [/AS] [/CS, /CO or /COD] [/Dn] [/Fn] [/FN, /FB or /BW] [/FTMn] [/LOmode] [Mx] [/NB] [/NLAM] [/P1, /P2 or /PF] [/PAn] [/PC] [/PGn] [/PLMn] [/PRn] [/PTMn] [/PSBH, /PSBS, /PSCH or /PSCS] [/PTDJ, /PTLJ, /PTPJ, /PTPJXL, /PTPJXL3, /PTDJC or /PTDJ5C] [/PWn] [/SVn] [/UPSA, /UPSB or /UPSC] [/WN, /WH or /WF] where items in brackets are optional. CAUTION: DOS has a limitation of 127 characters on the command line. If you exceed this when adding qualifiers, some may be truncated. NOTE: Underlined (or *) qualifiers are only available in the REGISTERED VERSION. The optional qualifiers can also be changed while in the program by pressing <O> (or pointing to OPTS with the mouse) to bring up the Options Menu. These changes are only for the current session and will not be saved. A 'space' is needed between each qualifier on the command line. If you wish to use the same qualifiers each time you evoke the program, write a BAT file like: CD \GIF rem Assumes your graphics files are here \VV\VESAVIEW /P1 /NW /CO rem Assumes program in VV dir The /AB forces the array mode to use a black background and white text for the filenames. The /AW forces the array mode to use a white background and black text (saves black ink when printing). The /AMmode (where mode is 100, 101, 103, 105 or 107) will let you default to a specific mode when displaying arrays. The program will default to mode 101 if this switch is not used. Only use a mode number that your card can support! The /AS (array sizes) enables the display of image sizes above each image of an array. The size will be displayed after the filename of each image only if it will fit. Typically at a resolution of 1024x768, the sizes will fit on 6x6 arrays and below. At 800x600, the sizes will fit on 5x5 arrays and below. At 640x480, the sizes will fit on 4x4 arrays. Each image is tested individually, so on a given array screen, some sizes may appear and some may not. You will see the sizes displayed after all images on a page have been processed. The /CO (color-optimized) will force 16, 24 & 32 bit images to be processed using an optimized 256 color palette. The process reads in all the colors in your image, creates a histogram of the most used colors, and then creates an optimized palette of the results. The processing time is greater than if the /CS option is used, but the results are spectacular. The color reduction method used is much faster than that of other program that I have tested. After the image has been displayed on the screen, you might want to save it as a 256 BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file, so that the next time you want to display it, you can use the quicker 256 color version. The /COD qualifier is similar to /CO above, expect that besides using an optimized palette, the image will also be dithered to smooth out the transition between colors. The /CS (color-standard) will force 16, 24 & 32 bit images to be displayed using a standard palette. The colors will be adequate for previewing, but for more exact colors, use the /CO. The /Dn (delay) is for setting the delay in seconds to use between slides. The n is an integer number from 1 to 999 and defaults to 5 seconds. This time is approximate and will vary depending on the size of the image being read in. Pressing the <ESC> key or Right mouse button will abort the slide show. Pressing any other key or the Left mouse button will skip to the next slide. NOTE: If you want your slides to remain on the screen until you press a key, use a high number (999) for the delay time. The /Fn (fade) option will fade in and out your images on screen when displaying them as a slide show. The n can range from 0 to 10. 0 is no fade, 1 is the fastest fade and 10 is the slowest fade. The /FN, /FB or /FW specify the foreground color (N=none, B=Black and W=White) of your Black & White images. By specified foreground color, the program will be able to save more of your image's original context when scaling down. This qualifier works best if your images are line drawings and not pictures. For example, if your image appears on the screen as black lines on a white background, use the /FB qualifier. If your images don't have a main foreground color such as the case with pictures, use /FN. Note that using either the /FB or /FW qualifiers will increase the processing time for B&W scaling. If you don't need the increased quality, use /FN. The /FTMn (fixed top margin) option will allow you to override the program's default values for that part on the top of a page that your printer can't print on. The defaults are: 0.1" - DeskJet, DeskJet 500, DeskJet 500C 0.05"- DeskJet 550C 0.0" - LaserJet Series, PaintJet XL, PaintJet XL300 0.0" - PaintJet (tractor feed) If your printed margins don't match what you set in the Printer Setup Menu, then use this qualifier to adjust them. The /IDx (index drive override) option will allow you to override the drive that is embedded in the graphic menu index files (.VNX). This is useful if you create graphic menus and their indexes on one drive and later move them to another drive. x is the drive letter (A-Z) you want to use instead of the one in the index file, or make x = 0 to use the current drive you're on. The other alternative to this qualifier is to actually edit the first line in the index file (.VNX) to reflect the new drive letter. The /LOmode (lockout mode) (where mode is 100, 101, 103, 105 or 107) will lock out a mode. This is useful if your VESA driver is designed for a graphics card which has been fully populated with memory chips but your card doesn't have all of this memory installed. You may use more than one of these switches on your command line. The /Mx (mask for filenames) will allow you to include only certain file types in your directory listing. It can be one of the following: /MALL (all filenames), /MDIS (all displayable graphics files), /MBMP, /MGIF, /MIFF, /MIMG, /MJPG, /MLBM, /MMAC, /MPCX, /MTGA /MTIF. Note: Array index files (.VNX) are always accessible by the program, even if they are not being displayed in your directory listing. Caution: When you use this qualifier to eliminate the display of certain file types from your screen, and you display a previously created array image that includes file types that are not currently displaying, those files will not be found even though they are actually in the directory. (they will be flaged on screen with a red crosshatch) The /NB (no beep) option will disable the beeps after images are displayed on screen. The default is to beep. The /NLAM (no load array into memory) will disable the automatic loading of the first graphic array menu into XMEM even if there is enough memory to do so. The program by default will load the first array image that will be used as a graphic menu into XMEM, if there is enough memory to hold this array and one more image (both are assummed to be the maximum size of 1280x1024x256). If you are low on XMEM and you wish to be able to pull up larger files (B&W for example) from the array menu, you will probably need to use this qualifier. The /P1 or /P2 (port) designates which printer port to use for printing (LPT1 or LPT2). The /PF option forces printer output to a file instead of a port. The file will be created in your current directory with the same filename as your image file but with an extension of .VVP . This option works with multiple plots as well. No checking for duplicate filenames is done. To plot the file(s), from DOS keyin: COPY/B filename.VVP LPT1: where filename could be a wildcard and LPT1: could be LPT2:. The /B instructs DOS to use a binary copy mode. The /PAn (print angle) is used to rotate your print on the printed page. Values for n can be 0, 90, 180 or 270. * The /PC (print compress) option will force the transfer of data from your computer to the printer to be in a compressed (encoded) format. This will speed up the transfer of data (especially for serial or networked printers). Time savings will vary depending on the type and size of plot. In some cases, you may find no time savings overall since the printer has to decompress the data, but your CPU should be freed up from processing sooner. (default is no compress). The PaintJet and LaserJet II don't support this type of data compression. If your printouts look garbled, don't use this qualifier. The /PGn (print gamma correction) option will allow you to adjust the gamma of your Black & White or Color print. Simply put, gamma correction will adjust the intensities of red, green & blue values logarithmically since the human eye's perception of color intensity is non-linear. The gamma value is a decimal value between 0.5 and 2.0. If set to 0, no gamma correction will be performed. If this qualifier is not used, gamma defaults to a value best suited for the printer type selected. Using higher values will result in the darker colors in your image being printed lighter and the lighter ones remaining the same. This gives a much more natural looking printout. * The /PRn (printer resolution) is used to specify the resolution in dots per inch (dpi) of your active printer. For the DeskJet series, it can be 75, 150 or 300. For the PaintJet series (except XL300), it can be 90 or 180. Defaults to highest resolution for selected printer. The /PSx (print style) option allows you to select the style of printing for Black & White or Color prints. It can be one of the following: /PSBH (B&W Halftone), /PSBS (B&W Scatter), /PSCH (Color Halftone) or /PSCS (Color Scatter). The Halftone styles will process much faster than the Scatter dithering types which use an error difusing algorithm, however, the Scatter styles will in most cases have much better detailing and quality. Halftoning is the default. The /PTx (printer type) is used to select your printer. It can be one of the following: /PTDJ (HP DeskJet), /PTLJ (HP LaserJet), /PTPJ (HP PaintJet), /PTPJXL (HP PaintJet XL), /PTPJXL3 (HP PaintJet XL300), /PTDJC (HP DeskJet 500C) or /PTDJ5C (HP DeskJet 550C). * The /PWn (print width) is used to specify a print width. It is a decimal value from 0.0 to 10.5. If you enter a number greater than 8.0, the print will automatically be rotated 90 degrees. The print width represents the width that you want the horizontal image dimension as seen on your screen to be printed, no matter what rotation angle you use. * The /PTMn (printer top margin) sets the number of inches from the current position of printhead that the image will start printing. It is a decimal value ranging from the minimum value of your printer (see /FTMn above) to 10.0. If set to 99, your image will be centered from top to bottom. * The /PLMn (printer left margin) sets the number of inches from the left side of page that the image will start printing. It is a decimal value from 0.25 to 7.5. If set to 99, your image will be centered from left to right. The maximum printable width on all printers is 8.0" (1/4" left & right margins). The /SVn (SVGA) will allow you to use a 800 x 600 x 2 color mode to display IMG or HPGL files in a high resolution mode if your graphics card supports it. The n is the decimal mode number that your card uses for this mode. Most Paradise cards use 41 decimal for this mode, and the Tseng cards (including Orchid) use 89 decimal. This special mode and the standard 640 x 480 x 2 mode will allow faster panning on screen than the same resolutions in VESA modes will for large B & W images. NOTE: The panning icon which is available in VESA modes is not available for B & W modes. The /UPSA, /UPSB & /UPSC (unknown plot size) qualifiers will allow the user to specify a default plot size (A, B. or C) if the program that created the .PLT file did not include the HPGL cmd PS to signify what the Plot Size was. If one of these qualifiers is not used, and the .PLT file doesn't have a PS cmd, VESAVIEW will default to a 'C' size plot. The /WF (full weights) will display the weights as originally drawn. The /WH (weight half) is similar to /WN except that the weights of lines will be halved (divided by 2). The /WN (weight none) will not display weights of lines in an HPGL plot file if the SP (select pen) keyword was used when creating the plots. This will greatly speed up the screen drawing if you don't need to look at or print the weights. Some CAD programs which generate the plot files create weighted lines by simply drawing the lines multiple times in the plot file (each slightly offset) and not by using the SP (set pen) command. The /WN & /WH switches will have no effect on this type of plot files. SYSTEM DEFAULTS: /AB /AM101 /COD /D5 /F0 /FB /MALL /P1 /PTDJ /PW8.0 /PA0 /PTM0.25 /PLM0.25 /PXS1.0 /PYS1.0 /UPSC /WF Ex: VESAVIEW /P2 /AW /D10 - Will use printer port LPT2:, display arrays with a white background, and delay 10 seconds between slides. Ex: VESAVIEW /LO105 /LO107 /AM103 - Will lockout modes 105 and 107 from being valid VESA modes and will use mode 103 when displaying arrays. The program will test to see if your graphics card supports the VESA Bios Extensions by either hardware or software driver, whether you have a HIMEM driver loaded and how much extended memory you have available. Use the <ESC> key to exit program. A mouse button can not be used to exit the program. CHANGING DIRECTORY: While the list of files is on your screen, you can change your current directory by placing the cursor on the lite blue entries (which are directory names) and pressing <ENTER>. The . (single dot) will take you back to the root directory, and the .. (double dots) will take you back one directory level. Selecting a yellow Disk Drive entry will change your disk drive. You can also press the <C> key (or point to CDIR with mouse) to keyin a new path that can include a new disk drive. (Ex: B: or B:\ or C:\GIF or C:\IMAGES\GIF or \GIF or \GIF\). NOTE that the program tolerates trailing backslashes. VIEW SINGLE IMAGE (from Text directory): To view a single image move the cursor (with arrows, pageup, pagedown, home or end keys) to the desired image file and press <ENTER>. Then select a Vesa Mode from the Mode Menu. An asterisk denotes the Best Mode (calculated by the program) which will display the most of your entire image on a single screen in the best resolution. After your image is displayed, press <ESC> (or right mouse button) to return to main menu. Note that when viewing IMG files or HPGL files, you can use a VESA mode (only B&W colors used), use the standard 640 x 480 x 2 mode or use the Super VGA mode that you optionally entered on the command line. Entries in gray on the Mode Menu are not available for your graphics card. See the 'Special Keys while Viewing' section below for available viewing options. VIEW MULTIPLE IMAGES (slide show) (from Text directory): To view multiple images as a 'slide show', use the <Space Bar> (or right mouse button) to select the images you wish to view. You can mark all images in the current directory with the <M> key (or point to MARK with mouse) or unmark them with the key (or UNMARK with mouse). These can include BMP, GIF, IMG, JPG, PCX, TGA, TIF, PLT and HPG files. By pressing the <C> key, you can change your current Disk &/or Directory. Press <ENTER> (or left mouse button) to start the slide show. The files will be displayed one by one in the best VESA mode as determined by the program (640x480x2 mode is used for PLT & HPG files). The delay between slides will vary depending on the time it takes to read in the next file while one is on your screen and the value used in the /Dn switch. Fading in and out between multiple images can be done by using the /Fn switch. After the last file is displayed, the program will loop back to first slide. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) during the display will stop the slide show. (this may take several seconds). Note: Files will be displayed in the order in which they were selected. You can pause the slide show by pressing the <Pause> key on keyboard. Any other key will continue the show. VIEW / CREATE AN ARRAY OF IMAGES (from Text directory): To view multiple images on a single screen at once, use the <Space Bar> (or right mouse button) to select the images you wish to view. These can include BMP, GIF, IMG, JPG, PCX, TGA and TIF files but not PLT or HPG files. Press <A> (or point to ARRAY with mouse) to select array display. Select the VESA mode from Mode Menu and then select the number of images to display per screen page. Then sit back and watch your images appear. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) will abort the display after the current image is displayed. After each page is displayed, you could press to save the currently displayed page as a Windows BMP file, <G> for GIF file, <J> for JPG or <Z> for ZSoft PCX file or <PAGE DN> will continue to display the next page. If you used the /AS qualifier or selected 'Show Array Sizes' from the Options Menu, the image sizes will be displayed alongside the filenames. Since each image uses it own unique 256 colors, a special optimized color table and color dithering is used to display arrays. Note that when displaying a 2-color file in an array, the scaling down of the original image (especially a line type drawing) will cause much of the info to be lost on the screen unless the /FB or /FW command qualifier is used. Creating arrays of your images is a good method of saving a sequence of images for a slide show. They are saved in the array in the order you selected them. To play them back, just pull up that array image, press 'M' to mark all images, and press left mouse button to display them. WARNING: Files with more than 81 (9 x 9) images per page should not be viewed with versions of VESAVIEW prior to version 5.0 since a system hangup could occur because of internal array variable overflow! NOTE: Arrays are only available in VESA modes. Files will be arranged in the array in the order in which they were selected. AUTO ARRAY GENERATION/SAVING: If you are going to have many pages (screens) of array images and you will be saving them all out as single files, you can do this automatically by the <G> (or point to AUTO/GEN with mouse) to activate the generate option. This will automatically display the arrays on the screen and then save them out without any user intervention until the last one is processed. You begin just as you would for the standard array option by selecting the files to display, the VESA mode, and then the number of images/page. You are first prompted for the file type to use when saving. Then you are prompted for the first 1-6 characters of the filename that the program will use for the files it generates. You may precede the filename with a Disk & Directory if you don't want to use the current Disk/Dir. The system will append a 2 digit page number and appropriate extension to your input. EX: You are going to have 3 pages of array images and you select <G>IF as the filetype and enter TEST as the filename. The System will generate 3 files named TEST01.GIF, TEST02.GIF & TEST03.GIF. VIEWING FILES (from a previously created Array image): If you have previously created and saved an array of images, you can use it to graphically select the images you want to display either singularly or as a slide show or for plotting. NOTE: A mouse is required for this mode. Just select the array image from the Text directory listing. After it is displayed, use the box shaped cursor to select the files. The left mouse button will select one file and display it immediately. The right mouse button is used to Mark/Unmark files for a slide show or multiple plotting. Files are outlined with a red box when they are marked. If a file on your array menu does not exist in your current any more, the file will be cross-hatched with red lines. After all files you desire are marked, press the left mouse button to start the display. The /Dn and /Fn (delay and fade) work with multiple selections from arrays. Files will be displayed in the order that they were selected on the screen. If you want to display all of the files in the same order they were created, just press 'M' to mark them all, and press the left mouse button to start the show. NOTE: Normally a right mouse button is used to Quit the current image, but since that button is used to Mark/Unmark files in the array menu, you must simultaneously press both the left and right button to Quit. You can still use the <ESC> key to quit. Array images created before VESAVIEW version 4.0 will not allow graphic file selection. Version 4.0 and above creates an additional index file for each array image you create. This file will have the same filename as your array image but with an extension of .VNX . If this files does not exist in the same directory as your array image file, you will not be able to use the array image as a graphic menu, but you can still view it as a normal image. The index file is very small, and unlike other graphic packages which allow graphical selection of images from the screen, VESAVIEW does not require separate THUMBNAIL files for each image which saves considerable time and disk space. As of version 4.3, the array image together with its index file may be stored (or saved) on a Disk/Directory that is different from the location of the images in the array. This will allow users to catalog images from CDROMs (which can't be written to) etc. VESAVIEW assumes that if your array images have nested arrays, all of these arrays are located in the same directory, but each of the array's images can be located on different Disk/Directories if needed. The index file stores the Disk & Directory of the images in the array. NOTE: If you ever move your images from where the array was initially created, you will either need to re-catalog them or use a text editor to change the path (first entry) in the .VNX file. To make the index file downward compatable with versions prior to 4.3, the program will accept index files that didn't store the images path in them as the first entry. Up to six levels of array menus can be used (nested). For example, you could have one array image that had other array images in it. One idea would be to have individual array images for BMPs, GIFs, JPGs, PCXs and TGAs. Then have a master array image which would include the BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX and TGA arrays. While an array image is displayed, selecting another array image from it will pull up that new array menu and so on. If you have displayed an image out of a sub-level array menu, the <ESC> or right mouse button will return you to the previously displayed array menu. (remember that if you are displaying an array file, you must use both the left and right mouse button together to return to previous image). If you need to add or delete an image from the array image, you will need to re-create it. New array images can only be created from the Text directory listing. Additional Keys available while displaying an array image: M1 (left mouse button) Used to start displaying a single or marked multiple images M2 (right mouse button) Used to Mark or Unmark files M1 & M2 (together) Used to Quit from an array image (See 'SPECIAL KEYS WHILE VIEWING' later for standard keys available) Warning: You cannot have different array files with the same filename and different extensions in the same directory since each file will use the extension .VNX for its index file. Ex: You cannot have DIR01.GIF and DIR01.BMP array files in the same directory since the program would not know which one the index file DIR01.VNX should be associated with. VIEWING GIF89A FILES - Special Case: If you are viewing a single GIF89A file, most of the 89A extensions will be processed including multiple images, plain text and control blocks. Comments will not be displayed. Because of the way VESAVIEW reads images into Extended memory before displaying them, the plain text will only be displayed on the screen (not XMEM). This will prevent the printing of the text since printing is done from what is in Extended memory. One way around this, if your screen has enough resolution to display the entire file, is to save your screen out to another file with <G> and then pull up that file and print it. NOTE, that the save commands will only save out what is on the screen after all of the 89A extensions are processed. If the extensions include delays between images, or require the user to <press> a key, the program will continue after 15 seconds maximum so that slide shows will not be put in a wait state looking for user input. If you are viewing arrays which include GIF89A files, the extensions will be processed entirely in XMEM before displaying them in the array. No text extensions will be displayed (they would probably be too small to read anyway). Delays between GIF89A extensions are not processed when displaying array images for increased speed. VIEWING HPG or PLT FILES: To view a plot file created in a HPGL format, move the cursor to the filename and press <ENTER>. Then choose the Display Mode and Plot Mode you wish to use. The program will try and determine the size of plot from the plot file header, but some CADD packages don't supply this info in which case the program will assume a "C size". The HPGL codes for Plot Sizes are: PS4 = 'A' size PS0 = 'B' size PS1 = 'C' size Choosing a display mode of FIT, 2X or 4X will speed up the drawing process but the resolution of the image will be diminished. As the image is decoded, you will see it being drawn in a preview mode at screen size. After the image is complete, pressing any key will swap you to the actual image as stored in Extended memory for panning around in. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) as the image is being decoded will abort it. Currently supported HPGL commands are: PU,PD,PA,PR,PS,IP,SC,SP, CI and AA Even though the LB,SI,SR,DF,DI & DR commands are parsed and used to display the image on the initial preview screen, they are not supported as the drawing is being created in Extended memory. This won't usually pose a problem since this program was designed to view HPGL files created by CADD programs and most of those programs represent Text etc. as vector elements. WARNING: Only plot files which were created as C size or smaller should be viewed, since the program does no checking for elements which could be drawn 'off' the page if too big. This check was omitted to speed up the drawing. VIEWING ASCII FILES: To view a single ASCII file on your screen, just select it as with any other filetype. The file will be displayed in a text window. The following file extensions are recognized as ASCII files - .1ST, .ANS, .ASC, .ASM, .BAK, .BAT, .C, CONFIG.SYS, .DIZ, .DOC, .H, .INI, .LIS, .ME, .TXT and .VNX. You may use the following keys while viewing an ASCII file: Pan Up a Line - UP ARROW or RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON Pan Down a Line - DOWN ARROW or LEFT MOUSE BUTTON Pan Up a Page - PAGE UP Pan Down a Page - PAGE DN Abort - ESC or Both LEFT & RIGHT MOUSE BUTTONS simultaneously NOTE: ASCII files cannot be viewed from a graphics menu or in a slide show. Only the first 2000 lines of a file will be displayable. The entire file is not stored in memory but accessed from the disk drive as needed. DELETING FILES: While the file list is displayed on your screen, you may delete a file by moving the cursor to it and pressing <DEL> on the keyboard. To delete multiple files, mark them with the <spacebar> (or right mouse button) and then press <DEL>. You will be asked to confirm each deletion. RENAMING a FILE: While the file list is displayed on your screen, you may rename a single file by moving the cursor to it, marking it with the <spacebar> and pressing <R> on the keyboard. You cannot select more than one file at a time for renaming. SEARCHING FILENAMES: While the file list is displayed on your screen, you may select files by searching their filenames for a specific string. Press <S> (or point to SEARCH with mouse) and keyin the search string. The file will be selected if it contains the exact string anywhere in its filename. Don't use the wildcard characters * or ? since they will be search for literally. SPECIAL KEYS WHILE VIEWING: While viewing images in a VESA mode (other than arrays): F1/F2 Decrease/Increase RED F3/F4 Decrease/Increase GREEN F5/F6 Decrease/Increase BLUE F7/F8 Decrease/Increase CONTRAST F9/F10 Decrease/Increase BRIGHTNESS ALT F8 Inverse Colors (Negate) ALT F9 Change to Gray tones ALT F10 Restore original palette B Create a BMP file (256 c) of screen contents C Crop an image and save as BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file F Filter the screen image with different functions G Create a GIF file (256 c) of screen contents H or ? Graphics Help J Create a JPG file (24 bit) of screen contents O Display Options Menu P Send XMEM contents to printer as B&W or Color image S Scale XMEM contents to screen and save as BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file V Display the current VGA palette Z Create a PCX file (256 c) of screen contents + Zoom in (change VESA resolution to next lower mode) - Zoom out (change VESA resolution to next higher mode) NOTE: Mode 100 (640x400) is skipped when using +/- above. See the 'FILTERING IMAGE' section below for use of the 'F' option. While viewing an array (one about to be saved, not a previously saved one): B Create a BMP file (256 c) of screen contents C Crop an image and create a BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file G Create a GIF file (256 c) of screen contents J Create a JPG file (24 bit) of screen contents Z Create a PCX file (256 c) of screen contents While viewing IMG or HPGL files in a B & W mode: P Send XMEM contents to printer as B&W image I Create an IMG file (2 c) of entire XMEM contents. The 'I' option may also be used if you are viewing an IMG or HPGL file in a color VESA mode. Z Create a PCX (2 c) file of entire XMEM contents. In both Color and B & W modes you may pan screen with: (make sure the NUMLOCK key is on to use keypad) HOME Top left of image END Bottom right of image Page Up Move up approx. 1 inch Page Dn Move down approx. 1 inch ESC Return to File Selection Menu The arrow keys on either numeric keypad or separate arrow keypad pan the image approx. 1/4 inch in that direction. In addition, on the numeric keypad, the 1,3,7 & 9 keys pan the image diagonally and the 5 pans to center of image. Use the Control key with left or right arrows to pan 1 inch to the left or right. FILTERING IMAGE: The FILTER option ('F' key) will prompt you for the type of filter you desire. It will be lur (smooth), <S>harpen, <E>dge detection or <M>osaic . It only affects the screen image (not image as stored in extended memory), so when you pan or do a new window area on screen the filtering will be cleared. After you have filtered the screen, you may save that screen image as usual with the appropriate keyin. The Filter options are not recommended on 2-color files. Filters operations are accumulative. You may keep applying the same or different filters to the image to get more intense and sometimes very spectacular results. For instance, try applying a mosaic filter, then use the sharpening filter. The quality of the filtering operations are dependent on the '24 BIT PALETTE' setting on the Options Menu. For quicker (and less accurate) filtering, use the Standard option. For more accurate results (but longer processing time), use the Optimized or Optimized & Dithered option which will calculate a new palette for your filtered image. NOTE: After you have filtered an image, you must save the image and pull up the saved file in order to print it. SAVING SCREEN AS a BMP, GIF or PCX FILE: While viewing an image in a VESA mode, pressing will save the current screen (not necessarily everything in Extended memory) to a BMP file with the filename of your choosing. Pressing <G> will save to a GIF file. Pressing <Z> will save to a PCX file. The dimensions will come from the mode you are currently viewing the image in or the cropped size that you used. The color table written to file will reflect any adjustments you've made with the Function keys. When keying in the filename, if you don't include the period or extension, the program will append the correct extension to your keyin. If you keyin the extension with your filename, the program will use that instead, but make sure you keyin the appropriate extension since the extension is how the program determines the file type to display! You may precede the filename with a Disk & Directory if you don't want to use the current Disk/Dir. SAVING SCREEN AS a JPG FILE: JPEG is a standardized compression method for full-color (24 bit) and grayscale images. JPEG is a lossy type of compression, meaning that the output image is not necessarily identical to the input image. This software implements JPEG baseline and extended-sequential compression processes and the file format used is called JFIF. This format has been agreed to by a number of major commercial JPEG vendors and probably will become the de facto standard. Some commercial JPEG implementations are incompatible, especially if they were written before the summer of 1991. Some other shareware JPEG program's output will only work if they have the option of outputing as JFIF standard files. The procedure for saving the current screen to a JPG file is the same as for saving to a GIF, BMP or PCX (see above section), except that an extra question is asked after you key in the filename. You will need to enter a JPEG quality factor ranging from 25 to 95. The default if you just press <CR> is 75. A higher quality factor will result in larger files and less loss of image quality. A lower quality factor will result in smaller files with more loss of image quality. It is not recommended to save array images as JPG files if they will be used as graphic menus, since they will take considerably longer to decode. NOTE: Most error messages from the JPEG compression/decompression routines are due to corrupt or non-supported features in your JPEG file. However, the most common error will be 'Insufficient memory case ?' which usually means that you have insufficient low memory (RAM in the 0-640K range). Try and eliminate any non-crucial drivers &/or TSRs loaded into low memory. For saving or reading in 1024x768 JPEGs, you'll probably need 200K or more free RAM. The amount of free RAM can be found by using the VESA/MEMORY option under the HELP menu. CROPPING SCREEN & SAVING AS a BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX FILE: If you press <C> you will be able to crop your screen image before saving as a BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file. You will see a box drawn around your screen image when you first press <C>. Press a <T> to move the TopLeft corner of box. Press to move the BottomRight corner. Use the arrow keys to move a single pixel at a time, or PageUp, PageDown, <CTRL>Leftarrow or <CTRL>Rightarrow to move 10 pixels at a time. <HOME> will move the Topleft corner of box to Topleft of screen. <END> will move the Bottomright corner of box to Bottomright of screen. <ESC> will abort and a <CR> will start the screen save. You will be prompted whether to save as a BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file. See 'Using a Mouse' below. SCALING XMEM CONTENTS TO SCREEN & SAVING: If you press <S> you will be able to scale the entire image in XMEM to your screen. You will see a box drawn around your screen when you first press <S>. If you just press the <CR> key at this time, your entire image will be fitted to your screen at the current VESA resolution. Use the arrow keys etc. (like in cropping above) to move the lower right corner of box. Scaling always occurs about the upper left corner of image, so you can't move this point. <ESC> will abort and a <CR> will start the screen save. See 'Using Mouse' below. SAVING XMEM CONTENTS AS an IMG or PCX FILE: While viewing a 2 color Black/White image (either IMG, 2-color PCX or HPGL files), pressing an will save the entire eXtended memory contents to a IMG file, or pressing <Z> will save as a 2-color PCX file. You will have the opportunity to reverse the image before saving. It doesn't matter whether you are viewing the image in a color VESA mode or one of the Black & White modes in order to save with the mode, as long as the original image was actually a 2 color image. Currently, there is not a cropping option before saving as a IMG file. However, if you are viewing the 2-color image in a color VESA mode, you could save out as a cropped BMP, GIF, JPG or PCX file. PRINTING IMAGES: Before displaying an image that you will be printing, you should pull up the Printer Setup Menu and Printer Model Menu (submenus of OPTS menu) and make any necessary changes to model, style, size, margins, rotation and gamma etc. After an image is displayed, any adjustments to color/brightness/contrast will be reflected in your print. The gamma value (see description of /PGn qualifier above) is a good tool to use if adjustment to brightness is needed for printouts. The maximum size of image is limited only by the amount of free XMEM you have. The maximum size of print is 10.5 x 8.0 inches on most printers. On the DeskJet 550C printer, note that you can't print on the bottom 1/2" of page, so if you are centering your print, the maximum length can't be greater than 10.0", but if you set your Top Margin to the minimum of 0.05", you can squeeze in about 10.4". If you want to print multiple images, select them from the file list with the <Space Bar> (or right mouse button) as for slides, and then press (or point to PLOT with mouse). Each file will be displayed on screen and automatically plotted until the last one is processed. NOTE that all of the plots will use the same size, rotation, justification etc. from the plotting options menu. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) will abort the plotting. NOTE: This option is only available in Registered Versions. While a color image file is displayed on the screen, pressing will create a print on your active printer in the current print style. The fastest print style is the halftoning process. The scatter style will produce a better quality print in most cases, but will take longer to process. You may cancel the plot by pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) during the plot. The port defaults to LPT1 unless you specified a command line argument of /P2 or /PF when starting the program. The actual plot will be of your entire image (stored in extended memory) and not just what you may be viewing on your screen. While viewing a 2-color (black & white) file or HPGL (.PLT or .HPG), pressing will create a Black & White print. See description of /FB, /FW & /FN above to preserve B & W image context when your print is being scaled down from the original size. You can use any of the printer qualifiers (available as command line qualifiers or from the Printer Menu within program) to change the defaults for Printer Port, Printer Type, Resolution, Rotation Angle, Width and Top & Left Margins. If you select a Print Width greater than 8.5", the program will automatically rotate print 90 degrees (unless 270 was already selected). The program will beep if you try to use an invalid combination of size, rotation angle, margins or resolution. MOUSE USE: In most cases where the keypad is used to move the text cursor, a MicroSoft compatible mouse can also be used. You must install any required mouse drivers before running VESAVIEW. The Left button is used just like the <CR> key on the keyboard to display one image. It is also used to select choices from pop-up menus, to select commands at the bottom of screen and to select the PageUp and PageDown icons from the vertical bar on the right side of screen. The Right button is used just like the <ESC> key on the keyboard to abort displays and menus. It is also used to mark files for use in arrays or for displaying them as slides (like the <spacebar>). If a large image has been displayed in one of the 256 color VESA modes, holding down the Left mouse button will display a panning icon on your screen. The green box represents your entire image size and the red box represents your screen size. While holding down the Left button, move the mouse and the red box will pan around with the green box. When you let go of the button, the screen with be moved to reflect your new window area. This mode of panning is much quicker than using the arrow keys, although you will probably use the arrow keys for fine tuning the pan. If a double-beep is heard when trying to use this feature, your image is probably smaller than your screen and no panning is possible. When Cropping an image, the Left mouse button will move the upper left corner of the cropping box and the Right mouse button will move the lower right corner of box. Pressing both the Left and Right buttons simultaneously will start the save (like pressing <CR>). Scaling works the same except the Left mouse button is not used (can't move the upper left corner of scaling box). RUNNING Under WINDOWS 3.1: VESAVIEW can be run in a Full Screen mode from Windows 3.1. Because of the way Windows 3.1 allocates memory, it is suggested that you use a .PIF file to run VESAVIEW. The following are recommended settings for the PIF file when running under Windows: Program Item Properties Description: VesaView Command Line: VESAVIEW.PIF Working Directory: C:\GIF <-- Path of initial image directory Shortcut Key: None (NOTE: You can use the ICON that is delivered with VESAVIEW or your own. The supplied icon is in the file VESAVIEW.ICO.) Use the following for 386 ENHANCED MODE - PIF EDITOR - VESAVIEW.PIF Program Filename: C:\VV\VESAVIEW.EXE <-- Path of VESAVIEW.EXE Window Title: VesaView Optional Parameters: /AW /AM103 /PTDJ /AS <-- Modify these as needed Start-up Directory: Video Memory: _ Text _ Low Graphics X High Graphics Memory Requiremts: KB Required -1 KB Desired -1 EMS Memory: KB Required 0 KB Limit 1024 XMS Memory: KB Required 1024 KB Limit -1 Display Usage: X Full Screen Execution: _ Background _ Windowed X Exclusive X Close Window on Exit PIF EDITOR - Advanced Options Background Priority: 50 Foreground Priority: 100 X Detect Idle Time Memory Options: _ EMS Memory Locked X XMS Memory Locked _ Uses High Memory Area X Lock Application Memory Display Options: X Text _ Low Graphics X High Graphics X Emulate Text Mode X Retain Video Memory Other Options: (leave as default) Use the following for STANDARD MODE - PIF EDITOR - VESAVIEW.PIF Program Filename: C:\VV\VESAVIEW.EXE <-- Path of VESAVIEW.EXE Window Title: VesaView Optional Parameters: /AW /AM103 /PTDJ /AS <-- Modify these as needed Start-up Directory: Video Memory: _ Text X Graphics/Multiple Text Memory Requiremts: KB Required -1 XMS Memory: KB Required 1024 KB Limit -1 Direct Modifiers: _ COM1 _ COM3 _ Keyboard _ COM2 _ COM4 _ No Screen Exchange _ Prevent Program Switch X Close Window on Exit _ No Save Screen CAUTIONS: The array used to store the files in current directory is limited to 999 files. More files than this will just be truncated from directory listing. The program determines the type of file to display by the extension used on the filename. Supported extensions are BMP, GIF, IMG, JPG, PCX, TGA, TIF, HPG and PLT. Any other extensions are ignored. Incorrect extensions may cause program to hang (ie. Don't name a PCX file with a GIF extension). Even though your VESA driver thinks it supports some of the higher resolution modes, your hardware may not have the required memory to do so. Therefore, you need to lockout these modes from the program with the /LOmode command line switch. If you don't lock out these modes, the program may hang and you'll have to do the 3 finger trick (<CTRL> <ALT> <DEL>). When printing, make sure your printer is online before pressing the key, otherwise the printer may lose some of the data or lock up the program. HINTS: When creating arrays of images that include 24 bit files, you may want to toggle the 24 bit palette option to STANDARD to speed up the processing. The color detail will not be too apparent at this small scale. To create and save a slide show sequence, just create an array image and save it. The images on the array will be arranged in the order in which they were selected originally. All you need to do to play the slide show is pull up that array image, press 'M' to mark all files, and then press the left mouse button to start the show. You should set the delay and fade before pulling up the array if desired. It is suggested that you prefix your array filenames with a 0 (zero) so that they will be alphabetized at the beginning of the directory listing for easier location. (Ex. 0DIR01.GIF, 0DIR02.GIF etc). If you will be using your array images as graphic menus for file selection, a lower resolution array image will update on the screen faster. Even if you have just a few images to catalog, by placing them in a larger format array image (ie. You have only 9 images to catalog but create a 6 x 6 array image), the screen will be able to recall this array as a menu much faster than creating it in a 3 x 3 array image. This is due to the greater compression of large areas of blank space on the screen. If you don't have a mouse, the graphic arrays you create can't be used graphic menus. You will need to manually delete the .VNX file for the array file so that the system will think the array file is just an ordinary image. If you are using a printer supported by the DOS GRAPHICS command, you can get a quick print of a Black & White screen by using the GRAPHICS command before running VESAVIEW. Version 5.0 of DOS supports the DeskJet & LaserJets and the syntax would be: GRAPHICS DESKJET /r (the /r will reverse black & white) Use <SHIFT><PRT SCRN> while graphics are on the screen to initiate the print. If you are printing to a color printer and you need to lighten up your print, try increasing the Gamma value instead of the brightness. This will lighten up the lower intensities and leave the higher intensities as they are. Besides using the SCALE option, there is a trick you can use to scale down an image by 1/2,1/3,1/4...1/9. Mark just one image and display it as an array. Select the Array Size according to the scale factor you wish to use. (The color table used to display a single image as an array will be the true color table of that image and not the standard palette). After the image is displayed, use the CROP feature to save the area you desire as a color image. Note that when a single array image is displayed, the background color and text colors will change according to the color table of the single image being displayed. If you need a VESA driver for your graphics card, login to Compuserve and go to the IBMPRO forum (GO VESA). In Lib #12 (Vesa), you will find VESA drivers for almost any card. If you are not sure what graphics card you have in your machine, there is a great little program in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum on Compuserve (GO PICS). In Lib #14 (Misc Util & Code) download VDEOID.EXE. This program will try and determine the card manufacturer & memory on it. CARDS TESTED: This program has been tested on the following computers and graphics cards: DELL 325D - Using built-in Paradise card DELL 325D - Using a CompuAdd Hi-rez card DELL 433D - Using Trident 8900 card DELL 433P - Using built-in Paradise card DELL 433P - Using a Video-7 VRAM II card DELL 486D/50 - Using built-in Paradise card DELL 486D/66 - Using built-in Paradise card & ATI Ultra card NEC 386SX - Using a CompuAdd Hi-rez card AST 286/386 Premium - Using Orchid Designer Pro card AST 286/386 Premium - Using Diamond Stealth card (has built in VESA Bios on card) IBM 286 AT - Using a Paradise VGA Plus IBM 286 AT - Using an ATI Wonder card & ATI Vantage GATEWAY 2000 486/33 - Using an ATI Ultra card DEC PC 486 - Using built-in graphics card SUPPORT: If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, please leave me a message in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum (GO PICS) on Compuserve. My CIS ID number is 71170,2340. The current shareware version of VESAVIEW will always be posted in the LIB #3 (Decoders & Encoders) of the GRAPHSUPPORT forum on Compuserve. It can also be found on the Blue Ridge Express Bulletin Board (804)-790-1675. The Zipped archival of VESAVIEW will usually be named VESAVW.ZIP or VESAVWxx.ZIP where xx is the version number. If you can't find it by filename, try searching for the keywords VESA and HPGL. You can also reach me at the P. O. Box listed in the Registration section. REVISION HISTORY: v1.0 - v1.9 Developmental versions v2.0 (4/03/92) First release to the Public as Shareware v2.1 (4/10/92) Changed algorithm used for arrays color palette. Now uses color dithering for much more accurate color reproduction. v2.2 (4/21/92) Added new option to Automatically generate multiple pages of array images and save them to GIF files without user intervention. Also added a Scaling option. v2.3 (4/27/92) Fixed a minor bug while displaying multiple pages of arrays. v2.4 (6/05/92) Changed GIF decoder so that files which do not follow the standard of setting byte 13 of header as a zero are decoded anyway. v2.5 (7/6/92) Added saving as PCX files (both 2 & 256 color). Added cmd line qualifiers /FN, /FB & /FW so that scaling of B&W images could retain more info of the original. Can now read in Windows 3.X .BMP files (256 color). Added ability to select files for display with a search string. Added AA (absolute arc) & CI (circle) cmds to HPGL module & fixed minor bug in display size. v2.6 (7/16/92) Added decoding of TIF (2 color) files and fixed bug with Filename Search option. Only decodes non-compressed and run-length encoded TIFs. v2.7 (10/9/92) Added decoding of 24 bit PCX & BMP files and decoding of 16, 24 & 32 bit TGA (Targa) files. Added ability to change command line options from within the program from a menu. v2.8(11/20/92) Added qualifier to disable beep after displaying images. Added print enhancements: Color printing to HP PaintJet, PaintJet XL, PaintJet XL300, DeskJet 500C & DeskJet 550C. REGISTERED VERSION ONLY: Added ability to select plot size, rotation angle, resolution, gamma correction and page placement. Data can now be compressed before sending to printer to reduce size and speedup printing. V2.9 (12/9/92) Added qualifier (/COD) to optimize color palette and dither the image when 16, 24 or 32 bit bit images are read in. Fixed a bug which wouldn't allow an array of images to be saved as a GIF file if no GIF file was displayed in the array. V3.0(12/14/92) Added new B & W Scatter print style and Color Halftone print style. Also added qualifiers for these styles (/PSBH, /PSBS, /PSCH & /PSCS). Added /FTMn (fixed top margin). V3.1 (1/11/93) Changed halftone printing pixels from 4 bits to 5 bits to allow more shades. Added saving as a Windows BMP (256c). Arrays can now be saved as either GIF, BMP or PCX files. The screen is now erased around a cropped area before saving for easier viewing. V3.2 (1/22/93) Added support for 16 color PCX, BMP & GIF files. Added support for 256 color (8 bit) TGA files. Saving of images or arrays is now 3-4 times faster. V3.3 (2/2/93) Added support for 16 and 256 color TIF files. Added ability to use 320x200x256 & 640x480x2 modes without requiring a VESA driver. These modes do not allow array generation. Added panning with window icon for B&W display modes. Added qualifiers /PXSn & /PYSn to allow slight adjustment of X & Y scales when plotting HPGL & 2-color files. Fixed bug where multiple image GIFs would hang. Now, only the 1st image of these multi-image GIFs is displayed. V3.4 (2/9/93) Added support for GIF89A files by completely rewriting the GIF decoder module. Multiple files can now be selected for automated plotting (only available in Registered Version). File directory is now sorted vertically instead of horizontally for easier viewing. Zooming (changing resolution) is now possible while viewing in a VESA mode with the +- keys. V3.5 (2/26/93) Fixed bug with vertical directory listing which caused incorrect scrolling. V3.6 (3/18/93) Added cmd qualifiers /UPSA, /UPSB & /UPSC so user could select a default plot size if the .PLT file did not have an embedded PS cmd to signify what plot size to use. V3.7 (4/12/93) Added printer output to a file option (from menu or new /PF qualifier). Added support for 24 TIF and 32 bit TGA files. V4.0 (4/20/93) Images can now be graphically selected for display or printing from previously created array images. These previously created arrays images act as graphic directory menus. Also, a help menu is now available while displaying graphics. V4.1 (5/14/93) Program now checks for sufficient disk space before writing out files. When keying in a filename, you don't have to include the extension (ex: .GIF) anymore. If your keyin doesn't contain a period, the appropriate extension will automatically be appended to your keyin. V4.2 (5/18/93) If you have enough XMEM, the first graphic array menu you select will be stored in memory, so that returning to that menu screen will be instantaneous instead of having to re- read in the file on each return. This can be overridden with the /NLAM qualifier. Added a new Printer Model submenu to the Options Menu. V4.3 (6/11/93) Added capability to put an array image and its index file on a different disk/directory than its images are on. This allows cataloging of images on a CDROM etc. Image sizes can now be displayed on the images of an array if you use the qualifier /AS (array sizes). Some changes in the way stack memory was allocated were made to hopefully alleviate some users memory restraint problems. V4.4 (7/2/93) Added a fade in/out of images when displaying a slide show. This is done with new qualifier /Fx or from Options Menu. The order in which files are selected is now used when displaying or creating arrays of them. The sequence numbers are shown on the text directory listing. A filename mask option has been added. The new qualifier /Mxxx sets the mask to use. Enhanced error checking when printing to prevent hangups when user input print sizes & margins were invalid. V4.5 (7/21/93) Added the reading and saving of 24 bit and grayscale JPEG files (.JPG). Added a progress bar when reading in files from the graphics menu to prevent boredom. V4.6 (7/26/93) Fixed problem where extremely long paths in filenames would abort program. V4.7 (7/30/93) Fixed bug with reading in 16 bit Targa files. Changed algorithm for calculating HPGL plot scale for different Page Sizes. Fixed sorting of directory when using Auto Array Generation. Changed maximum entries per directory from 500 to 999. V4.8 (8/10/93) Added more error trapping for critical hardware errors (such as CDrom write errors, etc), and changed the initial VESAVIEW Logo. V4.9 (8/22/93) Added ability to display an ASCII file on screen. Added Disk Drives to the directory listing. v5.0 (9/9/93) Added ability to create an array image (menu) of up to 12 x 12 images (144 total) per page if the resolution you select is high enough for the filenames to display above images. Added check for free diskspace when auto- generating arrays. Fixed bug when displaying long JPEG error messages which cause system hangups. Made keyin field larger for filename of auto-generated arrays. Directory listing now returns as it was bracketed on the screen after viewing images etc. instead of resetting to display file number 1. New qualifier /IDx to override the embedded drive letter in index (.VNX) files. Trailing backslashes when entering a new path are now tolerated. Removed now unnecessary qualifiers /PYS and /PXS. Added new registration procedure using a username/access code combination. v5.1 (9/20/93) Added several new Text File types which can be displayed (.BAK, CONFIG.SYS, .INI). Slides can now remain on screen until a key is pressed to skip to next slide. Saving an image from screen will now default to use the original image size if it less then screen dimensions versus always using the screen dimensions. (This could only be done by cropping in previous versions.) Fixed a bug which caused some RAM memory to be used and not freed up when reading/saving GIF files. v5.2 (9/24/93) Added the reading of .IFF/.LBM (Amiga/Deluxe Paint) and .MAC (MacPaint) files. Added a smoothing, sharpening, edge detection and mosaic filters option when in graphics ( 'F' key). Also added an Inverse Colors option (ALT F8) while in graphics. v5.3 (10/4/93) Options menu is now available while viewing a graphics image ('O' key). Filters have been enhanced to use an optimized palette if desired by selecting the appropriate item on the Options Menu. Added a file Rename <'R'> option.