UniView supports many file formats. In following list you can get informations about possibilities of reading nad saving files in these formats. You can also get informations on how to change attributes of output file (or eventually some additional informations about concrete formats)
Image formats,
Multimedia formats,
Text formats,
Miscellanous formats
Image formats
AA - read+write
This format can be used in email, text chats and some interned pages. Ascii art files are fair text files...
When you are saving AA file, you can select filter, which will be used for converting graphics file to text format, if you use EPOX filter, you can also select size of mask (point), which will be used.
ATK - read+write
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BMP, DIB - read+write
Standard format for image interchange in Wind*ws and OS/2 (however, both systems are using a bit different formats), even though absence of some important attributes of modern image format (eg. good compression or transparency) is it heavily used...
By saving of BMP format can yuo select, if you want to save it using RLE compression (works just for BPP's of 4 and 8). This compression is mainly not used because in major instances it's not decreasing size of output file too much. WARNING! This compression can make output file bigger in some cases - for example by saving of some complex images.
CMU - read+write
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DOO - read
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FAC, FACE - read+write as FAC
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G3 - read+write
This format is supporting only B/W images. It's used by some faxes as standard digital output...
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GIF - read
Older format, which is used on internet mainly because of animation possibilities. Because of license probles with UniSys it's 'sinking' step by step and it's substituted by PNG/MNG and JPG (I think these three formats are very good, PNG is getting even better results after conversion!)...
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ICL - read
This format is the same as a EXE/DLL/OCX/CPL file with icon. This means UniView can extract icon from almost any Windows executable...
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ICO - read+write
Format used mainly on OS Wind*ws (but also on other) for saving of icons for miscellanous objects (applications, documents etc.)
By savinf you can set color which will be transparent (you have to check transparent image button too!)
ICON - read+write
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IMG - read+write
Just B/W images...
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BIE,JBG,JBIG - read+write as JBG (
plugin required)
Excelent format for B/W and gray images. It's using lossless compression that is outperforming CCITT fax 3 and 4 compression (used eg. in TIFF and G3 format)
If you want to save image in greyscale instead of B/W, you have to check button 'Save images as grey......'
ILBM/LBM/IFF - read
Format taken from Amiga, used often in products of Electronic Arts...
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JPEG/JPG/JPE - read+write as JPG
Format used for saving of fullcolor images using lossy compression JPEG (this compression is used also in TIFF files). This format achieves very good compresion ratios by small quality loss. It's not recommended to use it by diagrams, because by this type of images is big quality loss arriving - use PNG instead...
If you save image progressively, it will be loaded so first mosaic of whole image is loaded and then step by step more details will be loaded. If you use progressive mode, you can also save some space on disk. There are also quality setting and two settings, which are affecting output quality and file size a bit...
LEAF - read+write
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MAC,MACP,MPNT,PAINT,PNTG - read+write as MACP
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MDA,MDP - read+write (just MDA)
UniView supports reading of both MDA and MDP in versions 1.0 and 1.3, but can write just MDA in versions 1.0 and 1.3.
By saving, you can select, which version should be used to write MDA file
MGR - read+write
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NGG, NOL, NPM - read+write
Formats NGG/NOL/NPM are used by Nokia mobile phones. It can be for example operator logo or group graphics. I didn't test it by myself. It should be performable with EMI/UCP protocol over TCP/IP - it was tested with SwissCom SMSC (Switzerland) and IC3S SMSC (Germany). On Nokia 3210 and 6210 (and others) is for operator logo used picture 72x14 and it must be B/W (if it's not, it will be converted)...
When saving, you can select if file will be written in hexadecimal or binary form. If you are going to write NOL file in HEX, you can also set operator ID code (if nothing selected, 62F210 will be used). For NPM files can you set text, which will be included in image.
PBM/PGM/PPM/PNM - read+write
Format used mainly on Unix and LiNUX systems because it's simplicity and amount of utilities, which are available for mainipulating these formats available on these systems (funky sencence :). PBM are B/W images, PGM are gray, PPM fullcolor and PNM can contain any bit depth (it can be PBM, PGM or PPM with PNM extension)/
If you save file binary, you can strong decrease amount of time required for loading and saving this file and output file will be also smaller...
PCX - read+write
Format developed by ZSoft used heavily on DOS operating systems. Nowadays it's falling away because it's obsolete. Tomorrow it's supported just because backward compatibility.
If you save 'Packbits compression', image will be compressed (it's achieving good results on non-full color images)
PI1 - read+write
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PI3 - read+write
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PNG - read+write
My favourite format ;-). It's the very best choice of tomorrow for saving images. You're asking why?
PNG was developed as a substitution for commercial format GIF, which is limited to 8 BPP and uses patented compression LZW (and it's licensed by UniSys for large amount of $). PNG has following advantages: Bit depth up to 48BPP (or greyscale up to 16 BPP). It's using non-patented free compresion LZ77, which outperforms LZW in many cases (and is used in ZIP files too) - it's not very effective to compress PNG files to archives... There is also another format - MNG, which's based on PNG and can be, just like GIF, animated. PNG isn't good alternative for photos even though it's advantages. I recommend to use JPG format instead. And how about compatiblity? All newer viewers should be able to view PNG format (because it's born circa in 1995).
If you save image progressively, you can decrease size of output file (but just in some cases). Using 'Compression strenght' you can set, how strong should the compression be - if number is bigger, compression will be stronger but it will tak more time to compress image. There is practically no big difference between compresions 8 and 9 - optimal is compression between 6 and 8.
QRT - read+write
Format uset by QRT ray-tracer, just 24 BPP.
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RAS, RAST, SR - read+write as RAS
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By saving you can use RLE compression (see BMP)
RAW - read+write
Universal format, which can contain any type of data, but in this case it should contain image data. This format is used in many computer games to avoid user to change program's files.
Offset is specifying exact position of image in file (eg. offset from begin of file). You can also set order (together with type) and interlacing of
color channels...
RGB/SGI - read+write
Format used mainly by Silicon Graphics computers (but is used on almost every modern platform). It has pretty good technical parameters (it should also, because SGI is no. 1 in computer graphics :)
You can use RLE compression by save (see BMP)
RLE, URT - read+write as RLE
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SCR - read
Output file from emulators of ZX Spectrum computers - it's not recommended to associate program with this format, because the same extension are using screen savers for windows
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SGI - read+write
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You can use RLE compression by save (see BMP)
SIR - read+write
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TGA - read+write
Format developed by Truevision, it's called TARGA. It is a wide used format...
If you check RLE compression, output file can get smaller. This setting works just for 8BPP images (or smaller)...
TIF,TIFF - read+write
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is today one of most complex fileformats, which are available. Because of it's extensibility and codec characer it's used in many programs and it's possible ot extend it using almost any information (eg. author, source, copyright, alpha channel, watermark etc.). TIFF format is supported by wide range of file editors and viewers and it's one of most compatible types (it can be copied between Mac's and PC's too :) - but you must use just special codecs, which are standardized and implemented in most decoders (like CCITT, PACKBITS, LZW, NEXT, JPEG, PIXARLOG or ZIP=deflate)
Using items in 'compression' array you can set compression used in image file. As you can see, there is also LZW compression, which isn't not recommended because of licencing problems (it's possible that it will be removed from this program in next versions). Instead of it you should use ZIP compression (uses LZ77), which achieves comparable results. You can use also JPEG compression (see JPG format for details about parameters). If you check item 'Save in RGB...', image will use RGB colorspace instead of YCbCr. This techniqe can result in bigger file size. By LZW you can use predictor value to set strength of compression - it can be 0, 1 or 2, 0 is lowest compression strength but it's fastest...
WBMP - read+write
Relatively new format established by W3 consortium as a standard format for WAP pages (mobile internet). It supports just B/W images at this point of development.
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XBM - read+write
Format of B/W images (cursors, icons) on OS Unix and it's clones
By saving you can select one of two available versions (X10 for backward compatiblity or X11 for new format)
XIM - read
Format used by Xim toolkit, which's a part of graphics environment X Windows...
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XPM - read+write
Format of paletted images in OS Unix (and clones), which is used mainly for icon files. Because of it's non-binary format and syntax (compatible with C/C++) is used by programmers...
If you check item 'Use colrnames table...', program will replace as many colors in hex format in colortable by text names as possible.
YBM - read+write
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YUV - read+write
Format Abekas YUV uses conversion of RGB to YUV (in ratio 4:1:1), so it's decreasing visible quality of image by 2/3 of size of RGB image - this conversion is used by MPEG and JPEG compression (and many other).
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Text formats
RTF - read+write
RTF (Rich Text Format) is standard format, using which you can save documents that are using many different types of fonts (or some embedded objects) and use it on wide range of operating systems. It's fair text file, so it's good to compress it to archives.
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Other formats are all raw text files. This means, they doesn't contain any special characters (like ASCII NULL character). These files can use just one font!
Multimedia formats
WAV, AIF,AIFF,AIFC,RMI,MID,AU - read
All these formats are raw sound files, this means they doesn't contain any image informations...
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other :-) - read
These formats can contain both image and sound informations (or other data too).
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Other formats
All other formats
- read+write
All formats, that UniView can not recognize as supported format is figured as binary file and opens them using HexView. This utility can change contents of files using hexadecimal mode. You can also save these files then.
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