NOVA v1.0 Instructions 3/9/93 Evaluation Copy (c) RKSoft 1993 RKSoft Randy Scarborough 519 Lively San Antonio, Texas 78213 (210) 344-3460 Permission to evaluate, and distribute this demonstration software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. Note to DEMO users: The NOVA demo is a full featured demo with the exception that the final output will have several vertical bands of empty space. NOVA is a TARGA to NOVAJET color bit map file converter. NOVA can read all of the various flavors of TARGA. Future formats to be supported include, TIFF GIF, BMP and PCX. ADI drivers are also in the works. Shown below is a screen dump of the NOVA help feature. This screen is shown by typing NOVA followed by ENTER. This screen is also shown if a syntax error on the command line is found. NOVA v1.0 3-04-93 (c)1993 RKSoft SA TX Targa to Novajet color bitmap Full Feature Demo RKSoft 519 Lively San Antonio, Texas 78213 (210) 344-3460 Usage: NOVA -[switches] INFILE[.tga] [OUTFILE[.nov]] [switchs] L - large file, use disk B - cmy -> black off D - extra output C - color dither off M - create color map X - create color block map R - rotate (disabled with L switch) A# - aspect H# - height (image pixels) W# - width (image pixels) O# - offset (output pixels) For most options NOVA requires at least an input file name (INFILE). If the extension of the TARGA filename is not included on the command line, the file must exist with an extension of ".TGA". If the extension of the infile is included, NOVA will look for that file. If the output file name (OUTFILE) is not included, NOVA will use the base name of the input file and add the extension ".NOV". If the output file name is included, NOVA will use this name and append the ".NOV" extension if necessary. If the output file has an extension, NOVA will use the entire file name. example: C:> NOVA lighthou NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TGA and output to file LIGHTHOU.NOV. C:> NOVA lighthou.trg NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TRG and output to file LIGHTHOU.NOV. C:> NOVA lighthou test NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TGA and output to file TEST.NOV. C:> NOVA lighthou.tga test.rtl NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TGA and output to file TEST.RTL. C:> NOVA lighthou.trg test.rtl NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TRG and output to file TEST.RTL. The SWITCH parameters tell NOVA to perform specific functions. Each switch must be preceded by a hyphen '-'. The switches can appear in any order on the DOS command line -L Use this switch with VERY large input files. A very large file is one that has a file size larger than 80% of your installed RAM. If you have 16MB of RAM installed then a very large file would have a file size >= 12.8MB. If you are not sure, run NOVA without this switch. If the program fails or gives an out of memory error, use this switch. This switch will cause NOVA to execute much slower. However NOVA will be able to deal with extremely large input files. By default the -L switch is off. **IMPORTANT: If this switch is used, there must be sufficient free disk space available. The amount of free disk space required can be calculated by multiplying the input file by 2. If the input file is 24MB, NOVA will need approx. 48MB of disk space. Using this switch will automatically disable the -R rotate switch. Rotations are not allowed on a very large input file. Initially, try NOVA without this switch. If the file is too large, NOVA will fail almost immediately. If this occurs, use the switch. -B If a pixel requires a mix of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to create Black, NOVA will tell the plotter to use the Black ink pen for this pixel. This reduces the amount of ink. The default is to perform this conversion. -D Displays extra information about the TARGA as NOVA is working. The default is no extra information is displayed. -C Turn off color dithering and use the sample colors built into NOVA. Dithering is required because the NOVAJET cannot mix variable amounts of ink at a given pixel on the plot. Dithering also helps smooth the image somewhat. This dithering actually causes the output image to double in size. Each pixel in the TARGA image is mapped to a 2x2 grid of output pixels. Each of these 4 pixels can contain various combinations of inks. This allows many more (apparent) colors to be generated. Color dithering is on by default. -M This option generates a sample gradient color map. This switch should not be combined with any other switch. A plot of the gradient map will give you an idea of the color combinations available on the NOVAJET. The resultant plot file is 1024x1024. -X This option generates a sample color block map. This switch should not be combined with any other switch. The resultant plot file is a 18x19 grid of the colors built into NOVA. -R Rotate the image 90* clock-wise. The horizontal dimension of the screen image translates to the direction the paper travels on the plotter. The vertical dimension translates to the direction the pens travel on the plotter. The default is no rotation. The horizontal dimension of the screen image translates to the direction the pens travel on the plotter. The vertical dimension translates to the direction the paper travels on the plotter. **IMPORTANT: Rotations are not allowed when the -L switch is used for very large files. If the -L switch is used the -R switch will automatically be disabled. -A# This option adjusts the aspect ratio of each pixel in the resultant image. The image can be stretched int the x or y dimension. The default aspect ratio is (width/height)*100. For an image with dimensions 640x480 the aspect ratio is 133. In this case, an aspect ratio greater than 133 will stretch the width. While a value less than 133 will stretch the height. -A150 would stretch the image in the x making the dimensions 721x480 While -A110 would stretch the image in the y making the dimensions 640x580. example 721x480 : 721/480*100 = 150 (rounding is always down) 640x580 : 640/580*100 = 110 " " " The default aspect ratio is (width/height)*100. -H# This option adjusts the height of the image. The value must be greater than the existing height of the TARGA image. Scaling down the image is not allowed. The value used is relative to the TARGA image. If the -W# or -A# switches are not used, the aspect ratio remains (width/height) and the width will be adjust to match the aspect ratio. This option allows you to scale the output plot to an absolute dimension. If the TARGA image is 640x480 and -H1000 is used, the resultant image on the plot will be 1333x1000. Dithering will cause the image to be scaled by a factor of 2. The resultant image will be 2666x2000. -W# This option adjusts the width of the image. The value must be greater than the existing width of the TARGA image. Scaling down the image is not allowed. The value used is relative to the TARGA image. If the -H# or -A# switches are not used, the aspect ratio remains (width/height) and the height will be adjust to match the aspect ratio. This option allows you to scale the output plot to an absolute dimension. If the TARGA image is 640x480 and -W1000 is used, the resultant image on the plot will be 1000x750. Dithering will cause the image to be scaled by a factor of 2. The resultant image will be 2000x1500. -O# This option allows the image to be shifted away from the edge of the paper in the direction the pens move on the plotter. The value is in plotter pixels. If -O300 is used and the plotter is set to 300dpi then the image will be shifted 1 inch away from the plotters minimum x plot position. EXAMPLES: C:> NOVA -d -b -r lighthou NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TGA and output to file LIGHTHOU.NOV. Additional imformation about the TARGA will be displayed. The CMY to Black option will be disabled. The image will be rotated 90* clock-wise. C:> NOVA -m lighthou NOVA will output a gradient color map to file LIGHTHOU.NOV. Additional information about the TARGA will be displayed. The CMY to Black option will be disabled. The image will be rotated 90* clock-wise. C:> NOVA -d -l lighthou NOVA will look for the file LIGHTHOU.TGA and output to file LIGHTHOU.NOV. Additional imformation about the TARGA will be displayed. NOVA will use disk space instead of memory when processing the image.