Press F5 or double click on the title line to enlarge or restore the size of the help screen.
You may navigate through the help topics with
TAB
or SHIFT+TAB
and then press Enter
to pick a topic
Using the mouse simply click on an interesting keyword.
Press ESC to exit help.
The NOMSSI Viewer
This is a graphics file viewer, that reads pictures archived in files with different graphics file
formats and displays them using the available SuperVGA vide modes of your machine. i
Press F3 or click on the item 'F3 Load' in the status line to open the dialog box "Load an image file".
The files can be viewed one at a time or selected for a Slide
show with full user control. One can easily generate an array of reduced
images using high quality image reduction.
Once loaded, the images can undergo simple transformations and color editing, and then be dumped to a palette color file (TIFF, BMP or TGA).
The NOMSSI Viewer can be customized using the Options submenu. Open the Preferences dialog box (Ctrl+F9) or the display dialog box (F9). All default values and miscellaneous switches can be set and saved there. )
Choose a topic from the following list:
Load
image
Graphic
tools
SlideShow
Setup
Shortcuts
Image
files
informations
register
Index
Help Index
The NOMSSI Viewer on-line help topics.
O
Auto
[ OK ]
B Setup
Copying
Beep
BMP P
C Path
image
files
PCX
[ Cancel ]
Load
cancel R
Setup
Copying Raster
image
Center
Picture Range
error
Change
drive Registration
Continue
error Rename
Contrast
Control
panel S
Copy
Search
D Selecting
image
format
Scan
DOS
shell Scanning
Shortcuts
E Slideshow
SlideShow
Exit Slide
options
[
SlideShow
F [
Start
Sort
File SVGA
Read/Write
error System
Copy
to Save
Options
Copying
selected
files
Text
viewer
Commands T
Scale
TGA
G The
TIFF
GIF Toggle
video
graphic
tools ClearBuffer
graphic
resolution
Gray
* U
I Use
buffer
Uses
driver
IFF
ILBM/PBM
Inputline
image
name V
Invalid
error
View
J View
JFIF W
JFIF
color
reduction
Welcome
Helpsystem
L Window
Window
Close
Load
image
file Window
Close
] Window
Window
M Window
Size/Move
Window
Tile
Inputline image file name
Name
Enter directory path and/or file name. A file mask is allowed. A double click on the input line also complete the input.
The history list attached to this box saves whatever text you have typed in the input line. You can use it to re-enter previously entered text. E
Press Esc to exit from the history list without making a selection. `
Related information:
Load
image
graphic
tools
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The file list
Files
..\
FILENM04.GIF
NVDMP001.TIF
TOOLS\
FILENM05.PCX
NVDMP002.TIF
TEXTS\
FILENM06.PCX
NVDMP003.TIF
NVIEWER.TIF\
FILENM07.TGA
FILENM01.BMP
FILENM08.TGA
FILENM02.BMP
FILENM09.TIF
FILENM03.GIF
FILENM10.TIF
The list shows all files in the current directory which meet the file mask, and the sub directories. To force a re-read of the current directory (i.e. after changing the floppy from a floppy drive), enter a new file mask in the input
line or re-select
drive or change the file mask in filter.
A single file can be selected (highligthen) with the arrow keys, the Home/End keys, the Ctrl + PgUp/PgDn keys or using incremental search: type small letters for files and capital letters for directories. The cursor jumps to the next file matching your input. Backspace go back, '.' (period) jumps to the extension. To select a file with the mouse, move through the list with the horizontal scroll bar and click once on its name with the left button.
To select a list of files (usefull for Slideshow or file management operations like copy, move, delete), toggle tagging with the space bar or the right mouse button.
To complete the input: press Enter or use the Load-button (Alt
L) or double click on the fileinput
line or on a file name. This leads to a directory change if the selected file name was a directory. The previously visited sub-directory is then highlighten. `
Related information:
Load
image
graphic
tools
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Change drive
This list box shows all autodetected drives in your system. Use the arrow keys to focus a drive name and press the space bar or double click with the left mouse button to select a new drive. ~
Press Enter to select the focused drive and get back to the file list. The change will only be effective if no errors occur. G
Related information:
Load
image
The
system
Selecting an image file format mask
Filter
( ) *.TIF
( ) *.PCX
( ) *.GIF
( ) *.BMP
( ) *.TGA
( ) *.LBM
( ) *.JPG
( ) *.*
The selected item in this field is the default file mask used to read the current directory. The list corresponds to the normal file masks for the supported image file formats. You can overwrite this default by entering a new mask in the input
line. L
Press Enter to select the focused file mask and get back to the file list. I
Related information:
Load
image
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[ Options ]
Click on this button or use the F9 key to open the control panel and setup default values. [
Related information:
Control
panel
Load
image
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[ Load ]
Click on this button or press Enter to load and display the selected image file in the file
list. This leads to a directory switch only when the currently selected name is a directory. `
Related information:
Load
image
graphic
tools
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[ Cancel ]
Close the dialog box without making any changes. You may also use ESC. I
Related information:
Load
image
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Scan
Scan all files currently in the file list for image files. Get picture informations (Width, Height, Compression...) and display them in the file info panel. The file list contains only valid image files after the scan is done. n
Related information:
Auto
Load
image
graphic
tools
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[ SlideShow ]
This button opens a dialog box with Slideshow
options to let you adjust the parameters and start the slide
show. You must have tagged at least two files to have access to the button. &
Also use F8 or the shortcut Alt
Related topics:
Load
image
graphic
tools
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Load an image file
or SHIFT+TAB
selects the next or previous field within the dialog box, each field also has a specific shortcut.
This dialog box is a mix of command line and menu driven user interface. To load a file, either enter the file name in the fileinput
line or select a file from the file
list. Double click on the file name, the fileinput line or press return to start loading.
To tag a file, select it in the file list with the *right* mouse button or use the arrow keys to select and press the space bar. You may also use the gray +, - or * for group selection, deselection or to reverse tags.
F10 switch to the menu bar.
input
Files
Change
drive
Filter
Options
Load
Cancel
SlideShow
Scan
graphic
tools
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Mode
Select the standard video mode, which is used for graphics and slideshow display.
Be aware the option Mode
auto from Picture-field can alter this behaviour: when the option is checked, The NOMSSI Viewer automatically switchs to a screen resolution near the picture size.
A video mode is a unique combination of screen resolution and the number of colors that can be displayed simultaneously. The list of available graphics modes varies depending on the VGA chipset and the amount of video memory installed.
The current monitor may be unable to support some available graphics resolutions, use the DEL-key to disable a mode in the list. You will have to delete the NV.CFG file to have it enabled again. >
Related information:
Options
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Color depth
The color depth is the number of colors that can be displayed simultaneously. It is often given in bits per pixel. Each SuperVGA card has video mode with 8 bits per pixel, which amount to 256 colors. These colors can be selected from a wider palette of colors. The so-called HiColor modes have 15 or 16 bits per pixel. SuperVGA modes with 24 bits per pixel (16,777,216 unique colors) provide the best representation of a color image for human eyes, they are refered to as "TrueColor" modes.
Video modes with lower bits per pixel as the currently selected will also be considered and used for display when the Mode
auto option from the Picture-field is checked.
While displaying graphics files with a higher color depth as the actually selected video mode, some color informations (image quality) will be lost. The NOMSSI Viewer offers a palette of quantization
methods with different quality/speed ratios.
Contrast
The brigthness and contrast controls (graphic
tools) act like the brightness and contrast button on a television set. They allow to to adjust the colors while the image is on-screen. However, a better accuracy is needed while reproducing the colors of digitized pictures from other devices, especially pictures from image scanners.
The NOMSSI Viewer uses exponential curves, analytically described with the exponent "gamma", as device-dependent correction curves. H
( ) linear
Gamma = 1.0. No correction of the color intensity is performed. This works well with all computer-generated pictures and most of the others, which are already corrected for monitor output. H
( ) Monitor
Gamma = 2.2 is. lighten the mid-tones for monitor output. Press Alt+F9 while
viewing
image to select this gamma value. H
( ) user defined
This option enables the 'Gamma' input line. You can specify a gamma value between 0.1 and 7. Values under 1.0 darkens the image midtones, values over 1.0 lightens the midtones. Try a value near 1.8. >
Related information:
Options
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[X] Scale Down
Rescale large graphics down to fit the screen size. The height and width are set to the screen height and width, or the box height and width, in the case of an image array. C
[X] Aspect ratio
Aspect Ratio is used in combination with Scale Down. When Aspect Ratio is checked, The NOMSSI Viewer will compute a new width or height to conserve the aspect ratio if the distortion exceeds a certain tolerance. The treshold value is currently hard coded.
The NOMSSI Viewer will also enlarge an image to fit the screen size when Aspect Ratio is not checked. Normally the images are only reduced. >
Related information:
Options
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[X] Mode auto
When checked, The NOMSSI Viewer automatically selects a video mode to display each image, using the graphics mode with the lowest resolution and color depth from the list of supported
modes that will fully contains the picture.
When Mode auto is unchecked, the user-selected video mode (graphic resolution and color depth) will be used for all images. This video mode is always used to catalogue (image
arrays). >
Related information:
Options
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[X] Center
If checked, small pictures are positioned in the middle of the screen, otherwise the image start at the top left corner of the screen. 2
Exception: TIFF tiled images cannot be centered. >
Related information:
Options
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[ ] Tile
The picture is mirrored and used as pattern to form a grid. Small pictures (icons) will form a wallpaper background. >
Related information:
Options
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[ ] VESA driver
Normally, The NOMSSI Viewer autodetects the native VGA chipset in your machine and works with chipset-dependent code. Checking VESA driver forces the use of the Video Electronics Standards Association (V.E.S.A) recommended interface, which is chipset-independent and supported by different manufacturers. [
A SuperVGA video card can be made compatible to the VESA recommended extensions trough an external VESA "TSR" (Terminate and Stay Resident) program that provides extensions to the Video BIOS routine. You may already have a VESA TSR for your video card, check your drivers disk for it. Also check the universal VESA VBE at SimTel (see README.NV).
If your SuperVGA is configured to support VESA modes, then The NOMSSI Viewer will automatically detect the mode numbers that corresponds to available video modes. ?
Related information:
Options
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[ ] EMS
Enables the uses of expanded memory EMS. This is normally the fastest buffer medium. An EMS-driver (EMM386) muss have been installed in your system. When you check Use buffer, the image is first loaded into a buffer on EMS, XMS or disk and then displayed. The option will be ignored if you have no or not enough EMS/XMS/disk-memory (EMM386 or HIMEM.SYS not installed). I
Related information:
Buffer
Options
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[ ] XMS
Enables the uses of extended memory XMS. This buffer medium is noticeably slower than EMS. You will need to have HIMEM.SYS installed in your system to access XMS memory. I
Related information:
Buffer
Options
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[ ] Disk
Enables the uses of Disk space as virtual memory. This is normally the slowest buffer medium. The directories in your TEMP environment variable are used to allocate disk space. I
Related information:
Buffer
Options
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Buffer
The image is first loaded to a buffer when at least one buffer medium is checked, then displayed. An image can be buffered on more than one medium at a time (EMS, XMS and Disk). Every checked options enables the use of the corresponding buffer medium. The selection is ignored if you don't have enough EMS/XMS/disk-memory (EMM386 or HIMEM.SYS not installed).
Note that the allocated buffer space is not recovered if The NOMSSI Viewer terminates prematurely while loading an image. You will need to delete the temporary files on disk or restart the DOS session (reboot) to release the memory blocks in EMS or XMS owned by the buffer.
A buffer improves the slideshow quality, the next image can be loaded while the current image is displayed. It is a prerequisite to build image arrays. a
Related information:
EMS
XMS
Disk
Clear
Options
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[ ] Clear Buffer
A buffer is normally cleared (filled with zero) as soon as created. This is needed for multi-images files and also to test that there is really enough memory allocated, but it can take a while in the case of huge disk buffers. Disabling the initialization pass should speed up the loading process. I
Related information:
Buffer
Options
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[X] Confirmations
The NOMSSI Viewer will ask you to confirm before deleting files and prompt more information panels, P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Auto scan
[x] When Auto scan is on (checked), The NOMSSI Viewer automatically filters the files and get file informations whenever the current directory is changed. h
[ ] When the option is disabled (unchecked), you can perform file filtering using the [
]-button. P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Beep
When Beep is on (checked), a beep is generated as soon as the loading operation is terminated. P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[X] ScreenSaver
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Keep JPEG cache
If checked, the table used to decode JPEG files is not created again for each JPEG file, it is stored in memory (cache). Enable this option you have enough free HEAP space (from the menu bar). P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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TIFF, GIF and BMP files may have several images (pages) in them. GIF pages are shown in turn without pause, TIFF and BMP are displayed with a pause between the pages. >
Related information:
Options
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[X] Continue on error
Do not cancel viewing on some faulty image files. When checked [X], The NOMSSI Viewer will try to display at list a tile of the picture. P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Beep error
When Beep error is on (checked), an alarm tone is generated if an error occured during the loading operation. P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Monochrome
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Hardware paning
[x] Use very fast Hardware panning, with some limtations: the whole image has to fit into the video memory or it will be truncated; there are also some segment problems with some chipsets in standard VGA 320x200 256 colors mode.
[ ] use external buffer media (Memory, EMS, XMS, Disk) to reload image tiles. This can be slow, but there is no limits to the image size. P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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[ ] Hardware Cursor
Some chipset have an hardware cursor feature built-in. The NOMSSI Viewer uses it as pointer device when the option is checked. P
Related information:
Miscellaneous
Options
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Miscellaneous
Related information:
Beep
Auto
Continue
error
Options
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Path to the image files
This input line contains the standard directory, where The NOMSSI Viewer looks for image files at start. This default can be overwritten at start using a command line parameter, i.e.: H
C:\> NV.EXE . (forces the use of the current DOS directory)
The NOMSSI Viewer either writes files (saved images or catalog files) at this location or it uses the root of the start drive if no default directory is specified. ?
Related information:
Options
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[ OK ]
Press or click on the OK button to save your inputs. The NOMSSI Viewer checks and saves them in the NV.CFG file if they are valid and then closes the dialog box. Otherwise it selects the invalid fields in turn to let you correct them. You can nevertheless cancel the input. +
You may also use Enter or hotkey Alt
see also:
Options
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[ Cancel ]
Close the dialog box without any change. The NV.CFG file is not updated. ESC is the corresponding key, you can also use the
hotkey Alt
Related information:
Options
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Display options
Press F9 to open the control panel with the display options. You can also press Ctrl+F9 to open the Preferences-panel, allowing you to customize The NOMSSI Viewer.
Use hotkeys to execute an active Command. Use TAB
or SHIFT+TAB
to select (highlight) a field. The following fields are available: b
Image
Picture
Scale
Scale
Auto
switch
Center
Picture
Mosaic
Image editing
Contrast
Graphic
tools
Video mode
Resolution
Color
depth
Quantization
Color
reduction
methods
Miscellaneous
Beep
Auto
buffer
VESA
driver
Pages
Error
behavior
Buffer
Others
Save
Your default values will be saved in the NV.CFG file.
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Preferences
Use this dialog box to set the default sort method in the file
list. Files may be sorted alphanumerically, by size or by time. N
The values in this dialog box are first saved when you use the setup
window.
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Options|Save
This command saves the current settings to the configuration file NV.CFG, that is, all display settings and preferences. The configuration file is loaded automatically at startup from the NOMSSI Viewer-directory.
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File list sort
Sort by allows you to change the sequence files in the 'Load' dialog box
are displayed in. The files can be sorted using the following options
Name: Files are sorted alphanumerically
Time: Files are sorted by time, the newest files are
normally moved to the top of the list. Files with
identical time stamps are sorted alphnumerically
Size: Files are sorted by size, the largest files are
first inserted in the list.
The order is either ascending or descending, depending on the
Sort Direction
Normal : The files are sorted as mentioned above
Reverse: The ordering is reversed, i.e. tiny or old files
are now at the top of the list.
Directories are always inserted at the top of the list.
graphic mode tools
Help
Press F1 while the image is displayed to pop an help screen with file and graphic mode informations and a short description of the available commands. Any subsequent mouse or key event will quit the help.
Quit
Slideshow
Space bar Freeze slide (Mouse right button)
Enter Next slide (Mouse left button)
TAB Reverse slide ordering
ESC Exit slide show/view, Cancel loading
Single image
Press the right mouse button or ESC to exit. If you press Enter or click on the left mouse button, The NOMSSI Viewer will try to locate and display the next image in the file
list.
Panning
A picture larger than the current screen size can be scrolled horizontaly and verticaly over the screen limits with the cursor and the PgUp/PgDn keys (soft scroll). >
You can speed up the scrolling significantly by checking "[x] Hardware scroll" from the Preferences dialog box. The NOMSSI Viewer will use fast hardware scrolling, but large images could be truncated if they don't fit in the video memory. A work around would be to scale the image down to half or to the screen size.
Transform
Scale down to one half F3
Scale up to fit screen size F4
Flip vertically (up/down) F5
Flip horizontally (mirror) F6
Rotate counterclockwise 90
Shift+F6
Save current image to buffer F7
Restore image from buffer F8
Switch to higher graphic resolution (Zoom out) Gray+
Switch to lower graphic resolution (Zoom in) Gray-
Color Editing
Enhance the image quality by shifting and scaling the colors
in the image consistenly using the palette-editing tools
Brightness/Contrast control
The "Del" and "Ins" keys increase or decrease the
image brightness over a greater range than the television
brightness and contrast buttons. You can create false color
pictures or negatives.
Increase or decrease the active contrast value with
the "Home" and "End" keys.
Gamma correction
With Alt+F9 you can set the gamma to the active
monitor value (standard 2.2 or user-defined value).
Standard palette
Some images are saved without a valid color palette, assuming
a standard palette used by the application.
F9 Convert the colors in the current palette to
gray-scale.
Shift+F9 Set the first 16 colors in the current palette to the
standard EGA palette.
Crtl+F9 Set the standard palette for uniform quantization,
that is 3 bits for red and green and 2 bits for
blue in the palette index (3-3-2).
Color Cycling
Gray *,
Rotate all used palette colors (up to 256) one step.
This is best used on palette images with monotonous
color values (i.e. fractals)
Undo
Restore the original palette with F10
Save to disk
Use the F2 key to save the current image with your editing to disk in TIFF, TGA, BMP or GIF format. =
The default filename for the first image saved after starting The NOMSSI Viewer is NVDMP001.GIF; subsequent saves in the same session are automatically incremented 002, 003... The file is a color palette image with up to 256 unique colors (not always equally good as the original, since The NOMSSI Viewer uses fixed parameters to create it). Use the Prefix field in slideshow/options to change the name and select the file format using the Save
as-field in preferences. Files left over from previous sessions are not overwritten - the first unused NVDMPnnn name is used.
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Slide show options
Time in Seconds
Enter delay time in seconds (0 up to 99s) to specify how long a single image from the sequence of tagged files will be displayed, although you can influence the pause for the current image. T
[X] Cycle Slideshow
Decide whether the sequence will be repeated or if it should break after a cycle. You can stop the running Slide
Show with ESC. T
[ ] Superpose pictures
[X] When Superpose pictures is checked, the current image will not be cleared prior crossing to the next image. However, this will only work if no graphic mode switch is necessary. }
[ ] When Superpose pictures is unchecked, the screen will always be cleared between images or screenfull or reduced images. T
[X] Reset tagged files
The list of tagged files will be cleared after the slide show. T
[ ] Disable beep
Related information:
Catalog
options
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Cataloging
[ ] Arrange to an array
The screen is divided in nxm parts, each picture is scaled to fit in this tile, so you may have nxm images on the screen at the same time. Press F4 to zoom the current image.
This process is detrimental to picture quality. The NOMSSI Viewer uses dithering and antialiasing to preserve as much of the picture quality as possible. Z
[ ] Save completed array
When you check Save completed array, each completed arranged array screen is automatically saved to disk, that is, each screenfull of reduced image and the last page, which may not be full. In this case the slideshow is interrupted after the last slide, regardless of whether Cycle
Slideshow is checked or not. Z
[ ] All open windows
The slide show will run over all open "Load an image file" dialog boxes. This is a kind of batch processing, that may be used to catalog a whole disk at a time. Q
[X] Catalog with frame
Related information:
Slide
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Array size
When the option Arrange
array is checked, The NOMSSI Viewer uses the value in this field to compute the size and position of each image in the array of reduced images.
Some examples:
2x2 1x2
3x1 3x5
Related information:
Slide
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file name prefix
Enter the five first characters of the filenames, which will be used while writing the image to a graphics file. The last three characters are always a number xxx with x between 0 and 9. The extension is the standard extension for the used file format (.BMP, .GIF, .TGA, .TIF). By default, The NOMSSI Viewer writes files with the name NVDMP000.TIF, NVDMP001.TIF, NVDMP002.TIF etc. P
Related information:
Cataloging
Slide
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[ Start ]
Your input is examined and the slide show is initiated if it is validated. Otherwise the first invalid field is focused to let you correct or cancel your input.
[ Cancel ]
Cancel or ESC or Alt
C to break off your action, you go back to the dialog box Load
image
file. @
Related information:
SlideShow
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SlideShow
The NOMSSI Viewer can run a slide show. First select several image files in the file
list. The image files will be displayed one after the other with a given delay, exactly in the order of selection.
Press F8 or click the "Slideshow" button. The delay between two images can be set from 0 up to 99s, a cycle can be repeated, other slide show options can be changed.
While the slide show is running, you may click on the mouse right button or press the space bar to hold on an image (freeze the slideshow) and later click on the mouse left button or press enter to go on. Use ESC to quit a running slide show. A
The graphic mode tools are also available during the slideshow. 7
Array of reduced images
To generate an array of reduced images, check Arrange to an array in the catalog
options. The array size can be customized.
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Bitmaps are used under Windows 3.x and OS/2 to store bi-level, palette color and full color images (1, 4, 8 and 24 bits/pixel).
The NOMSSI Viewer can load both uncompressed and compressed bitmap files (BMP/RLE). OS/2 2.x bitmaps may include several pictures, which are shown in turn. ^
The NOMSSI Viewer writes uncompressed palette color Windows 3.x BMP files with 8 bits/pixel. /
Image
formats
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"The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of
CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of
CompuServe Incorporated."
GIF files may include several pictures with up to 256 colors/pixel. The GIF89a specification allows GIF files to store text and commands for animations. e
The NOMSSI Viewer ignores the GIF89a extensions like comments and pauses. It only display graphics.
WARNING: The NOMSSI Viewer writes GIF89a graphics file with a local color map. Older release (prior 1.2c) are unable to handle these (valid) image files. /
Image
formats
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Truevision TGA file format is mostly used to store True Color images. m
The NOMSSI Viewer can handle TGA file types 1,2,3, 9,10 and 11 (uncompressed and run-length encoded files).
The NOMSSI Viewer writes color-mapped (type 1) TGA files with 32 bits/color map entry and 8 bits/pixel. The pixel data ordering is left-to-right and bottom-to-top (incorrectly stated in rev 1.20). /
Image
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TIFF
TIFF is a tag based, rich file format for storing and interchanging raster images. It enables storing bi-level, grayscale, palette-color and full color image data in several color spaces.
The NOMSSI Viewer is (should be) a Baseline TIFF 6.0 reader which supports several TIFF 6.0 Extensions (CCITT 1D and LZW Compression, TIFF Tiles, planar and packed images, YCbCr color space). 4
The NOMSSI Viewer writes palette color TIFF files. +
TIFF is a trademark of Aldus Corporation. /
Image
formats
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The PCX image file format is in widespread use on the PC. The NOMSSI Viewer can handle PCX-files with 1...8 and 24 bits/pixel. Some 256 color PCX are written without color informations, The NOMSSI Viewer uses a grayscale map. Pictures with 2 or 4 colors are displayed using the CGA color map. SHIFT+F9 switchs to the standard EGA color map. /
Image
formats
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IFF is a file format for storing and interchanging data (text, images, music,...). It is in widespread use on the Amiga. IFF stores data in FORMs. The NOMSSI Viewer can handle IFF ILBM (Interleaved Bitmap) with 1...8 and 24 bits/pixel and PBM (Packed Bitmap) forms, which contains image data, offering support for run-length and HAM encoding. /
Image
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JFIF
The Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) has created an international standard for digital compression of continuous-tone still images. The widely used baseline JPEG is a lossy process, that gives up some image quality to achieve very high compression ratios.
JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) is a minimal file format which enables JPEG bitstreams to be exchanged between a wide variety of platforms and applications. It is entirely compatible with the standard JPEG interchange format. Q
The NOMSSI Viewer only supports JFIF on PCs with a 80386SX processor or better. 2
Image
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Execute program
Shell to DOS and execute a programm using the command line with all parameters given here. You must always specify complete file names with drive and path.
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[ OK ]
Press Enter or click on the OK button or use Alt+K to confirm and execute the command line
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[ Cancel ]
With this button you close the dialog box and cancel executing. "
You can also use ESC or Alt + C. 7
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Shortcuts
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SuperVGA
SuperVGA or SVGA terms a graphics card standard for PCs, that electronically take control of the screen output in graphic modes with a resolution of at least 640x480 pixels with 256 simultaneous colors.
A SuperVGA card converts the digital color values in analog voltage to control analog monitors using a digital-analog-converter (DAC). A normal DAC includes 256 registers, each subdivided in three groups of 6 bits (for the colors red, gree, blue), thus there are max. 64 gradations for each priming and altogether possible 262144 colors. However only 256 colors can be displayed at a time (HiColor and TrueColor DACs allow more colors).
The NOMSSI Viewer supports the 256 colors, HiColor and TrueColor modes for a variety of SuperVGA cards, using the VGADOC package (c) 1994 by Finn Thogersen. .
Raster
image
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Raster image data
Bi-level images contains two colors - black and white. Grayscale images store shades of gray for each pixel and have one component per pixel. Color pictures are usualy described using the RGB model. Each pixel is made up of three components (red, green and blue). In the RGB full color case, each component is 8 bit deep. Palette-color images still have one component per image, but the component value is used as an index into a full RGB-lookup table. -
Image file formats
The NOMSSI Viewer 1.3 supports the following raster image file formats (
TIFF Aldus tag-based Image File Format
PCX ZSoft PC Paintbrush Format
GIF Compuserve Inc. Graphics Interchange Format
BMP Windows and OS/2 2.x Bitmap
TGA Truevision TGA File Format
IFF IFF Interlaced Bitmap/Packed Bitmap
JFIF JPEG File Interchange Format
Once loaded, the images can saved as palette color images with up to 256 colors using the BMP, GIF, TGA or TIFF file format. J
Related information:
graphic
tools
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Range error !
You have tried to input a numerical value out of the allowed bounds. Correct the value or cancel the operation.
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Invalid char error !
You have used an invalid char while entering a numerical value. Correct or cancel the input.
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Keyboard commands
general
Alt + Key Select an active Option. Press left Alt-key *together*
with the lit letter.
(i.e. Alt + S for "SlideShow", Alt + A for "Scan",
Alt + N for "Name").
ESC Cancel the current operation.
Enter Confirm a vaild input/selection
TAB Select (highlight) the next field in a dialog box.
Alt+F3 Close window
Help: F1 Open Helpwindow
F5 Zoom/restore size of the active helpwindow
Ctrl+F5 Change the size and/or position of the active window
File: F3 Open dialog box "Load an image file" X
Space bar Select (tag/reverse tag) file. Needed for slide show or
for group copy
Gray + Tag all files
Gray - Clear all tags
Gray x or * Reverse all tags
F10 Go to the menubar
F7 Copy file(s)
Alt+F7 Search for image files
F8 Slide show
Options: F9 Open dialog box "Options"
Tools
Palette editing
Ins Brightness +, lightens the image
Del Brightness -, darkens the image
Home Contrast +
End Contrast -
Gray * or x Cycle colors
Gray
or / Cycle colors backward
Shift+F9 EGA Palette
Crtl+F9 TrueColor Quantization Palette
F9 Gray scale
Alt+F9 Correct palette for monitor output
F10 Restore original palette
Viewer
PgUp/PgDn Scroll up/down (smooth)
Direction keys Scroll (fast)
Gray + Increase the current mode (higher resolution)
Gray - Decrease the current mode
Transform
F3 Scale down (half) (Buffer needed)
F4 Scale to fit screen size (Buffer needed)
F5 Flip vertically (up/down)
F6 Flip horizontally (left/right)
Shift+F6 Rotate
F7 Write image to buffer
F8 Restore image from buffer
Save
F2 Save image (as TIFF- or BMP-file)
Slide show: F8
Space bar Freeze image, stop (Mouse right button)
Enter Continue, next image (Mouse left button)
TAB Reverse image ordering
ESC Cancel slide show, end
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Gray +, Gray -, Gray *
The keys +,- and * on the keypad simplify the selection of files for slide show or file operations. h
Use + to mark the complete files list box or - to cancel any previous selection in the files list box.
Use * to reverse the current selection of files, the list of marked files is released while the previously not selected files are marked. 7
Related topics
Hotkeys
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Copy file
This menu item opens the "Copy" dialog box, you can enter the target directory and select between group or single file copying. ]
Copying can only be performed while a valid file name is focused within the files
box. >
WARNING: The copy routine will NOT clean up files on error.
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Move file
This menu item opens the dialog box "Move". You can move files to another drive or directory.
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Rename file
This menu item opens the dialog box "Rename". You can only rename one file at a time.
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Erase file
This menu item opens the dialog box "Delete", where you can specify the files to delete.
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Associate
This menu item opens the dialog box "Associate", allowing you to set a link between some data files and a appropriate application.
Trying to load an "associated" data file (i.e. a text file or a sound file) will automatically start the appropriate application to process the data (edit the text file or play back the sample).
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View as Text
This menu item opens a text file viewer for the current file. It is only enabled while a file name is focused in the files
box. ;
The whole file is loaded into memory prior to displaying.
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View as Hex
This menu item opens a Hex-dump viewer for the current file. Only the first 64 kB can be displayed. The menu item is only enabled while a file name is focused in the files
box.
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Commands
Left
Ctrl-S or Cursor left
Right
Ctrl-D or Cursor right
First char
Ctrl-A or Home or Ctrl+Cursor left
Last char
Ctrl-F or End or Ctrl+Cursor right
Line up
Ctrl-E or Cursor up
Line down
Ctrl-X or Cursor down
Page up
Ctrl-R or PgUp
Page down
Ctrl-C or PdDn
First Page
Ctrl-PgUp
Last Page
Ctrl-PdDn
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Search for file
This menu item opens the dialog box "Search", you can set a file mask to match and enter the start directory. The directory tree is recursively scaned, all images files are shown. M
You can switch to another window and load images while the task is running.
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File Read/Write error
You may cancel or retry the operation, depending on the error cause.
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Copy to
Enter the target directory. You must enter a valid path here or no copying will occur.
Actually, The NOMSSI Viewer assumes the path is refering to a directory located on the start up drive. That may be wrong, so you could have to expressly specify a drive in the path to have it validated.
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Copying selected files
( ) current file
Select this item to copy only the curently focused file (highlighten) to the target
directory. K
( ) selected files
Select this item to copy all tagged items in turn to the target directory. The selection remains intact.
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[ OK ]
Press Enter or click on the OK button or use Alt+K to confirm and start copying. a
Shall the path be invalid, the dialog box will not close until you correct or cancel the input.
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[ Cancel ]
With this button you close the dialog box and cancel copying. "
You can also use ESC or Alt + C. 4
See also
Shortcuts
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Toggle video mode
Choose which type of screen display the NOMSSI Viewer will use. You can select a display of 25 lines by 80 columns or a display of 50 lines by 80 columns. 4
See also
Shortcuts
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Exit (Alt+X)
This command exits The NOMSSI Viewer. 4
See also
Shortcuts
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DOS shell
With this command you temporarily exit The NOMSSI Viewer to DOS. Type EXIT and then press Enter to return. 5
See also
Hotkeys
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Scanning
All files in the current directory are being scanned, searching for valid image files. Just wait a moment or press ESC to break.
File
Press Enter to list the menu items. &
See also
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This list shows the currently defined associations. The data files are recognized by the file name extension, like .VOC, .WAV or .MOD for sound files. The associated applications are defined using a command line.
Extension Command line
.TXT COMMAND.COM /C TYPE
.MPG C:\GO32.EXE D:\IMAGES\VIDEO\VMPEG
.MOD D:\MISCELL\MUSIC\PLAY.EXE
The NOMSSI Viewer will use the user-defined command line to start the application, handing the data file name over as the last command line parameter. The complete path and other extra parameters should be given. &
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Enter the specific data file extension. C
Related information:
Associations
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Edit the command line, give the complete path and file name of the linked application. C
Related information:
Associations
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When Checked [X], The NOMSSI Viewer will prompt for further parameters to be passed to to associated application at run-time. C
Related information:
Associations
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[ Add ]
Add a new file association. C
Related information:
Associations
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[ Edit ]
Edit an existing association. C
Related information:
Associations
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[ Delete ]
Delete the highlighten association. C
Related information:
Associations
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[ OK ]
Close the dialog box. The changes are first saved after the setup dialog is entered. C
Related information:
Associations
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[ Cancel ]
Close the dialog box without making any changes. You may also use ESC. D
Related information:
Associations
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Window
The menu item "New" opens a new "Load an image file"-window on the current drive and path, and makes it active.
Several windows may be open at a time, each one displaying a different drive and/or directory. The display is updated after files operations like copying, renaming, etc. W
Selecting the 50 lines mode gives a better overview if you open more than one window. *
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Screen
Window
Close All
Close all windows on the desktop /
To close a single window select Window
Close.
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Window
Size/Move (Strg+F5)
Adjust the size or position of the active window.
Size
To change the size, keep the Shift-key down and use the arrow keys. Press return when you are done. Y
Some windows have a corner-field, that can be used to change their size with the mouse.
Move
Change the position of the active window by pressing the arrow keys. Press return when you are done. 4
Alternatively, drag the title bar using the mouse.
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Window
Zoom (F5)
Enlarge or restore the size of the active window. r
You can also double click on the window title bar, or use the zoom symbol in the upper right edge of the window.
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Window
Use this command or F6 to make the next window active and put it in the foreground.
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Window
Close (Alt+F3)
Close the active window. y
You can also use the close symbol in the upper left edge of the window. Use Window
Close All to close all open windows.
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The list shows all available drives in your system, with network names.
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The directory viewer for displays the whole directory tree of a drive as a graph with nodes and levels. One can easily navigate trough the subdirectories with Enter or by using the * (recursively expand), + (expand) and - (collapse).
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The file viewer shows all files in the active directory with size, date/time, attribute. Incremental search can be performed to locate a file name. A group of files can be selected for copy/delete and slideshow operations.
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Color reduction
The NOMSSI Viewer actually offers six quantization methods to display TrueColor images in 256 color modes. 2
Grayscale
This is the fastest method to display JPEG images. The luminance
information is used to control the grayshade.
Pattern dithering
Dithering is the use of more than one pixel to represent a color value,
giving up some spatial resolution. It is fairly fast and produces
quite good looking color images in video modes with higher resolution.
Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion method
The error made on the current pixel after dithering is distributed over
its neighbors. An image with enhanced quality is obtained, but both time
and memory usage grow quickly with the image size. The viewer may be
unable to display some large JFIF-files.
Median-Cut
This method builds and uses a 3D-histogram to divise the RGB-color
space in subboxes, allowing to select accurately 256 unique colors
as the best representative for a given image.
The Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion method is then used in the second
pass while mapping RGB colors to palette colors, producing high
quality images.
The 3D-histogram requires quite a lot of memory, and since the image
data have to be read twice, the method is also slower than one-pass
methods.
Oct-tree
This method uses oct-trees to recursively divise the RGB-space,
using normally less memory than a 3D-histogram.
Kohonen Neural-network
This method can compute the optimal palette for a given image with
the best accuracy and the least memory usage of all, but the long
"learning phase" is a serious drawback in this implementation.
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Window (Alt+W)
Open, arrange and close windows #
Window Commands
New
Close
Size/Position
Zoom
Next
Close
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Registration form
Please send me the latest release of
The NOMSSI Viewer 1.3, a graphics file viewer for SuperVGA
(.txt)