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*** Sandd's VGA Show v1.2 - (c) March 1993 *** Sandd Software PO Box 3587 Reston, Virginia 22090 Voice (703) 444-9579 Fax (703) 444-2247 This is a SHAREWARE program. _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Graphics Viewer and dithering Copyright 1993, Sandd Software Written by Mark Wyatt Registration: $40.00 + $4.00 Shipping TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0 What is VShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Program Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 SETTING UP VShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.0 VGA Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Distribution Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Installing VShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Running VShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 PICTURE VIEWING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.0 Selecting a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Full Screen viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Loading a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 PICTURE EDITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.0 Selecting a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Edit options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Cutting an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Saving pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 PICTURE DITHERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0 Selecting a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Dithering a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 About Dithered files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 PICTURE PRINTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0 Selecting a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Printing a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Printing options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 MISCELLANEOUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.0 Exiting the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Desk-top Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Printers & Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 File formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6 What's New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7 1) Introduction - What is VSHOW (Sandd's VGA Show) VShow is a program that runs in graphics mode and has two main functions. The first is to view images on your screen the second is to dither color pictures. Print great dithered images in portrait or landscape. Dither your pictures so they can be printed. Edit pictures with tools such as Cut, Colors, Brightness and more. Scroll through the picture and change resolution in full screen view. Create images in black & white for import into most Desktop Publishing programs. Simple mouse or keyboard interface. Vshow displays pictures in SuperVGA mode with VESA support for the higher resolutions, 1024x768. Scroll through the picture and change resolution in full screen view. 1.2 Program Support Sandd Software has been in business since 1989. We have a FAX machine that is available 24 hours a day. Voice support is available on Monday and Saturday 8-6 EST OR Tuesday through Friday 5-9 EST. To contact us through Email use the Prodigy or Compuserve network. CIS: 71674,3116 Prodigy: SVBH07A 1.3 System Requirements The following listing is the minimum hardware required. A hard disk is not needed but is recommended. This program will work on IBM compatible machines with VGA graphics (256K video memory). To view pictures in SuperVGA modes a SuperVGA system, with VESA must be available on your system. Minimum system components: Monitor - VGA Printer - HP Laserjet II or Deskjet printers Memory - 640K DOS - 3.x Disk - Hard disk Optional - VESA driver present for SuperVga image display 2) Setting up VShow The setup screen has the following functions. a) Retrace check b) Printer type c) Work drive The retrace check should be set to off unless you notice a retrace problem. Printer choices are Deskjet type printers or Laser type printers. The work drive option is the drive location where temporary files can be stored. If a ram drive is available on your system, set the work drive to the drive letter of your ram disk, this will speed the program operations. About 1 meg of free space is usually plenty. 2.1 VGA modes If a VESA driver is detected then the program will automatically detect the proper graphic mode and other SuperVGA modes that are available. Depending on your system and VESA driver VSHOW will be able to display up to 1024x768x256 colors. If VESA was not detected the program will run in regular VGA mode. VESA is a standard way of changing modes in VGA. This standard enables any system to work with any software supporting VESA. Many systems have VESA located on the video card, other systems load a VESA driver by running VESA.COM. If VESA is not found then a VESA program needs to be run before VSHOW will work in SuperVGA modes. Your VESA program should be on a disk that came with the video card, some drivers are called VVESA.COM. To load the driver locate the file and run it. Many people load the VESA driver when the system starts so it is available to all programs. If there is a problem running the program try again with a /VGA after the file name. Start the program VSHOW /VGA then VShow will run in it's lowest possible resolution. If there is a problem running the program under Microsoft Windows (c) then use standard mode. In regular VGA mode the program will show pictures at 320x200x16 colors in the scaled window and 320x200x256 full screen. 2.2 Distribution Files The VShow program disk has all the files needed to run the program. There are a few sample picture files. The program file, VSHOW.EXE is the main file, this is the one you will run. Other files include the *.GFT font files and documentation files. The font files must be present in the same directory as the program for Vshow to run. 2.3 Installing Sandd's VShow Copy all the files from the program disk to your hard disk. To run the program from any directory add to your path statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Another way to start the program is to create a batch file that calls VSHOW.EXE from the proper directory. To install the program from A:\ to C:\ use the following commands. * Change directory to the root directory: C: CD\ * Create a sub-directory on your hard disk: MD \VSHOW * Change to the sub-directory just created CD \VSHOW * Copy the program disk to your hard disk: COPY A:\*.* * Run the program VSHOW * = comment; See your DOS manual for further instructions. 2.4 Running VShow When the program starts it looks to see if any PCX or GIF files are available. If one or more graphic files are found then the program displays the modes available and the mode the program will run in. The main screen shows a list of files available. Use the arrow keys to move through the list of choices. The files are displayed in alphabetical order. To move quickly to a certain file press the first letter of that file, or click on the letter menu. The program will move to the first entry that begins with the letter you selected. For example: Using the letter "H" will find the picture whose first letter begins with "H". To view a picture press <Enter> or double click with the mouse on the picture name. To choose a menu item press the left arrow or <Esc> key to highlight the menus. Use the arrow keys or mouse to select from the following menu items. 3) PICTURE VIEWING To view a picture press <Enter> or click on the file name. The picture is loaded and then displayed on the screen. Images can be viewed full screen by pressing <Spacebar> or clicking on the image on the screen. 3.1 Selecting a picture Find the picture name by scrolling through the picture names on the right of the screen. Change selections by using the up and down arrow keys. Press <Enter> to load the picture, press <Enter> again to view the image full screen. If you select a mono image then the program will load the image and display it in a grey-scale mode. After an image is loaded the program will display the amount of free memory and disk space on your system. To move a page at a time use the <PgUp> / <PgDn> keys or click the left button on the up/down arrow icons. Also the file listing can be selected with "A-Z" keys, or click on the alphabet display. 3.2 Full Screen viewing To view the picture in full screen mode press the <F7 thru F10> key. If the image is shown in the small window and you press <Enter> or click on the picture then the picture will be shown full screen. If the image can be scrolled then use the up/down/left/right arrow keys to move the picture on your screen. To change the how much the picture moves use the <+> plus and <-> minus keys while viewing the picture in full screen mode. If your using the mouse then click the left button on the place you wish to move to. The point where the mouse was clicked will become the center of the image. To return to the main menu screen press <Enter> or <Esc> or click the right mouse button. To view the image at a different resolution use the <F7>-<F10> keys. These function keys work in full screen mode. For each mode the program can display the corresponding function key will be displayed on the screen. To use the mouse click on one of the modes shown from the main screen. The following modes are available if your computer can use them. F7 = 320x200 mode F8 = 640x480 mode F9 = 800x600 mode F10= 1024x768 mode 3.3 Loading a picture When a picture is to be loaded the program reads the header information from the picture and determines the image size, resolution, colors etc.. Next the image is scaled with an aspect ratio to fit into a 320x200 window on the screen. If the palette needs adjustment then the program will compensate for the different palette and show the corrected palette. 4) PICTURE EDITING Some images need to be adjusted to bring out certain features or to tone down others. By adding a touch of brightness and then cutting the image to just what you want to see, you can put the professional touches on your pictures. To convert the image type, load the picture and then save the new file with a different extension. 4.1 Selecting a picture Highlight the picture you want to edit and press <Enter> to load the picture. The picture can be color or mono. Mono pictures can only be cut and saved, color pictures have all edit features available. After you have selected a picture move to the edit menu and press <Enter> or select EDIT with the mouse. 4.2 Edit options To change any option highlight the option with the up or down arrow key, then use the right or left arrow key to change the value. The Brightness,Red,Green,Blue and file name can be changed with the <Pgup> and <PgDn> keys. If your using a mouse select the option you want and click on the arrow icons with the right or left buttons. Edit options: A) Brightness - Adjust from -63 to +63 levels of brightness B) Red - Add or subtract red from the picture (-63 to +63) C) Green - Add or subtract green from the picture (-63 to +63) D) Blue - Add or subtract blue from the picture (-63 to +63) E) Gray - Greyscale the image to 256 shades of gray F) Full Screen - View the image with any changes made in full screen G) Cut - Cut the picture to a new size H) Save - Save the picture to disk as a GIF or PCX file 4.3 Cutting an image To cut out a picture select "CUT" from the menu and press <Enter>. To start cutting select the beginning position with the left button or <Enter>. Move the mouse or use the arrow keys to change the cut area show by the white cut box on the screen. To begin cutting press the right button or <Spacebar>. To select again press the left button or <Enter> and move the cut area with mouse movement or the arrow keys. The program will not cut until the right button or <Spacebar> is pressed. Press <Esc> to abort cutting. On the bottom of the screen there will be displayed three coordinates that show information about the size and location of the cut box. The first and second coordinates represent the upper left and lower right position of the box shown on the screen. The last number is the size of the cut picture. Once a picture is cut the new picture is loaded and all editing options are reset. The picture can be changed or cut again. To save the cut picture select "SAVE" from the "EDIT" menu. 4.4 Saving pictures Pictures can be saved in PCX or GIF file format. Select the format with the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys or click the right button on the arrow icon. To change the name of the picture use the right and left arrow keys or click the left button on the up or down arrow icon. The picture name starts with "D1-" thru "D9-" with the first letters of the original picture name. 5) PICTURE DITHERING To create a dithered image load a color picture. Next dither the image to your specifications, and finally note the finished file name. Dithered images are saved to disk after they are created. Press <Esc> during the dithering process to abort the dither. Dithering can take a few minutes to complete depending on the size of the original picture and the size of the dithered file. 5.1 Selecting a picture Highlight the picture you want to dither and press <Enter> to load the picture. This picture should be a color image you wish to make into a printable image. After you have selected a picture move to the dither menu and press <Enter> or select Dither with the mouse. See the text below for all the dithering options. 5.2 Dithering a picture The dithering menu has a few choices that effect how the picture will be dithered. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the different choices available, to change a choice press the right or left arrow key when the choice you want to change is highlit. Just as the arrow keys change values the <PgUp> or <PgDn> keys change the values also. In the case of Scale and Brightness <PgUp> and <PgDn> increment and decrement by 10's. <PgUp> and <PgDn> on the file name switch between PCX and GIF file formats. If your using the mouse then click the left button on the item to be changed, it will be highlit. Next click on the up or down arrow icon on the right of the menu. To increment by 10's or change the file format use the right button. At the bottom of the dither window notice the file name and picture size. These values show what the new file will be named and the size (in dots per inch) of the new dithered image file. The printer will print at 300 dots per inch so one inch equals 300 dots. For example to print a 320x200 color picture in a four inch square create a dithered image at a resolution of 1200x1200 dots. A) Size - Enlarge the image up to 8 times as big. Each increment will double the mono image size. B) Brightness - +63 to -63 units of brightness. For rough draft printing you may save ink by adding an extra 10 units. C) Scale X- Scale the image width from 1 - 999 percent D) Scale Y- Scale the image height from 1 - 999 percent Both scaling options will shrink the picture in the 1-99 range and enlarge the picture in the 101 to 999 range. E) File - Dithered output file name, select file name and extension. F) Type - Dither methods include automatic, mode 1 and mode 2. Mode 1 is best if the size is 5 or less. Mode 2 works best on sizes 6-8 and has a sharper grain. Automatic will select the best mode available for the image. G) Quit - Exit the dither menu H) Begin - Start dithering, convert the color picture to a mono image. A status bar charts the dithering process, press <Esc> to abort the dither at any time. Size and scale are related to each other. If one or the other is adjusted then the image size will be effected. A scale setting of 100 sets a 1 to 1 relationship for scaling, basically the image will be dithered at 100%. Raising and lowering the scale is a good way to exactly adjust the dithered image size. Each time you add to the size the picture the image is doubled and more grey-scaling is evident in the dithered image. If you want to print a picture of a person, since flesh tones are the most difficult to reproduce, add to the size as much as needed and finally cut from the Scale. For the most detail use a scale of 100%. 5.3 About Dithered files Dithered images are color images that undergo a conversion process that converts the image into a black and white image. The dithered file is now ready to print on a Laser or Deskjet printer. To print a color or black and white picture on a laser printer the image must be converted to only black and white. VShow saves all dithered images to disk. The name of the new dithered image is derived from the name of the original file name with a "D1-D9" added to the beginning of the file name. For example a color file with the name TABLE.PCX would be dithered and saved as a new file named D1-TABLE.PCX. You can change the file name by selecting from a prefix of "D1" to "D9", or change the file type to GIF format. 6. PICTURE PRINTING To print a picture select a dithered image, next select the PRINT menu and set the printing options as necessary. While the picture prints a status bar shows it's progress. To abort printing press the <Esc> key. 6.1 Selecting a picture Select a dithered image from the list of files and press <Enter> or click with the left mouse button to load the picture. Loading will take some time since the image is being reverse grey-scaled to show a better representation of the dithered print. You don't have to wait for the picture to display in the window. Once the picture begins to display press <Enter> to cancel the display in the small window. Now the picture is loaded and ready for printing. Select the print menu and press <Enter> to print a dithered picture. 6.2 Printing a picture While the picture is printing a status bar will show it's progress. If a printer error occurs then the program will ask if you wish to continue or abort. Try to fix the printer error and retry printing. At sometime the printer may run out of memory, this is not a problem from a hardware standpoint, simply reset your printer. Usually the printer will print out as much as it could load to memory. 6.3 Printing options Use the up and down arrow keys to select the different options. Press <Enter> to change an item. The highlit option will change by using the right and left arrow keys or click on the arrow icon. A different way to change the values of an item is the <PgUp>/<PgDn> keys or click the right button on the arrow icon. A) X Pos - Set from 0-9999 or centered This setting is the horizontal location of the upper left corner of the picture. X pos is measured in Dots per inch, so 300 is one inch. The centering setting will place the picture in the middle of the X-axis. B) Y Pos - Set from 0-9999 or centered This setting is the vertical location of the upper left corner of the picture. Y pos is measured in Dots per inch, so 300 is one inch. The centering setting will place the picture in the middle of the Y-axis. C) Mode - Select Portrait or Landscape Portrait mode is horizontal and Landscape mode is vertical. D) Printer Port - LPT1 / LPT2 or PRN (Use PRN if print is redirected or you experience problems printing, this setting will use DOS error checking. It is best to simply select LPT1 or LPT2 for your printer. E) Eject Page - YES / NO If set to YES the program will form feed when the picture is finished printing. If this is set to NO then you will need to take the printer off-line and press the form feed key. Set this to NO to print the image to the printers memory and not print yet. You could quit the program then run another program and print the other part of the document. Note: If you print in Landscape or Portrait mode and want to continue with another program make sure your document is in the same mode. F) Negative - Reverse the black and white in the image. If the image is predominantly black and this is set to on then you will save ink and could get an image that is easier to view. This is especially useful with pictures of stars and galaxies. G) Quit - Exit the print menu H) Print Picture - Begin printing the picture to your Laser printer. A status bar indicates how much of the image has been loaded to your printer. To abort printing press <Esc>. 7 MISCELLANEOUS 7.1 Exiting the program To exit VShow select Exit menu and press <Enter>. If you dithered any images they can be found by looking for any files beginning with "D1-" through "D-9" and continuing with the rest of the original file name. If the program did not run try running again with /VGA after the file name, such as VSHOW /VGA this will force the program into it's lowest resolution mode. 7.2 Desktop Hints VShow can be of great assistance to anyone who creates flier's, memo's, brochures, letterhead and they say "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words". There are a few ways to use the program to this end. One is to print the picture then re-load the paper into your printer and print again using other software. If you are lucky enough to own a full desktop publishing package then it's usually best to load a previously dithered image into your document and print it from there. 7.3 Files The file list shown in the program is a listing of picture files in PCX or GIF format. The files displayed are in the directory where you ran the program from. For example if you started the program from a directory called C:\VSHOW then the file list would show files from this directory. If you wanted to run the program from another directory you would change to your picture directory and type the directory where the program is located and the program name. Here is an example: If the program is located in the C:\VSHOW directory and your pictures are in a directory called C:\IMAGES then: Change directory to your image directory CD\IMAGES Run the program C:\VSHOW\VSHOW Notice the directory name followed by the program name. Another way to run the program is to add the directory where the program is located to your Path statement or create a batch file that calls VSHOW from the C:\VSHOW\ directory. In this way one could run the program from any directory by only typing VSHOW. 7.4 Printers & Memory VShow can print to either Laser or Deskjet printers. If you have a laser printer then the program will load the entire image to the printers memory before the printer will print to paper. Many Lasers come standard with 512K memory, this amount of memory will print a dithered image on a little less than half the paper. To print a full page picture one megabyte of printer memory is needed. Deskjet type printers work differently and can print a full page. If you plan to run the paper through more than once to create your document than try to open the back of your printer, if so equipped, so the paper will travel through a straight paper path. 7.5 File formats The PCX format was created by Z-Soft (c). The GIF "Graphics Interchange Format", was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June 1987. In July 1990, CompuServe released an extension to the GIF specification, known as Version 89a. GIF if pronounced "JIF", as in the peanut butter. GIF format is a trademark of Compuserve (c) 7.6 Acknowledgments Compiler: Borland Turbo Pascal Accessories: Genus - Graphic Toolkit 7.7 What's New in VShow Version 1.2 - March 93 Added edit of brightness, RGB, greyscale Added cut, save and convert files feature Window view now supports 16 colors and aspect scaling Version 1.1 - Feb 93 Added VESA support for higher resolution imaging. Compatibility with more graphic systems New enhanced dithering mode 25% quicker dithering New setup screen with work drive Version 1.0 - Jan 93 Initial release *** IMPORTANT WARRANTY INFORMATION **** SANDD Software warrants the physical diskette(s) and physical documentation provided with registered versions to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety days from the date of order. If Sandd Software receives notification within the warranty period of defects in materials or workmanship, and such notification is determined by SANDD Software to be correct, Sandd Software will replace the defective diskette(s) or documentation. The entire and exclusive liability and remedy for breach of this Limited Warranty shall be limited to replacement of defective diskette(s) or documentation and shall not include or extend to any claim for or right to recover any other damages, including but not limited to, loss of profit, data, or use of the software, or special, incidental, or consequential damages or other similar claims, even if SANDD Software has been specifically advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will SANDD SOFTWARE'S liability for any damages to you or any other person ever exceed the lower of suggested list price or actual price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of any form of the claim. Sandd Software specifically disclaims all other warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to, and implied warranty of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.